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	<title>TechTag: preview &#124; Tech &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>TechTag: preview &#124; Tech &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Mr. Freeze Makes Things Chilly in New &#8216;Batman: Arkham City&#8217; Trailer</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/15/mr-freeze-makes-things-chilly-in-new-batman-arkham-city-trailer/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/15/mr-freeze-makes-things-chilly-in-new-batman-arkham-city-trailer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:40:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arkham city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[batman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DC Comics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WBIE]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=93796</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;d be pretty hard to disagree that Batman has the best rogues gallery in superhero comics. (But, you can try. That&#8217;s what comment sections are for.) The Dark Knight took down a slew of his nastiest villains in the hit Arkham Asylum a few years back, but lots of fan-favorite felons didn&#8217;t make the cut. However, with a sequel due out in a little more than two months, we&#8217;re getting glimpses at the bad guys who&#8217;ll be making Batman&#8217;s life hell this time around. So far we&#8217;ve seen Two-Face, the Riddler and the Penguin (with a glimpse of undead bruiser Solomon Grundy). Catwoman–in the game as a playable character–sorta counts, but she&#8217;s been known to go both ways. Between hero and villain, that is. That&#8217;s what I was talking about. Were you guys thinking of something else? (MORE: Preview: &#8216;Batman: Arkham City&#8217; Puts the Dark Knight in a Lawless, Urban Landscape) Anyhoo, Mr. Freeze definitely ranks as the most cold-hearted villain that Batman repeatedly faces, but he was only mentioned in passing during Arkham Asylum. The newest trailer for Batman: Arkham City confirms him as an adversary and showcases him as yet another one of the crazed criminals that the Bat will have to confront in the game. The former cryogenics scientist remains tragically obsessed with his frozen wife. Poor guy. On the boss battle front, Freeze seems to have some kind of heat-tracking capabilities, which will make it harder for players to use the stealth that&#8217;s a hallmark of the gameplay in the Arkham titles. Can they pack any more villains into the upcoming Bat-sequel? Guess we&#8217;ll find out when Batman: Arkham City comes out in October. MORE: Cat vs. Bat: Hands-on with &#8216;Batman: Arkham City&#8217;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=93796&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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		<title>Playing &#8216;The Witness&#8217;: Hands-On with the Next Game from the Creator of &#8216;Braid&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/11/playing-the-witness-hands-on-with-the-next-game-from-the-creator-of-braid/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/11/playing-the-witness-hands-on-with-the-next-game-from-the-creator-of-braid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:45:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[indie games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=93430</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Three years ago, Braid came out and changed people&#8217;s perceptions of what video games–especially independently developed ones–could be. The time-manipulating platformer gave players an experience that channeled the ephemeral nature of selective memory and the sting of lost love. Braid became a bona fide hit on the Xbox 360, thanks to a substantive maturity that ESRB labels don&#8217;t necessarily speak to. Its success validated both indie games and digital distribution on consoles in one fell swoop. Jonathan Blow–the man behind the indie hit–has been keeping a relatively low profile for the last few years. He&#8217;s popped up at events like PAX and IndieCade to offer clandestine glimpses of his work-in-progress called The Witness. Visiting New York City this past week, the San Francisco developer pulled back the veil to let a select few play The Witness in its very early state. I had the chance to play the game and talk to Blow for a few hours last week. What I experienced had very little in common with Braid, but The Witness is very much a game that everyone should be looking out for. (MORE: Happy Birthday, Samus! Nintendo&#8217;s &#8216;Metroid&#8217; Turns 25) Blow&#8217;s games require some deep thinking, and not just in terms of their play mechanics. Interacting with Braid did more than simply challenge players to figure out when to pause time on a particular level; it also made them think about decisions made throughout their own personal backstories and what they&#8217;d do differently if the chance were given. In a similar way, The Witnesss is going to do for space what Braid did for time. The game focuses on an aspect of life–in this case, the very environments we move through–that we take for granted and forces you to look at it from a different angle. As I sat down in front of the laptop where Blow had the game&#8217;s build running, the first thing I noticed was the art style. Braid unfolded in impressionistic watercolors, but there&#8217;s more of a realistic approach to The Witness. Blow says,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=93430&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/11/playing-the-witness-hands-on-with-the-next-game-from-the-creator-of-braid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/apps-web/gaming-%c2%a0culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Spec Ops Survival Mode Gets Detailed in New &#8216;Modern Warfare 3&#8242; Trailer</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/10/spec-ops-survival-mode-gets-detailed-in-new-modern-warfare-3-trailer/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/10/spec-ops-survival-mode-gets-detailed-in-new-modern-warfare-3-trailer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[activision]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Modern Warfare 3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MW3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=93324</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A few weeks back, I talked about my hands-on experience with the new Survival Mode in the Spec Ops multiplayer portion of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Activision&#8217;s finally released a video showing off some of the features that I got to see and implement. You&#8217;ll see the upgrade