Since Adam West's Batman, no one has handled Dark Knight parodies as well as Lego. Their Lego Batman series is fun to play, enjoyable to beat, and fun to laugh at. Every time Bats starts taking himself too seriously, someone breaks the ice for a few laughs. It's the beauty of the series, and will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

Check out the announcement trailer:

This time around, it's the Justice League vs. the Legion of Doom, led by the evil Brainiac, who arrives from the darkness of space to rule over the Earth once and for all. There will be over 150 DC characters to unlock overall, says TT Games, the developer of the series.

A highlight of the game is undoubtedly Batman's new space suit. I'm looking forward to gliding through space with my favorite superhero.

Lego Batman 3comes out this fall for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, 3DS, Vita, and PC.

We haven't even had a chance to shoot our first monster in the foggy streets of London, and already The Order: 1886 has been delayed to early 2015. Originally scheduled for late 2014, the game features an old order of knights who are tasked with ridding London of all kinds of ghoulies and creepy crawlies. Or giant, man-eating monsters.

"To deliver that experience that we've wanted, and that we hope players expect, we're targeting an early 2015 release on the game," says Ru Weerasuriya, the game's creative director. "...We're really trying to hone in on getting the whole game to that level of polish."

I'm sure we'll get to see a bit more of this game at the Sony Media Briefing at this year's E3. What is this game all about? Just how intense is the action? How deep is the horror?

The game definitely has my attention. Hopefully, it won't be delayed any further!

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Well, here's another big game announced before E3 (it's like they're taking away some of the magic of it all, isn't it)? EA has confirmed that the next Battlefield will be named Battlefield Hardline and not Battlefield 5.

EA officially revealed Hardline via its official site, simply displaying some assets and stating that the game will be fully revealed June 9th at 12 PDT (E3).

The game will be a cops-and-robbers shooter scheduled for release this fall, and has been under development via Visceral Games (they did Dead Space for those keeping score at home).

Executive producer at developer Visceral Games Steve Papoutsis wrote, "The game launches this fall and it’s a brand new series in the Battlefield franchise, set against the backdrop of a genre we all love – the war on crime and the battle between cops and criminals. We’re excited to be going into more detail soon on the ways we’re adding new twists and turns to the foundation of Battlefield multiplayer and more about how we’re bringing our strengths at Visceral to single player"

Obviously, we don't have all the details yet, but the thoughts of cops-and-robbers sounds cringeworthy to me. I'm not writing it off yet, though, but only because it is Visceral Games, and we have some seen great Battlefield games in the past from EA (obviously not talking about Battlefield 4).

Does Battlefield Hardline's cops-and-robbers concept have you interested or completely turned off? Sound off in the comments--we'd love to hear all of your opinions on the general concept.

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Back in January 2012, Wizards of the Coast announced that work was beginning on a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Like several gamers who received that announcement, my first thought was dismay. I'd finally gotten the hang of 4th Edition, and now I was going to have to change again?

But the goal of announcing the development so early -- two and a half years before the game would be released -- was to allow as many players as possible to get in on the playtest experience, weigh in on what worked and what didn't in the game rules, and be a part of the development process. I got a peek at that original playtest packet, but the game has gone through so many changes since then, almost everything I know firsthand is no longer valid.

(Which is just as well, since, if I had information about the game under an NDA, I wouldn't be able to write about it here!)

So now that the release date is approaching--Barnes and Noble leaked the dates as July 15, 2014 for the D&D Starter Kit, with the Player's Handbookreleasing August 19 (two days after the end of GenCon, so it's not a huge leap to guess it will be available to convention goers)--what do we know about Dungeons and Dragons' fifth edition?

The Familiar

For the more than 175,000 playtest participants and the players who have kept up with Mike Mearls's extensive notes in the "Legends Lore" column for Daily D&Don the Wizards of the Coast website, there's already a lot of information out there. But if you don't want to sift through two years of articles and don't have that firsthand insider information, here are the basics of what you'll recognize in the new edition:

- The game will emphasize elements from "classic" D&D: adventure, exploration, and storytelling. Mearls and the design team have talked a number of times about boiling down the new edition to the core experience of D&D.

- The setting for the new edition is the Forgotten Realms. To get players ready for the new edition, the Forgotten Realms novels and official adventures released in 2013 covered an event called "The Sundering," which preps the world for the changes coming with the new rules.

- Eberron and Ravenloft will be back, too, just not in the core books.

- Dragons are still at the center of things. The first major storyline being launched for D&D Next is The Tyranny of Dragons, in which the Cult of the Dragon tries to bring about the return of Tiamat, evil queen of the dragons.

- Alignment is back.

- Your low level characters will look a lot like low level characters from 1st and 2nd edition, with fewer customizable abilities than 3rd or 4th edition. That's intentional: it's easier to start a new player, and the low levels are likely to go by quickly enough that players won't mind early limitations.

- If there's a question about how the game works, ultimately, it's the DM's call. The idea of manipulating the rules for better game play based on the table, the players, and the campaign was stressed in the introduction to 4e, and the concept of flexibility and adaptation seems to be prevalent in the design articles about D&D Next as well.

