Virtua Fighter's Jacky Bryant will join his sister Sarah in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate and, in a new trailer and set of screens, the pair team up in a tag match. We get a good glimpse at some of the spiky-haired brawler's move set, alongside Ultimate's other new cast member, Ein.

Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is an upcoming retail and digital re-release on Xbox 360 and PS3 of last year's Team Ninja fighter, Dead or Alive 5. Ultimate includes modes and content from the PS Vita port Dead or Alive 5 Plus, like additional stages – some themed around Ninja Gaiden – and, of course, extra characters.

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! developer Mousechief announced that its Independent Games Festival Nuovo award finalist title 7 Grand Steps is set for release on June 7 for Windows and Mac.

7 Grand Steps is a board game-like strategy game in which players guide a family through multiple generations, tracing the roots of western civilization along the way. Depending on the choices players make, future generations may produce laborers, kings, or adventurers. Competing families battle for resources during each era, however, and players must plan carefully in order to advance their family's bloodline.

Trial versions for PC and Mac are available at Mousechief's website.

Continue Reading

As promised, Dust: An Elysian Tail has found its way to Steam today. Until May 31, you can grab Dust for $13.50, ten percent off its usual $15 asking price.

The action-adventure RPG from Humble Heart made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade back in August as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion. Despite how vast Dust: An Elysian Tail is, it's actually missing a third of its intended story, which was cut due to the months of extra time it would've taken to finalize the larger vision. Even with the omitted content, Dust: An Elysian Tail turned out to be a fine game.

Microsoft is hosting a free Xbox Live weekend for non-Gold subscribers, giving Netflix members a chance to indulge in the 15 new episodes of Arrested Development premiering on Sunday, May 26.

Xbox Live Silver members will receive free access to Gold services starting today in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. Note, however, that you'll need to have an active Netflix account in order to watch the new season of Arrested Development, as membership isn't included as part of the free weekend.

Make sure you set aside a chunk of time if you plan on marathonning all 15 episodes, as you'll only have one day to watch them all, if you're a Silver member. If you miss out, you're required to walk away from your Xbox 360 looking like this.

Xbox One is the official name of Microsoft's new console, but how are all you fabulous people shorthanding it? Xbone, X1, XO? A biomass consensus must be reached by launch this fall.

Also, what's everyone playing this weekend?

Continue Reading

The International Trade Commission has decided not to review the decision made last March by the administrative law judge presiding over Motorola's patent infringement case against Microsoft, thereby validating the judge's findings – which were in favor of Microsoft – and closing the case, Engadget reports.

The initial scuffle, first filed in 2010, claimed that Microsoft had infringed upon five of Motorola Mobility's patents. Four patents were dropped from the case during the course of the proceedings, the last remaining patent covering peer-to-peer communication between wireless devices.

Originally, ITC judge David Shaw ruled in favor of Motorola and subsequently recommended a ban on Xbox imports into the US. Then, in June of last year, the ITC remanded the decision back to the administrative law judge and asked him to take another look, effectively starting the process all over again. His second ruling, this time in favor of Microsoft, was delivered last March and will be the final word on the subject, now that the ITC has declined the opportunity to review his decision.

A listing for something called "Bootcamp" has surfaced over on the Korean ratings board GRB. Its description specifically calls out Halo 3 and classifies "Bootcamp" as a PC/Online game.

In a comment to GameFront, Microsoft dismissed any association with Xbox One, which would suggest the new TV series in the works is ruled out. Microsoft also denied any connection with the Reclaimer saga started with Halo 4 in the same statement.

Speculation is this could be a PC port of Halo 3, though Microsoft doesn't seem to be addressing that question either. We've reached out for comment.

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has confirmed that the Xbox One version of Call of Duty: Ghosts will have some form of Kinect voice commands. Speaking to VentureBeat, Hirshberg said, "I made a passing comment that you're going to see voice integration, voice commands via Kinect, which is something that we haven't done in the past with Call of Duty." He added that the improvements made to Kinect for Xbox One "really excite" the publisher.

Hirshberg also reassured fans that Kinect support won't be careless. "We've always made sure that we don't just use new technology for novelty's sake, he said. "We always make sure that it makes the gameplay better. In this case, we think it will."

He didn't elaborate on what the voice commands might be, but we imagine they will be something along the lines of, "Come here! Who's a good boy? Are you a good boy? Yes, you are. Yes, you are!"

Citing "sources familiar with the system," Polygon reports that the Xbox One will not require a fee to play used games. Instead, the console will perform regular online checks to verify disc authenticity and ownership.

Polygon's sources note that used game sales will continue, as Xbox One game ownership is determined by an on-disc encryption code. Once a game has been sold, traded, or otherwise activated by another console, access to the previous owner's installed content is revoked and transferred to its new owner.

