Tales from the Borderlands

The end of the month is upon us, so it’s time to look ahead and see what offerings Microsoft has for next month’s Games with Gold. Starting off with the …
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Telltale Games and 2K Games announced yesterday that Tales from the Borderlands will be coming to retail stores this April. The disc version will contain all 5 episodes of the …
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The Borderlands series is pretty good, if you’re the type that likes to repeatedly shoot things in the face while being told butt jokes. Telltale’s games are pretty good, too, as …
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Now that’s how you do a finale.

Tales from the Borderlands Episode 5: Vault of the Traveler is everything you’d want from an ending, as it’s simultaneously the darkest and most …
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In a dual announcement, Telltale Games revealed that Tales from the Borderlands‘ first episode Zer0 Sum has gone free, and the season’s fifth and final episode, The Vault of the …
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It’s impossible to talk about Escape Plan Bravo without addressing that scene. I can’t discuss details due to spoilers, but anyone who’s played it will know exactly what I’m talking …
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Every game will work in remote play, but these games will work the best.
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The previous episode of Tales from the Borderlands, though enjoyable, was a bit slow and had a sudden ending. While unfortunate at the time, it turns out the episode Read More

Just as the Borderlands fanbase was starting to experience widespread joy puke withdrawals, Telltale Games announced the next episode of Tales from the Borderlands and singlehandedly cured an epidemic. Episode 3: Catch a Ride will continue from the last episode’s cliffhanger, as Rhys and Fiona (plus Handsome Jack) make their daring escape after finding mysterious piece of Atlas technology. With the evil criminal “Queenpin” Vallory now added to the list of maniacs chasing them, the gang’s search for the Vault is only getting more dangerous. Episode 3 will be available on Xbox platforms the week of June 23 for $4.99 or as part of the season pass. Check out some new screenshots after the jump.

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Last month, XBLA Fans was streaming Resident Evil Revelations 2 on our Twitch channel when something unexpected happened: the feed abruptly cut to the pause screen pictured above. XBLA Fans’ Michael Cheng hadn’t stopped playing and was still attempting to actively broadcast gameplay, so we knew something external was affecting the stream.

That something was Capcom. The game’s developer-slash-publisher, in an effort to minimize gamers’ exposure to certain scenes that are critical to determining what ending players receive, blocks segments of Revelations 2 from being streamed via the Xbox Twitch app. Capcom kicks all Xbox Twitch streams to the pause screen during the final boss fight, cutscenes, credits and after-credits cutscene. Speaking with XBLA Fans, a representative for the company explained that it wants to “give players a pure and un-spoiled experience,” so it “chose to disable the native capture so that video sharing during those segments was limited.”

This got us thinking: how do other ID@Xbox game developers view Twitch streaming? Are they worried about potential gameplay or story segments being ruined for viewers? We asked a few developers if they had official Twitch policies and whether or not they felt streamers were helping their games to find larger audiences. Official stances on Twitch were a bit mixed, but everyone we talked to agreed that streaming could benefit them. One in particular, however, cautioned against giving streaming codes to anyone and everyone and noted that not all games companies need help from streamers.

Of streams and spoilers

There is perhaps no ID@Xbox developer more well-known for story-driven experiences than Telltale Games. Unfortunately, the studio that popularized episodic game releases declined to comment directly on the issue. Telltale, however, did partner with The Nerdist to stream the entirety of the first Tales from the Borderlands episode a week ahead of its release last November. It also got together with voice actors Troy Baker and Laura Bailey to stream the second episode a few days after its release late last month. It remains to be seen whether or not Telltale will be so eager to stream the season’s surely spoiler-filled final episode in full, but its past actions paint a picture of a studio that does not shy away from streaming spoilers.

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