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December 15, 2011

Assassin’s Creed Recollection review

Forget the branding - Ubisoft’s real-time card battler is smart enough to survive by itself.

Which came first: the pacy and inventive collectable card game, or the thick coating of brand extension that’s been enthusiastically smeared on top? While Assassin’s Creed has undoubtedly raised the App Store profile of Recollection by several orders of magnitude, it’s also lumbered it with obscure jargon, unnecessary narrative, and a nasty, cluttered interface built of shifting layers of Animus grey.

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Assassin’s Creed Recollection review

Forget the branding - Ubisoft’s real-time card battler is smart enough to survive by itself.

Which came first: the pacy and inventive collectable card game, or the thick coating of brand extension that’s been enthusiastically smeared on top? While Assassin’s Creed has undoubtedly raised the App Store profile of Recollection by several orders of magnitude, it’s also lumbered it with obscure jargon, unnecessary narrative, and a nasty, cluttered interface built of shifting layers of Animus grey.

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Anarchy Reigns delayed

Anarchy Reigns has been delayed, and will now be released in Europe on July 6, publisher Sega has confirmed. Platinum Games' brawler, the studio's first foray into online gaming, was originally to be released this Autumn, but in May the studio pushed it back to "early 2012."

Anarchy Reigns has been delayed, and will now be released in Europe on July 6, publisher Sega has confirmed.

Platinum Games' brawler, the studio's first foray into online gaming, was originally to be released this Autumn, but in May the studio pushed it back to "early 2012."

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NintendoTV lands on 3DS eShop

NintendoTV, Future Publishing's video show that has run for more than 60 episodes on the Wii, is now available on the 3DS eShop. Released monthly, NintendoTV features exclusive gameplay footage and peeks behind the scenes, all in full 3D, and the first episode contains footage from the two games of the month, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land.

NintendoTV, Future Publishing's video show that has run for more than 60 episodes on Wii, is now available on the 3DS eShop.

Released monthly, NintendoTV features exclusive gameplay footage and peeks behind the scenes, all in full 3D, and the first episode contains footage from the two games of the month, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land.

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New light shed on next Bungie engine

Use of Umbra middleware adds weight to rumours that former Halo dev is working on an MMOG.

Finnish middleware developer Umbra Software has released Umbra 3.1, the latest version of its rendering optimisation solution.

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New light shed on next Bungie engine

Use of Umbra middleware adds weight to rumours that former Halo dev is working on an MMOG.

Finnish middleware developer Umbra Software has released Umbra 3.1, the latest version of its rendering optimisation solution.

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Grand Theft Auto III now available on mobile

Rockstar promises optimised controls for touch-screen play, and has included two thoughtful additions: mission retry and autosave mode.

Rockstar's classic open-world game Grand Theft Auto III is now available on iOS and Android devices.

The anniversary edition of the game celebrates ten years since it was originally released on PS2 in 2001, and costs £2.99 ($4.99).

Rockstar promises optimised controls for touch-screen play, and has included two thoughtful - and much needed - additions: mission retry and autosave mode.

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Liberty City stories

With Grand Theft Auto III now available for iOS and Android, we look at how Rockstar changed gaming forever.

Sometimes our reviewers get it wrong – the not-particularly-enthusiastic 8/10 handed out to Grand Theft Auto III back in 2001 a jarring case in point. Still, it’s not like the game needed permission to sell over 15m copies – or to go on to have such a profound influence on gaming as a whole.

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Opinion: Memory games

Memorable games are better than simply good ones, says Graham McAllister.

Game designers tend to aim to deliver the perfect experience for players. But you might be surprised to learn that psychologist Don Norman suggests that providing perfect experiences is not what we should be aiming for.

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New issue of Edge out now

Introducing E236, in which we look at how Apple became the hottest property in portable videogaming.

Apple's profound effect on the gaming landscape takes centre stage in issue 236 of Edge, arriving in UK newsagents December 20, as we examine how the Cupertino company established its dominance in portable games and consider what lies ahead.

It is, of course, also time to look back over a remarkable twelve months for games and honour the releases, studios and curiosities that defined the year in our Edge Awards 2011.

