John Drury

The PlayStation Vita version of 505 Games' Terraria is this week's featured addition to the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection, launching tomorrow as a free download for service subscribers. Inspired by Mojang's Minecraft, Terraria presents...

If you're willing to eat McDonalds in exchange for gaming-themed desk accessories, a Mario Kart 8 pack will soon reach its Happy Meal finish line. The final turn makes for a pretty long drift through, so we'll need to wait for How To Train Your...

Alien: Isolation is playable on the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, adding another dimension to the sci-fi survival horror game coming soon from Creative Assembly and Sega. The game will be demonstrated at the Oculus VR booth at E3 this week.

Alien: Isolation is one of several games showing at the booth, including Eve: Valkyrie, the shooter set in the Eve universe that will be co-published by Oculus. The others are Lucky's Tale, a made-for-VR adventure, and Superhot, a first-person shooter in which time only moves when the player moves.

Additionally, Jason Rubin, the co-founder of Naughty Dog and former head of THQ, has joined Oculus VR as its head of worldwide studios.

"There have only been a handful of times in my life where I...

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Aaru's Awakening, the teleportation-based platformer from Iceland-based Lumenox Games, is in development on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and will be released simultaneously on both consoles this summer, the studio announced today.

According to Jóhann Ingi Guðjónsson, Lumenox's marketing director, Aaru's Awakening began as a school project when the developers were studying at the University of Reykjavik. They were looking for an innovative mechanic in a platformer, and, inspired by the teleportation gun in Unreal Tournament, they came up with the concept for this game.

In Aaru's Awakening, you play as a creature who fires his soul out of his body ahead of him, and then teleports to the location of the soul. Players can also...

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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings delivered some pointed thoughts about Comcast’s play for national broadband dominance and the world of net neutrality while speaking at a conference in California this morning.

Hastings spoke in no uncertain terms before the audience at Code Conference today, making clear his issues with the ever-growing scope of Comcast.

He called residential internet a “natural monopoly,” which in most places it is, and drew attention to the fact that for most consumers, the only non-cable option is fiber — and even that’s limited. Cable, Hastings said, is pretty much the entire residential internet.

That turned the conversation to the recent peering deal Comcast and Netflix made earlier this year. Comcast continues to claim that Netflix is thirty percent of their internet traffic, and so should pay its fair share. Hastings quipped, “We offered to pay 30 percent of the costs if we get 30 percent of the revenue.” Comcast was not particularly interested in that arrangement.

Though the details of the arrangement between Comcast and Netflix remain confidential, Hastings expressed his displeasure with the fact that it needed to exist at all. The principle of the thing, he said, is the problem. “They want the whole internet to pay them for when their subscribers” do anything online. It starts with a small charge now, but over time, Comcast will want more and more. “Not just us, but to the whole internet,” Hastings said.

Comcast’s double-dipping money-making doesn’t just face the consumers, after all. It can hit businesses, too. And of course, it’s not just Comcast. Now, Netflix has to cut similar deals with everyone else, too.

Hastings pivoted from there to say that’s why Netflix endorses net neutrality: “If you have a monopoly structure, you need some protections,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been talking about creating an Internet with no slow lane.”

“When you listen to the radio more, it doesn’t cost you more,” explained Hastings. “But with gasoline, you pay more. The Internet is much closer to radio than to gas. There’s only a marginal increase in costs.”

Hastings has been on the record before saying that the Comcast/TWC merger is a terrible idea. When asked why he and his company have been such staunch and solo voices against the Comcast merger and for net neutrality, Hastings readily admitted that it was in the company’s best interests to do so. But, he added, someone has to:

“Someone has to stand up for what’s important. We’re raising the question –- [Comcast will] have 40 percent of residential Internet – what does it mean when one company has that kind of control?”

Data caps, higher prices, and even tighter control, that’s what. Netflix doesn’t see Comcast as the competition; that place is reserved for content companies like HBO. But it does need to get to viewers to succeed. And for that, it needs Comcast.

