Jan 24, 2013

Borderlands 2

The Hidden Beauty Of Skill Trees

The recent launch of Path Of Exile's open beta—a new hack & slash action RPG known especially for its enormous skill tree, as you can see in the pic above—inspired us to collect some of the best looking skill and research trees spanning a variety of genres. It's interesting to see how creatively devs can handle this part of a game.

The Sphere Grid Of Final Fantasy X

The Hidden Beauty Of Skill Trees source: Zenon1320's gameplay video

The Heron, The Shark And The Spider In Far Cry 3

The Hidden Beauty Of Skill Trees source: own screenshot

The Character Abilities Screen In The Witcher 2

The Hidden Beauty Of Skill Trees source: The Witcher Wiki

The Skill Tree In Dead Island

The Hidden Beauty Of Skill Trees source: Gerald Hopkins' gameplay

The Talent Tree In Star Wars: The Old Republic

The Hidden Beauty Of Skill Trees source: Biowarefans

Make sure to submit your own picks in the comments below, with visual support.

Jan 24, 2013

This Is What Romance Looks Like In Fire Emblem: Awakening

Kotaku

This Is What Romance Looks Like In Fire Emblem: Awakening Sure, the Fire Emblem series is known for its well-designed tactical challenges. The newest game in the series, Fire Emblem: Awakening, is no different.

But a lesser-known aspect of Awakening is just how romantic it can be. See, when your soldiers (of which you'll amass dozens) fight alongside one another, they get closer and eventually form stronger and stronger relationships. I mean "fight alongside one another" literally—they have to be standing on adjacent squares for this to happen.

Eventually, characters can even fall in love, and if they do… well, all sorts awkward things can happen.

Here's one example: Chrom, one of the primary characters, and the clumsy Pegasus Knight Sumia, getting to know one another better. Bear in mind that these conversation paths happen across all possible matchings (Male/Female, as far as I can tell) of characters among dozens of different warriors. Adorable.

(Sorry these pictures aren't great, I took them off of my 3DS XL screen. Stephen's shown me a better way to get images in the future, so my next ones should be better.)

For starters, you'll want to listen to this music, which usually plays when something romantic is happening. (Of note: the game's soundtrack is pretty great in general.)

Got that playing? Okay.

This Is What Romance Looks Like In Fire Emblem: Awakening

So, yes, this is a game about knights and dragons and battles and noble deeds. But it's also a game about pies, and tea, and true love. And how rhubarb will help keep you regular.

Jan 24, 2013

You Can Pay For Weapons In Dead Space 3 Because Of Mobile Gamers, Apparently

Dead Space (2008)

You Can Pay For Weapons In Dead Space 3 Because Of Mobile Gamers, Apparently Many Dead Space fans were disappointed this week after hearing that Dead Space 3 would feature microtransactions—or, the ability to buy in-game goods for real money. Today in an interview with CVG, Dead Space 3 producer John Calhoun stated that microtransactions exist because they intend to court mobile gamers.

There's a lot of players out there, especially players coming from mobile games, who are accustomed to micro-transactions. They're like "I need this now, I want this now". They need instant gratification. So we included that option in order to attract those players, so that if they're 5000 Tungsten short of this upgrade, they can have it.

We need to make sure we're expanding our audience as well. There are action game fans, and survival horror game fans, who are 19 and 20, and they've only played games on their smartphones, and micro-transactions are to them a standard part of gaming. It's a different generation. So if we're going to bring those people into our world, let's speak their language, but let's not alienate our fans at the same time.

Would a typical mobile gamer be playing Dead Space 3? I don't think so, but maybe some. I think it's more likely that the people taking advantage of microtransactions in Dead Space 3 will just be impatient Dead Space players.

Patience is not platform-exclusive, after all. Mobile just happened to capitalize on it early; it hasn't weaned players to suddenly expect to be able to pay for things in a game. Having that luxury is just plain attractive (to some.) No conditioning necessary.

Regardless, everyone is free to abstain from purchasing anything if they want, instead opting to earn things the good ol' fashioned way.

Dead Space 3 producer on micro-transactions and keeping the horror alive [CVG]

Jan 24, 2013

The Sad, Final Days Of THQ

Kotaku

This afternoon, THQ CEO Brian Farrell and president Jason Rubin met with about a hundred of their staff at corporate headquarters in southern California.

Tomorrow, most of them will lose their jobs. Within the next few weeks, the video game publisher will disappear entirely. This was their last meeting.

"There were plenty of people crying," said one former employee who preferred that we not use his name. "Brian seemed very emotional."

Although THQ has been struggling for the past year or so, the company still employed hundreds of people, many of whom had no idea what was going on until yesterday. For most of this week, according to the person we spoke to, THQ's employees were just sitting at their desks, checking websites like Kotaku for rumors on what might have been happening during the auction on Tuesday and the bankruptcy hearing on Wednesday.

Yesterday afternoon, Farrell and Rubin sent out a letter: the company would be closing. Everyone would be losing their jobs.

"We had no inside info until that letter came," the former employee said. "So that kinda sucked. But it wasn't a huge surprise by that point... I think people had sort of written off the company a long time ago. It's been a downhill journey steeply for the last year."

Hundreds watched on video-cast during the meeting as Farrell and Rubin thanked THQ's employees for their service and gave them the rundown on what would happen from there. Some people asked tough questions: one employee, for example, asked why the bankruptcy seemed focused on getting money for the companies that THQ owed, rather than providing money to help employees keep their jobs.

"It's taken its toll on people for sure," the former employee said.

The last days of THQ have not been pleasant for many of their employees: during the time leading up to the announcement that THQ's studios and game properties would be auctioned off, only a few people were told what was happening.

There was one married couple that worked at THQ, the former employee told me. The wife knew about the auction: the husband didn't. So she had to lie to her husband, making up excuses for why she was working 14 hours a day.

"I know people who have worked there for 17 years," the former employee said. "It's hit them hard."

Last night, one THQ employee sent an event invitation to the rest of the staff: Friday afternoon at 3pm, many of the people who once worked at the embattled video game publisher will go to one last party.

"Fuck it, let's drink."

Jan 24, 2013

Stop, Ni No Kuni, You're Charming My Trousers Off

Kotaku

Stop, Ni No Kuni, You're Charming My Trousers Off Anyone within earshot of me in the last week and a half will attest that I'm absolutely loving the PS3 RPG Ni No Kuni. It is, without a doubt, one of the most charming games I've ever played. It simply exudes character from every single pore.