The Less Familiar

Every new edition of D&D has had certain classes get left out at the beginning, or new classes replacing old ones, or new takes on old rules like skills and feats (instead of proficiencies). Here are some of the things that will look just a little different from previous rules sets:

- Simplicity is key. "The entire D&D Nextsystem can be summarized as a series of d20 + ability modifier + proficiency bonus rolls," Mearls described in "Making the DM's Job Easy." The simplicity of the mechanics is designed to encourage DMs to be able to improvise on the fly, limit the prep time required for creating an adventure or campaign, and to help new players be able to pick up the game quickly.

- Classes will be grouped into four categories: Warriors, Tricksters, Mages, and Priests. The four core classes remain Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric, but other classes like monks, warlocks, and sorcerers have been mentioned in the "Legends and Lore" column and are likely to be included in the initial rules set. We've also seen draft rules for barbarian, bard, druid, paladin, and ranger.

- XP is still around, but rather than forcing designers to fit a certain number of monsters into an adventure to get characters to the level they want, DMs are given the option to level characters after particular story arcs or goals are completed.

- As you get more powerful, your Hit Points will increase more substantially than Attack rolls, Saving Throw bonuses, Armor Class, or DCs to accomplish tasks. The bonus progression for attacks, checks, and saves ranges from +1 at 1st level to +6 at 20th level. Experts can get additional bonuses.

- Playtesters balked at the idea of getting rid of skills and feats, even though they make the game more complex, so the design team kept them in. Feats will be optional, and player characters that utilize them won't be more powerful than those that don't, just differently built. Skills will be based on abilities -- but not always the same ability all the time. So a PC might make a Strength (Athletics) check to climb a cliff, but a Wisdom (Athletics) check to determine the difficulty of climbing the cliff in the first place. Skills aren't limited by class; they're opened up by backgrounds (see more below) and other choices. And PCs can choose to become experts, potentially doubling their check modifier.

- Backgrounds -- a more literary way of looking at character creation -- includes details for your character such as personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Backgrounds also replace professional skills (because how often could you apply that Profession: Chandler skill in a dungeon, anyway?) and give a more role-playing centric focus for the mechanics.

The Different

If you're expecting D&D to stay a tabletop-only game, you may be surprised by what comes next. Wizards of the Coast is bringing D&D to multiple gaming platforms, a "transmedia experience,"according to David M. Ewalt, all the ways to play D&D will revolve around the same core story and set of rules. In 2013, Hasbro announced a partnership with videogame company DeNA to release free D&D mobile games. The NeverwinterMMO will tie into the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, as will the organized play program.

"A plotline might start in the organized play games and finish in a published module," Ewalt explained, noting that Wizards is going for a more fluid way to experience D&D. Jonathan Bolding of Escapist explained how Chris Perkins of Wizards R&D described the new D&D: "a multiplatform entertainment experience tied to a central theme, not something that necessarily only exists as a tabletop game." And Nathan Stewart, brand director of D&D, told Forbesin 2013, "I think the future of Dungeons and Dragons is not the D&D Next rule set or even the tabletop RPG, but it’s this feeling that you get playing Dungeons & Dragons, no matter where you do it."

But multimedia or not, the dice are here to stay.

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Undead Labs has announced the release date for the next State of Decay DLC today, and they’ve unleashed an explosive new trailer to go along with it. The open world zombie-survival game was first released on Xbox 360 last summer to great success, with the game’s first DLC Breakdownfollowing soon after.

The new LifelineDLC will be taking a more militaristic approach to the refined survival gameplay, with players assuming the role of a platoon called Greyhound One in Danforth City, which spans around four square kilometers. As part of this platoon, you’ll need to ensure the safety of a group of survivors for a set period of time, while also holding down the fort in the city that is quickly being overrun.

The LifelineDLC will be released on May 30 for both Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, which is a whole month ahead of Undead Labs’ original projections. In a blog post, Undead Labs coyly remarks that “this may be the first time in gaming history that a game was released BEFORE the official public target.”

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Bethesda Softworks has announced a brand new competitive multiplayer action game called BATTLECRY, a free-to-play team-based battle royale that’s set to feature frenzied 32-player online battles. The upcoming game will be the first release from Bethesda’s BattleCry Studios, which was formed in 2012 by a number of industry veterans.

The world of BATTLECRY was envisioned by Viktor Antonov of Half-Life 2 and Dishonored fame, and the action takes place in an alternate timeline where gun powder has been outlawed in the wake of a devastating world war at the onset of the 20th century. As a result, all future conflicts are played out through close and personal encounters in designated WarZones.

Players can choose to side with one of two factions, the Royal Marines or the Cossacks, and rise up the ranks with their fearless warrior. As you win matches and refine your skills, you’ll also have the power to upgrade your warrior and make use of BATTLECRY’s unique and transformative weapons, like a sword that can turn into a shield, or devastating blades that can harness the power of electricity.

Alongside the game’s announcement, Bethesda has also released a breathtaking (and bloody) cinematic trailer to give everyone their first taste of BATTLECRY in action. In speaking on the news, president and executive producer of BattleCry Studios Rich Vogel has stated: “We have been hard at work to create a fresh experience for gamers that brings together multiplayer action with visually stunning combat.”

BATTLECRY is reportedly going to be playable at the Bethesda booth during this year’s E3, while the game will officially enter a beta period on PC sometime in 2015. Keep checking back on Den of Geek for more details on BATTLECRY as soon as we learn them!

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Building your dream house has never been easier than it is in The Sims 4, thanks to the game’s advanced Build Mode. Today’s new trailer shows us just how fast you’ll be able to move your Sims into their happy new home in the upcoming sequel from Maxis and Electronic Arts, and I’ll be honest: it looks pretty darn cool.

