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Lost Planet 3 Review

Written By Kom Limpulnam on Rabu, 28 Agustus 2013 | 23.37

In the third iteration of the Lost Planet series, some things are gained, and some are, appropriately enough, lost. Lost Planet 2 was a frustrating and beautiful concoction, loaded with grand ideas that all too often sacrificed basic playability. In this mediocre prequel to the original Lost Planet, the frustrations are minimal, but so are the ideas; its predecessor's variety and visual panache are steamrolled in favor of perfectly decent, perfectly standard shooting encounters. Lost Planet 3 is a difficult game to hate and an equally difficult game to adore. It might feature monstrous aliens, but it never thinks big.

If it's orange, it explodes.

One aspect of this third-person shooter that will keep you thinking, however, is its story, a surprise given the series' lack of a personal touch and grand plot ambitions. The early hours move slowly, introducing you to hero Jim Peyton, who has journeyed across the blackness of space to the planet E.D.N. III to assist the Neo-Venus Construction company in its mining efforts. Jim is an excellent everyman, frequently exchanging personal video messages with his devoted wife, who is raising their newborn son while Jim works toward a brighter financial future. The couple labor to maintain a tone of normalcy, but never fully contain their misgivings and personal longing. The dialogue is natural and delivered gracefully; Jim's love is not characterized by overwhelming passion, but by quiet adoration and sincere concern.

While performing odd jobs and fighting off the wildlife that threatens the mining operation, Jim spots a figure eyeing him in the distance. Jim's paranoia turns to confusion as he uncovers truths about NEVEC and the indiscretions of the company's past. Here, the tale begins to follow recognizable paths, invoking elements of stories like Pocahontas and James Cameron's Avatar by contrasting the greed of the invader with the purity of the land. But it's how Lost Planet 3 subverts cliches that makes it so compelling. In fiction, lines like "I didn't know you had a wife" often lead to predictable story outcomes--but not here. Lost Planet 3 avoids overt moralizing and soap-opera melodrama, instead placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and allowing them to find their way.

That isn't to say there aren't sour notes. A miner with a deplorable French accent tops that list, though an annoyingly chatty engineer can also grate on your nerves. Both ultimately earn a vital place in the story, though not before injuring your sense of good taste with their cliched characterizations. The game's tone wanders, sometimes shooting for "space cowboy" a la StarCraft or Firefly, and other times getting jokey, going so far as to point out its own mechanical shortcomings. A little lighthearted humor is appreciated, but when it's a bit of dialogue pointing out how often you have to turn on an elevator's power, you can't help but wish developer Spark Unlimited had avoided repetitive mission design rather than cracked wise about it.

That repetition is a problem. Many of Lost Planet 3's missions have you heading out into E.D.N. III's icy wilderness to perform odd jobs for NEVEC or other allies, flipping switches, riding elevators, and shooting some aliens in a comfortable but overfamiliar pattern. Like in the previous games, your primary foes are the akrid, aliens primarily known for their insectlike appearance and the glowing orange growths that indicate weak points. Previously, fighting the largest of these creatures could be both a stunning and frustrating affair, with their outlandish attacks sending you flying through the air and into drifts of snow, where you had to struggle to your feet and resume battle. Combat arenas were often large and gave you the opportunity to pilot combat mechs, and giant akrid forced you to use your wits when you weren't busy cursing the frustrations of irritating knockbacks.

In Lost Planet 3, the distress and the diversity have both been toned down. You face some large akrid, but you do so without worry of being bowled over by numerous enemies and paralyzed by endless animation loops. Yet with greater playability also comes greater predictability. Regardless of the monster you face, the tactic remains the same: you tumble out of the way, the creature gets stuck for a moment, and you shoot at the glowing bits. And when you aren't fighting the bigger akrid, you're fighting off the smaller ones, which you can typically dispose of with a few shotgun blasts. And you do all of this in samey gray-white corridors and in small arenas frigid with wind and snow.

