"He's a zoner ... with a ranged grapple ... and great (situational) mobility ... and traps ... oh, and curses too," Isgreen wrote. "Internally we call him a 'trap grappler,' but I don't even know if that's the best way to describe him." Despite Isgreen's difficulties in explaining the unnamed character, he notes that the fighter scored very well among players in recent Killer Instinct locations tests held in Chicago and Orlando.

As for a name, Isgreen remains mum, though he points out that despite the bandages and decrepit flesh we've seen in teaser images, the character is not a mummy. Fans will have to wait until his official reveal trailer debuts in November to find out what sort of creature will join the Xbox One fighting game.

Men and women enjoy video games, but some genres tend to attract one gender over the other, SuperData Research finds in a 2014 US study provided to Joystiq. Women compose 57.8 percent of the mobile market, 53.6 percent of the RPG market and 50.2 percent of the PC market (including social games), the report says. The study finds that men make up 66 percent of MMO players, 66 percent of FPS players and 63 percent of digital console players.

The data was collected in several separate studies in 2014, each with a minimum sample size of 1,000 respondents. SuperData defines its terminology and methodology here.

This study comes on the heels of SuperData Research's 2014 MMO market report, which placed League of Legends as the No. 1 game in the company's MMO category, which included MOBAs, MMOFPS games, MMORPGs, online racing games, online sports games, online sci-fi games, virtual card games, social sims and virtual worlds. In that study, SuperData found that among US players 18 and older, 22 percent of players were between the ages 26 and 30, and 20 percent were between the ages 21 and 25. The average player salary was $55,000, and the overall gender breakdown was 60 percent male, 40 percent female.

Continue Reading

Six classic LucasArts games, including The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, will be re-released via GOG.com on October 28, according to a now-deleted forum post preserved in the digital amber of Google Cache.

"We're proud to announce a new partnership with Disney that allows for the DRM-free release of about 30 classic titles from [LucasArts]," the leaked post read. "Today, to start with a bang, we are releasing a selection of 6 acclaimed titles from Lucas' most famous gaming franchises, so that the Disney/Lucasfilm catalog on GOG.com is made impressive from day one."

Alongside the two mentioned above, the games coming to GOG include Star Wars: X-Wing Special Edition, Star Wars: Tie Fighter Special Edition, Sam & Max Hit The Road and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. There's currently no word on the price points the service will attach to these classic games.

Amplitude Studios' roguelike Dungeon of the Endless left the Early Access nest today, launching in full on Steam. The game entered its alpha phase on the platform in December as the developers' next "Endless" game, set in the same universe as Endless Space. In it, players guide a crew of heroes through randomly generated dungeons, gathering resources and fending off foes to survive. It also features cooperative multiplayer for up to four players.

The retro-styled PC and Mac game costs $13 (€12) for the Pixel Pack or $20 (€19) for the Founder's Pack, the latter offering additional ships and heroes. Those looking to upgrade from the Pixel Pack to the Founder's pack can do so for $7.20, a 10 percent discount on the standard upgrade price. The Founder's pack also features half-off coupons for both Endless Space and Endless Space: Disharmony. Head past the break for a look at Dungeon of the Endless' launch trailer.

Continue Reading

In Plague Inc, players simulate fast-moving, contagious diseases in a bid to infect the entire world. Players are able to name their own diseases and experiment with simulated human behavior, such as eliminating hand-washing in certain countries or adding sophisticated hospital systems in others. The ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has drawn extra attention to Plague Inc, driving sales up in recent weeks, creator James Vaughan told the Daily Mail.

"This hasn't been the biggest increase we've had in our downloads in 2014, but I think this is the first time a real-world situation has been the reason why people are getting the game," Vaughan said. On Twitter, he added, "Public concern about #Ebola has increased Plague Inc. downloads recently."

Last week, 430,000 people downloaded the Plague Inc app, a rise of 147,000 over the same stat two weeks prior. During that same time, 4 million people played the game, 923,000 more than player numbers two weeks prior. Plague Inc launched in 2012 and has a player base of 35 million across iOS and Android. Plague Inc: Evolved hit Steam in February and there's a version in development for Xbox One.

Continue Reading

Puzzle & Dragons creator GungHo Online Entertainment America has secured a deal to publish games from 17-BIT, developer of the multiplatform tactical strategy game Skulls of the Shogun and the upcoming Galak-Z: The Dimensional.

GungHo notes that it established the relationship in order to "[deliver] classic game experiences with modern technologies and hardware." The company previously partnered with developer Grasshopper Manufacture to produce PS4-exclusive Let It Die.

"17-BIT's dedication to re-energizing classic genres for next-gen gaming fits perfectly with GungHo's core values and notably expands the breadth of our game portfolio," said GungHo America CEO Jun Iwasaki. "We pursued this partnership because we have high expectations for the developer and are eagerly awaiting to collaborate on their next major release."

Galak-Z is due to launch this fall for the PlayStation Vita, PS4, and PC platforms.

Continue Reading

An upgraded iOS port of Funcom's classic point-and-click adventure game The Longest Journey will premiere in the App Store later tonight, Pocket Gamer reports.

The Longest Journey Remastered features a redesigned interface suited for touch screens, and takes players on a dimension-hopping adventure across parallel worlds. The app has already soft-launched in New Zealand, and will make its North American debut at midnight tonight.

The mobile release follows up on the recent launch of the episodic follow-up adventure Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, which hit PC platforms last week. A PlayStation 4 port of Chapters is also in the works.

