This made for an extremely competitive awards season, as each gaming site elected its own Game of the Year , and last week saw The Last of Us dominating the D.I.C.E. Awards . Now the games of 2013 are set to go head-to-head once more in the British Academy Games Awards, which will take place in mid-Ma

Nintendo, on the other hand, finds the free-to-play model frustrating. Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata, in a Q&A with investors , said, “As with games that are free-to-play, or ‘free-to-start’ as we like to call it, there is a tendency within the entertainment industry to make gaming as easy as possible to start playing.” Because Nintendo uses an integrated hardware-software model, unlike many companies, they require a hardware purchase before their games are playable, making the free-to-play model unrealistic unless they completely overhaul their current strat

There are still plenty of fond memories to be made playing in-person multiplayer games. The shift to online has already occurred, but many series still employ local multiplayer as an option—particularly games released by Nintendo and Harmonix. If you’re a fan of couch co-op or split-screen games, this is one instance where voting with your wallet can really make a difference. Show distributors you’re willing to pay for the local multiplayer experience when it’s offered for games you enjoy. If enough people do the same, distributors will surely take not

The TV universe has taken a different path due to the medium. It started with Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, though the series was relatively grounded at first with Oliver not even using his iconic name until much later. More fantastical elements began to creep in, until The Flash spinoff kicked off and __ became massively popular, and we started to meet more major players: Black Canary, The Atom, Mr Terrific, Hawkgirl and Hawkman, Vixen, Firestorm, Black Canary again, White Canary (that’s the first Black Canary, post-resurrection) and many, many more. Metahumans became big news, and we’ve even delved into alternate universes and magical artifa

Most early video games, such as Pong in 1972, featured multiplayer modes. This was likely due to expectations from analog games, which were almost always played in person with friends and family. Early multiplayer modes were often turn-based, co-op arcade games—when one player died, another would take over or continue until all lives were extinguis

The match-up between the University of Kentucky and Université Laval would be considered evenly matched — they are the number 3 and 2 seed respectively — but looking at the display shown, you wouldn’t be able to tell due to Laval’s dominant p

So what’s the future business model for games? It depends on the individual company and the product they’re producing. A single-player RPG seems like fixed price is the right model, but considering the popularity of online multiplayer, we’re seeing fewer and fewer of them. As time goes on, the purely single-player experience may fall by the wayside—already, we’re seeing more games implement multiplayer modes in previously single-player ga

And yet, groundwork is arguably being laid for another Justice League, in DC’s alternate-universe world of TV. Shows like The Flash , Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow might have smaller budgets, but they’ve been mostly well-received by fans and they’ve made far greater strides in establishing a shared universe than their super-friends over in movie world (not to be confused with Movie World, the Australian theme park). Better still, hints continue to be dropped as to the future of the TV universe. In a few years’ time, is it possible that we’ll be getting two Justice Leagues, on both the big and small scre

Now, online multiplayer games are the norm. Even series that feature single-player campaigns, like the Call of Duty , Battlefield , and Gears of War franchises, are better known for their multiplayer. Games that once featured only single-player stories, such the Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed series, have implemented online multiplayer in sequels. And although more games are incorporating multiplayer elements, few allow for local multiplayer; the focus is almost entirely on virtual shared gaming experien

Plain and simple, Laval are just the better team. Buffalo seemed like they would be on an even playing field with their performance but found themselves at a level disadvantage in the late game. In both matches, Laval was more coordinated in team fights; even when they looked like they were losing, they would come out with more experience with the opposition running away from t

They gave me a chance and let me cast a game and I was like, “Alright, thanks!” He emailed me next week and asked, “Hey, would you like to cast this game too?” I’m like, “Sure,” and he would give me a MOBA game hero builds to cast. Then, over time, another person reached out, “Hey, do you want to cast this, you want to cast that?” Sure! It just snowballed from th