The action is bog-standard shooting, and the encounters are tame when compared to previous Lost Planet games. New this round is a cover system, though you rarely need to use it in the single-player campaign, and it's bizarre to see non-humanoid life-forms sticking against cover and rising up to fling projectiles at you. Yet there's still joy in watching orange thermal energy burst from an akrid's vulnerable wounds when you shoot it, not to mention the sense of relief that comes from smashing its iced corpse to smithereens. In the first case, you see the lifeblood leaking from your foe; in the second, you prove your superiority by vanquishing all remnants of it. The combination makes for a rewarding power trip.


23.37 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lost Planet 3 Review

In the third iteration of the Lost Planet series, some things are gained, and some are, appropriately enough, lost. Lost Planet 2 was a frustrating and beautiful concoction, loaded with grand ideas that all too often sacrificed basic playability. In this mediocre prequel to the original Lost Planet, the frustrations are minimal, but so are the ideas; its predecessor's variety and visual panache are steamrolled in favor of perfectly decent, perfectly standard shooting encounters. Lost Planet 3 is a difficult game to hate and an equally difficult game to adore. It might feature monstrous aliens, but it never thinks big.

One aspect of this third-person shooter that will keep you thinking, however, is its story, a surprise given the series' lack of a personal touch and grand plot ambitions. The early hours move slowly, introducing you to hero Jim Peyton, who has journeyed across the blackness of space to the planet E.D.N. III to assist the Neo-Venus Construction company in its mining efforts. Jim is an excellent everyman, frequently exchanging personal video messages with his devoted wife, who is raising their newborn son while Jim works toward a brighter financial future. The couple labor to maintain a tone of normalcy, but never fully contain their misgivings and personal longing. The dialogue is natural and delivered gracefully; Jim's love is not characterized by overwhelming passion, but by quiet adoration and sincere concern.

While performing odd jobs and fighting off the wildlife that threatens the mining operation, Jim spots a figure eyeing him in the distance. Jim's paranoia turns to confusion as he uncovers truths about NEVEC and the indiscretions of the company's past. Here, the tale begins to follow recognizable paths, invoking elements of stories like Pocahontas and James Cameron's Avatar by contrasting the greed of the invader with the purity of the land. But it's how Lost Planet 3 subverts cliches that makes it so compelling. In fiction, lines like "I didn't know you had a wife" often lead to predictable story outcomes--but not here. Lost Planet 3 avoids overt moralizing and soap-opera melodrama, instead placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and allowing them to find their way.

That isn't to say there aren't sour notes. A miner with a deplorable French accent tops that list, though an annoyingly chatty engineer can also grate on your nerves. Both ultimately earn a vital place in the story, though not before injuring your sense of good taste with their cliched characterizations. The game's tone wanders, sometimes shooting for "space cowboy" a la StarCraft or Firefly, and other times getting jokey, going so far as to point out its own mechanical shortcomings. A little lighthearted humor is appreciated, but when it's a bit of dialogue pointing out how often you have to turn on an elevator's power, you can't help but wish developer Spark Unlimited had avoided repetitive mission design rather than cracked wise about it.

That repetition is a problem. Many of Lost Planet 3's missions have you heading out into E.D.N. III's icy wilderness to perform odd jobs for NEVEC or other allies, flipping switches, riding elevators, and shooting some aliens in a comfortable but overfamiliar pattern. Like in the previous games, your primary foes are the akrid, aliens primarily known for their insectlike appearance and the glowing orange growths that indicate weak points. Previously, fighting the largest of these creatures could be both a stunning and frustrating affair, with their outlandish attacks sending you flying through the air and into drifts of snow, where you had to struggle to your feet and resume battle. Combat arenas were often large and gave you the opportunity to pilot combat mechs, and giant akrid forced you to use your wits when you weren't busy cursing the frustrations of irritating knockbacks.

