Robert Shimshock

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Articles by Robert Shimshock

Marvel’s ‘Deadpool’ Game Back on Steam After Being Pulled Last Year

After being pulled along with many other Marvel titles, action game Deadpool has been put back on sale on Steam. This re-release comes in the midst of a buildup of publicity and excitement for the Deadpool movie, which casts Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and is set to debut on February 12, 2016.

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Censorship, Prices, and Pirating Strangle Chinese Console Gaming Market

While Sony and Microsoft debuted their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in China within the past year, only 9 million out of China’s 515 million gamers use a console. Due to content censorship, prices, and pirating, Sony and Microsoft are expected to sell less than 550,000 consoles, combined, this year, with online PC and mobile games expected to haul in $16.8 and 4 billion, respectively.

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Game Developer Yager Dropped from Creating ‘Dead Island 2’

Deep Silver, the publisher of survival horror game Dead Island, has dropped German developer Yager from working on Dead Island 2 after working on the project for three years. The decision perhaps reflects why the game has been delayed from the original spring 2015 release date until 2016.

Deep Silver

‘Warcraft’ Film Brings Blizzard’s Azeroth to the Big Screen

The world of Azeroth, as depicted in Blizzard Entertainment’s popular World of Warcraft franchise, is being made into a movie, Warcraft, which will debut in June of 2016. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the company responsible for the special effects, has released a video giving viewers a 360-degree view of Azeroth while flying on a griffin.

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Critically-Acclaimed Adventure Game ‘Journey’ Comes to PlayStation 4

Thatgamecompany’s 2012 Playstation 3 adventure game Journey will be released for the PlayStation 4 on July 21, 2015. The game features cross buy, meaning that gamers who have already bought it for the PlayStation 3 will get a free download for the PlayStation 4 version.

Journey

‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’ DLC Not Coming to Older Consoles

New Dragon Age: Inquisition downloadable content will not be coming to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles. However, players’ saved games can be transferred from these consoles to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 if they wish to upgrade to the newer console versions.

BioWare/Electronic Arts

‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ Review: Man and Machine, The New Tag Team

Rocksteady Studios’ final installment in their critically-acclaimed Batman series, Batman: Arkham Knight, introduces players to a new dynamic duo of not bat and bird, but bat and car. Since the Batman: Arkham games are of high caliber, this review will compare them not merely to other titles in the market, but specifically to the other two Rocksteady games in the Arkham series to highlight the value added, or lost, by Knight.

Rocksteady Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Mojang Ends Development of Online Card Game ‘Scrolls’

Developer Mojang has ended development of its computer card game Scrolls. Mojang stated that it will certainly keep the servers open until July 1, 2016, with future profits from the game going towards an extension of the game’s life.

Mojang

Forget About Ultra-Violent Video Game ‘Doom,’ We Must Ban ‘Mario Kart’

Fellow parents, you have at some time seen our precious children seduced and corrupted by video games. But one heinous market product, in particular, has been rated “E” for Everyone by the ESRB and was ranked one of the top video games for children in 2014. This devilry is none other than Mario Kart, a reckless driving simulator that conflates fun with danger and encourages pollution, violence with explosives, and unconditional drug abuse.

Nintendo

Steam Raises User Responsibility by Not Returning Scammed Items

Steam updated its policy on fraudulent trades to note that users who are scammed will not have their items returned. The service will ban scammers and lock accounts that have been hijacked but believes that “all trade scams can be avoided.”

Valve Corporation

Apple Bans Civil War Games from App Store over Confederate Flag

Apple has pulled all games from its App Store which contain the Confederate flag. When explaining to developers why their content was banned, Apple stated it was “because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways.”

HexWar Games

Nintendo Includes Same-Sex Marriage in ‘Fire Emblem Fates’

Nintendo’s new tactical role-playing game Fire Emblem Fates, which will be released on Thursday, June 25, 2015 in Japan and 2016 in North America and Europe, is the first Nintendo game to officially allow players to have same-sex marriages with in-game characters.

Intelligent Systems/Nintendo SPD/Nintendo

Early Xbox One Backwards Compatibility Tests Reveal Performance Issues

At E3, Microsoft announced backwards compatibility for a limited but growing number of Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One. Some of these titles, namely Mass Effect, N++, and Perfect Dark Zero have since been tested on Xbox One for visuals and functionality by Eurogamer. General observations included a 1080p graphics quality that resembles the games when played on an Xbox 360 and no screen-tearing but at the expense of lower frame-rates.

BioWare/Microsoft Game Studios

Valve Debuts Source 2 Game Engine in ‘Dota 2’

Valve’s recently released its Reborn beta for multiplayer online battle arena game Dota 2, which boasts Valve’s new Source 2 game engine, enhancing the game’s performance and graphics

Valve Corporation

Gaming Industry Heavyweight Valve Missing from E3

While Kudo Tsunoda, development head of Xbox, revealed that the company is “working closely with Valve” to offer Windows 10 as the optimal gaming platform for the Vive Developer Edition of Valve’s SteamVR virtual reality headset, which is to be released in spring 2015, Valve was not at E3’s first-ever PC Gaming Show on Tuesday, June 16.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images