Monthly Archives: July 2014
The International Will Be Shown on ESPN Channels
The International 2014 was going to be a milestone event in the future of eSports just based on the $10 million prize pool but I don’t think that we expected it to get so much attention. The eight-team playoff bracket, also known as The Main Event, will be broadcast on ESPN 3 with a preview of the Grand Finals on ESPN 2.
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Grid Autosport Review: Pedal to the Metal
While they started as a bit more of a racing sim company, Codemasters transition to the pseudo-sim (not a hardcore racing sim but far from a simple arcade racer) has come with massive critical acclaim. The launch of the Dirt series from the Colin McRae Rally franchise and the transition of the sim TOCA Race Driver series to Grid were met with praise from critics and gamers alike.
Then 2012 happened. Someone at Codemasters went a little crazy and decided that more arcade-style racing games were what Codies needed to get to the next level. The result was Dirt: Showdown, F1 Race Stars and Grid 2 all being released in quick succession. The pseudo-sim gameplay had been replaced with arcadey minigames, shallow gameplay, and a disregard for proper racing and the laws of physics, respectively.
While the F1 franchise motored on, the rest of Codemasters’ IP floundered without a direction. The company’s move from sim to arcade was backfiring with critics and fans. So Codies did something rare for the games industry: They listened to their fans. The gamers who were fed up with the direction of Codemasters would get their way with the latest iteration of the Grid franchise. Getting away from the arcade/floaty driving style of Grid 2, Grid Autosport would be a return to the more sim style of racing that Grid and the Race Driver franchises were known for.
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eSports Weekend Calendar: July 18 – 21, 2014
There’s all sorts of eSports action again this weekend. The eight-team playoffs for The International starts on Friday with the grand final on Monday for the near $5 million winner’s prize. The runner-up will end up with just shy of $1.5 million. That’s not a bad payday but it’ll be heartbreaking to come so far and land just short of becoming a millionaire.
StarCraft 2 also has two major events at the same time this weekend. In Europe, Dreamhack holds their third event of 2014 in Valencia as the stars of SC2 do battle in a 96-player, two-day competition for $25,000 and 4,000 WCS points. Over in China, ESL holds the first event of IEM Season 9 in Shenzhen, China, headlined by their 28-player SC2 competition.
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Former Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega Suing Activision Over CoD: Black Ops II
Former military dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega, is the type of person you’d expect to be used as a basis for a Call of Duty villain but his turn as a character in Call of Duty: Black Ops II hit a little close to home for him. Noriega is suing Activision over using his name and likeness in the popular game series.
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Yogscast Reveals New Program In Which They Earn Revenue From Indie Game Sales
Somehow, the gaming press has only now clued into the fact that some YouTubers are being paid by developers and publishers to cover some games. This isn’t exactly news given that most YouTube personalities that have some respect for themselves and their viewers disclose which videos are paid promotional content.
What we should all be focusing on is the implications of the new revenue scheme dreamt up by the team at Yogscast. Their new YogDiscovery program will see the company have indie developers pay a portion of the sales increase from Yogscast coverage of their game.
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Wrestling Legend Jim Ross Commentates Video Games
The legendary voice of wrestling Jim Ross has had his voice leant to videos of just about everything. He’s called fails, dancing, other sports and now, he’s the voice of video games. YouTube’s The Blue Owl has come up with three absolutely perfect video of Jim Ross commentating the action of various video games.
And GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! THAT KILLED HIM! AS GOD AS MY WITNESS, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!
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The International 2014 is Down to the Final Eight
After seven days of competition, the field has been cut in half. The International 2014 started with sixteen of the best Dota 2 teams in the world. After the first three phases of The International’s playoffs, the field has been whittled down to eight teams all vying for a near $5 million championship prize.
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Comic Book Pull List for July 16, 2014
DC Comics found the comic book adaptation of the video game Injustice to be such a success that they’re doing it again. Their MOBA (I’m talking about those a lot this week) Infinite Crisis is getting a comic adaptation with Infinite Crisis: Fight for the Multiverse. If video games aren’t your speed, DC also reboots Teen Titans this week and sends Harley Quinn to SDCC.
Elsewhere, Dark Horse wraps up their miniseries of The Witcher in The Witcher #5. If only the game wasn’t delayed, this would have been pretty well-timed. A special one-shot by Dynamite reveal some of the origins of Lamont Cranston in The Shadow #0. And Marvel continues their hypothetical look at the future with 100th Anniversary Special: X-Men #1.
And Archie dies this week. Or maybe I should say that one Archie dies seeing as he’s being published in multiple timelines simultaneously from how that AP article put it. If you want to see an Archie die, pick up Life With Archie #36.
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EA Says Dungeon Keeper Mobile “Innovated Too Much”
In June, EA CEO Andrew Wilson referred to the mobile version of Dungeon Keeper as “a shame.” In doing so, he seemed to be admitting that EA had made a mistake with their approach to bringing the cult classic to the mobile gaming space as a free-to-play game.
Don’t tell that to EA Mobile boss Frank Gibeau. He didn’t think that the failure of Dungeon Keeper Mobile was a result of the monetization model. Instead, in an interview with Games Industry, Gibeau said that Dungeon Keeper Mobile “innovated too much or tried some different things that people just weren’t ready for.”
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Is EA Spying On Your Computer Using Origin?
Privacy is a pretty important issue but many companies don’t seem to take the privacy of their customers and users as seriously as they do. The latest company accused of taking their customers’ privacy for granted is EA. Last weekend, a Reddit and Origin user discovered that EA’s Origin client was looking through the files on his computer.
et geekera 