In Lost Planet 3, the distress and the diversity have both been toned down. You face some large akrid, but you do so without worry of being bowled over by numerous enemies and paralyzed by endless animation loops. Yet with greater playability also comes greater predictability. Regardless of the monster you face, the tactic remains the same: you tumble out of the way, the creature gets stuck for a moment, and you shoot at the glowing bits. And when you aren't fighting the bigger akrid, you're fighting off the smaller ones, which you can typically dispose of with a few shotgun blasts. And you do all of this in samey gray-white corridors and in small arenas frigid with wind and snow.

The action is bog-standard shooting, and the encounters are tame when compared to previous Lost Planet games. New this round is a cover system, though you rarely need to use it in the single-player campaign, and it's bizarre to see non-humanoid life-forms sticking against cover and rising up to fling projectiles at you. Yet there's still joy in watching orange thermal energy burst from an akrid's vulnerable wounds when you shoot it, not to mention the sense of relief that comes from smashing its iced corpse to smithereens. In the first case, you see the lifeblood leaking from your foe; in the second, you prove your superiority by vanquishing all remnants of it. The combination makes for a rewarding power trip.


23.37 | 0 komentar | Read More

Lost Planet 3 Review

In the third iteration of the Lost Planet series, some things are gained, and some are, appropriately enough, lost. Lost Planet 2 was a frustrating and beautiful concoction, loaded with grand ideas that all too often sacrificed basic playability. In this mediocre prequel to the original Lost Planet, the frustrations are minimal, but so are the ideas; its predecessor's variety and visual panache are steamrolled in favor of perfectly decent, perfectly standard shooting encounters. Lost Planet 3 is a difficult game to hate and an equally difficult game to adore. It might feature monstrous aliens, but it never thinks big.

The akrid are--well--they're acrid.

One aspect of this third-person shooter that will keep you thinking, however, is its story, a surprise given the series' lack of a personal touch and grand plot ambitions. The early hours move slowly, introducing you to hero Jim Peyton, who has journeyed across the blackness of space to the planet E.D.N. III to assist the Neo-Venus Construction company in its mining efforts. Jim is an excellent everyman, frequently exchanging personal video messages with his devoted wife, who is raising their newborn son while Jim works toward a brighter financial future. The couple labor to maintain a tone of normalcy, but never fully contain their misgivings and personal longing. The dialogue is natural and delivered gracefully; Jim's love is not characterized by overwhelming passion, but by quiet adoration and sincere concern.

While performing odd jobs and fighting off the wildlife that threatens the mining operation, Jim spots a figure eyeing him in the distance. Jim's paranoia turns to confusion as he uncovers truths about NEVEC and the indiscretions of the company's past. Here, the tale begins to follow recognizable paths, invoking elements of stories like Pocahontas and James Cameron's Avatar by contrasting the greed of the invader with the purity of the land. But it's how Lost Planet 3 subverts cliches that makes it so compelling. In fiction, lines like "I didn't know you had a wife" often lead to predictable story outcomes--but not here. Lost Planet 3 avoids overt moralizing and soap-opera melodrama, instead placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and allowing them to find their way.

That isn't to say there aren't sour notes. A miner with a deplorable French accent tops that list, though an annoyingly chatty engineer can also grate on your nerves. Both ultimately earn a vital place in the story, though not before injuring your sense of good taste with their cliched characterizations. The game's tone wanders, sometimes shooting for "space cowboy" a la StarCraft or Firefly, and other times getting jokey, going so far as to point out its own mechanical shortcomings. A little lighthearted humor is appreciated, but when it's a bit of dialogue pointing out how often you have to turn on an elevator's power, you can't help but wish developer Spark Unlimited had avoided repetitive mission design rather than cracked wise about it.

That repetition is a problem. Many of Lost Planet 3's missions have you heading out into E.D.N. III's icy wilderness to perform odd jobs for NEVEC or other allies, flipping switches, riding elevators, and shooting some aliens in a comfortable but overfamiliar pattern. Like in the previous games, your primary foes are the akrid, aliens primarily known for their insectlike appearance and the glowing orange growths that indicate weak points. Previously, fighting the largest of these creatures could be both a stunning and frustrating affair, with their outlandish attacks sending you flying through the air and into drifts of snow, where you had to struggle to your feet and resume battle. Combat arenas were often large and gave you the opportunity to pilot combat mechs, and giant akrid forced you to use your wits when you weren't busy cursing the frustrations of irritating knockbacks.