system interface in action in the clip as well as a few different enemy types including those explosives-bearing attack dogs. The trailer also gives a sense of how much equipment and ammo will cost, though those prices may not yet be final. Calling in a Riot Shield Squad (seen in the menus at 00:59) might be just the ticket, with some movable cover when trying to get back to an equipment or weapons terminal. As for what else you&#8217;ll buy within Survival&#8217;s economy-driven scheme, you&#8217;ll see how the airstrike, Delta Squad and the Predator drone killstreaks look in action, too. That smoke that tags targets for a bombing run will be a welcome sight, even if it is purple. Remember how I said those big, scary Juggernauts don&#8217;t go down easy? Watch one soak up a crapload of bullets, starting at about 1:37 in the trailer. And that remote-controlled mine thingy at the end there? That thing just looks nasty. MORE: Activision&#8217;s Field Generals Talk &#8216;Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3&#8242; Evan Narcisse is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @EvNarc or on Facebook at Facebook/Evan.Narcisse. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=93324&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>&#8216;The Gunstringer&#8217; Preview: Finally, a Bad-Ass Kinect Game</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/05/the-gunstringer-preview-finally-a-bad-ass-kinect-game/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/08/05/the-gunstringer-preview-finally-a-bad-ass-kinect-game/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:22:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[indie games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kinect]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=92912</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Child of Eden is currently my favorite Kinect game. Tetsuya Mizuguchi&#8217;s latest masterpiece makes me feel artsy and connected and like I&#8217;m floating in the future. All good things, to be sure. But it doesn&#8217;t make me feel like a bad-ass. Thankfully, that&#8217;s where The Gunstringer comes in. It&#8217;s the first Kinect title from Twisted Pixel, the indie studio responsible for the Xbox Live Arcade hits The Maw, &#8216;Splosion Man and Comic Jumper. In Gunstringer, you control a marionette cowboy who&#8217;s shot and left for dead after being betrayed by his former comrades. He&#8217;s out for revenge once he rises from the grave (the best reason to come back from the dead, really, second only to religious salvation) and the player guides him on the hunt for the galoots who tried to kill him. (MORE: E3 2011: Microsoft Showcases &#8216;Halo 4,&#8217; Hardcore Kinect-ions) &#160; Controlling The Gunstringer is dead easy. Forward and backward motion is automatically handled by the game, you steer the undead cowboy laterally with your left hand, and a quick upward yank makes him jump. Your right hand is in control of the Gunstringer&#8217;s gun and performs a few different functions. You just shoot with a quick upward motion, like clapping back a hammer on a six-shooter, or you can select up to six multiple targets by passing your hand over them and then shoot them in rapid succession with one shooting gesture. Twisted Pixel&#8217;s trademark humor shines through in Gunstringer like it has in all their work. The action unfolds as if it were a puppet show, with 2D sets and an audience. You can see a person&#8217;s hand placing many of the hazards in the game in the background, adding to the surreal flair the game&#8217;s got going on. The action will occasionally switch from third-person shooting to a 2D platformer in the interstitial moments between levels, too, just to break things up a bit. This&#8217;ll be Twisted Pixel&#8217;s first retail disc release: Gunstringer will come bundled with a Kinect version of Halfbrick&#8217;s hit iPhone<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=92912&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Cat vs. Bat: Hands-on with &#8216;Batman: Arkham City&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/07/06/cat-vs-bat-hands-on-with-batman-arkham-city/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/07/06/cat-vs-bat-hands-on-with-batman-arkham-city/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:43:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arkham city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[batman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WBIE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=89163</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My hands-on time with this year&#8217;s Bat-game revealed a few things to me. The new criminal ghetto in the sequel&#8217;s Gotham City is big. Very big. You&#8217;ll face off against even more thugs–and more kinds of thugs–in Arkham City. But Batman will have a powered-up set of attacks and gadgets. The combat system features tiers of execution now, so you won&#8217;t have just a cape stun, but you can work up to a super-stun. Likewise, Batman will have disarms that are ramped-up counters. Just about everything gamers loved about 2009&#8242;s Arkham Asylum looks to be getting expanded and most of the new stuff looks to be well-executed, too. (MORE: Riddle Me This, Batman: Just How Dark is &#8216;Arkham City&#8217;?) Hell, just getting to the troublesome Riddler trophies will be a puzzle unto itself. You&#8217;ll need to rough up–but not knock out thugs–marked as informants so you can interrogate them. They&#8217;ll give up a destination for you to grab a Riddler trophy that will itself lead you somewhere else. See, Riddler&#8217;s not just an enigmatic presence in the game. He&#8217;s taken dozens of hostages in Arkham City and each death-trap holds their lives in the balance. Once you get to the locations that the trophies point you to, you&#8217;ll need to dodge, grapple and jump through fiendish death-traps set to countdown timers. But I have to admit, what I&#8217;m seeing so far of the game&#8217;s Catwoman worries me. The femme fatale in this game harkens back to a far vampier, campier version of Selina Kyle&#8217;s larcenous alter ego. That&#8217;s not bad in and of itself, but Catwoman&#8217;s corny one-liners feel tonally off from the grim proceedings that the rest of the game offers. I realize that not everyone can be as terse and no-nonsense as Batman, but Catwoman feels like she&#8217;s going too far in the opposite direction. As a fan of the morally ambiguous but tough take on Catwoman in Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke&#8217;s comics run, I feel like the lipstick-and-cleavage interpretation on display here just comes across