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DJ Hero producer killed in car crash

Will Townsend, producer of Activision's turntablism game DJ Hero, has died in a car crash. Gamasutra reports that Townsend, 33, died on Monday night in Los Angeles. He began his career in the game industry ten years ago as a tester for EA, working up through the ranks to assistant producer before moving to Activision
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39158/Obituary_DJ_Hero_Producer_Will_Townsend.php
Gamasutra

Will Townsend, producer of Activision's turntablism game DJ Hero, has died in a car crash.

Gamasutra reports that Townsend, 33, died on Monday night in Los Angeles. He began his career in the game industry ten years ago as a tester for EA, working up through the ranks to assistant producer before moving to Activision. After overseeing development of several Guitar Hero games for Wii and DS he was appointed producer of the first DJ Hero game. In January he moved to Nexon America, publisher of online game MapleStory.

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UK retail cutting prices after sales slump

UK videogame retailers are slashing prices of software due to poor sales of new releases. According to MCV, UK retailers have sold 8.77 million games since the launch of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on November 8 - 1.4 million fewer than were sold during the same period last year.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xmas-games-sales-are-lagging-forcing-price-cuts/088707
MCV

UK videogame retailers are slashing prices of software due to poor sales of new releases.

According to MCV, UK retailers have sold 8.77 million games since the launch of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on November 8 - 1.4 million fewer than were sold during the same period last year.

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Nintendo Japan to fix Skyward Sword bug

Nintendo Of Japan is offering a fix for the game-breaking bug found in The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword. As we reported last week, the bug is triggered when parts of the Song Of The Hero quest are completed in a certain order. Nintendo's initial response was to explain how to avoid the bug, and say it was "documenting all feedback." But now, Andriasang reports, the company is going further.
http://andriasang.com/comzd5/zelda_bug/
Andriasang

Nintendo Of Japan is offering a fix for the game-breaking bug found in Wii RPG The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

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Alan Wake coming to PC early next year

Remedy has announced that Alan Wake will finally see a PC release in 2012, seven years after the game was first announced for the platform.

Remedy has announced that Alan Wake will finally see a PC release in 2012, seven years after the game was first announced for the platform.

PC-specific features, a publisher and distribution channels weren’t revealed, although the game was reportedly discovered in the Steam registry earlier this week.

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3DS dominates weekly Japanese sales

Japanese 3DS sales rocketed last week on the back of the release of platform exclusive Monster Hunter 3G, which reportedly shifted over half a million copies in just two days.

Japanese 3DS sales rocketed last week on the back of the release of platform exclusive Monster Hunter 3G, which reportedly shifted over half a million copies in just two days.

While Enterbrain pegged weekly 3DS sales at 378,114 - the highest weekly total since the system’s February launch – Media Create reported sales of 350,321 units, up from 205,962 the previous week and more than double all other console hardware sales combined.

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December 14, 2011

EA announces Command & Conquer MMOG

Electronic Arts has announced Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances, a free-to-play game for PC and mobiles that the publisher says is "the first truly portable MMOG." Developed by Phenomic, the EA-owned German developer whose most recent release was 2010 MMORTS Lords Of Ultima, Tiberium Alliances will enter beta tomorrow, December 15.
http://www.tiberiumalliances.com
EA

Electronic Arts has announced Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances, a free-to-play game for PC and mobiles that the publisher says is "the first truly portable MMOG."

Developed by Phenomic, the EA-owned German developer whose most recent release was 2010 RTS Lords Of Ultima, Tiberium Alliances will enter beta tomorrow, December 15. Those interested can sign up at the source link below.

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PopCap widens reach on Chrome and Android

Casual gaming king PopCap has released Bejeweled for Google's Chrome browser, with Plants Vs Zombies and Peggle to be available on Android Market later this week.

Casual gaming king PopCap has released Bejeweled for Google's Chrome browser, with Plants Vs Zombies and Peggle to be available on Android Market later this week.

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Aion to go free-to-play in Europe

NCsoft and Gameforge to "raise the bar" for free-to-play gaming when Aion makes the switch in February.

Aion, the graphically striking fantasy MMOG from Korean developer NCsoft powered by Crytek's CryEngine, will "raise the bar" for free-to-play gaming when it switches to the increasingly popular model in Europe in February.

