Latest News And Features

Junglist is back for another episode of the 5 Inch Floppy! This week Junglist is checking Dust 514 - the free to play MMO 'FPS' from CCP Games, designed to tie into their grand Space MMO EVE Online. Junglist puts his expertise to work assessing the game from both a MMO and an FPS standpoint, and though I'm not going to give it all away on you, let's just say he isn't impressed. Why? Watch the episode and find out!

You can watch the 5 Inch Floppy embedded below or in our videos library - going full screen for HD of course. And as always, you can get more of your Junglist fix by checking out the 5 Inch Floppy on Facebook and the 5 Inch Floppy Blog and following TheJunglist on Twitter!

It's Friday! And Andy Wells is back with another excellent episode of The Weekly Update! This week Andy kicks off with the recently announced Gran Turismo 6, and the new season of GT Academy, kicking off in July. Andy then chats with Trickstar Games' Director - Mike Fegan - about Trickstar's upcoming Ashes Cricket 2013, about the way Trickstar are setting themselves apart from their Cricket competitors at Big Ant Games. He also talks with Peter Siddle - the Vice Captain of the Australian Cricket Team - about the lure of video games for sports stars.

Andy wraps up this week with a look at the biggest story this week - The Xbox One, chatting with Xbox Australia's Adam Pollington about the new console and how it affects the Xbox 360. You can watch The Weekly Update embedded below or in our videos library - and don't forget to go full screen for HD!

Rockstar today announced the Special and Collector's Editions available for Grand Theft Auto V, if you'd like to get some extra goodies when the game comes out on September 17th. Both come with a fancy steelbook case and a neat looking blueprint-style map covering the Los Santos and Blaine County areas - keeping in theme with GTA V's focus on heists, as Joaby explained in his excellent First Look.

The Special Edition, currently available at EB Games for $119, also comes with a boost for Michael, Trevor and Franklin's unique special abilites, a score of additional outfits and tattoos, stunt plane trials and access to the .50 pistol, the Bullpup shotgun and the hammer - a hammer.




The Collector's Edition has yet to be announced at retail in Australia, but it is expected to be available for pre-order soon. It comes with all of the content in the Special Edition and throws in additional physical content like a cap, a money bag. Sadly though, it's a realistic style security deposit bag with a fancy key, not a big round beige bag with a $ on it. The Collector's Edition also has additional digital content in the form of unique cars, and classic GTA characters for use in Grand Theft Auto Online's character creation.

I know some people don't like pre-ordering and I feel the same way usually - the idea of missing out on actual in-game content because I didn't throw money down beforehand is pretty rude. Nevertheless, I am pretty god damned tempted to get the Collector's Edition here. How about you? Let us know in the comments below!

Relic's Company of Heroes 2 launches in just over a month, and it looks freaking outstanding - particularly in this latest trailer. A grim, sombre affair, it gives us a look into the story that will play out through the new RTS, which follows the Soviet efforts to win World War 2. CoH2's main protagonist, Lev Abramovich Isakovich, sits in a prison cell with his war diary, and recounts his severe experiences on the Eastern Front to a prison officer.

Watch the trailer embedded below or in our videos library and you'll see what I mean by sombre. As we learned in Joaby's excellent First Look at Company of Heroes 2, Relic plan on giving us a much less heroic affair than we saw in the first game - and it looks like that will shine rather brightly through the story. Are you looking forward to Company of Heroes 2? And what do you think of the graphics - I think they've done a remarkable job with the cut-scenes given the type of engine they are using. Let us know what you think in the comments below!

We didn't learn a lot at the Xbox One launch the other night. We learned that Microsoft really likes tv, and that they especially like sports, and that they are really focused on the US. Also tv. Since then though, a whole heap of new information has come out across the net, giving us a little more insight into what we will be looking at with Microsoft's next console. And now I've gathered it all, sorted the facts from the rumour, and put it all in one easy to read place. So read on!

The games console has always been a proponent of convenience and safety at the cost of freedom, so it makes sense that the Xbox One would bring us to the analogous Big Brother moment we should have known was an inevitability.

Gamers eschewed the complexities of the PC platform - one where the player needs to maintain hardware, update drivers and try not to surf shady porn sites lest malware cost them precious frames - in favour of popping a cartridge/cd in a drive and playing immediately.

Developers avoided the exposed PC platform - where consumers stole games with abandon, modded them into games of their own design and could dig through backwards engineered code to find all of their secrets - in favour of the safety of a protected system (or at least the illusion of it).

Every year Activision unveils a new Call of Duty, and every year a vocal portion of the games community cries out against it, contemptuously deriding its familiarity, its questionable morality and its self-seriousness all at once.

I'm not a member of this group of detractors. Where they see icky choices I see a mirror held up to society. Where they see grimness I see self-respect. And where they see the same game over and over I see innovations that either lead the industry in new directions or at least hone ideas to a sharp edge.

Yes, I stayed up so you wouldn't have to and the next generation console from Microsoft - the Xbox One - has been revealed. In an event lasting 2 hours, Microsoft showed off the new console, its new features and a bunch of the new games coming to the device when it launches later this year. Read on for all the highlights from the event!


The new Xbox One. Microsoft were certain to actually show the console.

If you're reading this within a few hours of it going up you are probably more interested in news about another console, but before Microsoft went on to dominate the gaming news cycle for the next couple of days it seems like Sony wanted to do something cool for Australia - with the launch of their PlayStation First program in association with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment.


Recently release indie metroidvania Guacamelee

PlayStation First is a programme (not a program) through which Sony Computer Entertainment establishes partnerships with institutes of higher learning to provide support, tools and materials for students to aid them in the video game development process. Through the programme AIE receives 6 PlayStation Vita development kits - and PlayStation development is added to the syllabus. The programme will be available across AIE's Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne campuses in the near future.

This move makes a lot of sense to those who have been following Sony's movements of late, as they have been giving a lot of attention to the indie scene (and receiving it in kind.) Sony seem to have been particularly keen to get indie development going on the PS Vita, no doubt in part due to the lower cost of development and access. All up it's pretty much a triple-win - a win for Sony, a win for game dev students and a win for us poor suckers who have a PS Vita.

Did you like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning? Not a lot of people did. Or at the very least, not enough people did to get 38 Studios and Big Huge Games out of hot water. Almost exactly one year ago today, 38 Studios was forced to lay off their entire staff, 378 employees across 38 Studios and Big Huge Games after the game failed to return their investment.




With that, the company began its unfortunate movement towards bankruptcy - and the State of Rhode Island, who gave them a loan of $75 Million - sued 38 Studios. The suit included allegations of fraud, financial misconduct, neglect and conspiracy to deceive officials about the company's financial prospects. Now, in an attempt to recoup its losses - which still sit at around $50 Million (all up 38 Studios owes approximately $130 Million to its creditors) Polygon reports that Rhode Island lawyer Richard J. Land is attempting to get clearance to sell the Kingdoms of Amalur IP and assets, with the money from the sale going towards paying off investors.

While we currently don't know who is looking to buy the Kingdoms of Amalur IP and assets, it could be profitable - the game was designed by Ken Rolston, with lore by R.A. Salvatore and art by Todd McFarlane - and all that work would be available to someone who picked up the IP and assets. Big Huge Games were at work on their MMO version of Kingdoms of Amalur when all of the staff was laid off, so there is a partially developed new game in there as well. We'll be sure to let you know when we learn more, but in the meantime - would you play a new Kingdoms of Amalur? Did you play Reckoning? Joaby was pretty happy with it when 0he wrote his review it back in February last year, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below!