In Lost Planet 3, the distress and the diversity have both been toned down. You face some large akrid, but you do so without worry of being bowled over by numerous enemies and paralyzed by endless animation loops. Yet with greater playability also comes greater predictability. Regardless of the monster you face, the tactic remains the same: you tumble out of the way, the creature gets stuck for a moment, and you shoot at the glowing bits. And when you aren't fighting the bigger akrid, you're fighting off the smaller ones, which you can typically dispose of with a few shotgun blasts. And you do all of this in samey gray-white corridors and in small arenas frigid with wind and snow.

The action is bog-standard shooting, and the encounters are tame when compared to previous Lost Planet games. New this round is a cover system, though you rarely need to use it in the single-player campaign, and it's bizarre to see non-humanoid life-forms sticking against cover and rising up to fling projectiles at you. Yet there's still joy in watching orange thermal energy burst from an akrid's vulnerable wounds when you shoot it, not to mention the sense of relief that comes from smashing its iced corpse to smithereens. In the first case, you see the lifeblood leaking from your foe; in the second, you prove your superiority by vanquishing all remnants of it. The combination makes for a rewarding power trip.


23.37 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Official' Grand Theft Auto V trailer launching Thursday

Dan Chiappini
By Dan Chiappini, Editor of GameSpot AU

Raised by the warm glow of arcade machine monitors and TV screens, Dan's lifelong passion has always been games. PC, console, mobile, handheld, you name it, he'll play it. He also enjoys photography, long walks on the beach, and clichés.


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Cerny: Full hardware capabilities of PS4 may take 'three to four years' to be harnessed

PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny believes that while PlayStation 4 developers are already quickly adapting to content creation for the new system, the real customisation and utilisation of the machine's true power won't be until "year three or year four of the console".

In an interview with Polygon during Gamescom, Cerny outlined the need to create an obvious visual gap between the capabilities of current and next-generation systems.

"We set our target at 10 times the PlayStation 3's performance, because that's what we felt we needed to achieve in order to differentiate the titles," Cerny told the website. "When I did pitches to developers about the hardware, I talked about what I call the Akihabara test. Akihabara is an electronics district in Tokyo, it's just full of stores where you can buy just about anything you plug into a wall socket. I knew that at some point, there'd be out on the sidewalk a PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and they might even be showing the same game, and the PlayStation 4 had to be powerful enough that when people walked by, they had to look at the PlayStation 4 and say, 'Wow, I have to have that.'

"I believe we are at that level of performance," Cerny said. "I mean, the million pre-orders we have is, I think, speaking to that."

Cerny went on to say that while the PS4's new architecture is already familiar to develop for given its PC similarities, it will still be three to four years before the real capabilities of the system are identified and harnessed.

"It's a supercharged PC architecture, so you can use it as if it were a PC with unified memory," he said. "Much of what we're seeing with the launch titles is that usage; it's very, very quick to get up to speed if that's how you use it. But at the same time, then you're not taking advantage of all the customisation that we did in the GPU. I think that really will play into the graphical quality and the level of interaction in the worlds in, say, year three or year four of the console."

The PlayStation 4 goes on sale on November 15 in North America, and November 29 for Europe, the UK, and Australia. The device will launch in 32 countries globally this year.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com


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Xbox One will not launch on November 8 - Report

Yesterday, a rumour circulated that the as-yet-undated Xbox One may launch on November 8. That information appears to have been incorrect, according to an update by the original reporter, Kotaku.

The previous information--allegedly sourced through a marketing company with close ties to US retailer Walmart--suggested that Microsoft's next-generation console could launch in the first half of the month. A second, unnamed source, reportedly close to the Xbox creator, told the publication that the November 8 date is false, supposedly saying that the date will be later than was originally reported. No specifics were given.

