Two Worlds was a laughing stock. There's no point in pretending otherwise. A vaguely Oblivion-esque roleplaying game, it reliably failed to match its ambition with its budget, resulting in a buggy, bizarre thing with a script seemingly written by a madman drunk on tramp juice. The one thing it did get right was timing - fairly hot on the heels of Oblivion, and something a little refreshingly different in the 360's relative youth. Also, it let you strap multiple swords together to make one even better sword. There's no arguing that that's a bad idea, right? Snickerfest it might have been, but the 2007 RPG sold well enough to warrant a sequel , one that we're told will be much, much better: built new from the ground up, rather than being simply more Two Worlds. That's your cue to stop sniggering at the back and pay attention.

From what's been seen so far, there's little doubt that Civilization V is going to be a lot of fun when it's released on September 21, but what happens when you get tired of playing against only the AI? Well, then it's time to dive into the multiplayer mode and add one or more friends. I had the chance to get a look at how the game performs with others, and though it's difficult to make any sort of judgment call after only a few hours of play, it seems to be something Civ fans are going to like.

In the preview build we have access to, which keep in mind is not a complete version of the game, there's room to invite up to 16 players into a match, and it appears as though you can mix ... Read more »

One of the biggest MMO events of the year is almost upon us. Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV is the second online-only game in the main numbered series, following up on Final Fantasy XI which was originally released way back in 2003 for PC in North America and later for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 consoles. This new game launches on September 30th this year, though you can get in early with the more expensive Collector's Edition. Final Fantasy XIV, like its predecessor, will also be straddling the platform gap. In addition to the PC version, PlayStation 3 owners will get a chance to dive in but not until early next year. On PC, the title's in open beta right now. I've had a chance to play for a number of hours to get the feel for the play and understand a number of its system. It's an incomplete picture at this point for sure, bu ... Read more »

The Microsoft press conference is already in full swing here at E3 this year and already some exciting news has emerged from the conference. After Call of Duty was shown, legendary game developer Hideo Kojima took the stage to give us the very first taste of gameplay for Metal Gear Solid: Rising. The game, according to one of Kojima's producers, revolves around the phrase Zan Datsu. Zan, in Japanese, means "to cut," while datsu means "to take." This phrase will inform us how Rising will work.

The first segment of the demonstration featured a large cybernetic soldier carefully patrolling a dark factory with a massive arm-mounted gun at the ready. The soldier looked similar to the FROG soldiers we saw in Metal Gear Solid 4, but quite a bit bigger. A burst of movement can be seen in the rafters and the soldier responds accordingly, unl ... Read more »

Blizzard has finally opened up access to the StarCraft II beta test to a select number of users, which has many old-school fans excited. It's a little surprising to think that it's been roughly 12 years since Blizzard first released its popular sci-fi real-time strategy title. We've seen it at events numerous times and Blizzard has even released Battle Report videos of entire matches, but we haven't yet been able to really check out all the new features of the online experience.

That is, at least, until now. Users who've been selected to participate in the beta can log into their account and grab the necessary files to dive in. I hopped in a few hours ago to get a look at how everything works. It's still a little early to say much about the gameplay, so in this article I'll focus mostly on the kinds of options the beta test lets you take advantage of.

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We're getting into the holiday release season, and you know what that means: it's time for the high profile, big budget first-person shooters to hit the market. Bungie's Halo: Reach is already out and Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops is in November, and in the middle sits Medal of Honor. The name isn't new, but this subtitle-less version of the game represents a reset for the franchise. Traditionally, it'd been set in World War II, but like Infinity Ward did with its Call of Duty franchise, EA's bringing Medal of Honor into modern times.

Development isn't taking place all in one studio. The multiplayer component is being built by DICE, the studio behind the Battlefield franchise. Only a limited number of modes and maps have been shown off so far, playable in a beta that started up a few months ago. The single-player portion, which fol ... Read more »

It's been a long while stuck in the wilderness for F1 fans, but finally, Codemasters are on the verge of releasing a new F1 title for PC, PS3 and 360. Can it live up to expectations? We caught up with Stephen Hood, Chief Developer on F1 2010, to find out.

IGN AU: The F1 racer used to be a staple of the videogame landscape, but it's been a while since the last 'next-gen' F1 racing game. Why do you think there's been such a gap between F1 titles? And how big a step up is this going to be from the F1 games of the past?

Stephen Hood: It is about time that F1 came back to gaming and we want it to come back with a bang. The license had gone a bit stale and needed reinventing from a gaming point of view.

We actually signed the FORMULA ONE license back in April 2008 and began the early design work soon after that with the ... Read more »

Reviewing Halo games is hard.

See, you aren't judging just one experience – this is the rare franchise in which campaign and multiplayer are equally popular, and must be considered with equal weight. You aren't judging for just one audience, either – the franchise is too popular for too many unique reasons. There are those who only want an epic solo saga, and those who only care about online competition. There are those who enjoy a Halo game once every couple years, and those who devour the entire Halo universe through comics, novelizations, anime and more.

And you know what? Each type of fan will have a very different reaction to Halo: Reach. Some will be thrilled. Some will be disappointed. To help you predict which end of the spectrum your opinion will fall, therefore, we're splitting this review into two parts. On this page, our review – and score – f ... Read more »

As a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, I have been somewhat disappointed with all of the downloadable content offerings. While the characters have been interesting and the stories well-told, it felt like what happened didn't matter once it was all over. BioWare has changed that with its latest downloadable content – The Lair of the Shadow Broker. The first "bridging" DLC available, your actions do matter and will play a role in Mass Effect 3.

The Lair of the Shadow Broker begins like any other mission in Mass Effect 2: an email in your inbox. Somehow the Illusive Man has tracked down intel on the location of the Shadow Broker, the galaxy's most mysterious and pow ... Read more »

Those hoping for some sort of satisfying closure on the Morrigan storyline in Dragon Age: Origins unfortunately won't find it here. If you know what that sentence means and find it to be disappointing, then you're the target audience for this downloadable content. If you have no idea who Morrigan is and why you should care about her exploits, then bail out now. This content is meant for those who have either finished Origins or were too lazy to get through the whole thing and are beyond the point of caring about spoilers.

Called Witch Hunt, this is the latest in a long line of small storyline expansions. Morrigan, the sultry magic user from Origins, is the star here, though she only shows up very briefly at the end. The interaction is frustratingly shallow as well, which is too bad for fans of the fiction hoping for a little more detail. The conversation options with Morrigan w ... Read more »