Microsoft's Major Nelson addressed recent speculation regarding the upcoming console's ability to play used games in a statement released earlier today. "Xbox One is designed to support the trade in and resale of games," Major Nelson said. "Reports about our policies for trade in and resale are inaccurate and incomplete. We will disclose more information in the near future."

Polygon additionally reports that Xbox One voice chat and party chat will be powered by Skype, according to an unnamed Microsoft representative. Recent rumors suggest that Skype will also enable remote play sessions.

"Skype technologies are used in Xbox One which improves voice quality during multiplayer game sessions," Microsoft's representative wrote in a statement to Polygon. "Skype can also be used to call any of your Skype contacts for voice or video chat exclusively or while playing a game. Additionally, we have improved the Kinect hardware, from microphone configuration to dedicated audio processing, which contributes to providing a high-quality voice experience whether you are chatting in a game or through Skype."

With EA Canada focused on EA's upcoming UFC game, the Fight Night franchise has been put on hold at EA Sports.

"Right now, a great portion of the core of the Fight Night team are actually the team that are building UFC," EA Sports executive vice president Andrew Wilson told IGN. "Do I see a future for Fight Night? You know, sure. But right now, UFC is where our fighting focus is."

2011's Fight Night Champion was the latest game in EA's boxing franchise, introducing a new "Full-Spectrum" punch control system and a Hollywood-inspired campaign following fictitious convict boxer's struggle to overcome adversity and many, many punches to the face. The series was born from the ashes of EA's previous boxing series, Knockout Kings, in 2004.

It's pretty rare for a game series to get as many chances as Call of Juarez has. After a middling debut, the series drummed up lots of critical goodwill with Bound in Blood, and then absolutely threw it all away with the awful The Cartel. Now, Techland has ventured back to the Wild West with Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, and the developer's got something to prove.

Perhaps seeking to distance itself from The Cartel, Gunslinger is a different beast in almost every way, and it works. The most immediately obvious difference is the art style. Instead of the mostly realistic style of past Juarez games, Gunslinger opts for a more stylized and bombastic look. It's as if the developers threw anime, Mad Max, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Borderlands into a blender. That might sound weird, but it's a refreshing and enjoyable change.

Gunslinger also has very little in common with its predecessors when it comes to story. The only real connection is a collectible with a short biography of Ray McCall, one of the protagonists from the first two games. This time around, Gunslinger puts players into the dusty spurs of bounty hunter Silas Greaves.

Continue Reading

The idea hit Dan FitzGerald in the shower last December: What about a dog sledding game? The Chicago native had been toying around with various prototypes based around a lobbing mechanic, but nothing stuck quite like this. Ideas started pouring in, and he enlisted his girlfriend of three years, Lisa Bromiel, to work on the art and help shape the exciting nugget of an idea into a fully realized video game – a concept that evolved into Dog Sled Saga.

It was the first time either had embarked on anything quite like it. FitzGerald studied communications in college, and had spent time doing contract video production (including trailers for other video games) and web design in an effort to get deeper into the gaming scene. Bromiel, meanwhile, is a trained artist with a focus on material art, though she hadn't consistently worked in digital illustration. As confident as they were about seeing the concept through to completion, they didn't have much insight as to going from making an original game to actually presenting it as a purchasable product. Well, at least until Rami Ismail came to town.

Ismail, the business and development half of Dutch indie studio Vlambeer (Super Crate Box, Luftrausers), stopped in Chicago in February to give a talk as part of DePaul University's Visiting Artists Series. FitzGerald and Bromiel attended, expecting to hear anecdotes about creating their beloved games, or the painful cloning saga that marked the development of Ridiculous Fishing.

Instead they got a real lesson – Indie Game Business 101, if you will – defined by the lecture's catchy three-word title: "Monetize That Shit."

Continue Reading

Speaking with Redmond Game Studios and Platforms GM Matt Booty, Ars Technica reports that cloud computing will boost performance in games designed for Microsoft's Xbox One.

While latency-sensitive actions will be handled by a user's Xbox One console, Microsoft claims its cloud architecture can pre-calculate elements like lighting and physics modeling, leading to increased in-game performance.

This additional processing is made possible by the 300,000 servers that will power Xbox Live after the Xbox One's launch, up from the 15,000 servers currently supporting the service. Booty notes that "[for] every Xbox One available in your living room we'll have three of those devices in the cloud available."

Xbox One games that support the feature will remain operational in the event of an Internet connection outage, though developers will need to address the possibility of reduced performance. "In the event of a drop out [...] the game is going to have to intelligently handle that," Booty tells Ars Technica.

GameStop's stock concluded the trading week down 19 percent, attributable to continuing investor concerns over Xbox One's used games market solution. The most volatile decline occurred after a report out of the UK this morning claimed GameStop's margins in the pre-owned market would be affected by others taking a cut.