as<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=89163&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>First Steps: Impressions of the &#8216;Journey&#8217; Multiplayer Beta</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/07/05/first-steps-impressions-of-the-journey-multiplayer-beta/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/07/05/first-steps-impressions-of-the-journey-multiplayer-beta/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hands-on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ps3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PSN]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=89032</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Journey may be simultaneously the simplest and trickiest game to describe in quite some time. There&#8217;s been a veil of secrecy around the upcoming PSN exclusive for months now, with eager fans only getting the vaguest hints about the multiplayer game from dev studio thatgamecompany. But the makers of artsy cult hit Flower launched a limited public beta last week, and the world&#8217;s finally been getting to look at Journey&#8216;s mysterious world. So, what&#8217;s Journey about? Easy: You go places, get a sense of what happened in them, meet people and go more places with them. You can veer away from these other players (or they can leave you) and go off on your own again. It&#8217;s the specifics that make further clarification tricky. In Journey, you control relatively anonymous avatars that appear to be made of living cloth. The inhabitants of Journey&#8216;s world all look about the same and come with the same limited set of abilities. Aside from walking–which you&#8217;ll do a lot of–characters can jump and send out a call that interacts with elements in the world and lets others know of their presence. (MORE: The Video-Game Redemption of Roger Ebert?) Exploration is the main task in Journey. You&#8217;ll be walking along a desolate desert wasteland amidst the ruins of a fallen civilization. The story of what befell the denizens of this world unfolds elliptically, in a series of tapestry-like scenes. You get the big strokes: Once there were a lot of people but something happened and they died. What&#8217;s amazing about the storytelling in Journey is that it all happens wordlessly, via interaction and animation. Through exploration, you&#8217;ll be able to strengthen your abilities. You&#8217;ll collect golden, glowing swatches of fabric that lengthen your avatar&#8217;s scarf. The long scarf on your back serves as an energy meter and you can only jump when you have glowing energy, retrieved at certain points in the world. The longer your scarf is, the more energy you can store. Journey&#8216;s approach to multiplayer is one of the more radical things<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=89032&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Tasty &#8216;StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm&#8217; Details Divulged</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/05/31/tasty-starcraft-ii-heart-of-the-swarm-details-divulged/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/05/31/tasty-starcraft-ii-heart-of-the-swarm-details-divulged/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2011 14:38:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Peckham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[screenshots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[starcraft 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trailer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=84732</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just like that, Blizzard&#8217;s teasing StarCraft II expansion numero duo details, including a teaser that probably shouldn&#8217;t have been teased yet. See what happens when you take a day off? As expected, the expansion—dubbed Heart of the Swarm—continues Blizzard&#8217;s epic sci-fi soap, including scruffy brooding cowboy-type Jim Raynor&#8217;s pursuit of lost love Sarah &#8220;Borg queen&#8221; Kerrigan. Here&#8217;s the trailer you probably weren&#8217;t supposed to see. And here&#8217;s the one you are, out today. You&#8217;ll actually be able to play as Kerrigan in Heart of the Swarm, trying out four unique forms to access discrete abilities (if she dies, she just re-spawns, thus ensuring gaming&#8217;s do-over maxim doesn&#8217;t goof up fictional continuity). New &#8220;Battle Focus&#8221; stats also let you tweak Kerrigan health, damage, armor, and energy. The first batch of screens suggests the expansion won&#8217;t diverge (much) from Wings of Liberty&#8216;s mold. There&#8217;s the beautifully detailed and animated campaign hub, the various advisors providing color commentary and unpacking the story, and a bunch of subsidiary areas that&#8217;ll supplant the interactive locales on the first game&#8217;s battlecruiser. Look for changes to existing units (plenty new, but some old ones possibly removed), a multiplayer beta that could last up to five months as the game slow-cooks to launch, and a solo campaign with roughly 20 missions. And of course don&#8217;t look for LAN support: like its predecessor, Heart of the Swarm will be playable online only. Alas, the game probably won&#8217;t be out this year. Heart of the Swarm&#8216;s director Dustin Browder told Eurogamer in February: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ll be playing it this year… That seems very unlikely to me.&#8221; Guess we&#8217;ll have to settle for Diablo III this summer instead.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=84732&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mattpeckham</media:title>
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		<title>The Elder Scrolls Skyrim Looks Like Park City, Utah</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/04/22/the-elder-scrolls-skyrim-looks-like-park-city-utah/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/04/22/the-elder-scrolls-skyrim-looks-like-park-city-utah/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:30:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Peckham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bethesda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[skyrim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=78511</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Known for its ski resorts and the Sundance Film Festival, Park City may also be synonymous with…Skyrim? That’s right. Nestled among Utah’s picturesque, snow-capped peaks, the small town recently hosted Bethesda Softwork’s annual press event, where chapter five of fantasy-RPG franchise The Elder Scrolls stole the show. I didn’t grasp the significance of the venue until a Bethesda PR rep exclaimed “This place is Skyrim!” One look at