GameSpot contacted Microsoft seeking confirmation, but a spokesperson was unavailable at the time of publication. As mentioned previously, in the absence of any official release details for the system, all dates should be treated as speculation.

Microsoft has so far only confirmed that the Xbox One will launch this November for $499/€499/£429/A$599.

→ More coverage of XBOXONE on GameSpot.com

Dan Chiappini
By Dan Chiappini, Editor of GameSpot AU

Raised by the warm glow of arcade machine monitors and TV screens, Dan's lifelong passion has always been games. PC, console, mobile, handheld, you name it, he'll play it. He also enjoys photography, long walks on the beach, and clichés.


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PS4 can be turned on remotely

Sony says when users buy titles through smartphone app, PlayStation 4 will automatically wake up to initiate downloads.

The PlayStation 4 can be turned on remotely via the Playstation smartphone app to begin content downloads, Sony has confirmed.

Sony's president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida announced the news on Twitter recently.

The PS4 launches November 15 in North America, November 29 in Europe, and in 32 countries in all by the end of the year.

Sony also confirmed this week that the PS4 will support cross-platform party chat between the next-generation console and the PlayStation Vita.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.


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Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Crusader Class Gameplay Demo

Written By Kom Limpulnam on Rabu, 21 Agustus 2013 | 23.37

First off, expansion looks great. I played Diablo since it came out in 1996 (96 right?). At first when I got D3, I was sort of put off by the maps (not being random), and the auction house. So heres how I see it, and how I play D3....I ramp up the power level of monsters to 10. I only use the gold auction house to better my character, and Ive had a great time with it. What I would LOVE to see, single player offline mode, totally remove the AH, have awesome loot drops in the game, or have some sort of uber weapon/armor shop(s) that sells these items for a high amount of gold, and the ability to equip your followers with all of the gear that your character uses. Theres my wish list for Blizz.


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Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Cinematic Trailer

The trailer looks cool, but the core game itself is highly flawed.  I hope they fix some of the concerns many fans have about Diablo 3, including the lack of character customization, bare crafting and socketing system, dull stat-centric itemization, Auction House, and the overly vibrant art direction.  With the departure of Jay Wilson and his enormous ego, there might be a fair chance that some of these issues will be addressed.


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Murdered: Soul Suspect Screens

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Elder Scrolls Online will have subscription fee

The Elder Scrolls Online will be a "premium" subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, carrying a monthly fee of $14.99/€12.99/£8.99 after the first free month.

Zenimax Online Studios president Matt Firor revealed the news in an interview with Gamestar. He said a business model where players pay once per month for access to the entire game is better-suited for the MMO than a free-to-play scheme.

"We feel that putting pay gates between the player and content at any point in game ruins that feeling of freedom, and just having one small monthly fee for 100 percent access to the game fits the IP and the game much better than a system where you have to pay for features and access as you play," Firor said.

"The Elder Scrolls Online was designed and developed to be a premium experience: hundreds of hours of gameplay, tons of depth and features, professional customer support--and a commitment to have ongoing content at regular intervals after launch," he added. "This type of experience is best paired with a one-time fee per month, as opposed to many smaller payments that would probably add up to more than $14.99/month anyway."

Firor pointed out that Bethesda's decision to go with subscriptions for The Elder Scrolls online is "not a referendum on online game revenue models" like free-to-play, which he said can be "valid."

"But subscription is the one that fits ESO the best, given our commitment to freedom of gameplay, quality and long-term content delivery," Firor said. "Plus, players will appreciate not having to worry about being 'monetized' in the middle of playing the game, which is definitely a problem that is cropping up more and more in online gaming these days."

"The fact that the word "monetized" exists points to the heart of the issue for us," Firor added. "We don't want the player to worry about which parts of the game to pay for--with our system, they get it all."

Bethesda recently said that The Elder Scrolls Online will see a "high frequency" of post-release support.