Microsoft sent out the following statement a half hour before trading closed today: "The ability to trade in and resell games is important to gamers and to Xbox. Xbox One is designed to support the trade in and resale of games. Reports about our policies for trade in and resale are inaccurate and incomplete. We will disclose more information in the near future."

GameStop's stock dropped nearly 11 percent today, down $3.90/share to $32.11. At its worst, the company's stock was down to $31/share today. GameStop concluded its previous fiscal year with pre-owned video game products representing $2.4 billion in sales (27.4 percent for the year). If you want a public answer to Microsoft's used game plans, you got nothing on the company that's losing hundreds of millions in value off the situation.

Frugal survivalists can enlist in Lara Croft's prequel adventure, Tomb Raider, for $13.60 today. The deal is over on PC digital distribution outlet Green Man Gaming, which has the Crystal Dynamics reboot currently listed at $17 - simply add coupon code "GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ" (without quotes, boldness is entirely up to you) in the checkout screen and you'll get the extra-reduced price.

In our review of Tomb Raider, we cited the joy of exploration and story's revelatory crescendo as catalysts for our love of Lara's coming-of-age tale. "The arc is drawn perfectly, with the edges of the old Tomb Raider starting to poke through as the story comes to a close, teasing what's yet to come." Several DLC packs have been issued, adding new maps and modes to the multiplayer side of the game. Crystal Dynamics has said it has no plans to offer single-player DLC.

For the most part, being near- or farsighted today isn't that big of a deal. The only cultural zeitgeist folks like me have missed out on recently has been in the resurgence of glasses-required 3D technology in consumer media. And let's be honest, it isn't a tremendous loss.

In fact, the Oculus Rift is the only thing on the horizon that is as potentially game-changing as it is unfriendly to glasses. That thing straps directly onto your whole face, there's no way a pair of fashionable specs could fit under there.

Well, as it turns out, the Oculus Rift really was accommodating to my Converse frames and their too-old lenses, so much so that for the first time ever I'm legitimately excited about the once-lofty possibility of a virtual reality future.

Continue Reading

Bungie senior writer Eric Osborne didn't go so far as to outright confirm or deny the existence of a PC version of Destiny, though he did say that Bungie is "looking forward to talking more about that kind of stuff in the future" during an interview with IGN.

"We haven't said yes, and we haven't said no," Osborne said. "The more platforms we take on, the more work it ultimately becomes, and what we don't want is to compromise the core experience on any platforms. We have a lot of people who play on PCs. We have a lot of appetite to build that experience."

Right now, Destiny is set to launch for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One at an unspecified future date, presumably before the dystopian, near-extinct future in which the game takes place.

Boy Scouts should be required to play Don't Starve before going on any camping trips – they could even get a badge for it, in the form of a gaping, pointy-toothed wormhole. Or maybe a friendly campfire.

Don't Starve is packed with wonderful advice about survival and personal growth:

• In the wilderness, you must build your own tools using only the immediate environment
• Animals are a great source of nutrition, no matter how cute they are
• The world is bigger than it first appears; explore it
• Scary things that will kill you hide in the dark
• When you die, your world disappears
• Fire is fun
• Go for the eyes

And that's not mentioning the obvious one.

Continue Reading

You might be thinking that some countries use commas instead of decimal points, but the headline above does indeed say one hundred and twenty-five thousand British Pounds ($188,700). You might also think that's awfully expensive for the special edition of a racing game (any game, really), but allow us to put things in perspective. The GRID 2 BAC Mono Edition isn't so much a special edition of a game as it is a luxury sports car that happens to come with a game.

Specifically, the BAC Mono Edition comes with the Mono, essentially a street legal formula racing car. Also included is a racing suit and helmet, a copy of GRID 2 and a PlayStation 3 on which to play it. According to BAC's website, a Mono with no frills has a base price of £96,495 ($145,919), and that's before throwing in VAT. Only one copy of the BAC Mono Edition is being manufactured, making it something a collector's item. You can place your pre-order exclusively with GAME. Oh, and shipping is free.

Not to be left out, Best Buy is hosting a special edition of GRID 2 in North America. It includes the IndyCar DLC pack and retails for $59.99.

GRID 2 comes out next week.

Continue Reading

Rumor has it that Microsoft's Xbox One console will feature remote play through Skype, allowing someone to remotely take over gameplay on the local console directly from a Skype call. Either player may break the remote play session at any time.

Supposedly the feature is in testing phase right now, though Polygon's source notes that certain details are still up in the air – like how long that individual can remotely play or whether they need to own the same game or not. During the Xbox reveal event, Microsoft unveiled group Skype calls using the Xbox One's improved Kinect sensor.