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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.
This week, the voice of GLaDOS from the Portal series shows up in the trailer for the movie Pacific Rim, Disney buys South Korean game developer Studio Ex, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II gets more zombies, now on the Nuketown map.
You’ll also find reviews for Uncharted: Fight for Fortune and Guardians of Middle-Earth.
News:
- The DeanBeat: The accelerated change of the game industry
- Black Ops II keeps players engaged with the start of League Play and more
- Endgame: Syria — a game that explores the nation’s civil war
- Journey composer is fine with winning a VGA on the red carpet
- This week in the Nintendo Download: Crimson Shroud, Batman, and Adventure Time
- How Gears of War toys are being marketed to children
- Contrary to popular belief, Call of Duty multiplayer engagement is still healthy (exclusive)
- Fight monsters, collect loot, and build a castle in Gree’s new role-playing game
- Miniclip and Univision target Spanish speakers with U.S. online game site (exclusive)
- Portal’s GLaDOS is a movie star — we’re not joking
- Funcom removes subscription requirement for The Secret World
- Everyone’s a winner: Zynga’s new Elite Slots Facebook game
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II developer Treyarch unleashes Zombies on its popular Nuketown map
- McDonald’s includes toys of Moshi Monsters’ virtual pets in Happy Meals
- Historic epic makes history: Assassin’s Creed III hits 7M sold in a month
- It’s dangerous for developers to go alone. Scopely offers help
- Angry Birds animated film to debut in 2016
- How a game design student in California brought Portal to a graphing calculator
- GameLaunched is the new gaming-only crowdfunding platform
- THQ giving away Metro 2033 to promote upcoming Metro: Last Light
- Nokia engineer hacks Windows 8 to get free games (and provides full instructions)
- Xbox 360 to get 40 new entertainment apps on Xbox Live
- The Humble THQ Bundle gets less humble with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
- Disney pushes into Asia with purchase of South Korea’s Studio Ex
- PopRox Entertainment’s social game might let you pay off your mortgage
- Games Workshop to release video game adaptation of Space Hulk
- Backers successfully fund Sportsfriends — the bundle of JS Joust and other odd multiplayer games
- Meteor Entertainment taps Live Gamer to power virtual economy and payments for Hawken (exclusive)
- Prepare your controller-throwing hands: Dark Souls II is coming
Mobile News:
- Apple names top free and paid apps of 2012
- Fit Brains expands its mind-training brand to mobile devices
- Corona Labs acquires cloud service provider Game Minion
- Fiksu introduces real-time bidding tracking to its user-acquisition tool
- Flurry says communication and news mobile apps hold our attention the longest
- After five No. 1 hits, Disney Mobile to launch three new holiday games and four big updates
- Test your knowledge: The first fully synchronous multiplayer trivia game for mobile devices
- OpenKit to release open-source social mobile gaming services with no lock-in for developers
- Block-builder Roblox goes mobile in time for the holidays
- Applifier raises $4M to for expansion into mobile game replays
- Jibe raises $8.3M to build rich, real-time communications for games and apps
- Nintendo releases official Pokédex for iOS — and it costs $5.99 apiece for each region
- A company other than Nintendo is launching its own ‘GamePad’ tablet
Previews:
- Dead Space 3 ain’t a walk in the park (hands-on preview)
- Insomniac’s Fuse promises some intense multiplayer co-op battles (hands-on preview)
- With Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer, ‘every battle tells a story’ (preview)
- Resident Evil 6′s new modes put an undead spin on competitive multiplayer (preview)
Interviews:
- Sony Online Entertainment chief says PlanetSide 2 online frag game is a smashing success (interview)
- Insomniac’s Ted Price says the industry’s malaise mandated drastic changes to Fuse sci-fi game (interview)
- How Journey’s composer ended up working on Leisure Suit Larry (exclusive interview)
- Why Company of Heroes 2 could warm the frozen real-time strategy market (interview)
Reviews:
- Uncharted: Fight for Fortune plays its cards right (review)
- Guardians of Middle-earth dispels the difficulty of online battle arenas (review)
Pieces of flair: