Gears of War

A Killer Instinct survey has hinted at further character crossover with some Microsoft owned IPs. The survey, which is now closed, was posted on the Killer Instinct website Ultra-Combo.com and …
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One of the big announcements from last night’s The Game Awards was that Psynoix Inc.’s multiplayer sensation Rocket League is now officially headed to Xbox One in February.

Bundled with …
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When it was first announced that the Xbox One would be receiving backwards compatibility it was given the ambiguous launch date of “fall”. The launch window has finally been narrowed to a …
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Xbox One will be getting a Madden 16 bundle that will include a 1 TB console, a download code for Madden 16, and a one-year subscription to EA Access. The bundle …
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During last week’s San Diego Comic-Con there were lots of celebrities, cosplay, and of course announcements. One of Microsoft and The Coalition’s announcements was the new Gears of War: Ultimate …
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Stephen “Stepto” Toulouse has returned to Microsoft as director of community engagement for Black Tusk, developer for the Gears of War franchise. Toulouse was the director of policy and …
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A crazy amount of new skins have been announced for Minecraft‘s second skin pack. First, we have the trio from Rare’s classic N64 shooter Jet Force Gemini. Don the appearance of interstellar heroes Juno, Vela, and Lupus, then party like it’s 1999!

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Minecraft will be getting its first Skin Pack along with the release of the 1.7.3 update. The pack will have a total of 40 skins, the majority of which are currently shrouded in mystery. Five more skins have emerged from the fog, bravely showing themselves to the world in all their pixelated glory. The five newest character to join the pack are: Jack of Blades, Clayton Carmine, Banjo, Ms Splosion Man, and a Prisoner. There are still 30 character to be announced, but so far the pack looks amazing. We can’t wait to see more XBLA character getting the Minecraft treatment. There is currently no release date or price for Skin Pack 1.

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Weekend Rant is a non-regularly occurring weekend mini-editorial. In layman’s terms that basically means that if a staff member has something they want to rant about they can do so on any given weekend.

There’s a list of disturbing trends that have developed within the gaming industry this generation, and they revolve around cooperative play. Co-op is nothing new to gaming. It has existed since the earliest days of coin-op arcade machines going back decades. This generation however, co-op has evolved. No longer do we just get to tread through a game’s campaign with a friend, sometimes we get an entire stand alone co-op campaign. In other instances, we get completely unique cooperative modes with their own setup and rules like the highly successful Horde mode in Gears of War, or Zombie mode in Call of Duty. More than ever, developers are taking advantage of the fact that its just plain fun to play games with your friends. The evolution of co-op has also unfortunately created problems. And its about time we start talking about them.

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It’s no secret that Nintendo isn’t in the best shape right now. After finding great success with the Nintendo DS, the Wii launched and got the masses talking about Nintendo once again. Then something happened. The Wii’s sales plummeted, the Nintendo 3DS launched poorly, and investors are questioning Nintendo’s direction with their next console, the Wii-U. Nintendo is desperately trying to gain back momentum. What happened to Nintendo’s mojo? Well, Microsoft, the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade all have something to do with it.

To truly understand what’s at play here, we have to first consider why Nintendo has historically been a successful company. Nintendo has always excelled at making games that appeal to the masses. Nintendo makes games that anyone can pick up and play. Mario has been a part of our living room since 1983 because Mario games have always been easily approachable for anyone who wants to sit down and play. Whether it’s you, your little sister, your best buddy or your dead beat uncle, Nintendo makes products for everyone. When Nintendo is succeeding, it has always been the case. So why are the tables turning?

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