Improving the ranking system, as well as introducing new penalties should go a long way to improve the Master Chief Collection ’s current situation . Even though the game plays much better than it did at launch, there are some issues that still need to be resolved before the game is ready for a major tournament, which we expect to happen after the success of the game’s Championship seri

Plants vs. Zombies 2 already has 10 “premium plants” for a total cost of more than $30 altogether, tax included. And that’s just plants. You can also pay for upgrades and in-game coins. To my knowledge, Plants vs. Zombies never went higher than $20 for the whole game, with no micro-transactions, so I can only assume PopCap is making a truckload off of this. Now I know people like to point out how less than 10 percent of people who play free-to-play games participate in micro-transactions. This makes it seem like the companies are doing what’s best for the player by offering a portion of their game for free, while only making a small chunk of change on the side to get by. It’s a compelling narrative that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. This number conveniently leaves out how much money they’re actually making from those ten percent of people who want a full gaming experience.

More revenue. Another, less benign, reason for this shift to online multiplayer is money. Many distributors cite piracy as a major cause of declining profits , and increased DRM restrictions make sharing games with friends much more difficult. Decreasing the amount of local multiplayer means that friends who want to play together need their own copies of the game, their own system, and their own subscription. The result is increased costs for gamers and increased revenue for distribut

If there’s one compliment that can be paid to the braintrust behind **The Flash ** , Arrow and the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow , it’s that they aren’t afraid of taking on the tasks of universe-building that would frighten off other production teams. It’s because of that fact that this week’s two-part crossover between their headlining stars begins with full reveal of not one, but three new DC Comics characters (on top of continuing each show’s storylines). The result is an episode dripping with fan service – but one that ultimately has far too many masters to serve to ever hope of doing it w

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

We also received confirmation this week from NetherRealm Studios that long-time Mortal Kombat veteral Liu Kang will be joining the Mortal Kombat X roster. With just a few weeks left until release, the Mortal Kombat developer is releasing information at a rapid rate, so we’re sure to see even more reveals and rumors hit the streets s

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

Distributors clearly have a lot to gain from online multiplayer games, especially with the popularity of microtransactions and the increasing popularity of DLC—more maps, more costumes, and more weapons often tempt gamers into paying more. This works well for free-to-play games like League of Legends or other MOBAs, but announcing DLC before a MOBA game Patch notes‘s release often draws criticism. Many players argue that paid DLC encourages some developers to omit necessary or desired player content for higher prof

I don’t have many vivid memories of things I saw on my Facebook news feed, but this is one of them. I’m scrolling past updates from my friends who play League of Legends, and one post was about how a new champion added was so good. One of their friends commented “Is he worth?” to which my friend responded “So worth.”

It’s possible that these issues will be remedied in the crossover’s second half, but only time will tell. For now, it’s enough to say that the stars and characters sharing the same set will undoubtedly get fans demanding nothing more than that excited. But in hindsight, any one of these subplots – Hawkman’s return, Vandal Savage’s arrival, Kendra coming to grips with her past and taking a leap of faith, or receiving more than a single sentence of guidance from Barry – could have carried enough drama for its own episode. If the crossover ends with the heroes taking flight together, fans would have the right to feel they were robbed of the journey to take