The new builder will effortlessly let players drag and drop entire rooms into their floor plan, or draw them quickly and easily from scratch. Rooms can be expanded by clicking and dragging on the edges, and as you change the size of your room, the game will automatically adjust the positioning of the furniture to accommodate the new dimensions.

But if you’re in a bit of a hurry, you can also choose from a number of already furnished rooms in a range of different styles, as well as architectural pieces, outdoor decorations, and more. The actual walls of your house can be extended to one of three different heights as well, and adding windows is as easy as the single click of a button. Hell, the entire house can even be picked up and moved if you want to!

The Sims 4 is currently expected to be released on PC and Mac by the end of 2014.

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Release Date: May 28, 2014
Platform: PC (reviewed), Mac
Developer: Nowhere Studios
Publisher: Nowhere Studios
Genre: Puzzle-platformer

Nowhere Studios has been pretty vocal about comparing Monochromato a cross between Limboand Ico, and after playing through the sidescrolling puzzle-platformer myself, it isn’t all that difficult to see why. The shadowy atmosphere of the game borrows the same black and white environments as Limbo, albeit with strategic splashes of red to add to the game’s overall aesthetic. It’s going to be hard for Monochromato escape its heavy Limboinfluence, but as the game progresses there is actually a good deal of unique and breathtaking set pieces that set this one apart from Playdead’s sidescrolling masterpiece.

The Icoportion of Monochromaactually comes from the puzzle-platforming gameplay, in which your character is forced to carry his little brother to safety throughout the entirety of your adventure (and don’t worry, the brother isn’t NEARLY as rip-out-your-hair difficult to manage as Yorda from Ico is). The little brother’s presence will come into play during most of the game’s puzzles, as he’ll often weigh you down and prevent you from reaching certain ladders or ledges that you’ll need to get to in order to progress. The catch is that you’ll only be able to set your brother down underneath one of the sparse spotlights that cover your surroundings.

The story is very simplistic, devoid of any dialogue, and shrouded in mystery at every turn: you play as the elder of two brothers who must find their way home through a dark and sinister world that’s based in our own reality. The areas you’ll traverse might as well be the same ones that are sitting beyond your very window, from a rainy farm, to a bustling urban street, to a quiet harbor. As you play, countless questions will start to formulate in your mind: Where are we going? Why is that red? Why is this huge guy in the striped sweater so intent on chasing us? Mind you, all of these questions embellish the story of Monochroma, and they give a great incentive to press onwards and unravel more of this sublime, yet earthly world.

Although the game is presented as one seamless journey with some pretty nice environmental blending in between the different areas, from a mechanical standpoint, Monochromais fairly segmented into dozens of puzzle rooms. Each larger room puzzle is separated by a long stretch of platforming or a chase sequence, which gives the game an odd balance between fast and slow moments. But for what it’s worth, most of the puzzles in the game are clever and well thought out, with only the occasional misstep when a solution calls for the utmost precision or speed in executing a maneuver.

And these instances are only turned into missteps because the game’s loose controls cannot account for the sharp precision that certain puzzles call for. Sometimes you’ll need to hang off the edge of a platform as it moves above a rattling train track, or position a crate in steadily rising water to hop back on it at an exceptionally precise moment: both extremely frustrating to execute given your character’s often slow movements and unresponsive jumping. I oddly never had too much of a problem with the controls during the chase sequences, though. There are also a few performance issues to contend with as well. I’ve experienced both slowdown and game crashing, even when switching to the lowest graphical setting.

Luckily Monochromais certainly a longer journey than Limbo, and so there is much more good to be found here than bad. The puzzles are often used to introduce new and welcome ideas into the mix, the story will give you something to think about, and the bleak visuals and environments begin to take on a life of their own before long, despite the obvious influences. If you’re in the market for a new sidescrolling puzzle-platformer, or have fond memories of Limboor Ico, then you’ll want to give Monochromaa shot, if only to eliminate any shadows of a doubt.

+STORY

+GRAPHICS

-GAMEPLAY

+SOUND

-REPLAYABILITY

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Infinite Crisis, the hit MOBA from Turbine Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, already has an impressive roster of "Champions." Most recently, Sinestro joined the fight. Now, Atrocitus invades the Multiverse to wreak havoc on the Justice League! Red Lantern Atrocitus joins Sinestro and several versions of Green Lantern in the game. We imagine that it's only a matter of time before characters like Larfleeze and Saint Walker make an appearance, as well!

Check out the trailer:

This enforcer brings the pain to the Infinite Crisisbattle arena. He's the leader of the Red Lanterns, and can spew hot plasma at his enemies. Here are his skills:

