Gallery: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - 12/9/11

Continue reading Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment begins 'Level 2' fundraising originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning launches with trailer originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Iwata Asks about Resident Evil: Revelations, 'forced logic' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Judge Xenoblade Chronicles by its (inside) cover

Judge Xenoblade Chronicles by its (inside) cover originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Sticky Bees (iOS)

Continue reading Portabliss: Sticky Bees (iOS)

Portabliss: Sticky Bees (iOS) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City trailer has character(s) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dust 514 supports mouse/keyboard and controller originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Twisted Metal hits Europe on March 7 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Dragon Age: Redemption hits DVD on Felicia Day; er, Valentine's Day

Dragon Age: Redemption hits DVD on Felicia Day; er, Valentine's Day originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Rhythm Thief and the art of appropriation

Rhythm Thief and the art of appropriation originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ubisoft Reflections resume outs unannounced Kinect game originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Now Playing: February 6-12, 2012

Now Playing: February 6-12, 2012 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

IndieCade's 2012 'Festival of Independent Games' accepting submissions originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Microsoft Flight (Hawaiian Adventure Pack)

Continue reading Microsoft Flight is free as a bird on Feb. 29

Microsoft Flight is free as a bird on Feb. 29 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shoot Many Robots introduces squirrely, hot and gassy robots originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Natural Selection 2 demonstrates Darwin's theory in new video originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Corpse Party butters up iOS in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

IGF 2012 Audience Award voting now open originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Alan Wake's American Nightmare illuminated in latest dev diary

Alan Wake's American Nightmare illuminated in latest dev diary originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Hawken brings pretty multiplayer mech battles to the web Dec. 12

Hawken brings pretty multiplayer mech battles to the web Dec. 12 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple removes dozens of clone games from App Store originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cave mercifully provides Dodonpachi Blissful Death on iOS this week originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Celebrate Valentine's Day alone with new Gal Gun demo originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading TIGA: 71% of UK startups focused on digital distribution

TIGA: 71% of UK startups focused on digital distribution originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dungeon Defenders hits a million paid downloads originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Naughty Dog considered new Jak & Daxter game, but decided on The Last of Us originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sanctum 2 defends PC, consoles in 2013 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Final Fantasy XIII-2, Metal Gear Collection debut atop UK charts

Final Fantasy XIII-2, Metal Gear Collection debut atop UK charts originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Simon Carless: OK, if you're reading GameSetWatch, prepare for some bad news. I'm afraid we're putting the site on semi-permanent hiatus, as of, uhm, this very post, after 6 years (wow!) of reporting the best, brightest and weirdest in alt.games news.

I'll let current editors Eric Caoili and Danny Cowan have their say after I contribute a few words, but first, I'mma let myself end things out with a brief eulogy to the site, which I founded back in November 2005.

And here's the kickoff post, revealing launch contributors including current IGF chairman Brandon Boyer, Kotaku/MeatBun and now GameTrailers stalwart Michael McWhertor, Gamasutra news director Frank Cifaldi, and the ever-awesome Alice Taylor, as well as Game Developer mag EIC Brandon Sheffield (and yep, Insert Credit, which I also contributed to sporadically, was def. an inspiration for GSW.)

Although that initial line-up was kinda awesome, and they certainly contributed _some_, a look through the early years revealed mainly boundless OCD-like enthusiasm for me in terms of finding _weird video game stuff_, including Lil Jon's crunk golf game and lots more. Did I really check 500+ RSS feeds _daily_ for GSW? Apparently...

In the first few months, you'll also find awesomeness like a LimeLife press kit unboxing from Frank (we have a bug with old author names not being displayed right, sorry about lack of crediting there!). We also started up a bunch of columns, one of the signature parts of GSW in its early and mid-life.

Probably this would be a good time for me to say thanks to everyone who submitted columns over the years we ran them. Some of the standouts include John Harris' @Play, which is practically the Roguelike bible, as well as Kevin Gifford's Game Mag Weaseling and, of course, Game Time With Mr. Raroo. But there are LOTS more - feel free to link to others in comments if you have some you'd like to highlight.

We also ran some odd meta-posts out of our Gamasutra coverage from time to time, such as this poignant anecdote: "Just before the press conference itself started, there was a call over the PA for a Lexus with the numberplate 'Factor5' to be moved by the owner, because it was blocking something and would be towed otherwise. Just because you make neat-looking PS3 dragon games like Lair, it doesn't mean you can flaunt the rules of parking, Julian Eggebrecht."

