New Gangster Squad Trailer Unloaded

Here's the new trailer for Gangster Squad, the upcoming L.A. noir starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Michael Pena, Robert Patrick, and Emma Stone. Via Apple:

Gangster Squad opens January 11.

Source : ign[dot]com

Command Prompt 10: DayZ Standalone Version Details

In an attempt to make sense of the chaos we call PC gaming, IGN's Anthony Gallegos and Charles Onyett put together a video show called Command Prompt. Barring any disastrous events or prolonged spells of acute laziness, new episodes will appear every week showing off three PC games.

This week we had DayZ creator Dean Hall in the office to talk about the upcoming standalone version of his popular zombie mod as well as potential console versions. It was supposed to be a single segment, but we wound up talking for a while. An hour, to be exact. So it sort of became the whole show this week, preceded by a very brief look at Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet's MMO is finally live, and so far it's pretty amazing. We take a quick look at it here, but if you want to know more, check out the review in progress.

DayZ

We play DayZ with Dean Hall and cover pretty much everything that's going on with the standalone version and console versions.

Charles Onyett is an Executive Editor at IGN, leads PC game coverage and used to think Pugna was his favorite Dota 2 hero, but recently decided it was Disruptor. You can follow him on Twitter and My IGN.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on Twitter and on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Gearbox: Why Borderlands 2's Story Won't Suck

Gearbox Software knows where the first Borderlands fell short, and in working on Borderlands 2, Lead Writer Anthony Burch can pinpoint precisely why. 2009’s role-playing shooter “feels comparatively lonely because you just don’t have a lot of dialogue pushing you forward and explaining why you’re doing what you’re doing,” Burch says. “Every time an objective changes in Borderlands 2, somebody’s there saying a line of dialogue, explaining why you should care, telling you what you should do next.”

Consequently, the script for Borderlands 2 is five times larger than the first.

Burch is positive about the original Borderlands – a game he had no creative involvement in – but says “there were lots of cool stories that could have been told.” Players responded well to a lot of the side characters, like T.K. Baha, but without reading each piece of mission text they’d never get a full understanding for the substance or subtle humor surrounding them. “There was a lot of good stuff there, but maybe it wasn’t delivered to the player as obviously as it could have been,” says Burch. With a laugh, he continues. “Plus, the ending sucked, and we’ve admitted that a bunch.”

So what’s in that gigantic new script that makes Borderlands 2 so much better?

“Pretty much every new character we have,” he says, giving nods to Tiny Tina and Ellie. “We gave them three to five sidequests to say what their backstory is, what their personality is.” This is especially true of the returning characters – in particular, the Vault Hunters from the first game. “You spend a significant amount of the main plot getting to know who they are now,” says Burch. The Borderlands heroes were about their class, not their character, and most players remember their skill trees more than their personal qualities.

“We have this scary opportunity to give them personalities and have them play off one another,” he continues. Burch and Gearbox spent “a great deal of time” considering “what are their relationships like with each other? How do they treat each other? What have they been up to since the first game ended?”

Communicating with the player using these character interactions, audio logs, radio transmissions, and environmental storytelling is crucial to strengthening Borderlands 2. “It makes you feel like you’re part of a story rather than checking off a bunch of things on a shopping list that are free of context,” Burch explains.

Ultimately, though, Burch would be totally content if you ignored the story and just enjoyed the game. “There's sort of two types of audience member that I have in mind, that I want to satisfy in different ways,” he explains. One of course, is someone who has an emotional response to Borderlands 2. Ideally, that’s awe during an epic scene or laughter at the lighthearted and comedic bits. Burch mentions the recent run of Doctor Who as the touchstone for what he wants to accomplish.

The other audience member “doesn't give a s—t about the story, never gave a s—t about the story in the first game, still continues to not give a s—t about the story. I hope he can go through the entire game, ignore every single line of dialogue I've written, come out at the end of this thing and say, ‘Wow, that game was awesome.’

As long as they don’t “come out saying, ‘Wow, that story ruined the game and I was doing stupid things because the story was taking precedence over the game,’” Burch says, “Then I'm happy.”

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Command Prompt 6: Tribes, Awesomenauts and Thirty Flights of Loving

In an attempt to make sense of the chaotic mass we call PC gaming, IGN's Anthony Gallegos and Charles Onyett put together a video show called Command Prompt. Barring any disastrous events or prolonged spells of acute laziness, new episodes will appear every week showing off three PC games.

For the sixth episode we're joined by Xbox Associate Editor Mitch Dyer as we take a look at Hi-Rez Studio's awesomely fast shooter Tribes: Ascend, learn what it's like to be beat down in a 2D MOBA in Awesomenauts and then explore the bizarre world of Thirty Flights of Loving.

Tribes: Ascend

Hi-Rez Studios manages to make a unique feeling first-person shooter with Tribes: Ascend's ridiculously fast and skill-demanding combat.

Awesomenauts

Who knew it was possible? Ronimo Games manages to take the MOBA or DoTA-style gameplay of League of Legends and Dota 2 and implement it in a 2D environment.

Thirty Flights of Loving

Blendo Games, creators of Gravity Bone and Atom Zombie Smasher follow up with a haunting and bizarre story that takes only minutes to play.

Charles Onyett is an Executive Editor at IGN, leads PC game coverage and used to think Pugna was his favorite Dota 2 hero, but recently decided it was Disruptor. You can follow him on Twitter and My IGN.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on Twitter and on IGN.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor with IGN. You can also follow Mitch on Twitter and IGN so he's not so scared and alone.

Source : ign[dot]com

Command Prompt Ep. 4: Anna, World of Warplanes and Natural Selection 2

In an attempt to make sense of the chaotic mass we call PC gaming, IGN's Anthony Gallegos and Charles Onyett put together a video show called Command Prompt. Barring any disastrous events or prolonged spells of acute laziness, new episodes will appear every week showing off three PC games.

This time we check out Anna, a first-person adventure game about investigating a creepy house which may or may not have a sizeable game-breaking hole in one of its walls. We also tried to not embarrass ourselves playing in the World of Warplanes beta, and looked at the monsters versus Marines insanity of Natural Selection 2.

Anna

Games mostly concerned with creating mood and engaging your mind seem to be having a far bigger impact these days. Anna is a clunky but creepy adventure.

World of Warplanes

Wargaming.net's follow up to the incredibly popular World of Tanks, World of Warplanes puts the developer's characteristic fast, fun team-based competitive play in the air.

Natural Selection 2

Unknown Worlds' full version of the popular Half-Life mod pits Marines against mutating beasts in a mix of first-person shooting and real-time strategy gameplay.

Charles Onyett is an Executive Editor at IGN, leads PC game coverage and used to think Pugna was his favorite Dota 2 hero, but recently decided it was Disruptor. You can follow him on Twitter and My IGN.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on Twitter and on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com