For more, not only about Comcast and net neutrality, but also about upcoming Netflix shows and why its DVD-only spinoff failed, check out the full liveblog at Re/Code.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Talks Net Neutrality [Re/Code]

The first three Ratchet & Clank games are warping onto Vita, with the duo's portable re-release officially confirmed. Sony announced the HD Trilogy hits Europe on July 2, priced 30 euros, and Australia on July 9 - we're waiting to hear on North...

Mythic Entertainment, the developer behind Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online, has been shuttered by Electronic Arts, a spokesperson confirmed to Polygon today.

News of Mythic's closure was first reported by Kotaku. Polygon independently confirmed the studio's shuttering and received the following statement from EA:

"We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair."

Mythic Entertainment, which launched in 1995, was purchased by EA in 2006. The studio is best known for its work on titles such...

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Harmonix has successfully matched its $775,000 goal on Kickstarter for Amplitude with 21 hours remaining in the campaign. The Dance Central developer recently admitted that its crowdfunding goal amounted to "less than half of the project budget for...

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The soundtrack to Supergiant Games' action role-playing game Transistor is now available to listen to on YouTube for free and BandCamp for $10.

Digital and physical versions of the soundtrack are also available through the developer's website, which include bonus track "Signals." Transistor was announced in March of last year and launched May 20 for PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. For more information about the game, be sure to watch and read our review.

The PS4 version of the game features 30 Trophies, including a Platinum Trophy, and supports Vita Remote Play and content sharing via the Share button. The Windows PC version includes full controller support, remappable controls, along with Steamworks integration such as cloud saving,...

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Ustwo's playable optical illusion Monument Valley is now available for Android devices, following up on a successful launch last month in the iTunes App Store. Monument Valley challenges players to explore fantasy worlds filled with unlikely...

Harmonix is attempting to crowdfund a follow-up to Amplitude, and in a lengthy blog post yesterday, the studio explained why it won't be able to make the game unless its Kickstarter campaign is successful.

"A bunch of you have been asking questions along the lines of, 'Hey, why does Harmonix need to do a Kickstarter? Isn't Harmonix rich from all of that Rock Band / Dance Central money? Can't you fund this yourselves?' The short answer is: nope," began John Drake, Harmonix's director of publishing and public relations.

At the end of 2010, Harmonix left parent company Viacom and became an independent developer again. Drake noted that the hundreds of millions of dollars that Viacom has paid to an entity called "Harmonix" didn't go to the...

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Nintendo UK's online store is spreading its P-wings by introducing merchandise to its virtual shelves. The new line of products include clothes, figurines, console accessories and game guides, and includes items previously limited to outside of...

Apple's iPhone upgrade event has officially begun, as the company has started to send out emails encouraging upgrade-eligible older iPhone owners to trade in their phones for newer models. iPhone 4s users started receiving emails on May 8, with the headline "It's a beautiful time for an upgrade."

The emails nudged iPhone 4s owners to "recycle" their phones to receive up to a $199 credit to put towards the purchase of an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c under Apple's iPhone trade-in program, which the company first launched in August.

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple Store employees have also received a memo instructing them to encourage iPhone 4 and 4s to trade in their phones with more attractive trade-in values. Apple is offering iPhone 4 users up to $99 towards the purchase of an iPhone 5s or 5c, while iPhone 4s owners can get up to $199, making an upgrade to a subsidized iPhone 5s essentially free.

Apple's retail stores are also displaying signs with the same "It's a beautiful time to upgrade" message, but it appears those signs may have pre-dated the kick off of Apple's upgrade initiative, having been spotted last week.

"It's a beautiful time for an upgrade. You may be eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone. And if you bring in your old iPhone to be recycled, you could get credit toward a new one. Ask us for details."