• Passive – Red Lantern’s Rage Atrocitus gains Rage from his basic attacks or when damaged, gaining slightly more Rage if damaged by an enemy Champion. His Rage Meter caps out at 100. Basic skills are Enraged when his Rage Meter is at (or above) 50 Rage, draining 50 Rage in the process. If time passes without gaining Rage, Atrocitus begins losing a small amount of Rage per second. When damaged, Atrocitus unleashes a small explosion of Power Damage in an area around him. At most, this triggers once every two seconds.
• Q: Crimson Slash Atrocitus resets his basic attack cooldown, empowering his next basic attack to deal additional Power Damage and slow the target’s Move Speed. Enraged: Power Damage hits an area around the target, and every enemy damaged is slowed.
• W: Come at me For a few seconds, Atrocitus forces nearby drones and creatures to attack him and reduces incoming damage by a flat amount. Damage reduction increases based on how much health Atrocitus is missing. Enraged: While active, Come At Me increases the frequency and Power Damage of Red Lantern’s Rage area of effect explosion.
• E: Overwhelming Rage Fills a target champion with Rage, forcing them into a mirrored charge with Atrocitus. When the two collide, the enemy is dealt Power Damage and is briefly Rooted. Enraged: Atrocitus taunts his target, forcing them to make basic attacks on each other for a short duration. Both have increased Attack Speed but reduced basic attack damage
• R: Plasma Wave Atrocitus spews a cone of plasma on his enemies to increase all incoming damage and deal Power Damage over time. For each champion hit, Atrocitus gains a flat amount of rage.

Before the Green Lantern Corp existed, the Guardians of the Universe used robotic Manhunters to keep the peace. But a programming flaw caused them to slay trillions. Atrocitus and four other survivors became the Five Inversions, fanatics who were in time routed and imprisoned by the Guardians. Atrocitus, however, managed to escape. He murdered a fellow Inversion using a red lantern, creating the first Red Power Ring. Armed with the raw force of rage made manifest, his war on the Guardians began anew.

Stay tuned to Den of Geek US for more Infinite Crisisnews!

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PopCap has announced this morning that their lovably weird online shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is coming to PS4 and PS3 this August. In addition to the zany base game, the upcoming PlayStation versions of Garden Warfare will also come equipped with the two recently released DLCs, Garden Variety and Zomboss Down.

It has also been reported by PopCap that the PS4 version of the game will run at a native 1080p and 60fps, and features split screen co-op, as well as Boss Mode support via the mobile PS App. Garden Warfare was originally released as an Xbox One exclusive this past February, with Xbox 360 and PC versions following shortly after (be sure to check out our review!).

The news shouldn’t come as that big of surprise, as yesterday PopCap began “teasing” an imminent announcement with a series of posters that put the Plants vs. Zombies characters into iconic artwork from PlayStation-exclusive titles, like Sly Cooper, Fat Princess, and Ratchet & Clank.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will hit the PS3 and PS4 on August 19 in North America, while our friends in Europe and the U.K. will have to wait until August 21 and August 22, respectively. Now if only we can get a console release of Plants vs. Zombies 2 next!

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**Updated With Class Numbers As Well**

Are you wondering which race was played the most in the WildStar's closed beta period? What about path--what was the most played class? Well, Carbine Studios have detailed some interesting statistics that were gathered from the closed beta period to shed some light on what players are doing, how they're leveling, and what races and paths they're choosing to play the most--some fun facts, if you will.

Over 5,758,776 hours of WildStar was played during the closed beta, which is the equivalent of 239,949 days of gaming. 1,651,865 players were created, which is more than the population of Estonia. Players also created 129,656 houses.

[Related: 8 Reasons To Dive Into Nexus]

The most popular race in WildStar appears to be the Aurin.  18% of players chose to create an Aurin character.  You would think that the Chua would actually have been the most popular race, but only 11% of players created a Chua.  Here is the full ranking:

Most Popular Race

1. Aurin  18%
2. Exile Human 17%
3. Cassian 14%
4. Mordesh 13%
5. Chua 11%
6. Mechari 10%
7. Draken 9%
8. Granok 8%

Most Popular Class

1. Spellslinger 19.92%
2. Warrior 18.14%
3. Stalker 17.22%
4. Engineer 16.70%
5. ESPer 16.14%
6. Medic 11.87%

As far as paths are concerned, 31% of players chose the Soldier path, followed by 26% choosing Explorer. The full ranking:

Most Popular Paths

1. Soldier 31%
2. Explorer 26%
3. Scientist 22%
4. Settler 21%

Another set of interesting statistics about the WildStar beta is how players were leveling. Carbine says 72 million quests were completed during the beta period, and 12.8 billion experience points were earned. Players earned the most experience through killing mobs, accounting for 50.1% of all XP earned. Here is a breakdown of how all the XP was earned:

How Experienced Was Earned

1. Kills 50.1%
2. Questing 41.1%
3. Miscellaneous 5.5% (whatever the hell that means)
4. Player Kills 1.6%
5. Daily Quests 0.9%
6. Challenges 0.7%
7. Public Events 0.2%

WildStar kicks off May 31 for the head start for those that pre-ordered, with the game officially releasing June 3. Check out more on WildStar from us here at Den of Geek.

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An official gameplay trailer for Rise of Incarnates has surfaced today, and by “surfaced,” I mean burst onto the scene in a wild and action-packed fashion. First announced last month, Rise of Incarnates is a new free-to-play PC action game from the creator of Tekkenand set to be published by Bandai Namco later this year.

And as one would expect from the minds behind Tekken, Rise of Incarnates is fast-paced and frantic to see in action, with blistering powers lighting up the screen, and players literally flying all over the battlefield to drop in with a finishing blow. The different 3D arenas are specifically designed for players to take advantage of both long-range and close-quarters combat strategies, as 2v2 online battles form the entire basis of the game.

If you can’t wait for your first taste of the game, then you can head on over to the official Rise of Incarnateswebsite and sign up for the Alpha release, which will conveniently be available this weekend from May 30 to June 1.