Then things started to get a bit busier with my fulltime job (running Gamasutra, Game Developer, and eventually overseeing all of our products, including the GDC shows). So through into 2008 you'll see there are just daily links roundup posts, and the majority of the rest of the content was 'best of' original material from Gamasutra, with GSW columns included as well. (Oh man, and I just remembered the rather awesome comics column by Skullgirls artist Jonathan 'Persona' Kim we ran.)

The story of 2009 and 2010 is of further transition, after we poached the excellent Eric Caoili, who co-edits Tiny Cartridge and has an excellent mind for alt.links, to co-edit and eventually lead the site, and as we gradually dialed down the amount of columns (the only thing I was managing regularly for GSW at that point!).

We eventually phased the columns out this year in favor of all original posts by Eric and the awesome Danny Cowan. A greater amount of all-original posts (also including the memetastic Matt 'FortNinety' Hawkins for a few months!) was our preferred method of delivery, and everyone was having a lot of fun doing it.

So, why are we stopping? Well mainly, we're seeing an increasing overlap with sister site IndieGames.com, just in terms of some of the best material out there being indie-related. So Danny is going to go and blog over there, while Eric comes back to help us a bit more on mothership site Gamasutra.

But we also think that mainstream game blogs are doing a much better job nowadays of including the weirder and alt.links in amongst their gaming news. So it's not like GSW is _irrelevant_ as such. But it's never really been that relevant to start with - it's always been an entertaining fripperie.

But I'd like to thank _everyone_ who contributed to GSW over the years - you guys rock. It's obviously something I care about, and y'know, as much as there's more to life than blogging about weird video game stuff, there's a lot of love and passion around this subculture. I know we published a whole lot of stories that wouldn't have got picked up like they did, and I think that made some people happy. And making people happy is important.

Anyhow, I've grandstanded for long enough. We're leaving the site up intact (no nuking for us, Jason Scott, fear ye not!), but there will be no more updates starting today. So long, and thanks for all the fish, as everyone is obligated to say at this point. Over to Eric and Danny...

Eric Caoili: What initially and always attracted me to GameSetWatch was that it always offered something you couldn't find anywhere else: Leigh Alexander's risque Aberrant Gamer column, John Harris dissecting roguelikes and introducing so many people to the genre through @Play, and Simon's link round-ups that seemed to be pulled from corners no one even knew existed.

Years after coming across the site and keeping a close eye for updates on my RSS feed, I was asked to head GameSetWatch -- a tremendous honor -- and I tried my best to continue that tradition of finding and sharing items yet undiscovered, like the Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch NES ROM, Zookeeper's surprisingly sad story, and the amazing walking warlord pedometer/game.

As Simon points out, though, many other sites have increased their coverage of indie projects, obscure games, retro remakes, strange imports, chiptune events/releases, oddball auctions, amazing fanart, and other gaming miscellany in the past year or so, making a site dedicated to such curiosities less essential. No less special, but not so vital to followers of these niches.

Thanks for coming to the site for so long, and for reading a few of my 3,400+ or so posts. And much appreciation to Simon Carless, Danny Cowan, Matthew Hawkins, and our columnists, who've all made writing for GameSetWatch one of the most enjoyable gigs an alt.game blogging fan could ever ask for.

Danny Cowan: I'll miss you, GameSetWatch. Writing for this site has spurred my creative output. It's given me a new appreciation for my hobby. If it weren't for GameSetWatch, I may have never discovered wonderful things like, say, an NES gameplay compilation set to an '80s dance megamix. (Seriously, the mere existence of that series just makes me so, so happy.)

I appreciate that GameSetWatch gave its writers a platform to share their enthusiasm for the obscure and the particular. Aside from giving me an outlet for my pinball fetish and my love of all things Cheetahmen, GameSetWatch featured a number of worthy creations that the mainstream press would have otherwise overlooked. Hopefully, our daily updates have been enlightening and entertaining...or, at the very least, not too boring.

I admit that I'll miss having an excuse to babble on about old games or fan translations or speedruns or whatever on a daily basis, More than that, however, I'll miss reading a site maintained by people who genuinely care about the things that they're covering. There isn't another gaming blog out there that's quite like GameSetWatch, and its closure means that I now have a rather large void in my daily Internet rounds.

Simon, Eric, Matt, and everyone in the Gamasutra crew -- you guys rule. Our columnists also rule. And you? You're pretty cool too, I guess.

It's been tons of fun. Thanks for reading.

[Image via Cheshirechest]

After having an absolute blast playing several Stern tables (e.g. The Sopranos, Nascar, Family Guy) for hours with friends over the holiday weekend, I really wish I had spent more time talking about recent pinball machines at GameSetWatch, especially since so few other video game blogs mention them. Regrets!