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Aion to go free-to-play in Europe

NCsoft and Gameforge to "raise the bar" for free-to-play gaming when Aion makes the switch in February.

Aion, the graphically striking fantasy MMOG from Korean developer NCsoft powered by Crytek's CryEngine, will "raise the bar" for free-to-play gaming when it switches to the increasingly popular model in Europe in February.

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Square Enix Members site hacked

Square Enix has taken its free community site, Square Enix Members, offline after its security was breached by hackers. The publisher is now working to establish the scope of the attack on the Members site, which is only available in North America and Japan. It stresses that there is no risk of credit card data being compromised because none was stored on the server that was compromised.
http://release.square-enix.com/na/2011/12/13_01.html
Square Enix

Square Enix has taken its free community site, Square Enix Members, offline after its security was breached by hackers.

The publisher is now working to establish the scope of the attack on the Members site, which is only available in North America and Japan. It stresses that there is no risk of  credit card data being compromised because none was stored on the server that was attacked.

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Infinity Blade II review

Chair's bloodthirsty sequel is iOS gaming at its finest.

You can read this review in full in our print edition.

Our February issue, which is on sale January 17, will include an in-depth Post Script interview with creative director and co-founder of Chair Entertainment, Donald Mustard, on the challenges of developing for mobile devices and the inspiration behind the game's distinctive look.

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Opinion: Changing the Fat, Ugly or Slutty status quo

Many male gamers act like animals online, but should women also change their attitudes?

Have you read Fat, Ugly or Slutty? If not, it's an education. Not a revelatory one, perhaps, but it's nonetheless a pretty shocking lesson on the behaviour male gamers exhibit towards women online.

But that's the way the internet is, right? Men act like turds because there's little threat of personal retribution. There's not much anyone can do, is there? It's just the way things are.

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Limbo tops 2011 PSN indie chart

Limbo was 2011's best-selling self-published indie game on the US PlayStation Store, SCEA has announced. Playdead's monochrome adventure tops the list posted on the PlayStation Blog, ahead of The Behemoth's side-scrolling brawler Castle Crashers.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/12/13/celebrating-psns-top-selling-indie-games-of-2011
PlayStation Blog

Limbo was 2011's best-selling self-published indie game on the US PlayStation Store, SCEA has announced.

Playdead's monochrome adventure tops the list posted on the PlayStation Blog, ahead of The Behemoth's side-scrolling brawler Castle Crashers.

SCEA also reveals that Pixeljunk Shooter 2 was the best-selling game published by Sony itself, with Hoard topping the list of games that Sony part-funded through its Pub Fund.

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Japan's GBA Ambassador games out this week

Japanese early adopters of 3DS get ten free Game Boy Advance games as part of the Ambassador Programme this Friday, December 16. The scheme is Nintendo's compensation to those who supported the system before the global price cut in August, and the release of the GBA games follows ten free NES titles, released in September.
http://andriasang.com/comzcn/gba_3ds_ambassador/
Andriasang

Japanese early adopters of 3DS get ten free Game Boy Advance games as part of the Ambassador Programme this Friday, December 16.

The scheme is Nintendo's compensation to those who supported the system before the global price cut in August, and the release of the GBA games follows ten free NES titles, released in September.

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Humble Indie Bundle 4 launches

Super Meat Boy and Shank are among the games on offer in the Humble Indie Bundle 4, which launched yesterday. The latest pay-what-you-want promotion - the fourth in the last three months - also includes Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, and NightSky HD. Those paying more than the average - currently $5.34 - also get Gratuitous Space Battles and Cave Story+. As always, the games are DRM-free and run on Mac, Windows and Linux.
http://www.humblebundle.com/
Humble Bundle

Super Meat Boy and Shank are among the games on offer in the Humble Indie Bundle 4, which launched yesterday.

The latest pay-what-you-want promotion - the fourth in the last three months - also includes Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, and NightSky HD. Those paying more than the average - currently $5.34 - also get Gratuitous Space Battles and Cave Story+. As always, the games are DRM-free and run on Mac, Windows and Linux.

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