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Now that Sonic the Hedgehog is set to return in the near future with a brand new Cartoon Network show and accompanying Wii U and 3DS game, the speedy blue SEGA mascot is bringing more with him than just a fancy new scarf. In fact, Sonic will be getting a brand new friend for his journey in the upcoming Sonic Boomfranchise. So let us now introduce you to Sticks the Jungle Badger.

Entertainment Weekly has made the exclusive reveal of Sticks, whom they lovingly describe as “Crash Bandicoot, except crossed with Squirrel Baby Claire from season 6 of Lost.” Sonic’s new furry little friend is said to have a crucial role across all iterations of the Sonic Boom name, and battles her enemies with handmade weapons like a powerful boomerang.

You can head over to the Entertainment Weekly announcement page for a debut trailer of Sticks and her voice actor, Nika Futterman. The Sonic Boom TV show will premiere on Cartoon Network in time for the 2014/2015 season, while the Wii U and 3DS games that are said to serve as a prequel to the show have yet to be given a release date.

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The news about D&D's fifth edition, which I covered here, is continuing to come in as Wizards of the Coast announced what gamers can look forward to in organized play. Organized play and D&D go back to the 1980s, when Jean Rabe and the Role Playing Gamers Association (later just known by its acronym RPGA) launched Living City. D&D3.0 launched with Living Greyhawk as its opening shared world campaign. Gamers also got a chance to play two different campaign styles in the official WotC 3.x campaigns set in Keith Baker's Eberron: Mark of Heroes and Xen'drik Expeditions, which boasted four different factions.

The company also supported third party games, like Living Kingdoms of Kalamar, a joint production with Kenzer & Co., or Living Arcanis, which partnered WotC and Paradigm. In 4e, gamers explored Living Forgotten Realmsand got to try a new experience with D&D Encounters, an in-store only adventure series available on a weekly basis. On May 21, 2014, a press release from the Wizards of the Coast website gave gamers the details on what we can expect to see with organized play as the release date for the new D&D approaches.

Adventurers League

WotC announced that its brand-new organized play programs would come under the heading D&D Adventurers League. Players can create their own characters for convention, in-store, and other public events with the help of a (yet to be released) free D&D Adventurers League Players Guide. As in previous organized play experiences, DMs will be able to download pre-written adventurers to run for gamers at their tables; and convention and game-store organizers have been promised regular -- likely monthly -- content releases.

The Adventurers League opportunities are set in the Forgotten Realms and are planned to tie in to the Tyranny of Dragons storyline, in which the Cult of the Dragon is attempting to free the evil dragon queen Tiamat (and in which the Red Wizards of Thay will be regularly featured). Like with Xen'drik Expeditions, there will be factions available for Adventurers League players to belong to, which will determine loyalties--and rewards. And like in earlier organized play campaigns, players will track their character progression on a log sheet and be rewarded with "certs" -- certificates that show their special gear rewards. The campaign is administered by three managers (content, community, and resource), whose identities have not yet been revealed.

Play opportunities will come in three types:

- D&D Epics: adventures that are available at large scale conventions, which are "massive, multi-table events," according to the press release. The first Epic, Corruption in Kryptgarden, releases at GenCon and is set to impact the direction of the Tyranny of Dragons storyline.

- D&D Encounters: adventurers that continue the weekly in-store play opportunities. These remain casual introductory opportunities, but also tie into the main adventures and core story of the campaign.

- D&D Expeditions: adventures that are designed for convention play, and which, like earlier organized play campaigns, take a character from a low-level to high-level progression. These are set in the Moonsea region of the Forgotten Realms.

Gamer responses so far

The big question from forums discussing the Adventurers League seems to be one not directly mentioned in the press release: will there be a chance for gamers to play along at home? In previous organized play campaigns, home-based gaming groups could download adventures along with their convention and game store cohorts -- something especially convenient for gamers who don't live conveniently close to a game store that hosts weekly games. When asked on Twitter, designer Mike Mearls explained that the Epics, Encounters, and Expeditionswould not be for home play, but that home gamers could absolutely grab the Tyranny of Dragons published adventures. Merric Blackman compiled some of those tweets on his blog, noting that while Mearls said home gamers could be rewarded with certs, they couldn't trade them with other gamers in public events.

Other players remain skeptical of using certs, which had been a headache for previous living campaign administrators. But, as forum members pointed out, we don't yet know what form certs will take.

When asked about the public play preference by an ICv2 interviewer, Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for D&D, explained,"Stores foster D&D communities, and we want to support play at retail with great adventure content that ties to our main storyline. D&D Encounters is a great way to support stores, players, and great play experiences, and our adventure product is the best way to bring our story to life around the table."

The Tyranny of Dragons storyline, which launches at GenCon 2014, is expected to run through early 2015; players will hang onto their certs and continue progressing their characters through the next storyline.

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Dr. Catherine Halsey is one of the most complex characters in the Halo franchise. However, most of her development goes on in the periphery of the games. The creator of the Spartan program, she made multiple appearances in Halo: Reach and opened Halo 4. Halo 5: Guardians could bring even more attention to this secretive scientist, though - perhaps as an antagonist.