I'll try to make up for it a little with this post -- let's start with the above image for the "beginning stages" of the first prototype for the Emerald City Limited Edition Wizard of Oz machine, the first table coming from recently founded company Jersey Jack Pinball. Please follow ECLEWOZ's development here, and support Jersey Jack!

You can't talk about modern pinball without mentioning Stern, which just debuted three cabinet designs and improvements for LE Transformers Pinball. It has also been putting out a mini-documentary series for Transformers Pinball, which you can watch here.

And speaking of Pinball-themed documentaries, Brett Sullivan's award-winning film Special When Lit: A Pinball Documentary is now streaming on Netflix and worth a watch. And of course, I must point you to Pinball Donut Girl, another documentary about this fine co-op tradition, which is in production and needs your attention.

Upcoming virtual pinball games to look out for!: Farsight Studios' Pinball Arcade (iOS, Android, Xbox 360, PS 3, PS Vita, and 3DS), and Zen Studio's Zen Pinball (iOS) and Zen Pinball 3D (3DS eShop), and Game Prom's Da Vinci Pinball (iOS and Mac, DLC for the company's previously released Pinball HD).

They don't capture half the experience of playing on a real table, but they're wayyy cheaper to buy and maintain. If you'd like to keep up with the latest going-ons in the pinball world, Pinball News and Arcade Heroes are both excellent places to start.

I've talked much before about Katsuya Terada, the super talented Japanese illustrator who's contributed artwork to games and game guides like Jake Hunter, Final Fantasy, Wizardry, Tekken, Culdcept, and many other series.

He's also worked on concept art and character designs for films like Blodd: The Last Vampire, Hell Boy, and Sucker Punch. You probably know his work best from his amazing pieces for the Legend of Zelda guides.

For those who want to follow his work, Terada has started a new Tumblr blog for his illustrations, Terra's Sketchbook, which already has 20+ updates. It's mostly from his non-game related pieces, but there's still lots of great stuff there.

[Via Jakten]

Ever since the group behind stealth puzzler Gunpoint replaced the project's placeholder graphics with a dark and detailed look that actually seem to do the game's concept justice, I've hoped that a video would come out to show the new graphics in motion.

Indie developer Tom Francis (John Roberts and Fabian Van Dommelen helped with the art) has finally released that clip I've been waiting for two months later -- watch this walkthrough video in full-screen to see hot great this looks all animated and whatnot.

Here Francis takes us through a few stages, explaining the premise, missions, upgrades, and most importantly the Crosslink system that allows you to hack into light switches, elevators, and other electronics to manipulate the stages and their security guards.

Gunpoint is expected to release for Windows first around "probably Christmas". Francis also hopes to create a version for Linux systems, but he admits he doesn't know how to port this Game Maker title yet.

[Via Kotaku]

Movie posters are notorious for overusing orange/blue contrast, but video game covers are even worse. It's gotten especially bad over the last year, as I noted in a previous feature.

It's the lack of imagination that gets me, I suppose. These covers almost always follow a strict formula: a vertical line down the middle of the package divides orange and blue, often as a lazy way to distinguish opposing factions. Effectively, game publishers are saying, "There are good guys and bad guys in this game. There will be conflict. You like conflict. Buy our game, idiot."

Publishers also think that some regions are stupider than others, as demonstrated by the difference between the North American and European boxart for Tron: Evolution: Battle Grids. Gamers in the United States are dumb, make no mistake, but at least they're able to grasp the cover art's creativity and subtlety without needing additional color to drive the point home.

(The point, by the way, is that two guys are fighting.)

The phenomenon isn't exclusive to western territories, either; it creeped over to Japan in recent months. It's a good thing, too, because otherwise, you might never know that Nurarihyon no Mago: Hyakki Ryouran Taisen and Sengoku Basara 3: Utage are games in which people solve disagreements with violence.

Namco's a fan, too. You may not realize this, but did you know that fighting games involve people fighting? The red and blue colors say so!

Namco produces appropriately colored accessories as well. Ideally, when you're playing a competitive fighting game, your left hand should be stuffed in a bucket of ice (to keep you cool under pressure), while your other hand should be on fire (to help you push the buttons faster). It's also great if you want a fight stick that looks like a variety pack of Doritos.

Mobile games are also catching on. In Life Is Crime, the red side represents crime, while the blue side is also crime.

Granted, the color scheme actually makes sense with superhero games, even if these covers look like they took all of five seconds to design. "Cyclops is blue! And, uh...crap, who's a bad mutant that wears red? Oh, Magneto!"

So when does the color scheme not make sense? Well if it can apply to an 8-bit demake of a Japanese visual novel, I think it's safe to say that you can use it with anything.