Remedy released a demo walkthrough video on Friday for its coming Xbox One-exclusive, Quantum Break, featuring lead writer and former Max Payne model Sam Lake.

While a good portion of the video is another look at a section of the game first showed off during Gamescom 2014, the new video expands on Quantum Break's story. Lake explains that, in the middle of the chaos of a time experiment gone wrong, a man named Paul Serene is trapped within the machine. Soon he re-emerges, only seventeen years older, ruthless and as the commander of a powerful organization that is willing to stamp out anything in its way – including his former best friend and one of Quantum Break's protagonists, Jack Joyce.

The video, embedded above, also gives players a look at how platforming in a world where time is collapsing will work, and how utilizing Jack's special time manipulation powers can save him from being crushed by flying cars and debris.

Quantum Break is set to launch on the Xbox One in 2015.

Today on Joystiq Deals, we're offering up the Ultimate Creeper Gear Bundle, allowing you to express your fandom for Minecraft's iconic baddie in many loving ways. The $34.99 package includes a Creeper-themed beanie, a scarf, a poster, three stickers, and a cube-shaped Creeper head. For $30 more you can add a plush Creeper, which you can keep as a constant reminder that anything you build in Minecraft can be taken away from you in a hissing, explosive blink of an eye.

If you're looking for more deals on deadly fictional creatures, Best Buy is offering a Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire twin-pack for pre-order starting today. The retailer-exclusive bundle includes both 3DS games and two codes that each grant players 100 health-restoring Potions, making it an ideal starting point for newbie Pokemon trainers.

---

Joystiq Deals is a partnership between AOL and StackSocial. A portion of sales goes to funding this site. Deals are curated by StackSocial independently of the Joystiq editorial team.

Maybe you noticed, but we really liked spending time with Sunset Overdrive. Our five-star review of Insomniac's outlandish action game based in the apocalyptic Sunset City praised its variety in elements like mission structure and weaponry. Thanks to gear like the "rapid-fire weapon that launches vinyl albums" or "handheld helicopters with pistols dangling from strings," we found Sunset Overdrive to be "an MC Escher painting of comic book violence, with physics taking a back seat to personality and fun."

Don't only take our word for it, though. Head past the break for a glance at other critical looks at the "complete and purposeful" game.

Continue Reading

Who needs the lush audio design of Alien: Isolation or the pristine mix of technology and art in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs to get frightened by video games? Horror ain't dependent on a sense of convincing reality, son! It's all about creating atmosphere, the right mood for making your brain think about all the things it really doesn't want to think about. Haunted House on Atari 2600 is just a black screen with a pair of googly eyes on it, and if you play it at 4:00AM on a dark and stormy night, you'll bug right out. Likewise Quest for Glory IV:Shadows of Darkness' pixelated vampires may look antiquated, but this adventure RPG's got the goods, every bit the gothic freak out equal of classic bloodsucker literature.

Joystiq's Halloween Horror Streams extravaganza has had zombies, psychos, and slender men, but no vampires! We'll fix that today with a stream of Quest for Glory IV, starting at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch.

Joystiq.com/Twitch broadcasts every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00PM EST, but we're ramping up our schedule. If you want to catch all our horror streams this week, or even our sessions with Halo: The Master Chief Collection ahead of its release, make sure to follow us on Twitch.

Analysts at Cowen And Company have examined Amazon's pre-order tallies for the upcoming Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and have concluded that the game will probably continue the series' trend of declining returns.

"Advanced Warfare is now pacing almost 40 percent behind last year's Ghosts and almost 70 percent behind 2012's Black Ops 2," the analysts note. "We continue to believe CoD will be down meaningfully vs. last year. With the franchise facing two consecutive significant year on year declines in sales, we think it is prudent to assume it has peaked."

Cowen And Company preemptively argues against the idea that pre-orders are no longer a determinant of total sales by pointing out that 2014 has seen the record for most-preordered game broken twice, first by Watch Dogs then by Destiny. Clearly people are pre-ordering games, the analysts believe, but it appears that the Call of Duty series - which normally accounts for "a significant percentage of overall preorders" - is no longer attracting pre-order cash at the same rate it did even as recently as three years ago.

Simogo, the developer behind Joystiq-favorite mobile mystery Device 6, has announced that it's next "game(-like project)," The Sailor's Dream, will launch on November 6.

Little is known of The Sailor's Dream - Simogo has been purposefully quiet on the project, hoping fans will discover the game's nuances for themselves - but unlike Device 6, the game will not include typical adventure game puzzles. Instead, the game will be more focused on exploration and the unfolding story. "We hope it will leave you pondering and wondering and find reasons to talk about it with friends, and hopefully even return to it," Simogo explained.

There's currently no price point attached to The Sailor's Dream. If it follows the same pricing scheme as Device 6, expect the iOS adventure to reach the App Store at $4.

FIFA 15 continues to rock the UK's sales charts, marking the soccer sim's fifth consecutive week at the top. EA's marquee sports game is followed by the PlayStation version of Minecraft, which reached Vita this month and made a sizable jump from ninth to second in the sales charts last week. Third on the list is The Evil Within, Bethesda's frightful survival horror game.

Unsurprisingly, the middle of the pack includes Destiny, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. As far as new games go, the Wii U-exclusive Bayonetta 2 arrived at seventh in the UK's sales charts last week, a good spot for a single-console new release that also complements our five-star review of the game. Head past the break for the breakdown of the top-ten sellers in the UK, provided by Chart-Track.

Continue Reading