Watch this and you basically won't need to play the game.
Another Assassin's Creed 4 gameplay video? You spoil us, Papa Ubisoft. The latest footage is hosted by game director Ashraf Ismail, who manages to sound chronically unexcited throughout scenes of naval bloodshed, tropical splendour and skulduggery.
Microsoft to bring you updates on the situation ASAP.
Evening all. Xbox Live has been hit by a number of service problems - you may have difficulty accessing the Xbox.com forums, signing into Live, or playing apps, music and video. Microsoft is looking into it, as you'd expect, and promises more updates soon.
Gun balancing tweaks prove controversial.
Treyarch's design director David Vonderhaar isn't the most popular man on Twitter right now, thanks to a new Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 patch which preps the ground for new Personalisation DLC, smooths over a large number of issues with recent Zombies Mode addition Buried, and twiddles the fire rate/damage of certain weapons.
Similar API doesn't make up for perpetually escalating artwork requirements.
The other day, Aoife wrote a feature about the PC games she/we'd love to see on Xbox One, a list that somehow neglects both Stalker and Space Hulk. So how about it, Microsoft? After all, you're doing a brisk trade in Xbox 360 ports like Diablo 3, and the Xbox One architecture is closer to a PC than its predecessor. Bringing desktop titles across will be a cinch, right?
There won't be any button prompts during executions, producer reveals.
Ryse: Son of Rome's E3 show didn't do a terribly good job of conveying the game's subtleties, Crytek producer Michael Read has admitted. The build shown at the expo was very much work in progress, he told Siliconera in an interview - you can expect more elaborate, tactical brawling with less signposting once Ryse hits shelves.
Tom Clancy franchise brutally maimed in price-related assault.
This week's Deal of the Week is abundant in grim, square-jawed men clad in a variety of goofy headsets, armed with intensely abbreviated firearms - incorrigible sneakers and back-stabbers whose every other word is a gravelly callsign. It can only be Tom Clancy, whose various gaming offshoots are a piffling #163;8.99 from today till 29th July.
Turns out Darkstalkers may be dead after all.
Yoshinori Ono likes to assure his fans on a regular basis that vintage fighting game series Darkstalkers "is not dead." However, disappointing sales of recent XBLA re-release Darkstalkers: Resurrection may have been the final nail in the coffin for Morrigan, Jon Talbain, Lord Raptor and company.
Screaming now a viable tactic, weapon customisation has been streamlined.
Lo, a hideous AusGamers preview/interview has shambled into the light, proffering new information about Xbox One exclusive Dead Rising 3. Within, producer Josh Bridge clarifies his earlier comments about the threequel's shunning of classic Dead Rising time restrictions, discusses the overhauled weapon customisation mechanics, and reveals a couple of nifty Kinect features.
But "nothing official" for the moment.
Respawn Entertainment's just received a boxful of Oculus Rift, as revealed on Twitter, and says building the fancy VR tech into Titanfall isn't beyond question. I wonder how easy those mech cockpits are to clean? Because if VR does make it into Titanfall, I'm going to spend half of every match throwing up.
MercurySteam: "It's time to say to somebody else 'now it's your turn.'".
David Cox, head of Konami Digital Entertainment's UK studio and producer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, has confirmed that development studio MercurySteam will be moving on to pastures new after completion of the Castlevania sequel.
"Always-on" and "always-connected" represent new opportunities for storytellers.
Veteran Alternate Reality Game creator Elan Lee - the man behind such viral hits as Halo 2's I Love Bees ARG and The Beast for Steven Spielberg's film A.I. - has spoken at some length about how storytellers might make use of connected platforms like Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Batgirl and Wonder Woman writer attached to pen new Lara Croft adventures.
Veteran comic book scribe Gail Simone, who has written for characters including Deadpool, Wonder Woman and most recently Batgirl, is taking on writing duties for a brand new Tomb Raider comic, which will lead on from the ending of the recent Square Enix reboot.
A boatload of new shots from Captain Ubisoft.
If you were in any doubt as to the centrality of navel combat/shenanigans to Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, check out the below shots and consign those doubts to Davey Jones's Locker, which could probably do with a clean.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, next gen graphics-mongers.
A while ago I wrote a list of games worth keeping your current generation console for. This list is a source of deep and abiding shame to me, for it makes no mention of either (gasp) Fable Anniversary or (agonised whine) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, sequel to my personal favourite fantasy brawler of this generation. Sorry, Bayonetta - you've got better moves, it's true, but Lords of Shadow has superior gravitas. Gravitas. Go on, roll that word around your mouth.
Prospecting fans "would be advised to give it a read".
Ubisoft has unveiled Assassin's Creed: Brahman, a spin-off comic set in 18th century India which will "touch on corners of the brand not yet explored by the video games" - emphasis on the "yet". In an Ubiworkshop interview, writer Brenden Fletcher has suggested that the comic may serve as a basis for future videogames.
It all depends on Microsoft's indie publishing policy.
Darkness 2 and Star Trek: The Videogame developer Digital Extremes isn't against releasing forthcoming free-to-play shooter Warframe on Xbox One, but Microsoft will need to change its current Xbox Live publishing policies first, vice-president of publishing Meridith Braun has told OXM.
EA Sports explains the importance of good squad alchemy.
FIFA 14's Ultimate Team mode will introduce a new player Chemistry Style system, which allows you to tailor the performance of individuals within your squad. This will create more opportunities for experimentation even towards the endgame, EA Sports FUT chief Marcel Kuhn has promised, and will take the element of repetition out of encounters with the same, fan-favourite teams.
Crytek USA team now consists of 30 people.
The artist formerly known as Vigil has been assisting Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome team following its life-saving acquisition, Crytek USA producer Mike Read has told Siliconera.
Respawn explains map design, how summoning a Titan works.
Titanfall! It's like Gundam, only with more ironsights and less preposterous anime histroinics. Respawn's community manager Abbie Heppe has shed a little - just a little - more light on the Xbox exclusive via MK Gaming. The biggest takeaway is that there are several different types of mech beyond the vanilla variety shown at E3. Could we be talking animalistic mechs, Heppe? Spider mechs, perhaps?
But you will need to sign in online at some stage to finish career mode.
Turns out Forza Motorsport 5 is not like your fridge, after all. Whodathunkit. Despite previously claiming that the game would require a one-time internet connection at launch, Turn 10's Dan Greenawalt has now said that a start-up connection is "not the plan."