...including dancing games. I'm having trouble seeing the conflict here. Does the orange side represent Stop Diabetes? Maybe we should be teaming up with Stop Diabetes instead of fighting them.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell which is the good side and which is the evil side. I don't care, either. I'm siding with Cookie Monster.

It's easy to see something like this U.S. commercial for the Nintendo 3DS's upcoming Mario Kart 7 game, and assume all the neat stuff you here is done in post-production, with everything but the actors themselves CG-d.

While that's true for the effects and objects floating around the course (e.g. Cheep-Cheeps, item boxes), the carts themselves and the stunds were in the original film, according to these clips I came across in Drivers Inc.'s Vimeo account.

The videos below show that the stunt driving team worked with the wacky drivable carts that look just like what you see in the commercials, and set up a scary double-crane and ramp setup to shoot a vehicle grabbing some air.

I wish there were more of these clips -- really, I'd love to see a real race of the carts without all the fancy effects added in.

I'm unsure what would posses someone to create a profile for Ezio Auditore da Firenze, protagonist of Ubisoft's recent Assassin's Creed games, on a dating site, but someone did, and, the fictional character appeared to generate a lot more interest from women than some real-life dudes I know who've experimented with these services.

Maybe it's that exotic name? His tall frame and athletic body type? Or his exciting Ezio's bio: "I was a seducer of women and a playful man, I possessed acrobatic skills far beyond those of my peers, barring my brother. I came from an affluent background and had many friends until the deaths of my father and brothers drove me out of Florence for many years."

Whatever it was, it fooled several women into believing the image above is a real photo, and some contacted the assassin to learn more about him. Reddit user Bombadil posted screenshots of their exchanges with Ezio for our entertainment:

Zen Studios is bringing more of its downloadable pinball games to portable platforms this week, starting with Zen Pinball for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, which will feature a mix of the studio's original designs as well as Marvel-licensed ones.

The developer will offer three tables at launch, one of those being "Sorcerer's Lair", which will be available completely for free -- you'll have to purchase the other tables. The game will have achievements, leaderboards, and hot seat multiplayer.

It sounds similar, if not nearly identical, to Zen Pinball THD (trailer above), which was also a port of PSN's Zen Pinball and released to Tegra 2-powered Android devices earlier this year with Sorceror's Lair and other tables.

And in Europe at least (no word yet on whether the same is true for the U.S.), Zen Pinball 3D is releasing to the Nintendo 3DS's eShop this week with four diferent tables: "Shaman", "El Dorado", "Earth Defense", and "Excalibur".

[Via crackervizzo]

The folks at game-themed apparel shop Game Paused relaunched their site recently and added three new tees to its line, paying homage to beloved titles old and new, including The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and L.A. Noire.

Game Paused's Super Mario design is especially nice, riffing off the four-color lineart that was on the Super Famicom's Japanese packaging. The Zelda 25th anniversary shirt is neat, too, featuring dozens of familiar icons from the series.

You can pick them up for around £22-24 ($34-37) each, with free shipping, on Game Paused's site. Make sure to admire the exploded Game Boy and Genesis/Mega Drive, Sack Boy, Link cosplay, and Halo designs there, too.

If Studio Ghibli made licensed games for its films instead of collaborating on original titles (e.g. Magic Pengel, Ni no Kuni), this is what one of them woud sort of look and sound like! That's presuming the famed animation house would create a game for a 2008 film like Ponyo on a 1998 handheld like the Game Boy Color.

Feegrita Sinclair and Mee-lin created this short video for a school project, animating Hayao Miyazakis' charming goldfish-becomes-a-human-girl movie as an 8-bit title, throwing in some Super Mario Bros. sound effects and a chiptune-style arrangement of Joe Hisaishi's score. I would be down for this.

Seven years ago today, Blizzard Entertainment launched World of Warcraft, the company's most successful game to date and one of the most influential online games of all time.

The MMORPG, with 10.3 million current global subscribers, has seen tremendous success since its launch in late 2004, and still serves as the gold standard by which the industry judges the commercial success of an MMORPG.

Of course, the game has gone through quite a bit over the last few years. It has seen three major expansions, broken numerous sales and activity records, and has certainly been the focus of its fair share of controversies. Yet despite how the game or the industry may have changed since 2004, World of Warcraft remains a highly relevant force in the games business.

To celebrate the game's latest anniversary, Gamasutra's Tom Curtis took a look back at the history of World of Warcraft, recalling its most pertinent developments, its significant milestones, and the most memorable moments from throughout its development.

The story starts to take root even further than seven years ago, as it was in 1994 when Blizzard introduced us to the world of Warcraft with the real-time strategy game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.