The Elder Scrolls Online is aiming for release on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in spring 2014, though official release dates have not been announced. For more on the MMO, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

.

→ More coverage of Gamescom 2013 on GameSpot.com


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Loot 2.0 - Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

@SteamyPotatoes @Evil__Homer Homer...the initial point of the AH (unless I'm misunderstanding) was to streamline the trading process and make it easier to exchange items one person doesn't need or want for the resources to get other items a person does need or want.

At the core, I want to like such a feature...however, given the difficulty of the game at launch, and peoples' desire to get to the end the fastest (epeen), many of them abused (and still abuse) the ease of the AH to get epic loot, and don't even make an attempt to farm good items.  They see it as more "efficient" to just flip a few items, get insane gear and faceroll MP10 and complain that they're bored, than just fighting and struggling through the RNG til they EARN good gear.

By increasing the quality of gear, sure...people can still buy it if they want...but when more legendaries are dropping and many of them can be tweaked via the Mystic...why would anyone want to be the person who insisted on buying everything, when playing the game can actually get you farther?


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New CryEngine revealed

Crytek today announced the next era of its CryEngine game development tools, but it's not called the CryEngine 4.

The Crysis and Ryse: Son of Rome studio said the engine will no longer be identified by version numbers, due to the game engine evolving over time with new updates and upgrades.

Instead, the engine will be known simply as CryEngine going forward. Crytek also announced today that its Engine Licensing and Research & Development teams have come together in an effort to "double the level of one-to-one care" that game licensees can tap into.

This is "in essence offering Crytek's R&D as a service for developers using the new CryEngine," Crytek said.

The new CryEngine supports development on current-generation consoles; Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U, as well as PC and "further platforms" to be added in the future.

"Since CryEngine 3 was launched in 2009, we've dramatically changed the engine so many times, with so many major new features, it's not the same engine anymore," Crytek business development director Carl Jones said in a statement.

Ryse: Son of Rome launches this November on Xbox One.

→ More coverage of Gamescom 2013 on GameSpot.com


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Namco Bandai opens Vancouver studio

Written By Kom Limpulnam on Rabu, 07 Agustus 2013 | 23.37

Japanese Pac-Man and Tekken publisher Namco Bandai this week opened an office in Vancouver that will create mobile and online games. The Vancouver Sun reports that the office will employ around 30 people.

Namco Bandai announced the creation of its Vancouver studio in June. The outfit, located at the Centre for Digital Media at the Great Northern Way Campus, will be known as Namco Bandai Studios Vancouver Inc.

According to Namco Bandai Studios president Hajime Nakatani, the city of Vancouver was chosen over Montreal and Toronto because of its sizable "cluster" of digital artists and engineers.

Not only that, but Centre for Digital Media director Richard Smith said Canada is a smart choice to establish a studio because development talent is less likely to be lured away.

"One of the things that is attractive about Canada, I think, is the people are just as skilled and they are less likely to jump ship and disappear like in San Francisco or L.A.," Smith said. "Here's a place you can build up a team and they're not going to disappear on you."


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Valve's Dota 2 The International 3 Main Event begins

Third year of Dota 2 Championships underway in Seattle, with the world's best teams battling for $2.8 million in prize money.

Today marks the start of the main event and playoffs for Valve's third year of Dota 2 Championships - The International 3 held at Benaroya Hall in Seattle--where 16 of the best teams in the world will battle it out for over $2.8 million in prize money.

Competition began on August 3 with two groups of eight teams, with every team in each group playing against each other in a series of two games. Nearly 400,000 people watched concurrently live the first day, and 600,000 on the second and third, surpassing last year's peak numbers. International 3 favorites Alliance from Sweden and previous champions Na'Vi from Ukraine won their groups, with Alliance going undefeated in 14 straight games.

"I think we do a good job of not putting much pressure on ourselves," Alliance Captain Jonathan "Loda" Berg told GameSpot. "We just try to play our best, and if our best is good enough to win, we are okay with that."