The new character revealed in the latest Halo 5 promotional art could offer a clue in this direction. In Karen Traviss’ Kilo-Five series, Halsey’s conviction places her in opposition to the manipulative Office of Naval Intelligence. The character posed in the new image has an ONI symbol on his chest armor. A second, green and yellow symbol on his helmet looks like a custom emblem, with a slight resemblance to the Reclaimer sigil. Could Halsey become the target of the new character in Halo 5?

If the new character is allied with the Master Chief, he may be allied against Halsey.

The last she was seen in Halo canon, Halsey was in the custody of Covenant radical Jul ‘Mdama, the vicious Elite antagonist in Spartan Ops. She had lost an arm to Spartan Sarah Palmer’s bullet and was in the business of revenge.

Her role in Halo 5 could manifest in many different ways:

As ally to Jul ‘Mdama

In Episode 4 of Spartan Ops, a mysterious message leads Halsey to Jul ‘Mdama. Halsey notes that “my compatriots were a hit squad, not a rescue team.” She’s desperate and hardened by Sarah Palmer’s attack. “The UNSC just tried to execute me. So you’ll need to offer something other than idle threats if you want me to help you.”

This could set her in opposition to the UNSC as a whole.

In Spartan Ops, she has been consistently portrayed as revealing her loyalty to neither humans nor the extremist Covenant faction. Any and all of her dialogue could be a lie or a misdirection, reflecting her own motivations - the desire to save humanity, but also a cold curiosity.

Spartan Ops writer Brent Friedman said on Twitter on May 16 that “Depending on your POV, Halsey was either a villain or a misguided genius.”

While news about a second season of Spartan Ops is still thin on the ground, Friedman said that “Nothing planned for S2 would have changed that.”

At the end of Spartan Ops season 1, Halsey looks down at her severed arm when she tells ‘Mdama that she wants revenge. Halsey could continue to seek revenge on Sarah Palmer and the Spartan-IV program, with which she always had a relationship of mutual resentment. As an opponent to the UNSC, she would be an opponent to the Spartans and troops like Thomas Lasky, whom fans got to know in Halo 4.

More on what that opposition would mean later, but there are other, more personal connections which could make Halsey a powerful, intriguing antagonist in Halo 5.

Her connection to Master Chief

Halsey’s continued alliance with the Covenant extremists could put her in direct conflict with Master Chief, who seems to find the aggressive aliens everywhere. This would be unlike any fight he has experienced before, since Halsey knew the Master Chief as a child. Their relationship during early Spartan training has never been explored in a game, but Halsey still clearly cares about John, as shown by her interest in his name in Halo 4.

She can’t match him on physical terms, but she knows more about the Spartans’ psychology and physical makeup than anyone else. Her enmity would force John to fight a mental battle with the person who knows the most about him. Halsey could become even more of a mastermind figure than she already was, in direct opposition to the player.

The invisible story of Halo is the story of Halsey’s success. Master Chief saved the galaxy because Halsey had augmented him.

John has been given easier struggles compared to ONI’s secrecy in the Halo novels and Halsey’s tentative alliance with ‘Mdama. His missions are clear-cut, black and white: against the ravenous Flood, against the destructive Covenant, against the power-hungry Didact. He has not yet had to encounter the fact that the Office of Naval Intelligence took Halsey prisoner and supplied weapons to Covenant terrorists.

A darker Halsey could use this information and her knowledge of his childhood not to help him, but to fight him. If John finds her to be working with the Covenant, he could feel betrayed and conflicted.

Her connection to Cortana

Halo 4 was intended to be a look inside Master Chief’s head, and most of that came through his connection with Cortana. When Thomas Lasky asks in one of the final scenes whether the Chief is more machine than man, the Spartan replies only to himself, referring to Cortana’s words.

Halsey is both Cortana’s template and the destroyer of many AI, including Cortana’s “sister” unit Kalmiya. A good portion of Halo 4’s plot involved John trying to get Cortana back to Halsey.

Chief could seek Halsey out in Halo 5 to restore Cortana, but would the doctor even care? With the Infinity Key in pieces and the Librarian still operating through Halsey, Cortana might not be a priority for the enigmatic scientist. This trio of chess masters - Cortana, Halsey, and the Librarian - will surely have some effect on John’s journey.

Halsey knows about the close relationship between John and Cortana, and depending on the circumstances, she might use it to manipulate him. This could be one of the few things that would turn the Master Chief against his creator.

As opponent to ONI specifically

At the end of Spartan Ops season one, in Jul ‘Mdama’s company, Halsey wants revenge. Whether she plans to go after Palmer specifically, or the Spartan-IVs, or the UNSC, we don’t know. But in the Halo novels Halsey has a clear rivalry with the commander of ONI, Serin Osman, a “failed” Spartan too damaged by her augmentations to serve. Osman hates Halsey and ordered the attack on her, and Halsey knows it.

Halsey could continue to oppose ONI on her own, behind the scenes, without even Jul ‘Mdama’s knowledge. Perhaps she would find innocent people, like Lasky, to be more unfortunate sacrifices which have to be made in order for her to focus on her own rivals. Halsey and ONI both believe in helping humanity survive no matter the cost, but John might be caught in the middle of the very different ways they go about it.

It seems unlikely that she would die, even if she becomes an antagonist. Halsey survives until the year 2589, her voiceover in Halo: Reach indicates. If Halsey was to die during the Reclaimer Saga, though, this could easily be retconned as a recording.

Even if she acts as an antagonist for a short time, this would not necessarily make her a villain. Instead, it would continue to deepen the character of one of the Haloseries' richest creations.