The company officially announced World of Warcraft in 2001 at the European Computer Trade Show in London. Shortly after that announcement, DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole, years before the game's launch, was quoted as saying, "I expect World of Warcraft to reach 300,000 to 400,000 users very quickly--three to six months would not be unreasonable. The question will probably be: Can it keep those subscribers?"

The analyst's comment exemplifies just how no one could have expected Blizzard's first MMORPG to become such a worldwide phenomenon. Here are the past seven years of World of Warcraft:

-November 23, 2004 - World of Warcraft Launches in North America, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

-December 2, 2004 - World of Warcraft becomes the fastest selling U.S. PC game in history.

It begins. World of Warcraft sells 240,000 units in one day, selling faster than any previously-released PC game in the U.S.

-December 13, 2004 - Blizzard cracks down on World of Warcraft item sellers.

Just shortly after launch, the studio threatened strict penalties against those who broke terms of service, including deletion of characters and accounts, and even legal action. Blizzard's bouts with virtual item sellers won't end here.

-February 11, 2005 - World of Warcraft Launches in Europe.

-March 14, 2005 - Blizzard bans more than 1,000 accounts for gold farming.

-March 17, 2005 - World of Warcraft reaches 1.5 million subscribers worldwide.

By this point, World of Warcraft was available in North America, Europe, and Korea. Along with this record subscriber number, the game also broke the record for the most concurrent users, surpassing 500,000 players simultaneously.

-June 7, 2005 - World of Warcraft debuts in China.

Several months after the initial U.S. launch, Blizzard goes after China, whose internet cafes and time-based subscriptions will add substantially to the MMORPG's user base.

-June 14, 2005 - World of Warcraft hits 2 million subscribers.

-June 29, 2005 - Blizzard announces its first BlizzCon convention will be held in October in Orange County, California.

-July 21, 2005 - World of Warcraft accumulates more than 1.5 million paying customers in China, pushing the worldwide consumer total over 3.5 million.

With World of Warcraft quickly gaining steam, Blizzard decided to consolidate its North and South branches into its Southern California headquarters. With this move, the Diablo team at Blizzard North now shared a roof with the StarCraft and Warcraft teams at Blizzard South.

September 13, 2005 - Blizzard is put to the test as the "Corrupted Blood" epidemic spreads throughout World of Warcraft's player base. A glitch in a fight with high-level dungeon boss Hakkar saw his highly contagious "Corrupted Blood" attack spread unexpectedly from player to player, killing them off. Blizzard had to reset the servers as the virtual disease spread out of control.

-October 28, 2005 - Blizzard announces Burning Crusade.

At the very first BlizzCon, Blizzard officially announced World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the game's first full-fledged expansion. Most notably, this update introduced Outland, the game's new otherworldly continent, as well as two new playable races, the Blood Elves and Draenei.

-December 19, 2005 - World of Warcraft reaches 5 million subscribers.

Just over a year since launch, the game hits a new record milestone, further bolstered by the game's steadily increasing European subscribers. In early 2006, the game hit more than 1 million European players, pushing the worldwide subscriber count over 5.5 million.

"World of Warcraft's growth continues to exceed all our expectations," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We want to reiterate our thanks to the millions of players worldwide and to all the retailers who have enthusiastically supported the game over the past year."

-December 22, 2005 - Blizzard closes 18,000 accounts for gold farming and item selling.

-February 10, 2006 - Blizzard apologizes for trying to stop a gay and lesbian-friendly guild.

In early 2006, Blizzard found itself in a bit of controversy after a game master threatened to ban player Sara Andrews for advertising a "GLBT-friendly" guild.

At the time, Blizzard head of customer service Thor Biafore said, "[the warning] was an unfortunate interpretation of our current policies, which are under review."

-March 1, 2006 - Worldwide subscriber numbers surpass 6 million.

-April 14, 2006 - Blizzard reconsiders its deal with Chinese distributor The9.

Following a number of complaints that players in China experienced "widespread delays of over an hour when logging into the game," Blizzard put out a cryptic press release noting that the company "is currently actively exploring and discussing cooperation opportunities and further expansion of its business with local potential partners for mainland China." This release foreshadowed a number of future management and service-related problems the game would eventually face overseas.

-September 6, 2006 - Blizzard VP of game design Rob Pardo emphasizes World of Warcraft's accessibility.

"First we try to come up with what are really cool things, things that will get people to play for two to three years. Then we actually start talking about accessibility, how to make the content approachable and easy to learn. But it starts with depth first," said Pardo at the 2006 Austin Game Developers Conference (now known as GDC Online).

-October 4, 2006 - World of Warcraft receives its very own episode on the hit TV comedy South Park.