Both teams could meet in the Winners Bracket Finals if they win their next two games. "If we do reach the Upper Bracket finals, we expect to play Na'Vi in that match," Berg said.

"Alliance doing too good," said Na'Vi's Danylo "Dendi" Ishutin, impressed by Alliance's performance from the first three days. "Good sign for European and North American Dota though. Na'Vi best team USA?"

Both teams went combined 7-1 against the Chinese Dota teams, including Alliance's wins over International 2 Champions iG. Coming into the International 3 both teams have now won major tournaments on Chinese soil, a feat that had never been accomplished in previous years.

"I also think that a really big reason why both we and Na'Vi are able to perform so well against the Chinese is that we are not predictable," said Berg. "In previous years, the Chinese teams have dictated the metagame, which caused Western teams to over-react and over-adapt. This year, Chinese teams have been forced to react more than in previous years and I think that's throwing them off a little bit. Also, I think this year is the first year in DotA 2 that the Western teams are on par with the Chinese teams in terms of raw skill."

"But, I don't think you should read too much into group stages. In the playoffs, the Chinese could definitely bounce back and adapt."

Alliance chose LGD to play first round in the playoffs, a decision that was surprising to some considering LGD's own accomplished play as of late.

"We don't really fear anyone, at all, and we feel comfortable playing against the Chinese teams," Berg said regarding the pick. "But, Fnatic was one of our most frequent bootcamp opponents, so it didn't make sense to pick them over LGD when they are so much more familiar with us compared to LGD. So, due to that, LGD is the better choice for us. We decided to choose the team that won the tiebreaker between Dignitas and LGD."

Although both teams are confident from the group stages, as Berg says the playoffs are a different matter. The playoffs are where championship teams truly show off what they can offer.

"We feel decent," said Ishutin, "but now the real deal starts. All four of the Chinese teams are strong. Besides the Winner Brackets nothing matters much."

Fnatic's performance surprised Ishutin, as they were able to land the third spot in Group A. North American teams Team Liquid and Dignitas who had strong performances of their own on the first two days, missed out on opportunities on the final day.

"We went into day two and three with a great amount of confidence, but did not deliver the results we were hoping for," Team Liquid Manager Robin Nymann told GameSpot. "It was especially very hard on all of us to lose 0-2 to iG since even if we just won a single game, we would have been second place in the group and faced off Fnatic in the upper bracket instead of the loser's bracket."

"That being said, I think we have a pretty good draw of games in the lower bracket. It's going to be incredibly hard, but it's definitely doable. If we overcome our greatest opponent--ourselves; we'll make the money."

The playoffs begin today at 12 PM PST/3 PM EST, with a full schedule available. An All-Star match will be played at the end of the day today, with the finals of the Solo 1v1 Championships played August 8 between Zenith's Daryl "iceiceice" Koh Pei Xiang and Orange's Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung.

Watch the event live on GameSpot from today through August 11. GameSpot eSports will be live on-site at The International.

→ More coverage of ESPORTS on GameSpot.com


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Zumba Fitness dev getting into casino games

Zumba Fitness publisher Majesco Entertainment is getting into the casino games sector. The New Jersey-based publisher has announced the formation of GMS Entertainment Limited, a new business unit that will "pursue an online casino games strategy."

As part of the deal, Majesco will invest a total of $3.5-$4.5 million in GMS Entertainment, depending on how successful the company is, to acquire a 50 percent stake in the outfit.

Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton will serve as chairman of GMS Entertainment.

Under the terms of the deal, GMS Entertainment has acquired real-money gaming companies Orid Media Limited and Pairplay Limited, pending regulatory approvals. The company has also attracted an investor, AppCard CEO Yair Goldfinger, who purchased 3.3 million shares. Goldfinger also cofounded Mirabilis, the company behind instant messaging program ICQ, which was later purchased by America Online.