the demo, then a glance outside, and I got it: The game looks so good, you&#8217;d hardly know the difference. Game Director Todd Howard talked up Skyrim&#8216;s graphical leaps and bounds over 2006’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but mostly let the game speak for itself. The soft white flakes accumulating in real-time on lush foliage and distant snow-blanketed mountains contrast sharply with Fallout 3&#8216;s rust-colored, post-apocalyptic grunge. Howard joked of the art team’s elation when he told them: “Alright, you can use the green channel again.” While a quick tour of Skyrim’s bosky pine forest had me wishing Smell-O-Vision hadn&#8217;t fizzled, there’s more to do in this massive RPG than rubberneck the scenery. You know, like reducing a skeleton army to rib platters, or facing frost trolls that&#8217;d make a Hoth-bound Wampa look like a huggable plaything. Players can now dual-wield weapons, magic and gear by pulling the right and left gamepad triggers (they correspond to your character&#8217;s hands). This welcome refinement yields all sorts of inventive ways to silence the many horned, fanged and clawed menaces that’ll cross your path. A traditional warrior-type, for example, could equip a sword and shield, where a magic-caster might opt for double-fisting fireballs. What&#8217;s more, you can mix up disciplines, say you want to wield a battle axe in your left hand and a foe-frying lightning spell in your right. Complementing this straightforward approach to death-dealing is Skyrim&#8217;s streamlined character upgrade system. As in prior The Elder Scrolls games, skills level with use, which in turn levels your character, but each level now grants a special perk, Fallout 3-style. Attributes have also been scaled down: magika, stamina and health<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=78511&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mattpeckham</media:title>
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		<title>Riddle Me This, Batman: Just How Dark is &#8216;Arkham City&#8217;?</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2011/03/16/riddle-me-this-batman-just-how-dark-is-arkham-city/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2011/03/16/riddle-me-this-batman-just-how-dark-is-arkham-city/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:55:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arkham city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[batman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rocksteady studios]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WBIE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=71015</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, maybe my preview of the upcoming Batman game didn&#8217;t do it for you. Maybe you need to see just how massive and expanded the Dark Knight&#8217;s next adventure will be. Well, this new trailer shows off the new locomotion elements, upgraded combat and, of course, thugs and villains galore. In addition to all of that, Arkham City will also feature the physical presence of the Riddler, too. Before, the crazed questioner was only a disembodied voice in Batman: Arkham Asylum. But, he&#8217;ll be a dangerous flash-and-blood psycho in the sequel. The short sequence shown at GDC two weeks ago hinted that he&#8217;ll be kidnapping hapless citizen inside Gotham&#8217;s super-prison and that players will need to save them in order to get those precious Riddler trophies. These two developments augur well for the next Bat-title. If Batman: Arkham Asylum was the game gamers and comic fans wanted, then Batman: Arkham City looks like it&#8217;s going to be the one they&#8217;ll need. Look for it on October 18th later this year.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=71015&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/894d76de9eb9575a5d23d8946a06caad?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>On the Brink: Hands-On with 2011&#8242;s Experimental Shooter</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/12/10/on-the-brink-hands-on-with-2011s-experimental-shooter/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/12/10/on-the-brink-hands-on-with-2011s-experimental-shooter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:00:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bethesda softworks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FPS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Splash Damage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=58673</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While other first-person shooters will be vying for gamers&#8217; thumbs in 2011, no game next year will look like Brink. The characters look lived in, with pockmarks, scars and receding hairlines all among the options for customization. And that customization&#8217;s amongst the best I&#8217;ve ever seen in any game in recent memory. Sections of the gameworld–a giant ship called the Ark–harbors layers of corroding metal laid over each other in patchwork fashion. Several weeks ago, I spent the better part of a day playing Brink with the folks at Splash Damage in their studio outside of London. I came away very impressed with what&#8217;s going into the title. It&#8217;s the anti-Halo: scuffed-up, grimy and funky. Brink&#8216;s got more than just a unique art style to recommend it, though. The game asks what happens when society breaks down and everything&#8217;s on the brink of collapse. The Ark begins in the Pacific as an experiment in sustainable community building in 2012 and then, when the sea levels start rising thirteen years later, an influx of refugees from mainlands and island atolls stream in. Players pick up the action in 2045, when the once-glorious Ark&#8217;s lost contact with the outside world, becoming overpopulated withthe ugly divide between haves and have-not threatens to explode chaos. On one side is the Resistance, dissidents who distrust the elites secreted away in the spires of the arc. Their goal is to escape the Ark. Their opposition is the Security, who are trying to quell the rebellion sparked by the Resistance. Because the environments are all so ramshackle in Brink, Splash Damage&#8217;s developed an all-new movement system called S.M.A.R.T. It stands for Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain and is basically a single-button parkour modifier that lets you easily scale heights or slide into tight spots. Each faction&#8217;s story will overlap with the opposition so you&#8217;ll need to play both Resistance and Security to get the whole picture. Even then, a high level of moral ambiguity pervades the narrative. During the &#8220;Dirty Bomb&#8221; mission that I played, some Security<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=58673&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Uncategorized</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/uncategorized/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timenerdworld.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/505container_city_concept_art.jpg?w=538" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">505Container_City_Concept_Art</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timenerdworld.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/1108needammo.jpg?w=538" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">1108NeedAmmo</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timenerdworld.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/1135gunplay.jpg?w=538" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">1135GunPlay</media:title>
