Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we looked at the best side-quests in Fallout, a dead Star Wars game might get a new life, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness turned 20 years old.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend. Also, yay, Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out next week!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: For Microsoft, it’s time to worry about the console war
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft — The League of Explorers guide: How to beat The Hall of Explorers
- What game publishers can learn from sports broadcasting
- The top 10 Fallout side-quests from Bethesda and Obsidian
- Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is 20 years old today
- This is how Nathan Drake celebrates the holidays — it’s so beautiful
- Our favorite scenes from The PlayStation Experience
- Sony focuses on the joy of gaming at PlayStation Experience
News
- You gotta believe! PaRappa the Rapper 2 is coming to PlayStation 4
- Back in Black (Ops): Call of Duty sales rebound in a big way
- November 2015 NPD: Call of Duty outsells Fallout 4 as PlayStation 4 takes November
- Patent reveals a potential new Nintendo controller
- PlayStation 4 outsold Xbox One in November
- Electronic Arts announces esports division, with Peter Moore as ‘chief competition officer’
- Square Enix: Final Fantasy VII Remake is ‘multipart’ because that’s the only way to ‘fit everything’
- Billion dollar game Cross Fire finally gets 2.0 update in North America
- Hearthstone’s final League of Explorers adventure wing is now live
- Ark: Survival Evolved stomps onto Xbox One preview program on December 16
- League of Legends studio is only game developer on Glassdoor’s ‘Best Places to Work’ list
- 77,000 Steam accounts get hijacked every month, so Valve’s getting tough with traders
- The Game Awards hits 2.3M viewers and 279K tweets
- The dead Star Wars: 1313 game ‘may’ get new life with Disney
- Microsoft warns that hackers could spoof Xbox Live site using leaked security certificate (updated)
- Sony wants PlayStation VR to push the limits of virtual reality gaming
- Azubu raises $59M in debt to create an esports rival to Twitch
- SteamVR-powered HTC Vive isn’t coming out until April
- MGM bets on tech startup Interlude to bring game-like interactivity to film
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS gets one last Nintendo Direct on December 15
- Fallout 4’s success leads publisher Bethesda to open Montreal office
- Popular Fallout 4 modding site NexusMods reports that it was hacked
- Tera’s Brawler class-adding update is out now
- Teaser points to System Shock 3 announcement
- Here’s what Fallout 4 would look like with the original’s isometric camera
- Fallout 4 ads ran nearly 800 times as console games dominated TV ad share in November
- Fallout 4 gets its first major patch — here’s what’s different
- Square confirms Final Fantasy VII Remake will be bigger than the original game
- The zany Tim Schafer has gone psycho with five games in the works
- Final Fantasy VII Remake uses Unreal Engine 4 instead of an in-house tool
- Minecraft is finally coming to Nintendo Wii U
- Final Fantasy VII Remake is multi-part to avoid cutting content, says director
Mobile and social
- New York judge orders fantasy sports firms FanDuel and DraftKings to stop operating in the state
- PlayFab offers its backend game service for free and launches third-party marketplace
- Microsoft asks fans to vote on its next casual game
- Why does Magic Leap need another $827M?
- Force abilities awaken for Star Wars: Uprising players
- Magic: The Gathering — Puzzle Quest launches on iOS and Android
- Farmville, HTC Vive creators behind new $10M seed fund for virtual reality
- Medal of Honor vets debut Fantastic Plastic Squad for Apple TV and iOS
- Enlight and Lara Croft GO win Apple’s ‘Best of 2015’ app and game on iPhone (Updated)
- Cookie Jam maker SGN snags two mobile game studios in quest to unseat rivals
- 8i’s new 3D virtual reality video tech lets you see people from any direction
- How to do mobile gaming PR right in 2016
- Minecraft: Pocket Edition trailer reminds fans how far the game has come
- Flickr launches virtual reality 360-degree photo app for Samsung Gear VR
- Angry Birds’ maker Rovio announces new CEO as company awaits release of feature movie in 2016
- Christmas yes, Hanukkah & Kwanzaa no as 50% fewer apps released last week
- Scientific Revenue and China’s Chukong team up to help mobile game developers make more money
- N3twork launches Mafia Watch, a gangster online role-playing game for Apple Watch
- Facebook names Clash of Kings as its 2015 Game of the Year
- Exvision’s Zkoo is a mini-Kinect for your Android and Windows devices
- Liam Neeson’s Clash of Clans commercial leads the top trending gaming videos of 2015
- Clash of Clans’s newest commercial gives you a virtual reality tour of the battleground
- DeltaDNA offers game developers ad monetization tips for free-to-play
Previews and interviews
- How Ubisoft will turn you into an eagle over Paris in its first VR game
- What Remains of Edith Fitch creators don’t know the destination for their ‘sublime horror’ game
- Disney Infinity’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ lets John Boyega play with himself
- Lego Marvel’s Avengers works hard for the limelight alongside Lego Dimensions
- Lego Marvel’s Avengers is loaded with superheroes, villians, cities, and open-world gameplay
- Watch us play the Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End beta
- Ex-Halo creators want Golem to be a flagship game for PlayStation VR
Reviews and impressions