"During this transition year in console gaming, we have been actively exploring emerging growth opportunities in the social and online casino gaming industry to supplement our existing business," Sutton said in a statement. "Entering the market through this partnership allows us to participate in a rapidly growing market segment and position the company for longer term growth as more jurisdictions move to legalize real-money online gaming. The complementary skills and abilities of all involved are expected to result in a successful venture."

Social game giant Zynga recently announced that it will not pursue a license for real-money gaming in the United States, though it continues to examine options overseas.


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Batman: Arkham Origins Collector's Edition unveiled

Warner Bros. has unveiled the Batman: Arkham Origins Collector's Edition for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

The £79.99 edition of the game will come with a steelbook case, a 30 cm statue of Batman and The Joker, an 80-page artbook, and an Assassin's dossier, alongside DLC codes for the First Appearance skin pack and Deathstroke Challenge Pack.

PlayStation 3 owners will also receive the Knightfall skin. PC and Wii U owners will not get a Collector's Edition.

The Batman: Arkham Origins Collector's Edition will be exclusive to Amazon in the UK. Warner Bros. notes that it will announce the North American availability next week.

Batman: Arkham Origins is being developed by Eidos Montreal, as opposed to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City developer Rocksteady. The game's recently announced multiplayer component is being handled by Brink developer Splash Damage.

Batman: Arkham Origins will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC on October 25.


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New PS4 UK preorders no longer guaranteed for launch

Gamers who preorder a PlayStation 4 in the United Kingdom are no longer guaranteed that their system will arrive for launch day, according to a new Eurogamer report.

A message from retailer ShopTo reads, "Sony have confirmed all PlayStation 4 pre-orders placed from 6th August will now not be guaranteed for launch. You can still pre-order PS4 with us in case we receive cancellations and can fulfill your order for launch."

The UK arm of Amazon confirmed a similar situation, saying that "due to high demand," PS4 orders placed on or after August 6 may not arrive on launch date. "We will ship orders as soon as we receive sufficient inventory," the messages reads.

A ShopTo representative told Eurogamer that this directive stems from Sony and applies to all European retailers.

The PS4 launches worldwide this holiday season, alongside the Xbox One, though Sony has yet to announce a specific release date for its next-generation console.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com


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John Carmack takes full-time job at Oculus Rift developer

Update: Bethesda has issued a statement saying that John Carmack will continue his role at id Software. "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project. The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected," said a Bethesda spokesperson to GameSpot.

"My time division is now Oculus over Id over Armadillo," said Carmack on Twitter. It is a big change of pace to go from working on carefully engineered code for the long haul to PANICKY STARTUP CODING FOR THE NEXT DEMO."

Original Story: John Carmack has taken a full-time job at the company making the Oculus Rift.

Carmack will now work full-time out of Oculus VR's new Dallas office as the company's chief technology officer.

"The dream of VR has been simmering in the background for decades, but now, the people and technologies are finally aligning to allow it to reach the potential we imagined," said Carmack in a public statement.

"I'm extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology."

The development kit for the Oculus Rift VR headset began shipping in March 2013. No date for a consumer version of the technology has currently been made available.

Carmack was one of the co-founders of id Software in 1991, and has served as technical director at the Doom and Quake developer for over 20 years. The studio was independent until 2009, when it was acquired by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media.

id Software is currently working on Doom 4.


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Free-to-play Dead Island Epidemic revealed

"Zombie Online Multiplayer Battle Arena" game for PC pits three teams of players against each other.

The Dead Island series is going free-to-play. Publisher Deep Silver announced Dead Island: Epidemic today, an all-new free-to-play ZOMBA (Zombie Online Multiplayer Battle Arena) game.

Dead Island: Epidemic pits three teams of players against each other in a "desperate fight for survival." The game is in development only for PC and is said to feature "all the trademark elements that are part of the a Dead Island experience."

More details on Dead Island: Epidemic will be announced during Gamescom 2013 in Cologne, Germany later this month. Deep Silver also told gamers to "stay tuned" for more details on the Dead Island universe itself in the time ahead.

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.


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