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		<title>Preview &amp; Contest: Get a Beta Code for &#8220;LittleBigPlanet 2&#8243;</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/12/10/preview-contest-get-a-beta-code-for-littlebigplanet-2/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/12/10/preview-contest-get-a-beta-code-for-littlebigplanet-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:30:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[contest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[littlebigplanet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.time.com/?p=58532</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[﻿﻿In his play &#8220;No Exit,&#8221; French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre famously observed that &#8220;hell is other people.&#8221; Sony&#8217;s LittleBigPlanet games have proven the opposite, that heaven is other people. Or, to be more specific, the ingenious user-generated levels that other LBP creators have crafted. I saw LBP2 yesterday and can attest that the creativity&#8217;s going to get stepped up several notches in upcoming sequel from dev studio Media Molecule. The tools the game gives you and what you can do with them have expanded exponentially. LBP2&#8216;s a tough game to get a demo for, because so much of the game&#8217;s vitality comes after it comes out. That said, Media Molecule head honcho showed off several very cool-looking features. The first was an all-new grappling hook that Sackboy can use. It makes the guesswork on those tricky jump a lot easier and adds a new level of mobility to boot. The only person who had actual dialogue in LBP1 was actor Stephen Fry, who returns to narrate this game as well. But, now, players can record dialogue snippets using the microphone in the Playstation Eye camera. This function&#8217;s a neat way t add a little more personality to the levels that you create. Next, Evans showed me a created level where music cues synced up exactly with other elements in the level, so doors opened exactly when a passage played. You could listen to the music of this level and know exactly when a sliding door going to open. I also saw how the creation aspect of the game&#8217;s much faster, too. You can duplicate Sackbots–the AI characters who&#8217;ll follow you around–and then give the different looks in a few quick button presses. Evans said that the dev team wanted to move beyond the left-to-right platformer design model that the first game was built on. And now, LBP2 can be used to make may different types of genres, from top-down shooters to Peggle-style puzzle games. I asked Evans what the biggest complaint users had from LBP1 was and he replied that<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=58532&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://techland.time.com/2010/12/10/preview-contest-get-a-beta-code-for-littlebigplanet-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Preview: Knights Contract Curses Gamers With Immortality</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/10/25/preview-knights-contract-curses-gamers-with-immortality/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/10/25/preview-knights-contract-curses-gamers-with-immortality/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[namco bandai]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=51846</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s odd that you see a single trend running through games from a publisher, but Namco Bandai really seems to be enamored of partnership a s a game design idea. I&#8217;ve written about Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom&#8216;s odd couple and, of course, the tense bond between Monkey and Trip gives Enslaved it&#8217;s essential friction. The third game in that trend is Knights Contract, a medieval hack-n-slash being developed by Game Republic. Set in Germany during the Dark Ages, the game has players controlling a warrior named Heinrich. He had the grim task of killing people afflicted with the Black Plague. A series of events brings him into conflict with three evil witches, whom he slays. But his victory&#8217;s a hollow one that leaves him cursed with immortality, as a parting gift from the witches. The curse can only be lifted by killing the witches again so Heinrich sends his days as an immortal demon executioner, hoping to come across the necromantic trio again. He finally gets his chance when a malevolent warlock named Dr. Faust resurrects the witches to use their power to evil ends. The twist is that Faust is the one who ordered Heinrich to kill the witches in the first place. But one witch named Gretchen actually becomes his partner and this is where Knights Contract gets its symbiotic relationship. Heinrich&#8217;s unable to be killed as a result of his curse but Gretchen can be harmed. He&#8217;ll need to protect her from the swarms of demonic enemies the game will throw at you. She, in turn, will be the source of the player&#8217;s magic attacks. Heinrich wields a giant scythe that doles out quick, bladed attacks and hammer-like blows that are heavier and slower. The souls reaped by Heinrich&#8217;s scythe will fuel Gretchen&#8217;s magic. When she gets hurt, he&#8217;ll have to carry her in his arms in order for her to heal. While much of Knights Contract takes off on a God of War-style template, it will have elements of European folklore woven into it. Formerly<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=51846&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Giveaway: Lego Universe Lets Players Build Big</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/10/21/giveaway-lego-universe-lets-players-build-big/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/10/21/giveaway-lego-universe-lets-players-build-big/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[giveaway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lego]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=51470</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As