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The Game Developers Choice Awards took place last night in San Francisco, and Bethesda’sElder Scrolls V: Skyrimtook home top prize as Game of the Year. It beat out hit titlesPortal 2, Deus Ex: Human RevolutionandBatman: Arkham City,to take top honors. Bastionand its creator, Supergiant Games, both saw plenty of recognition at the event, taking home a wins for Best Downloadable Game and Best Studio Debut, as well as nominations in the Best Audio, Best Narrative and the Innovation Award categories....

A few weeks ago we reported thatSOCOM: Confrontationwould bereceiving an updatethat would fix over 100 different problems. These ranged from gameplay mechanics to network functions. A recent update onthe officialSOCOMblogindicates that the patch has been put on hold because of the holidays. The team wasn’t able to push it through the validation stages and as a result, won’t be coming until early-to-mid January. The lack of the update has members of theSOCOMcommunity up in arms....

$80 worth of stuff Square Enix has launched an Easter mystery box surprise box initiative, which will go live on March 21. From now until March 20, prospective gamblers can take a chance on the deal, which costs $10, and will net you $80 worth of stuff. The deal is exclusive to PC. For reference,the $10 Christmas box thatwas sold last year was a disappointment. For science, I decided to pick it up, but it was mostly just a heap of old games and “coupons,” the latter of which technically boosted the $80 value....

Given the sheer length of time Mario has been around, it’s not surprising that people are able to beat the originalSuper Mario Bros.in record time.Speedrunningis a huge part of the gaming community, and the iconic Nintendo game is close to having the perfect run. Over onYouTube, runner Niftski has set a new world record, beatingSuper Mario Bros.in just 4:54.631. Watching the challenge itself is quite spectacular, but if you’re curious as to why they’re so elated when they finish the game, it’s due to how near-perfect the run was....

Bandai Namco Entertainment and Spike Chunsoft revealed the new chapter in theDragon Ball Zuniverse asDragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. It may sound like a new energy drink but nope, it’s more action fighting in the Budokai Tenkaichi series. Players will be able to learn and master a roster of playableDBZcharacters with their own signature abilities, transformations, and techniques. In a cool twist, the arenas will also crumble around you as you fight in them....

Now you’re playing with power During today’s Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, Sony revealed that it was working on a customizable version of its DualSense controller for the PS5 platform, the DualSense Edge. Much like previous “Pro” controllers, the DualSense Edge will feature interchangeable components such as thumbsticks and Haptic Feedback triggers, as well as other internal components in order to offer PS5 players their own desired levels of comfort and precision when playing their chosen games....

Having fun with that free Xbox Live Silver account? Sure, you can’t play games with your buddies online, but you sure can compare high scores! And yeah, every now and then content will appear that’s only initially available for Gold members, but that doesn’t happen that often. What’s that,Major Nelson? It’s going to happen all of the time now? Crap. Along with the new dashboard update, Silver members received a downgrade — free content (like all of that great marketing, like demos, for instance) will be available exclusively to Gold members for one week....

Time to throw out your phone! One of the coolest games I saw at PAX 2015 wasFRAMED, an indie mobile game based around shifting different comic book like panels to create a new narrative. It had something to do with a noir thriller and some murder mystery, but the whole concept was just amazing and something I really wanted to get my hands on. While I never did get around to it (I’ve only recently acquired a tablet that can actually play anything), it looks like I won’t need to bother with a mobile device....

Prior to playingWakfu, I had no knowledge of the “World of Twelve” or its inhabitants. However, after playing the game and taking in the art style, I am in love with its environment. This game is beautiful, and some new screenshots from Mt. Zinit, a new zone, show exactly that. Starting on February 15th, players will have access to “the highest point in the World of Twelve – Mt. Zinit.” After looking through some of the screenshots, the area seems to have an underwater motif, complete with fish bones and barnacles....

Tecmo Koei’s upcoming myth-based hack-n-slash action title,Warriors Orochi 3, will be launching for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next month, in North America on March 20 and in Europe on March 30. The game will be a full-price retail title on 360, but thanks to a little-known quirk in Sony’s localization regulations, it will only be available on the PlayStation Network — not on a Blu-ray Disc. The voice acting inWarriors Orochi 3hasn’t been localized into English: the audio for the entire game is in Japanese, with English subtitles....

Striving to make more diverse games For the first time in the history of the University of Southern California — the top video game design school in the United States, as ranked by The Princeton Review — women outnumber men in its game design graduate program. In 2011, USC had 15 men and 5 women in its graduate program. That changed in 2015 when there were 12 women and 7 men....

Taking cues from Amnesia and Alien: Isolation The World of Darkness is spilling out into video games again. Apart from the increasingly tangibleVampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, there’s another long-winded name to keep tabs on this year. Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlifeis a first-person VR horror romp from Fast Travel Games, the team behind last year’sBudget Cuts 2, and we got our first – but not particularly forthcoming – look at it today....

You say demo, I say でも [Update:The TGS demo in question can be viewed in the video below from PlayStation Access. It takes roughly 10 minutes to complete, including the boss fight.] The originalNiohcould be brutal when it wanted to, especially in the New Game Plus portion. You really need to pick up a few tips and tricks that similar titles don’t force you to learn, asNiohis first and foremost a fast-paced Team Ninja action romp: if you try to play it like aSoulsgame, you’re going to get stomped....