First highlighted earlier this week, Apple's upgrade initiative is designed to boost in-store sales of the iPhone. The event will see Apple heavily pushing its iPhone trade-in program and launching improved trade-in options in an effort to get customers to upgrade their phones.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has noted his desire to increase in-store iPhone sales multiple times over the past year, saying Apple will improve sales through a variety of promotional tactics and incentive programs. Currently, 80 percent of iPhones are sold at third party locations while Apple sells just 20 percent, a ratio Cook would like to improve.

As Apple kicks off its trade-in initiative, Best Buy is also offering an up to $200 trade-in value for customers who bring in an older iPhone and upgrade to an iPhone 5s or 5c. Phones must be in working condition without a cracked display to receive a Best Buy gift card through May 11. An iPhone 5 is guaranteed $200, while an iPhone 4s gets $150 and the iPhone 4 gets $100.

Final Fantasy 3 is headed to Steam for Windows PC, publisher Square Enix announced today. 

The publisher did not provide a specific release date, but said that the Japanese role-playing game would arrive "soon" on Steam. The Windows PC version will be "optimized" with new 3D visuals and story sequences and will include support for achievements and Steam Trading Cards. According to Final Fantasy 3's Steam listing, the JRPG will require Windows Vista or newer, a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz processor or better, at least 2 GB of RAM and 800 MB of available hard drive space. 

First released in Japan in 1990 for the Famicom and in the West on Nintendo DS in 2006, word of the PC port was revealed in mid-April when Final Fantasy 3 was listed on the...

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Valve is now selling the official, digital program for the International 2014 championships for Dota 2 — and proceeds from its sale already have boosted the tournament's prize pool by $600,000 to $2.2 million.

The 2014 Compendium, as it is called, allows fans to follow the participants and their matches and make predictions on match outcomes. It costs $10, $2.50 of which goes into The International's prize pool. As the prize pool grows, in-game Dota 2 rewards unlock for Compendium owners, with later stretch goals benefitting all Dota 2 players.

Sales of last year's Compendium helped raise The International's prize pool to $2.8 million. To order the Compendium, or see more details about The Compendium and its fundraising stretch goals, s...

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Capcom will release a classic Mega Man title through the North American Nintendo 3DS eShop every Thursday throughout the month of May, according to a post on the Nintendo website.

"Mega May" kicked off yesterday with the release of Mega Man Xtreme for $4.99. The title, a spin-off of the SNES Mega Man X series, originally launched for Game Boy Color in Japan in 2000 and in North America the following year. The title became available through Japan's 3DS Virtual Console last December.

Five more games are on the way:

• May 8: Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3
• May 15: Mega Man 4
• May 22: Mega Man 5
• May 29: Mega Man Xtreme 2

Earlier this week, Capcom revealed that it has plans to bring both the Blue and White versions of Mega Man Battle Network 3,...

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A god game where you lead hell before the end of the world. A tycoon game where you train monsters to make money. A sim game where you make timelines ad nauseam.

It's the Game Generator, a word randomizer that spits out video game concepts, can sound reasonable, especially if its "sanity" option is checked. It's the work of Orteil, who is perhaps best known as the creator of Cookie Clicker, an avant garde "non-game" that caught the attention of many in the games development community late last summer.

But even with the sanity filter engaged, Game Generator can still go off the rails, if not come up with something completely derivative, like:

Play with Game Generator either by refreshing the browser or changing the seed at the top of...

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Nintendo will be offering a season pass for Mario Golf: World Tour that bundles together three add-ons for $14.99, the company announced today.

Mario Golf: World Tour, which launches May 2 on Nintendo 3DS, includes 10 courses with a total of 126 holes of golf. Six additional 18-hole courses, for a total of 108 extra holes, will be released in the three downloadable content packs Nintendo is working on. Each of the DLC packs will contain two new courses and one new playable character.

The season pass will kick off with the Mushroom Pack, which comes with Toadette, on May 2. Later that month, Nintendo will release the Flower Pack, which includes Nabbit. And June will see the launch of the Star Pack, which features Rosalina. Each add-on...

