Hasta La Gadget!

The first of two downloadable expansions for the game BioShock Infinite has been unveiled today for download. This download goes by the name Clash in the Clouds and is what the creators of this game call an “action-focused” expansion, it also arriving as the smaller of the two expansions that’ve been planned for this title. This game’s developers at Irrational Games have also announced the second expansion: Burial at Sea.

This first expansion builds on the action-oriented angles in the game whose original chapter was released all the way back in 2007. With BioShock Infinite, users were asked to join a futuristic (yet retro) steampunk-like adventure complete with gadgets & and gizmos, monsters, and magic. And lots of fantasy landscapes and environments to explore.

This upgrade for the game appears for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC today, coming in at $5 USD. Clash in the Clouds brings new abilities – mostly magic – and you back down to Rapture, starting in on “the eve of the underwater city’s fall from grace.”

Explore the city when it was at the height of its beauty, meet some old “friends,” and make some new ones, all through the eyes of Booker DeWitt. Why are Booker and Elizabeth in Rapture? What was the city like before everything fell to pieces? The answers to these questions and more will be found in BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea — Episode 1.

This expansion was build “almost entirely from scratch” using the BioShock Infinite engine and modifies the gameplay format from the base game. This modification tweaks the combat experience to be a mix between the original BioShock and the newer BioShock Infinite – the best of both worlds.

VIA Irrational Games

BioShock Infinite DLC Clash in the Clouds appears today, ready for battle is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google’s head of Android and Chrome Sundar Pichai is on stage at the company’s Breakfast event where they’re planned to unveil some new products dealing with both Android and Chrome. But before that, Pichai is talking about some figures and numbers that are pretty Earth-shattering, especially when talking about tablets and PCs.

According to the IDC, Tablets will outnumber PCs by the end of this year. Pichai showed a chart on stage that shows a relatively slow-moving upward trend for both consumer and corporate PCs, but the growth of tablets has an incredible exponential growth, and in just a few months, it’s predicted that tablet sales will outperform PC sales.

Pichai says that by the end of 2013, 225 million tablets will have been sold, leading to more tablets being sold than PCs. As for total Android tablet activations, the end of 2012 saw almost 40 million activations, but that number is over 70 million. He also notes that almost one in two tablets sold worldwide is based on Android, with the rest being iPads.

Of course, this news isn’t too surprising, seeing as how we’re entering a post-PC world. PCs will still exist, but smartphones and tablets seem to be overtaking the market and are selling more than computers. 225 million is a lot of tablets to go around, and that number is expected to keep rising.

Tablets sales to outnumber PCs by the end of the year is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s time again to get dirty with some car-to-car battle-ready action with an upcoming video game title MotorGun. This game is being initiated by members of the development team behind the Windows-based vehicular combat game Interstate 76 and brings on none other than Twisted Metal (and God of War) creator David Jaffe for some real classic expertise. What we’ve got here is all of the ingredients necessary for a full-on next-generation car battle amalgamation – now they’ve just got to get moving to make it happen before it fizzles.

As the title Carmageddon made one massive amount of cash earlier this year for its rebirth unto Android, so too will MotorGun seek the assistance of the public. While this game’s set goal may appear lofty at $650k right out of the gate, prospective players will do well to remember that the Android-specific Carmageddon reached its $600k goal without too much of a hubbub surrounding it.

With the team you’re seeing here bringing out what they’re titling “Return to the Auto Duel”, we’re expecting a lot. Here’s what the team has to say about the game, in short:

“MotorGun will weld real world car physics and a diverse set of realistic cars to a set of amazing weapons systems of all kinds. It puts you in control of a deep set of customization elements – from paint to payload, it’s all up to you. As you play you’ll advance and be exposed to an ever-deepening set of vehicle tech-trees, blowers, turbos and sway bars – heat seekers, miniguns and rocket pods.”

Try you hand in multiplayer combat in the wasteland. To the victor goes the spoils. It’s the culmination of over two decades of car combat video game pedigrees and it’s commin’ at you at wide open throttle.” – Pixelbionic

The concept artwork you’re seeing here comes from Maxx Kaufman, a member of the Pixelbionic team. The final creation will be based on these bits and pieces and will take on a much more 3D look. Have a peek at a preview of the “Ratter” vehicle next:

The game will bring on several different modes of play including Convoy, Salvage, and Capture the Flag – and of course you’ll want to destroy as much as possible in both opposing vehicles and environments while you’re at it. The creators of this game suggests that both team-based, goal-oriented matches as well as Counterstrike-style matches will be taking place. That’s a combination we’d like to see.

Above you’ll see a single in-game prototype screenshot – note that this game is aimed at Windows and OS X for now, but we may see expansions as development progresses. If the team can take this all up a notch – somewhere between what we’ve seen for Max Max and what we love to kick it with in Borderlands – they’ll have a win on their hands. A win!

VIA: Pixel Bionic; Kotaku

MotorGun game brings Twisted Metal creator back to vehicular warfare is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s a rather hopeless landscape that makes up the Mad Max game, and the movie series that it represents. Here in this week’s first gameplay trailer for the title, you’ll find the “soul of a man” song turning the Australian outback’s post-apocalyptic sensibilities back on a 2013 title for devices both current and next-generation in name. While the story is based in hopelessness, the conservation of fuel and scrounging for firearms and food, Mad Max will have a few more rounds to blast.

While the Mad Max movies will be remembered for their epic car chases and unique pre-steampunk style, the dark tone and starving nature of man’s state of affairs after a massive world war will indeed be translated to this game title. At least this first “gameplay” trailer says it will. Complete with a lovely rendition of a country song made to tug at your heartstrings, (Soul of a Man – Steven Stern) this 1.5-minute spot has a few missing elements as well.

There’s no dog, for example. While the dog doesn’t appear throughout the Mad Max series as a staple from the start of each film to the end, the idea that the creators of this game could have added a dog but didn’t will have some die-hard fans weeping. The same goes for the main character. That’s not Mel Gibson.

You’ll have noticed – if your eyes are attuned to such things – that the vast majority of the clip does not actually feature gameplay as such. Instead you’ll have to pick and choose scenes where you’re actually diving in on driving and shooting – the rest is made up of some rather impressive looking cut-scenes.

This says a lot about the final product, mind you. If the final game doesn’t look half as good as the scenes we’re seeing here, at least they’ll be interspersed with the good stuff while the gameplay attempts to make up for it.

You’ll at least be driving a vehicle in part of the game, fighting with hand-to-hand combat and 3rd-person sharpshooting in the other. That seems clear.

The original E3 announcement trailer shows a bit more on the ins-and-outs of the title – on the tenor, at least. Fans of Mad Max that’d been playing Fallout in wait for a real Road Warrior title will be finding themselves tickled – or run over by the black heat.

Mad Max video game full gameplay trailer tips Xbox One and PS4 digs is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

All expecting parents have read What to Expect When You’re Expecting, because when that little bundle of joy drops out of mommy, you’d better be ready with lots of paper towels and a whole lot of specialized knowledge about what to do from that moment forward. Though it’s not quite as messy (or scary), setting up a new PC requires a similar sort of informed approach if you want to raise it properly from the moment it squirts out of the Fedex truck and into your life.

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