anyone who has a kid or a younger person in their life probably already knows, the recent wave of Lego video games have been great. Not only have they been some of the best kid-centric video games ever, but games like Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Star Wars have also been fun co-op experiences and good licensed titles, too. But the one thing missing from those titles has been the core Lego mechanic: building things. Sure, you can come upon a pile of bricks in Lego Batman and make a cool vehicle but that&#8217;s really just a set on pre-scripted animations playing out. There&#8217;s no room for player-focused creativity in those games. NetDevil&#8217;s hoping to change all of that with Lego Universe. The Colorado development studio&#8217;s been toiling away at a massively multiplayer online game that aims to bring all the fun of unfettered creation into a virtual world. In the fictional world of Lego Universe, an evil force called the Maelstrom is destroying civilizations across the galaxy. Players will join up as members of the heroic Nexus Force who fight to save the power of imagination across the universe. Like other MMO games, you&#8217;ll customize a Lego minifigure character and pick a faction to align with. The Assembly characters have stronger building skills, Venture League members are acrobatic rogue types, the Sentinels are a knight-like class and Paradox folks actually try to use the dark magic of the Maelstrom against itself. So, you&#8217;ll be able to wield weapons (gently, this is Lego after all) and smash enemies in many of the quests but it&#8217;s actually creativity that&#8217;s the best weapon against the bad mojo. The Maelstrom leaves behind goopy puddles that don&#8217;t actually dissipate until you build something around them. This also lets you claim sections of the planets you&#8217;ll be going to. Once you get some adventuring under your belt, you&#8217;ll get property to build on. It&#8217;s in this part of the game that truly honors the Lego legacy. Whether it&#8217;s houses, vehicles or something totally random,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=51470&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>25</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Haunting the Ghost of Sparta: Inside the New God of War PSP Game</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/10/08/49650/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/10/08/49650/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[god of war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hands-on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[psp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=49650</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kratos–the man-turned-god in Sony&#8217;s God of War series–met a tragic end at the close of God of War III. (Or did he?) However, you&#8217;ll still get to play as the angriest Spartan ever when God of War: Ghost of Sparta hits the PSP in November. Whom The Gods Would Destroy: The God of War III Review So, yeah. There&#8217;s a brother in the mix. Deimos was mentioned in the very first GOW game on PS2 but that plot thread hasn&#8217;t been followed up on until now. I had a chance to play a complete build of the game this week and it&#8217;s the sharpest portable effort yet from development studio Ready At Dawn. Visually, the first thing you notice is that there&#8217;s no difference between the Kratos in cutscenes and the model used during gameplay. It&#8217;s an impressive feat considering how much else the game engine if pulling off. The number of on-screen enemies have increased but Kratos have a few new moves that let him deal with all the added threats. God of More: New Ghost of Sparta PSP Game Explores Kratos&#8217; Past I played through two sections of the game and the first puts you on a ship sailing for Atlantis as Kratos begins his search for answers. The Hyperion Rush is a new move that lets players do a running tackle on the nearest enemy. Once you&#8217;ve felled them, Kratos can brutally punch and stab them to death.  And just as God of War III&#8216;s bow and arrows brought ranged attacks to Kratos&#8217;s arsenal, Ghost of Sparta introduces a spear and shield set that give the pale Spartan a way to kill from afar. Several new types of magic are being introduced in GOW:GOS, too. Kratos wielded a ice blast that froze nearby enemies and there&#8217;s also a fire modifier to his blade attacks that sets ghouls on fire. Fiery attacks also have a sticky-bomb effect that makes enemies explode after you thrash them. New PSP Debuts With God of War: Ghost of Sparta Of course, the giant boss battles<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=49650&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Sony</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/companies-2/sony/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Tron: Evolution Game Fills Gap Between Old and New Movie</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/09/29/first-look-tron-evolution-game-fills-gap-between-old-and-new-movie/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/09/29/first-look-tron-evolution-game-fills-gap-between-old-and-new-movie/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tron]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tron: Evolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=48128</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Even though Tron holds a special place in the hearts of nerds everywhere, the games that have tried to build on the fiction of the visionary 1982 film haven&#8217;t been successful at capturing its glowing neon energy. That could all change with Tron: Evolution and the reason for that is the way that Disney and British developer Propaganda Games are approaching the game. While 2003&#8242;s Tron 2.0 tried to reference the canon of the movie, it didn&#8217;t have the proximity to officially sanctioned Tron lore to really make it stick. This time, Disney views Evolution as a core part of the Tron mythos and is using the game to show how the virtual landscape deteriorated to the state seen in Legacy. And the game will show several areas that the movie doesn&#8217;t. T:E bridges the gap between the original Tron movie and the upcoming Tron Legacy,  Evolution puts players control the character of Anon, an AI created by Flynn to investigate a massive virus that&#8217;s tearing the grid apart. I came into the Evolution demo dubious but was impressed at the level of polish it&#8217;s showing well before launch. The game&#8217;s structured as a third-person action game, with heavy platforming