Watch out for tigers in Dead or Alive 5

24 minutes ago - 8:30 PM on 05.24.2012   |   Hamza CTZ Aziz

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The latest Dead or Alive 5 trailer shows off Lei Fang and Zack for the first time in action. This particular match is taking place on a stage called The Show. The environment can be just as dangerous as your opponent, as tigers, trampoline artists and giant clown cannon things can inflict damage.

Truth be told, I haven't been keeping a close eye on Dead or Alive 5. So I had no idea how interactive the stages are now. Kind of a neat feature to help define it from all the other fighting games on the market.

Dead or Alive 5 is out this September for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This man has proof that consoles are better than PCs

1 hour ago - 7:30 PM on 05.24.2012   |   Jim Sterling

38 comments

According to this man, Call of Duty is better than Diablo III. He can also rap like one heck of a little champion and has an angelic laugh that could coax a smile from the bereaved mother. I do believe, in fact, that the world of gaming in all its wonderful forms has found its official spokesman.

SEEMS LEGIT!

Entire staff at 38 Studios and Big Huge Games laid off

3 hour ago - 5:40 PM on 05.24.2012   |   Hamza CTZ Aziz

77 comments

It's a very sad day in the gaming industry, as 38 Studios has laid off its entire workforce -- including Baltimore-based studio Big Huge Games -- due to the financial turmoil the company has been in. That's 379 people suddenly without a job. Employees were notified of the layoffs with this cold internal memo obtained by WPRI:

The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.

This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.

The issue first started when 38 Studios missed its loan payment of $1.125 million owed to the Rhode Island government earlier this month. That's just the tip of the iceberg: a studio closure would result in Rhode Island taxpayers owing up to $122.6 million between 2013 and 2020, including interest, on a loan of $75 million, as reported by Joystiq.

The battle of the E3 2012 predictions!

4 hours ago - 4:00 PM on 05.24.2012   |   Chad Concelmo

66 comments

A few years ago, when I went to a psychic for my annual E3 predictions post, the results were fascinating. Using her specific set of otherworldly skills, the psychic managed to make some fairly accurate predictions about what would happen at that year’s giant videogame expo. It got me thinking: Wow. Maybe some of the most unlikely candidates could make more accurate predictions than a professional videogame analyst.

After this my annual E3 predictions were born. The year after the psychic, I went to the L.A. Zoo to see what the animals thought. And then last year I took a wonderful and ultimately very moving trip to a local animal shelter to have the dogs and cats make some predictions of their own (and get adopted in the process!).

The one problem with all those predictions, though: I never really had a real-life analyst to compare the final results to. Sure, I assumed the animals and psychic made some great predictions, but who knew if they would actually beat an analyst in a head-to-head competition?

So that’s what I decided to do this year. Stage an actual head-to-head competition. A battle of the E3 2012 predictions, if you will. A competition between five completely different contestants: a professional videogame analyst, a hardcore gamer, a toddler, a horse, and a coin.

Fifty questions. Five contestants. Only one winner. Who will make the best E3 predictions? Time to place your bets!

Review: Diablo III

5 hours ago - 3:00 PM on 05.24.2012   |   Jonathan Ross

83 comments

It took almost eleven years after Lord of Destruction, but Diablo III finally released, and it was met with immediate controversy. Always-online requirements; a rough first couple of days for the servers; a real money auction house (that, at the time of this review, still isn't live yet).

We're now a little over a week after launch, and most of the problems appear to have been smoothed out. My buddies and I each have at least forty hours of game time on our main characters, and we're still going strong. Fundamentally, Diablo III has a number of flaws; some of them are minor, and some of them are fairly obvious. There are certainly valid complaints to be made about the game. In the face of its flaws, though, Diablo III is a tremendous amount of fun.

It's been a long time since I've been awake until 3 AM every night playing games, and, even with its problems, I suspect my friends and I will be playing Diablo III for quite a while.