During South Park's 10th season, show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone collaborated with Blizzard to create an episode titled, "Make Love, Not Warcraft." Much of the episode was set within World of Warcraft itself, and used machinima animation featuring assets taken straight from the game. The episode was received warmly by fans and critics alike, and went on to receive an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour).

-January 11, 2007 - World of Warcraft reaches 8 million subscribers.

-January 16, 2007 - Burning Crusade launches in multiple territories, including North America, Europe, Australian, Thailand, and more.

-January 23, 2007 - Burning Crusade sells 2.4 million copies in 24 hours, breaking the sales record previously set by the game's initial release.

-February 1, 2007 - Blizzard signs deal with The9 for Burning Crusade release.

After months of speculation over Blizzard's plans to continue World of Warcraft in China, Blizzard announced that The Burning Crusade would debut in China under the supervision of the game's current overseas publisher, The9. Under this renegotiated agreement, The9 would supply "provisions for hardware upgrades to the existing World of Warcraft infrastructure," local community management, tech support, and customer service, and would run the game on local servers.

-March 7, 2007 - Burning Crusade sales hit 3.5 million units.

-August 3, 2007 - Blizzard announces the game's second expansion: Wrath of the Lich King.

At the second BlizzCon, Blizzard officially debuted Wrath of the Lich King, which brought back Arthas, a fan-favorite character from Warcraft III, as well as the frozen continent of Northrend. In addition, the expansion introduced the the game's first -- and so far, only -- hero class: the Death Knight.

-December 3, 2007 - Vivendi and Activision merge to create Activision Blizzard.

In a sudden and shocking move, Activision and Blizzard parent company Vivendi announced that the companies would soon merge into a single entity, to be known as Activision Blizzard (dropping the Vivendi name in favor of Blizzard's). Of course, this new company now exists as one of the biggest and most influential publishers in the industry, serving as home to some of video games' biggest juggernauts -- from Call of Duty to World of Warcraft itself.

-January 22, 2008 - World of Warcraft hits 10 million subscriber milestone.

-February 7, 2008 - Rob Pardo discusses Blizzard's slow build toward World of Warcraft.

"We've taken steps toward our success. We didn't come out of the gate and try to do World of Warcraft from day one," he said at the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas.

-April 14, 2008 - The9 announces plans to release Wrath of the Lich King in China.

-July 10, 2008 - Activision Blizzard merger becomes official.

-August 4, 2008 - Blizzard announces cross-game achievements between Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft.

Prior to integrating the game with its revamped Battle.net service, Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft's impending achievement system would function in tandem with upcoming titles like StarCraft II and Diablo III. Just over a year later, these features would become a part of Battle.net itself.

-October 28, 2008 - World of Warcraft reaches 11 million subscribers.

-November 13, 2008 - Wrath of the Lich King launches in North America and Europe.

-November 20, 2008 - Wrath of the Lich King beats Burning Crusade's sales records, selling 2.8 million units on day one.

-December 23, 2008 - World of Warcraft attracts more than 11.5 million subscribers.

-April 16, 2009 - The game's Chinese operation moves from The9 to NetEase.

With The9's contract due to expire in June 2009, Blizzard announced that it would move control of World of Warcraft in China over to competing publisher NetEase. This move came as a huge blow to The9, as the game has served as the company's primary revenue driver.

-July 7, 2009 - Players in China temporarily lose access to the game.

While the transition to NetEase was intended to take place in early June, things became a bit more complicated when bringing the game back online, and Chinese players were left without access to the World of Warcraft for weeks on end.

-July 29, 2009 - The game returns to China as a closed beta.

The turbulent transition continues in China, as NetEase announces that, the game will only be available as a limited "closed beta" as the company continues to work out the kinks.

-August 6, 2009 - Government censorship hits World of Warcraft in China.

Eventually, news surfaces that the game will see some drastic changes before it ever fully returns to China. The Chinese Government's General Administration of Press and Publication mandated that in order to return to service, the game would have to see some distinct content revisions. Due to these new regulations, the NetEase-run version of the game featured innocuous sandbags instead of piles of bones, re-colored blood, and edited skill icons, which removed references to skulls and other assorted viscera.

-August 21, 2009 - Blizzard announces Cataclysm.

BlizzCon 2009 marked the announcement of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the game's third expansion. This time, Blizzard went beyond adding a new continent for players to explore, and re-worked the majority of the game's original zones, now torn asunder by a series of natural (and not-so-natural) disasters. Cataclysm also introduced the Goblins and Worgen as playable races, and of course added some new zones for high-level players to explore.

-September 21, 2009 - World of Warcraft restarts operation in China.

-October 12, 2009 - Blizzard announces all World of Warcraft accounts will be merged with Battle.net accounts.