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not even a tumor

 

RETRO is running a deal until next Sunday. Go to http://readretro.com/subscribe/ and use code "LONGLIVERETRO" and get a print + digital sub for $25. Cover price is $42, so this is a pretty awesome deal. They completely sold out of issue #1, and issue #2 is about sold out. It looks great on my shelf

I went to PAX East again this year, and although I didn’t see quite as much as I would’ve liked (and forgot a few things I meant to check out), I still had a great time and found some interesting new games.

Favorite Not-Game: Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth Reveal
Firaxis announced Beyond Earth during a panel, and it’s basically Alpha Centauri 2. (Unfortunately, Firaxis doesn’t have rights to the Alpha Centauri name.) I loved Alpha Centauri and have wanted a modern reimagining for some time, and this looks like it will be exactly what I want. And the best part: it’s scheduled to come out later this year. (Fingers crossed.)

Favorite Game: Distance
This was apparently the first time Distance has been playable at a show. I backed it on Kickstarter way back in Oct. 2012, and while the screenshots and videos they’ve been releasing in updates have looked gorgeous, I always wondered how it played. The guys at Refract Studios have done a great job of making a game that’s beautiful, plays very well, and is extremely fun. The ability to fly makes it possible to create your own shortcuts on levels, and it looks like there’s actually a story – something I didn’t expect in a racing game.

Games
Darkest Dungeon
I never backed this on Kickstarter, but this is an Roguelike RPG that looks amazing and seems incredibly difficult.

Gods Will Be Watching
I’m not sure entirely how to categorize this one, but it’s another difficult game that requires a player to keep a number of things in check to prevent everything from falling apart and losing.

There Came An Echo
I backed this one on Kickstarter as well, and I was most excited to try out the voice recognition. I was impressed that the voice recognition worked incredibly well, even with the din of the show floor in the background.

Invisible, Inc.
A stealth turn-based strategy game where your agents attempt to break into corporations to steal secrets. I didn’t play it at the show, but bought a Steam early access key, which they were selling on the show floor.

Orcs Must Die: Unchained
I’m not sure how happy I am to see one of my favorite co-op MOBA-like games go full-on competitive MOBA, but hopefully there will be a co-op mode I can enjoy.

Soda Drinker Pro
Upgraded with new levels for an even better virtual soda drinking experience.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
Didn’t play it, but this looks really interesting. It’s a 2-player local co-op game where you fly a spaceship and have to move around between different consoles in the spaceship to control weapons, engines, shields, etc. Hopefully they add an internet co-op mode, because I’d like to play it, but local co-op isn’t going to cut it.

Transistor
Made this the first thing I did at the show because the lines got long fast last year. The time-stopping mechanic is fun to play with, and as will all Supergiant Games, it looks fantastic.

Hack-n-Slash
An RPG from Double Fine where hacking into enemies and the environment is a major piece of the game. It’s still early, but it wasn’t very fun – just very boring and lots of block-moving puzzles. Plus, I managed to get myself stuck in about 5 minutes and had to restart the game.

Extrasolar
A browser-based game where you manage an expedition to another planet. Everything plays out in real time, so if it takes 8 hours for a signal to get sent to your rover, that’s how long it takes in real life. It’s an interesting idea, but probably not the sort of thing I’m interested in.

Aaru’s Awakening
A platformer. It’s got a nice art style, but it’s relatively generic. I felt like I had played it before and it wasn’t a lot of fun.

Galactic Strike Force
This one’s a card game from the guys that made Sentinels of the Multiverse. Like Sentinels, it’s a co-op game where all the players team up against a villain. It was fun, but the guy demoing the game obviously didn’t understand the rules well enough, so everyone was confused about what to do.

Lichdom: Battlemage
A nice-looking game where you play a mage with three schools of magic (ice, fire, bio), and can create new spells. It was fun to play but I didn’t understand what my health was, so I died just before defeating the demo boss.

Mewgenics
A game about breeding cats from Team Meat. Looks good, but didn’t get a chance to play it.