elements. Anon&#8217;s movement style combine elements of parkour/free running and capoeira and he&#8217;ll be leaping and scaling the walls of the gridworld like a neon-&#38;-black Prince of Persia. The disc combat moved along in brisk fashion and came off as far more brutal than I was expecting. When the digital bad guys discorporated into bits of data, it really felt like something violent was happening to them. Anon will wield four kinds of discs: bomb, heavy, corruption and stasis. Stasis lets him levitate and had a slowdown effect, bomb blows stuff up and so on. Anon will also be able to shift between various states–defense, sprint, and combo–which all create new functions for the four disc types. Any upgrades you earn in the single-player game will be available in online play and multiplayer will be comprised of five-player teams battling<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=48128&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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		<title>Hands-On With Call of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/09/02/hands-on-with-call-of-duty-black-ops-multiplayer/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/09/02/hands-on-with-call-of-duty-black-ops-multiplayer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[activision]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty: black ops]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hands-on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[playstation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[treyarch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=43260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[According to remarks from David Vondehaar of Treyarch, Call of Duty: Black Ops will ship with about 14 maps on the disc when the game hits on November 9th. I had the chance to try out some of the various new multiplayer maps and match types last night and came away impressed. (More on Techland: Call of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer Offers Theater Mode, Wagering and More) The first multiplayer match type I dove into was called Sticks and Stones, I think. It was a Wager Match that happened on a snowy, desolate location and each player started with a set amount of COD points. Get killed and lose 100 points, take someone out and get cash back. But the best part of this match was the weapons loadout. Each of us was equipped with only a crossbow and a ballistic knife. Now, the crossbow&#8217;s been one of the more ballyhooed new weapons in all of the Black Ops hype and I was able to see why. It&#8217;s super-accurate and super-deadly and–since the arrows have explosive tips–a direct hit pretty much guarantees a kill.  The crossbows we used had only three bolts for ammo, so you had to pick your shots carefully. And if you miss a shot at an opponent, the long reload time makes you a sitting duck. The weapon felt like it had a nice risk/reward balance built into it. I started off the match poorly, languishing in Humiliated status (because I&#8217;d lost all my money) but I actually came out on top of the round after notching up a bunch of kills just before time ran out. My next session took place on the Radiation map, which is on a missile launch site. David Vondehaar of Treyarch said that this was one of the new game&#8217;s maps where players could interact with the environment and triggers things like the launch bay doors opening. Things like that will have tactical applications. But none of playing on Radiation tried anything like that because we were playing Gun Game,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=43260&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Preview Dead Rising 2 Today with Case Zero DLC, Only on Xbox Live</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/08/31/preview-dead-rising-2-today-with-case-zero-dlc-only-on-xbox-live/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/08/31/preview-dead-rising-2-today-with-case-zero-dlc-only-on-xbox-live/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:34:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dlc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox live]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zombie apocalypse]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=42465</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s little less than a month to go until Capcom&#8217;s zombie apocalypse sequel comes to PS3 and Xbox 360. But, only fans with a Microsoft game console will be able to see what Chuck Greene&#8217;s weapon-building skills are all about. (More on Techland: Captivate 2010: Dead Rising 2 Doubles the Undead Destruction) Out today exclusively for Xbox Live, the Case Zero prequel to Dead Rising 2 introduces players Chuck and his ailing daughter Katey. Case Zero happens two years after the first Dead Rising game and three years before the events in DR2, chronicling Chuck&#8217;s desperate attempts to stop his daughter from becoming a zombie after being bitten in another outbreak. Here&#8217;s how Capcom describes it: In need of fuel and looking to stock up on supplies, Chuck and Katey stop at the small desert town of Still Creek, where all initially seems as peaceful as its name suggests. But shortly after their arrival a containment zone is breached and the undead begin to shuffle into town.  To make matters worse, someone steals Chuck’s truck so now they have no way to leave. With Katey needing a shot of Zombrex very soon, Chuck has no option but to search Still Creek’s zombie infested streets for the drug, and a way out of town. In Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO, just like the full game, Chuck will be able to use his handyman skills and a roll of duct tape to combine two items to create powerful combo weapons. Not only do these combo weapons make killing zombies easier and a often a lot more gruesome, they have the added benefit of earning Chuck additional Prestige Points which in turn result in quicker levelling up. During his search for Zombrex and a new ride, Chuck will be able to explore the streets and stores of Still Creek, encountering Survivors, unbitten humans that Chuck can choose to save or leave as a zombie feast before taking on a Psycho, one of the signature bosses of the Dead Rising series. Players purchasing Dead Rising<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=42465&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>My Ten Hours with Halo: Reach</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/08/26/my-ten-hours-with-halo-reach/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/08/26/my-ten-hours-with-halo-reach/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:46:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Evan