-November 3, 2009 - The Chinese government causes more snags in the game's re-launch in the region.

Following the game's re-launch in China, the Chinese government ordered NetEase to stop allowing new accounts, as the country's Ministry of Culture and General Administration of Press and Publication clashed over who controls online content.

-November 4, 2009 - Blizzard introduces the first monetized in-game pets.

-February 8, 2010 - NetEase once again blocks new user registrations as it applies to government for Burning Crusade license.

-February 17, 2010 - Blizzard earns $1.1 million from the Pandaren Monk pet, donates proceeds to the Make-A-Wish foundation.

In April 2010, Blizzard sold two virtual items for the game on its website: a Celestial Steed mount for $25 and a Lil' XT pet for $10. These items became so popular that Blizzard has to create a queue for players to purchase them. While the exact revenues never came to light, if all 140,000 users in the queue (not counting those who actually paid for the items) bought the Celestial Steed, for example, Blizzard would have made $3.5 million from a single virtual item.

-June 22, 2010 - Blizzard implements its Real ID system.

Blizzard's cross-game real ID system goes beyond simple usernames, and allows players to connect with their real-life friends by using their real names. This service also allowed cross-game chat between World of Warcraft and StarCraft II (which was then in beta-testing), and is now a fully-integrated part of Blizzard's Battle.net.

-June 23, 2010 - Activision Blizzard COO Thomas Tippl unworried about World of Warcraft "franchise fatigue."

"Look at [World of] Warcraft, right. They go from strength to strength, but it's because they innovate all the time. [Blizzard] improves the customer experience all the time. They improve the gameplay modes all the time. You can't be lazy. You can't get complacent," he said in a Gamasutra feature interview.

-July 6, 2010 - Blizzard announces that Real ID will show real names on the official World of Warcraft forums.

In an attempt to "promote constructive conversations" on the infamously rowdy World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard announced that its Real ID system will require players to use their real names when posting online.

"The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild," explained a Blizzard known online as Nethaera.

"Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven't been connected before."

This plan, however, completely backfired, and an outraged fan base demanded that Blizzard abandon the new policy.

-July 9, 2010 - Blizzard revokes plans to put players' Real ID names on the forums.

After a few days of persistent fan outcry, Blizzard decided to keep the forum in its original state -- the Real ID system was never implemented on the forums.

"We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums," said Blizzard's Mike Morhaime in a Battle.net forum post. "As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums."

-October 7, 2010 - World of Warcraft hits 12 million worldwide subscribers.

This milestone marks the current all-time peak for World of Warcraft subscribers. The game hit this mark just a few months before the much-anticipated Cataclysm expansion.

-November 23, 2010 - "The Shattering" patch launches, forever changing the game's classic zones in anticipation of Cataclysm.

-August 28, 2010 - Wrath of the Lich King announced for China.

-December 7, 2010 - Cataclysm launches in North America and Europe.

-December 13, 2010 - Cataclysm sells 3.3 million in one day.

Just like every version of World of Warcraft before it, the Cataclysm expansion set a new record for day-one U.S. PC game sales. After a month on the market, the game had sold 4.7 million copies.

-May 5, 2011 - Blizzard donates an additional $800,000 from in-game pet sales to Make-A-Wish.

Just a few short months after Cataclysm's debut, World of Warcraft showed its first signs of notable decline. Nearly every expansion had seen waves of players re-subscribe and eventually drop the game, but Cataclysm showed players dropping out faster than ever. As a result, Blizzard planned to limit the time between major expansions.

"As our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming content," said Blizzard president Mike Morhaime in a conference call.

"And so I think with Cataclysm they were able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions, but that's why we're working on developing more content."

"We need to be faster at delivering content to players," he added. "And so that's one of the reasons that we're looking to decrease the amount of time in-between expansions."

-June 28, 2011 - Blizzard announces unlimited free trials.

In an attempt to further revitalize the game, Blizzard introduced a new trial that allowed players to play for free until reaching level 20, effectively turning World of Warcraft into a free-to-play game at low levels. In addition, all existing and future accounts would receive access to the Burning Crusade content, meaning players no longer have to buy the game's first expansion.

-August 3, 2011 - Subscriptions decline to 11.1 million.

-August 5, 2011 - In-game pet sales generate $1.1 million for Japan earthquake relief.

-October 10, 2011 - Chris Metzen, SVP of creative development, explains how Blizzard gives World of Warcraft a "heart."

"To us [writing] is not about the best [story] hooks in the world, or the most clever hooks," he said. "...It's not about being the most unique in the world, or the best-written dialog in the world. To us it's about heart, it's about the engagement," Metzen said at this year's GDC Online.

