News

Square Enix’s US Boss Calls Activision ‘Crazy’ For Dumping True Crime: Hong Kong

Publishing executives say complimentary stuff about their upcoming games all of the time. So what. But there’s an unusual history with Sleeping Dogs, which Square Enix will release Aug. 14 — it was formerly known as True Crime: Hong Kong until Activision washed its hands of the franchise in the Feb. 2011 bloodbath that killed off Guitar Hero.


PC

Rant: Even If No One Listens, Let The Diablo III Review Bombs Fall

It’s easy to sit back and scoff at “review bombing”, as we saw last week when Blizzard released a broken Diablo III. Flooding Amazon to give zero stars to something others have called 10/10, sure, that’s not a legitimate review. And people staging a sit-in aren’t there to legitimately patronize a public accommodation, either. But a sit-in is a legitimate form of protest. And I think a review bomb is, too.


May 26, 2012
In Real Life

Blizzard Celebrates Diablo III’s Success With An Insane Amount Of Champagne

Less than two weeks from its launch, Blizzard’s Diablo III is already a financial success (despite the fact that they might not be totally clear on how to measure it.


May 25, 2012
In Real Life

Freakin’ Amazing StarCraft Statue Dropped Outside Blizzard Office

Blizzard’s company HQ has an enormous Warcraft statue out front. It’s incredible. Making it officially a “thing”, Blizzard’s offices in Versailles, France now have one too. Only it’s from StarCraft.


In Real Life

‘Hacker’ Asked For Microsoft’s Help Breaking Into Call Of Duty Creator’s Emails

According to a report from Robert Schwartz, the lawyer currently representing Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella in their big case against Activision, the notorious “Project Icebreaker” sounds even crazier than we first thought.


PC

Blizzard: Number Of Players Claiming Hacked Diablo III Accounts ‘Extremely Small’

In addition to launch-time connectivity woes, Diablo III has also been hit with claims of hacked accounts and missing items, adding a layer of confusion and worry to an already confusing, worrisome launch.


PlayStation

So Why Are There Dinosaurs On Pre-Earth Cybertron? Blame Shockwave

In the original Transformers cartoon, Grimlock and the Dinobots are created by Wheeljack and Ratchet after volcanic activity unearthed prehistoric fossils near the Autobot base. High Moon Studios’ explanation for the Dinobots appearance in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron makes a whole lot more sense.


May 24, 2012
PC

How Diablo III’s Always-On Internet Requirement Makes It A Better Game

Last week’s rough launch of Diablo III neatly illustrated the biggest problem with the game’s ‘always-on’ internet requirement. It was a reminder that consumers have lost a portion of their ownership of the game, that we no longer have complete control even over whether or not our game will start.


News

Activision-Bungie Contract Has Rules About Everything, Even Easter Eggs

The ongoing legal saga between Activision and former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella continues to bring all sorts of once-secret documents to light. We already learned that Bungie’s 2010 contract with Activision guarantees the delivery of four “sci-fantasy” shooter games, called Destiny. But what other details are hiding in that 27-page contract?


PC

My Entire Diablo III Play Through In Under Five Minutes

Last week I played through the entire story of Diablo III with my Demon Hunter. It took me some 15 hours. Now you can watch the entire thing a little over four and a half minutes.