Narcisse</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[halo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[halo reach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hands-on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xbox 360]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=41700</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I got the weirdest feeling while playing a finished version of Halo: Reach this week. I felt a little bit of regret. Regret, because I–and probably a lot of gamers–have been taking Bungie&#8217;s excellent work on the series for granted. And now that the original Halo designers and the universe they worked on are about to part ways, there&#8217;s an undercurrent of sadness as Reach gets ready to lift off the runway. But I wasn&#8217;t too sad, because Bungie&#8217;s going out with a bang. I got the chance to play through the first five or six levels of Bungie&#8217;s farewell to the Spartans and the Covenant. I can only talk about two of those levels, though, or black vans with Seattle license plates will abduct me to parts unknown. (More on Techland: Halo: Reach Comes Alive with New &#8220;Deliver Hope&#8221; Trailer) Reach feels deep in a way that previous Halo games haven&#8217;t. There&#8217;s a reason they named this one after a planet. From the very first opening cutscenes, the game resonates with a sense of place that even the levels based on Earth in Halo 3 didn&#8217;t have. Reach isn&#8217;t overbuilt like other planets we&#8217;ve visited in the Halo-verse; it&#8217;s got vast expanses of emptiness and a lot of the time playing is spent covering distance and soaking up the vistas that the developers have built. At first, you&#8217;re not even sure that Covenant are on Reach and even when you start fighting against them, you have no idea why they&#8217;re focusing their attentions on the planet. The other thing that hits you right away is how much more humanized the Spartans of Noble Team are. As I covered before, players will be controlling Noble Six, a new member of the elite unit. When you meet the other members of Noble Team, you find they all have names and they refer to each other by name, not just callsign. Kat, Emile, Neil Jorge and their leader Carter have their own relationships with each other and you can tell that they&#8217;ve all<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=41700&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/news/gaming-culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">evnarc</media:title>
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		<title>Excerpt: Zahn&#8217;s Terminator Salvation: Trial By Fire</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/08/20/preview-of-zahns-terminator-salvation-trial-by-fire-from-titan-books/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/08/20/preview-of-zahns-terminator-salvation-trial-by-fire-from-titan-books/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Ha</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming & Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[titan books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=40724</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=40724&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Gaming &amp; Culture</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/apps-web/gaming-%c2%a0culture/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Peter Ha</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">TerminatorTrial2</media:title>
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		<title>Reboot: Windows Phone 7 Preview</title>
		<link>http://techland.time.com/2010/07/19/reboot-windows-phone-7-preview-part-1/</link>
		<comments>http://techland.time.com/2010/07/19/reboot-windows-phone-7-preview-part-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:23:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Peter Ha</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smartphones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hands-on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[preview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows phone 7]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wp7]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://techland.com/?p=35727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What would it take to make Microsoft relevant in a world filled with iOS 4, Android and webOS? Consider, for a moment, that the aforementioned platforms are the Blue Screen of Death for Microsoft. The last generation Windows Mobile platform was old, busted and rusted. And like any overpaid IT guy will ask you, “Have you tried rebooting?” Well, isn’t that a clever idea? When Microsoft unveiled the Windows Phone 7 platform earlier this year at Mobile World Congress, it caught the attention of the entire industry because it simply didn’t look like a Microsoft product. I was first privy to a demo of the OS weeks prior to its official unveiling and I remarked that it didn’t really look like a Microsoft product. It was different. I’ve had my hands on a “close-to-release candidate” of the completely overhauled platform running aboard a Samsung dev sled for a few days. My earlier suspicions about the mobile OS are more or less correct; it’s different and quite nice. Over the years Microsoft has built a number of successful individual products (Bing, Xbox Live, Zune). You could say that Windows Phone 7 is a lot like Voltron. (Yeah, I went there.) The individual pieces are cool in and of themselves but when combined it morphs into a kick-ass sword-wielding robot that’s ready to slay the beast. So how is it? Well, there are a few caveats, which is why this isn’t a review of the mobile platform. The Apps Marketplace is a barren wasteland except for a few demo apps. Developers will be getting dev sleds shortly ensuring they have enough time before the fall rollout to fill the Marketplace with goodies. The Xbox Live hub is also under construction. We can’t comment on battery life or hardware specs because “Taylor” the dev sled we’re using will never make it to market and Microsoft is still tweaking its battery optimization algorithms. With that out of the way, let’s get started. User Interface Unlike everyone else in the industry, Microsoft made the concerted<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=techland.time.com&#038;blog=5290478&#038;post=35727&#038;subd=timenerdworld&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smartphones</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://techland.time.com/category/gadgets/smartphones/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Peter Ha</media:title>
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