Halsey can never quite be a hero, and she can never quite be a villain. But acting as an antagonist, even temporarily, to the army for which Master Chief is fighting could lead to her to a larger role in Halo 5: Guardians. The fate of the planet may rest in her hands.

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Two of my favorite guilty pleasure movies are Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, although for different reasons. Street Fighter is a doofy, silly little flick that's enjoyable in spite of being completely off from the source material and, to be honest, because of it. I mean, you have Dhalsim as a scientist, Dee Jay as an evil hacker, and Ryu as a con man. It's pretty outrageous and I love that it exists because...what the hell?

Mortal Kombat, on the other hand, was made during this very brief period in the 90's when any kind of CGI – no matter how badly it has aged – was wondrous and automatically cool. Even with its problems, it's a movie that fully embraces the unique cheesiness of its source material and pulls it off. That's rare for any video game movie.

We've seen them delightfully get Street Fighter wrong with the Van Damme movie and we've seen them painfully get Street Fighter wrong with the Legend of Chun-Li, but Joey Ansah and Christian Howard decided that there would be no third strike. I mean, unless they were playing Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Which they should, since it's one of the best video games ever. But I digress.

Spun-off from the Street Fighter: Legacy proof-of-concept short film from 2010, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is a 12-part YouTube series of 10-15 minute episodes. It focuses on the core part of the Street Fighter mythos, centering on Ryu, Ken, Gouken, and Akuma. It is pretty much Star Wars only with martial arts instead of laser swords. The four core characters all practice Ansatsuken, which is essentially the Force. You can work hard to perfect the light part of it or you can delve into the dark side, which will grant you power at the cost of your own soul.

The story shows the final years of Ryu and Ken's training under Gouken as they've finally been allowed to learn the more advanced stuff in their style's repertoire like the jumping uppercut that goes fifteen feet in the air or the ability to throw fireballs. As they train, they begin to discover more about Gouken's shrouded past and his brother Goki, of whom he never spoke. The story moves back and forth between the days of Ryu and Ken training and the days of Gouken and Goki training under their master Goutetsu.

Strangely enough, even though Ryu is the main character of Street Fighter and this is the story of his training and even introduction to street fighting, this isn't really his story. Mostly because of how mysterious his origins are kept and how much more charismatic and likeable Ken is (and let it be said that there will never be a more perfect Ken Masters than Christian Howard), Ryu appears to fall into the background. Even then, the series isn't even so much about Ken either. The real protagonist turns out to be Gouken, which I suppose makes enough sense since he's there for both eras of storytelling.

It's rather nice, honestly. When UDON published Street Fighter Origins: Akuma, I dug all of it except the dry parts with Gouken. Here he only starts out like a generic character, but unfolds from there. Over the course of the story, Gouken goes from your average wise, hard-ass martial arts master to fatherly, protective, understanding, and likeable as a person. There's a wonderful scene where he finds out that Ken has come across some old notes about the Satsui no Hadaou (AKA the dark side of their art) and has been practicing its teachings in secret. At first it plays a lot like that, "I learned it from you, dad!" anti-drug commercial from the 80's, but the hardened front that Gouken's shown as a teacher melts away into desperation as he begs Ken to stay away from it, even if it does get results.

You learn his fear for yourself via the flashbacks that show how Goki transforms into the demon Akuma. Through the transformation, the actors change from Gaku Space to Joey Ansah, who brings amazing menace and authenticity to Akuma's visage. His face covered in prosthetics, whenever Ansah shows up, he nails the character's presence. Still, no matter how badass live-action Akuma is and how hard they try to make it sentimental and meaningful, that glow-in-the-dark red kanji tattoo on his back is a little too hard to take seriously.

The fight scenes are wonderful and as I mentioned when I interviewed Ansah recently, are incredibly true-to-game. Ryu and Ken have a sparring match early on before they really know any of the cool special attacks, so what we get is a sweet fight made up of their normal moves, stances, throws, and so on. Goutetsu, who has never appeared as an actual video game character, has his own unique version of the Ansatsuken style with a couple of moves you'd want to see someone adopt in one of the games. It helps that many of the special effects are done practically with minimal CGI, but I'd like to see what these guys could do with a real cinematic budget.

The acting is better than it has any right to be, although we do get moments of outright goofery, like a memorable scene of Ken getting a care package from his father. Everyone in the cast has the ability to speak both Japanese and English, which is neat, but they do regularly change it up with no rhyme or reason. You can't help but notice it. Even Goki's one scene of speaking English is in a situation where it feels completely unnecessary.

Overall, the series is a long-awaited love letter and a capable one at that. I never quite cared much for Mortal Kombat: Legacy, but I feel that Assassin's Fist succeeds where that one fails by having more focus and a better understanding of the source material. There's some room for improvement here and there, but I want nothing more than to see this expanded upon by bringing in the Street Fighter II cast.

Which reminds me. It's pretty hilarious that a Street Fighter series is sponsored by Honda.

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RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014
PLATFORM: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U (Coming Soon), PC
DEVELOPER: Ubisoft Montreal
PUBLISHER: Ubisoft
CATEGORY: Action/Adventure

Word of Watch Dogs’ alleged awesomeness seemed to precede its arrival by about two years thanks to an impressive E3 debut in 2012, another appearance last year, and a lengthy delay.

