Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we took an in-depth look into how Dead or Alive balances its fighters, we grade the PlayStation 4’s 2014, and we reviewed big games like Far Cry 4 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. We also spent the week looking at Poland’s gaming industry.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Finnish game companies want to dominate, but they don’t want to be rock stars or emperors
- The future of homework is … video games
- A Polish perspective on Hatred, the controversial game about mass murder
- GamesBeat Challenge: The mystery is solved
- Read+Watch+Listen: Bonus Material for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare fans
- Don’t call it a comeback: How Blizzard reinvented itself for a post-Titan world
- This homemade Elite: Dangerous gaming rig looks like the inside of a spaceship (video)
- 5 funky player-made ships show off the wonders of Galactic Civilizations III’s ship builder
- War is hell: How This War of Mine drew on real-life survivors for inspiration
- PlayStation 4 year-one report card: Sony doesn’t ace 2014
- A step-by-step guide to creating a monstrous MyCareer wrestler in WWE 2K15
- The Great Debate: What’s more important — hardware or software?
- VentureBeat announces its six premier events for 2015
- Analyst: Digital makes up ‘as much as 25%’ of total new-gen game sales
- Grand Theft Auto V: The 2 best reasons to upgrade to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One version (update)
- Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s ‘Fight Club’ — it won’t talk about it
- Balancing isn’t easy: Team Ninja on Dead or Alive 5: Last Round in the competitive scene, sexual fantasy, and the future (part 1)
- Balancing isn’t easy: Team Ninja on character tweaking in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round (part 2)
News
- Trials Fusion is finally getting online multiplayer … next year
- Market slams GameStop after retailer misses Q3 earnings expectations
- Valve expands its rules for Early Access games on Steam
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare generates more revenue than any other media launch in 2014, claims Activision
- Xbox One passes 1 million sales in U.K. as it catches up to the PlayStation 4
- Game of Xbones: HBO Go out today for Xbox One
- Huge jump for World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers after Warlords of Draenor’s launch
- Twitch-streaming tool XSplit gets V2 update as it faces competition from free OBS
- Tech startup Overdog raises $1.8M to improve Xbox One matchmaking
- No field-of-view control in Far Cry 4 on PC? Here’s how to get it
- Game of Thrones: Ascent developer raises $3.2M in latest funding round
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn target of a denial of service attack
- Wii U system update on the way that fixes Mario Kart 8’s YouTube errors
- Xbox Live is down due to Microsoft Azure issues
- For World of Warcraft players burned by Draenor launch: an apology and free game time
- Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick team up for spiritual successor to Maniac Mansion
- PC online games will hit $30.7B by 2017
- Telltale, LucasArts storytelling vet joins Reactive Studios as creative chief
- Sweden’s successful entrepreneurs launch their own game-startup accelerator
- Far Cry 4 fan climbs Mount Everest to play it: ‘It all seems so unreal’
- Destiny’s 1.0.3 update goes live for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
- Goat Simulator’s next free patch turns it into an MMO and lets you play as a microwave
- 100 old Atari games pulled from landfill have made $37,000 on eBay
Mobile and social
- Kabam brings Korean mobile hit Creature Academy to the U.S. today
- Lionel Messi and Optimus Prime dominate mobile gaming
- Angry Birds maker Rovio unveils more details of its fun learning education initiative
- Angry Birds and Supercell game designers unveil ‘IronDanger,’ a giant fantasy film trilogy they’re doing in their ‘spare time’
- Apple’s gaming App Store is broken — promoting games like ‘+119+’ and ‘+1111’
- Next Games reveals Compass Point: West, first in four-part mobile-game series
Previews and interviews
- Gaming’s golden age, as seen by one of its veteran lawyers (interview)
- This tiny version of DayZ plays in your browser, and it’s pretty darn cute
- Get Even keeps you guessing who’s human and who’s A.I. in its ultrarealistic scanned environments
- The Marvellous Miss Take’s heroine is stealing hearts, one level at a time
- Super Evil Megacorp introduces the age of hardcore tablet gaming with Vainglory’s launch (interview)
- Sony’s North American PlayStation chief on PS4’s dominance, 1-year anniversary, and GamerGate (interview)
- The Witcher: Battle Arena is the 5-minute mobile MOBA you can play on the john
- Sony’s North American PlayStation chief on PS4’s dominance, 1-year anniversary, and GamerGate (interview)
- Linden Lab explores VR for its next-generation virtual world (interview)
Reviews
- Persona Q is an entertaining caricature of the beloved role-playing series (review)
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is a Nintendo masterpiece you’ll play for years (review)
- Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are evolutions of classics you remember (reviews)
- WWE 2K15’s MyCareer mode trumps its other frustrations (review)
- Far Cry 4 is a joyous playground of improvisation and impulsiveness (review)