Posts By Mat Growcott

I'm sure I'm not the only one that swore out loud when Star Wars Battlefront was announced this evening. EA, not content with merely proving themselves as the new holders of the Star Wars IP, have instead just gone straight for the game we've all wanted since the release of Battlefront 2 in 2005. More than that, it's being built by DICE, a team that knows multiplayer shooters like the backs of their hands.

Nobody but the biggest Xbox One fanboy would have expected Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to be the first game to get actual gameplay footage on the Xbox One, and that Hideo Kojima would be there to talk up the system afterwards. It was a huge surprise and a huge screw-you to gamers who had doubted that the Xbox One would be able to pull in the core titles that made the 360 a must-own. The surprise was short-lived, however, as the game itself was ...

Love the look of the Xbox One but are bummed out that you'll have to wait until the end of the year until you can get it? Don't worry about it, Microsoft have you covered. From today (or tomorrow/later in the week, presumably, depending on your location), you'll be able to buy a brand new Xbox 360, made in the same design as the Xbox One.

One of the first exclusives shown at tonights Microsoft E3 Conference was Ryse: Sons of Rome, and although it was very pretty (and although it features some rather nifty SmartGlass support), it was a little underwhelming in the gameplay department. The idea behind it - that you get to feel like a real Roman warriors, a real Roman commander - was sound, and a lot of what was shown supported that, but the combat left a lot to be desired.

It's impossible not to make the connection. Project Spark is a whole new way to enjoy the create and play genre of games and is everything I'm sure LittleBigPlanet fans wished that that franchise could have been. Built upon by Kinect and Smartglass technologies, Project Spark makes building games easier and more intuitive than ever before, giving players (creators?) the ability to create entire third person RPGs, table top games, pinball, retro titles and more ...

Microsoft have announced some major changes coming to Xbox Live, both in the way it works and in the things you'll get for subscribing. Some of these changes have been a long time coming, while others will affect only a small subset of the Xbox Live community. Even so, they're welcome changes and have a lot of potential.

Master Chief is returning next year, in a new experience currently just called Halo. The CGI trailer - which we'll add to this post when it's made available by Microsoft - showed Master Chief walking through the desert, his visor cracked and his armour beaten down. The desert wind hits against his iconic green suit (covered only by a sack cloak of sorts), until he arrives in front of a giant mech. The crowd understandably went wild.

Respawn Entertainment, a company made up of much of the team that left Infinity Ward after the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, officially unveiled the long-awaited Titanfall this evening and the Microsoft 2013 E3 conference. It was much as any fan of Call of Duty might expect - silky smooth multiplayer action with a few clever ideas to really capture the player, keeping them coming back time and time again. There were also mechs. A lot of mechs.

The Microsoft Conference at E3 2013 is now over, and although there were some pretty fantastic announcements in there and plenty of gameplay, perhaps the most important thing announced were the Xbox One price and release date. While a little on the pricey side - especially after the last few weeks of controversy - the release date is far earlier than the rumours would have had us believe and is right in line with the rumoured release date of the PlayStation 4.

Zombie adventure State of Decay has become the fastest selling new IP on Xbox Live Arcade after its release last week. It sold 250,000 units in only two days and has continued to sell, hitting that sweet spot between zombie adventure and player-controller narrative that perhaps games like DayZ and The Walking Dead so often just miss. There's no doubt that it's paid off anyway, and that State of Decay will continue to be a must-play title over the coming weeks ...