Hotline Miami 2
It’s more Hotline Miami.

Summary
There were plenty of things to see. PAX is quickly becoming indie-focused, with several big publishers a no-show this year: Nintendo wasn’t there at all, and Sony had a tiny “PlayStation Community” booth in the corner. This isn’t a bad thing – the indie games are interesting and new, whereas a lot of the big games are just the same stuff we’ve seen before. Wolfenstein was there, which I have absolutely no interest in; Titanfall had a booth, but I didn’t enjoy that game, either. Unfortunately, PAX East has also become huge, with way too many people there.

Curve Studios' sneaky puzzle-platformer Stealth Inc. A Clone in the Dark is set to join the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection this week. Both the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita versions of the game will be available as free downloads for PS Plus...

Bombastic side scrolling run-and-gun title Broforce is now on Steam Early Access with a new trailer and introduction to a new playable character, publisher Devolver Digital announced this morning.

Developer Free Lives Games has introduced Ripbro, the game's first female character, who is based on Ellen Ripley of Alien film fame. Along with Ripbro the studio has shared a new trailer showing off some combat tactics as well as the weapons that will be available to players in their struggle against terrorists.

Broforce is available as an early access title for $14.99 through Steam and the Humble Store for Mac and Windows PC.

Next to Saltines, graham crackers — which were actually created with the intention of curbing one’s animal urges — are about as innocuous a food item as you could imagine. So it’s a bit odd that Honey Maid graham crackers are in the middle of a social media to-do over an ad featured interracial families and same-sex parents and state in no uncertain terms that “This is wholesome.” Some folks weren’t too happy about this ad and unleashed a torrent of nastiness at the company (which, again, makes graham crackers). Today, Honey Maid unveiled a new video showing these detractors what they can do with their complaints.

The Honey Maid spot, which first ran on March 10, has generated its share of negative responses, most notably a letter-writing campaign from the not-at-all-overreacting One Million Moms.

“Nabisco should be ashamed of themselves for their latest Honey Maid and Teddy Graham cracker commercial where they attempt to normalize sin,” wrote the group. “This commercial not only promotes homosexuality, but then calls the scene in the advertisement wholesome.”

Honey Maid’s new clip, which you can watch above, shows two artists going through the process of taking printouts of the angry Tweets and Facebook comments — labeling the spot “disgusting” and calling for a boycott of the company (which, given how many products Mondelez puts out under the Nabisco banner, would mean some very empty pantries) — and rolling them into tubes, which they then stand upright and use to form the word “Love.”

Perhaps the reason that Mondelez/Nabiso/Kraft/whatever it’s called these days is being so bold in its response is that, according to the video, positive responses outnumbered the negative by a ratio of ten to one.

Thanks to Richard for the tip!

Below, Capybara Games' "roguelike-like" in development for Xbox One, will be playable at PAX East 2014, according to a blog post on the developer's official site.

"Well, for the first time ever, players will have a chance to dive into the depths of Below," the post reads. "Sit down, put on a pair of headphones, pick up a controller and explore, survive, discover ... and then probably die."

Just as they did last year, Capy and Double Fine Productions will share a booth at PAX East. A "nearly final version" of Capy's upcoming time-bending shooter, Super Time Force, will be playable at Microsoft's booth.

Capy revealed Below at E3 2013. For more on the game and its "brutal but fair" combat, be sure to read Polygon's interview with Capy's...

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22Cans' studio head Peter Molyneux is unsurprised that initial reaction to the Godus Early Access release — which only included around 25 percent of the final game's content — was negative, himself calling it "Call of Duty without guns."

Speaking with USGamer, Molyneux expressed disappointment that many people don't read available information about a game before diving in and passing judgment. For example, Molyneux said the Godus Steam page notes it is in early access and will be constantly changing as 22Cans works up to a full release. However, players have complained about the game being unfinished, which Molyneux suggests means they did not read the explicit warning. He also discussed how he sees PC players' "fanatical, almost...

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