Games

PERSPECTIVE At this morning’s Xbox One reveal in Redmond, Wash., the new “Call of Duty” game received an extended preview and a new game titled “Quantum Break” was given a giant promotional push. But the biggest star of Microsoft’s news conference to showcase  its Xbox 360 successor was a film director, one who spoke only via a pre-filmed video. Steven Spielberg, it was divulged this morning, will executive produce an original “Halo” television series based on the popular video game franchise that’s long been tied to the Xbox ecosystem. “For me, the ‘Halo’ universe is an amazing opportunity to be at the intersection where technology and storytelling meet,” Spielberg said, adding that he’s been interested in games since the era of “Pong” and that they have now evolved, technologically speaking, to a point where interactive storytelling is at its most […]

Microsoft on Tuesday is unveiling the successor to the Xbox 360 at a news event at its Redmond, Wash., campus, pulling back the curtain on its home console plans just weeks before the June Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Hero Complex will be live blogging the news right here on this starting at 10 a.m. Updates will be posted below. We’ll be working fast, so please forgive any typos. Microsoft is the last of the major home console makers to disclose its next generation system. Nintendo’s Wii U was released in late 2012 and Sony threw a lavish press event in February to announce its PS4, although Sony didn’t actually show the system in action. Rumors of new Xbox features have included some form of new embedded Kinect, always-on Web integration and the ability to act as a cable box. Both the new […]

As a showcase for modern technology, “Tearaway” for Sony’s hand-held gaming machine the Vita may not at first seem to be the most obvious contender. It is, after all, a game that aims to create a world that looks to be entirely constructed out of paper. Yet “Tearaway,” due in October from “Little Big Planet” developer Media Molecule, impressed in a limited setting last week for its ability to strip away the boundaries between game and virtual worlds. It does so by making use of all of the Vita’s key features — the system’s front-and-back touchscreens, its microphone and its camera. The game puts players in a God-like role overseeing a universe of exquisitely designed paper crafts. A tap of the Vita’s rear touchscreen will jolt a player’s finger straight into the game world. Suddenly, platforms and logs can just be […]

“Batman: Arkham Origins” captures a “rawer, scarier Batman,” according to the creative leads of the next entry in the Warner Bros. Interactive “Arkham” series. The game, due Oct. 25, is set five years before the events of 2009′s “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” on a Christmas Eve when many still considered Gotham City’s vigilante to be a myth, said senior producer Ben Mattes. Mattes and creative director Eric Holmes, who were in Los Angeles last week to showcase scenes from the game, including new weapons, a new voice cast and enhanced detective abilities for Batman, said rewinding the bat clock allowed them to create a game that emphasized Batman’s more aggressive nature. Mattes often used the term “wraith-like,” as numerous scenes showed Batman evading an army of assassins and the police, as well as torturing a criminal by dangling him from a grappling hook off […]

With “The Last of Us,” the survival horror title developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PS3, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley want players to forge real emotional connections with smuggler Joel and Ellie, the 14-year-old he is hired to protect, as they fend off infected humans while traversing a largely deserted East Coast setting. In recent pre-release testing of the third-person adventure, Druckmann and Straley said, they got the reaction they were hoping for when they first hit on the concept for the game a few years back: Players cried. “We’ve had people come out and say, ‘I’ve never felt this attached to a character before,’” Druckmann told Hero Complex on Thursday night at a pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) event hosted by Sony. “We know it works in a small group. I guess let’s see if it works out in the masses.” […]

This post has been corrected, as indicated below. “Sonic Lost World,” the latest adventure to feature Sonic the Hedgehog, will be released exclusively to the Wii U and hand-held 3DS consoles, part of a multigame agreement destined to boost Sonic’s presence on Nintendo’s next-generation system, Sega and Nintendo have confirmed. Although a release date has not been set for “Sonic Lost World,” the title is said to be a new action platform game. More information about the game is expected prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles during the week of June 11. Sonic will also topline another new title announced Friday, “Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games,” coming soon to the Wii U. Once intended to give Sega and its Genesis platform an iconic character to rival Nintendo and its famed Super […]

Video gamers will soon have the opportunity to create their own superheroes for the DC Comics universe. Or turn Batman into a zombie. Or suggest Superman wear a pink cape and ride a unicorn. But don’t try to give Batman a gun. Some things will never change. This fall 5th Cell and Warner Bros. Interactive will release “Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure” for the Wii U, 3DS and PC. The latest in the Scribblenauts franchise looks to be an expansive, puzzle-based adventure that makes use of the heroes, villains and locations made famous by the worlds featured in the 75-plus years of DC Comics. And some of the not so famous, too. “For the first time in any game we have all the DC Comics characters,” said Caleb Arseneaux, a 5th Cell producer. “The entire roster — characters who appeared in […]

The new game “Injustice: Gods Among Us” begins with Superman killing the Joker after one of the madman’s plots results in the death of Lois Lane, who was pregnant with the Kryptonian’s child. And things grow more intense from there. Released last month, the game stages grand battles between an impressive number of familiar faces from the DC universe — a number that’s growing with the release of new downloadable characters. First was the interstellar bounty hunter Lobo. Next up, Commissioner Jim Gordon’s daughter Barbara, otherwise known as Batgirl, will join the fray. Batgirl will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points and PlayStation®Network for $4.99. Wii U players will have to wait until summer. NetherRealm Studios and DC spent two years developing “Injustice: Gods Among Us,” which was accompanied by a comic book prequel written by […]

Nintendo this week again turned to its ever trusty Italian plumber for its latest puzzle game, “Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move.” A download-only title, “Minis on the Move” is a deceptively undemanding game that makes use of the company’s environment-shifting “minis” brand. For those who missed previous installments, the minis are diminutive, wind-up figurines that represent well-known Nintendo characters. They walk forward, they don’t stop and it’s up to the player to control and tinker with the paths in front of them. That about covers the basics, but not the details. What follows are five reasons to give Nintendo’s latest a shot. There’s more variety than expected. “Minis on the Move” consists of a primary puzzle game and a host of mini-games that players can unlock as they advance through the game. The main concept is extremely simple. Players […]

There’s a tiny orange box moving around the screen of the PlayStation Vita. Its name is Chris. It is an ordinary square — perhaps even less than ordinary. This square doesn’t jump very high, can’t float and it has largely committed to going through its digital life as a grump. That is, until Chris meets Laura. Laura is afraid of her powers. Laura is also a box — a long, rectangular pink-ish box. Five months into 2013 and gamers have already been introduced to a bounty of impressive characters and worlds. Not all have been a success, such as the recent digital interpretations of Kirk and Spock in “Star Trek” or the thick-skulled gunners of the most recent “Dead Space.” Others, such as Elizabeth in “Bioshock Infinite,” brought an emotional center to  the usually mechanical first-person shooter genre. Yet few […]