-October 13, 2011 - Blizzard auctions original World of Warcraft server hardware for charity.

-October 21, 2011 - Blizzard reveals Mists of Pandaria.

Just last month, Blizzard announced the fourth expansion: Mists of Pandaria. This newest update will add the much-requested Pandaren as a playable race, and the melee-based Monk class. As usual, this release will introduce a host of new zones, this time on the continent of Pandaria.

-November 8, 2011 - World of Warcraft loses another 800,000 subs.

-November 23, 2011 - World of Warcraft turns seven years old. The game remains the dominant subscription MMORPG by far, despite the fact that key development talent has long since moved on to work on the next Blizzard MMORPG, project "Titan." At its seventh birthday, the game remains formidable competition even for new MMOs.

Battletoads ruined many promising young lives during the franchise's brief reign of terror in the early '90s. Scores of children suffered untold frustration at the hands of the nigh-impossible original NES game, and still more were scarred by sequels like Battlemaniacs and Battletoads & Double Dragon.

Thankfully, the toads were stopped, but in a moment of cartoonish villainy, Rare later sought to revive the series for the Game Boy Advance. As a recently released prototype ROM image demonstrates, the project didn't get far.

Former Rare developer "Jens" recalls working on the reboot alongside a proposed Xbox Battletoads game:

"I think we agreed on the team that the ultra-hard NES version would be difficult to sell nowadays, and many sections look very dated by now. We looked at all the other Battletoads games and I think we even had the arcade board running. We wanted to keep many of the features that people remembered positively of the games, while trying to focus the gameplay on some consistent mechanics to avoid frustration."

Jens continues: "Overall it was a big relief for me when it was cancelled. Developing on GameBoy while Rare was still owned by Nintendo was hard enough and I often felt like a second class citizen. Getting any resources to make a good GameBoy title would've been even harder as a 3rd party developer for a competing platform."

Import retailer NCSX is selling a set of Japan-exclusive The Legend of Zelda pins that depict cover art from all sixteen entries in the series.

Every main-series Zelda game is represented in the set, from the original Famicom Disk System release to the 3DS remake of Ocarina of Time. Even lower-profile titles like Four Swords Adventures and the Oracle games made the cut...though for some reason, manufacturer Tomy has neglected the CD-i Zelda games. For shame!

NCSX notes that the pins are only available via capsule toy machines in Japan, and argues that purchasing the complete set is much easier than attempting to complete the series at 200 yen a pop. The convenience comes at a price, however -- the full set of 16 pins will cost you $78.90, plus shipping.

Organizers for IFComp 2011, the annual competition devoted to short and original interactive fiction games, announced the community-submitted scores from this year's contest, with Ryan Veeder's Taco Fiction ranking the highest out of the nearly 40 entries.

According to GameSetWatch columnist and interactive fiction developer/maven Emily Short, who wrote up reviews for the IFComp 2011 submissions, Taco Fiction is "a comedy about crime and being in the wrong part of town", with a distinctive voice and an enjoyable flow:
"[It's] not a deep work, not a work with important social issues to reflect on, not a work of penetrating characterization; but a very well crafted, light-hearted, and entertaining bit of IF, somewhat reminiscent of Gourmet in the way it builds increasingly ludicrous problems out of its initial premise. "
At second place is Wade Clarke's Six, a text adventure about a children’s birthday party in Australia (in which you're one of a pair of twins playing hide and seek, and you have to find your six friends. Short says it's "beautifully implemented, with an over-the-top degree of polish".

Veeder and Clarke won $500 and $100, respectively, for their top scores. You can see how all of the IFComp 2011 games fared, and play them all for free here -- most of them are playable in your browser, but you may need to download an interpreter for a few of them.

Codemasters announced today that it is set to launch a HD version of the classic 1991 release Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk next month for smartphone and tablet devices.

Due for release on December 9, the remake will be available to download for iPad, iPhone and Android devices.

The original Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk was released by Codemaster in December 1991, for a variety of platforms. This new version is being developed by DNA Interactive, while Paul Ranson, the original game's project director, is heading development.

Said Ranson, "20 years on and Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk remains one of the most memorable games in the series for its puzzles and humour and it's an absolute pleasure to return to the director's role for this HD edition."

Dizzy co-creator Philip Oliver added, "It always astounds us what a loyal fan base Dizzy still has."

"Even after all these years people remember Dizzy fondly and it's great to see him return for his older fans and introduce him to a new generation of gamers."

A Draugr Awakens | Surely we weren't the only ones to notice a resemblance between Madonna's Super Bowl halftime getup and the armor worn by Skyrim's undead Nords. (Image via Reddit)