The Rhythm Of The Quest in Fallout 3 and New Vegas

This is a weekly column focusing on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. Have you ever been horribly frustrated by one part of a game, only to think of it as the best and most memorable section of that game in retrospect? It's the ruins of D.C. for me. I played Fallout 3 on the PC a year or so after release, so the first thing I did was load up ...
Breaking Bad RPG concocted in video

Fans of Breaking Bad will find loads to love about this faux-game video created by College Humor: accurate character dialog, comical asides that break the fourth wall and perhaps the greatest Duck Hunt clone known to man. Chemistry!
What Recession? Razer’s $2800 Blade Gaming Laptop Sells Out In 30 Minutes

For months we’ve been waiting on Razer’s Blade notebook , a $2800, 17-inch beast that we weren’t sure whether to laud or mock. It’s just that it’s kind of a strange thing to see making a big debut when people are more cautious than usual with their money, and PC gaming (as ever) is being declared dead. But after our hands-on at CES , we were convinced that it was at the very least impressive and well-built, and apparently enough other people thought so that Razer sold ...
Capy posts ideas from its internal game jam, and they all sound pretty good

Given the talent of the folks at Capy Software (who've made the excellent Critter Crunch, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, and most of the programming behind Sword and Sworcery), you'd expect them to prototype an interesting game in less time than it takes some to develop a full game. You're partially right -- they made seven.All seven games from Capy's internal game jam are now listed over ...
Games Decreasing In Popularity On Android, Entertainment Apps On The Rise

The mobile app ecosystem is growing so quickly – exponentially, even – that sometimes it’s hard to see the larger trends occurring in the space. To really gain insight, it helps to look back over a longer period of time, like a year for example, in order to take stock of the changes taking place. To that end, I reached out to mobile app search company Chomp , who kindly obligated my curiousity by packaging together its first ever annual app search analytics report. The report digs into ...
EA’s Playfish VP finds another social group in Accel Partners

John Earner, London vice president and general manager of EA's social-games subsidary, Playfish, has left to join venture capital Accel Partners. Playfish runs EA's Facebook offerings, including The Sims Social, FIFA Superstars and Restaurant City, all of which Earner oversaw development of. Earner will serve as an entrepreneur in residence at Accel, one of Playfish's investors.Playfish lost two of its co-founders in March 2011 -- although both still serve as consultants to EA -- and EA Interactive's Barry Cottle was picked ...
Wii U name might be rebranded

The Bard once said, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet – and while I agree with that statement in a general manner, surely a console name like the Nintendo Wii U would affect a small minority out there that would only purchase a console based on the coolness level of its name? Word on the street from a Nintendo insider has it that the Japanese company is considering a rebadging of their upcoming Wii U console, ...
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion warps in first screens

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, expected to launch sometime this run around the sun, splits the existing factions of the epic real-time strategy series into loyalist and rebel groups. Today, publisher Stardock released the first screens of the intergalactic game's standalone expansion. Sins of Solar Empire: Rebellion (PC)...
Rayman Origins coming to PC March 29, retail versions DRM free

With the announcement of release dates for 3DS and Vita, there are vanishingly few platforms left that won't have Rayman Origins. Now the PC joins the platforming party, with a release in both Europe and the United States on March 29. The PC version retains the 4-player co-op functionality of the console versions, and also retains its local-only restriction.Surprisingly, the retail release will have no DRM. The download version, for "...
Steam Takes First Steps Into Mobile With iOS And Android Apps

As a gamer with admittedly poor impulse control, the newly-released Steam app for iOS and Android has me very worried. On the one hand, it seems like an ideal way to to keep tabs on the popular gaming service on the go. On the other though, I could easily see myself going overboard on buying games I don’t need when I should be pretending to be a productive member of society. The Steam app sports a set of features that should be familiar to many a PC ...