We expected something fresh with breathtaking visuals that looked as if they had been snipped from the real world and a new way to play an open-world game. We thought that Watch Dogs might be a fit challenger to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto franchise, but after playing it, the word revolutionary does not come to mind.

Based in a near-future model of Chicago, the game map is massive, but the cityscape is bland, interchangeable, and a big part of why this game feels less visually dynamic on PS4 than Grand Theft Auto 5 on the PS3, even though the characters look a bit more life-like.

There is no flavor, no cleverness buried within the game. You won’t catch yourself smirking as you might in GTAwhile listening to the radio or walking by an NPC mid-conversation. The whole thing feels a bit antiseptic, as Aiden moves through the streets, a ghost, floating by to evade detection while trying to hack his way to the truth about a conspiracy that led to the death of his niece, Lena, all while occasionally thwarting crimes as The Vigilante.

Those asides are a decent way to fill time between missions that can sometimes feel monotonous; but they are also necessary, because exploring Watch Dogs in a purposeless manner holds little appeal after a short while.

As for the much ballyhooed “hacking” element, it just doesn’t wow me. Thanks to his phone, The Profiler (really), Aiden can turn off traffic lights (which isn’t as useful as it seems), remotely cause explosions, control forklifts, wreak havoc, and access surveillance cameras that are connected through the ctOS network. This allows him to get out of jams and break into certain areas, but even in the first mission, as Aiden tries to escape from a baseball stadium by hacking camera after camera to unlock a door, one quickly misses the simplicity of a well-placed door kick-in or lock-pick. This raises a question: though the hacking element is new, does that automatically translate to better, or is this just a gimmick and a fresh coat of paint on a familiar type of game?

The Profiler also profiles pedestrians and anyone Aiden encounters, revealing a sliver of personal information that seemingly tells Aiden all he needs to know to assess if they are a threat, which is most helpful when he is in “Vigilante” mode or when he is dealing with a multiplayer feature that allows others to jump into your game to try and hack you before you can track them down.

Has someone recently traveled to a foreign country? Have they consulted with a plastic surgeon? Are they depressed? How about their bank balance? It’s minorly off-putting to realize that, in a way, crumbs like that do form the cookie that is we, but despite that and the elements of surveillance culture that are captured in the game, the “message” is a mile wide and an inch deep, and both the story and the paint-by-numbers script echoes that level of non-depth, especially when you compare it to a game like TheLast of Us or GTA.

I really do hate how much I’m comparing this game to GTA, but it is the open-world “gold standard” and Watch Dogsis playing in its division. It’s hard to dismiss the contrasts, especially when the easiest shorthand description of Watch Dogs is, “Like a less lush Grand Theft Auto with a hacking gimmick."

I don’t want to paint this game as nothing more than a trudge, though. The meat and potatoes gameplay is quite solid and the controls are smooth as Aidan runs down the street, ducks for cover, hops over a fence, or fires a gun. If there is anything that signifies that this game comes from the same people who produce Assassin's Creed, it is in the easy way that Aiden handles.

As for the driving aspects of the game, they are simple and mostly enjoyable, but while I don’t want to sustain real-world damage with a car while in the midst of a chase, at the most difficult setting, I was able to beat the ever loving shit out of cars, racking up superficial damage with each one of the dozen (being so conservative) top speed head on collisions that I sustained before my car would explode. What’s more, I usually only momentarily slowed down during this very scientific test of mine and sometimes not at all, like when I got into small overlap crashes and occasionally seemed to phase through the other car as if Kitty Pryde was my co-pilot (Kitty’s presence would totally do that, so don’t even. Homegirl made a giant bullet go through the earth.)

While the core gameplay is a plus, the other elements of Watch Dogsconspire to make this little more than something that is worth a dedicated weekend rental or two and not something that you are likely going to want to go back to time and time again.

-STORY

+GRAPHICS

+GAMEPLAY

+SOUND

-REPLAYABILITY

Even though we likely have a long wait ahead of us before the magic of Kingdom Hearts III comes along to unlock our inner selves, we can still look forward to Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix, which Square Enix has announced will be coming to North America sometime this year.

The upcoming collection will contain HD versions, or the “Final Mix” of both Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. The collection is also said to include completely recreated cut scenes from Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, which take advantage of the release’s new high-definition capabilities.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix marks the first time that either Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix or Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix have been released outside of Japan. While we wait to hear any word on just when in 2014 we’ll get to experience Sora’s past adventures all over again, you can enjoy a shiny new screenshot that was just released from the collection right above this paragraph.

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In our current X-Men obsessed news cycle, you might remember Ben Foster as Angel in X-Men: The Last Stand. More recently, he's been seen in Lone Survivor. But soon, you'll be seeing him playing a magical role in Duncan Jones'Warcraftmovie. Here's what Mr. Foster told IGNabout the character: 

"The character in Warcraft that I play is named Medivh. He's a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer. He came up in a time protecting an area, and the way he protected this area was through magic. As peace returned to this land he took a break. He hung up his staff, so to speak, or let his guns get dusty. We meet him as his friends are returning asking for his help in a battle."

Foster goes on to say that the Warcraftmovie is "not just a video game turned into a movie" and that it asks "an important question...where do we limit our compassion for what we consider to be bad guys?" Weighty subjects, to be sure.

Warcraftalso stars Paula Patton, Clancy Brown, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, and Felicity Jones. It hits theaters on March 11, 2016.

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