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This cool new 'NBA 2K17' feature changes the game in a big way

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I had a ton of fun guiding my custom character to a championship in last year's "NBA 2K16," but one problem I had was that my teammates and I weren't always on the same page. It was difficult for me to artifically inflate my assist stats and get triple doubles (because that's what's really important) when these hooligans would pass out of open looks I gave them.

Thanks to the new "Orange Juice" meter in MyCareer mode in "NBA 2K17," it's a little easier than before to form a dynamic duo with one of your teammates. Specifically, it's an on-court partnership with Justice Young, a fictional teammate of yours who is taken in the same draft as you. He's played by "Creed" star Michael B. Jordan.

The game doesn't explain this particularly well, but what you need to do is play well with Justice, who is always in the lineup with you on the court. Racking up assists and big plays with each other fills up the Orange Juice meter (a ridiculous name the two players come up with), and when it's full, you'll see this: 

nba 2k17 orange juice

As you can see, this opens up a whole new world of possibilities on the court. You can deftly switch between characters on the fly to set up ideal ball movement, alley-oops and more using the D-pad. 

The "pass and shoot" command is especially important because now I'm assured my teammate will take the shot instead of passing out of a good look or waffling around like he belongs in the D-League. 

I'm still early in the game's career mode so I'm only scratching the surface of the Orange Juice system, but it's a welcome addition to the already-excellent in-game action in "NBA 2K17." It's a smart move to give players a chance to build their own version of the real-life Splash Bros. (Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors) and I'm looking forward to taking advantage of it.

SEE ALSO: I scanned my face into 'NBA 2K17' and the results were nightmarish

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This is the most beautiful game on Xbox One by a mile

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Last weekend, I drove a Lamborghini Centenario through the Australian rainforest. It was even better than it sounds.

Forza Horizon 3

Sadly, I didn't personally pilot the Lambo. I was sitting on my couch in Brooklyn, holding an Xbox One controller, grinning uncontrollably. I'm talking, of course, about "Forza Horizon 3"— a new racing game on the Xbox One and PC.

Not only is "Horizon 3" a blast to play, but it's by far the most gorgeous game on the Xbox One.

SEE ALSO: No 'Grand Theft Auto' game has ever looked this good

DON'T MISS: 'NBA 2K17' is the best looking basketball game ever made

When you hear "Forza," you might think "simulation." In the case of the "Forza Horizon" series, that isn't accurate.



"Forza Horizon" is the "Fast & Furious" of racing games. It's reverent of cars, sure, but its focus is on FUN.



The "plot" of the game is based around the Horizon Festival, a sort of commercial-friendly Sturgis for car culture.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

'FIFA 17' is the best 'FIFA' yet, but there’s one feature holding it back

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fifa 17

The time is nigh: The new "FIFA" is almost here.

I've had the luxury of playing the full version of "FIFA 17" for the last few days before the game's official release, and it's the same glorious blend of fun and competition-fueled rage I've come to love since "FIFA '94." Yes, 1994.

"FIFA 17" brings a whole new story mode and a bunch of improvements that result in a great "FIFA" game. However, it still isn't perfect.

"FIFA 17" comes out on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on September 27.

Check out the new "FIFA 17."

SEE ALSO: This is the most beautiful game on Xbox One by a mile

One of the biggest new features in "FIFA 17" is the new story mode, called The Journey, which simulates the career of an up-and-coming soccer player called Alex Hunter.



You start off in the youth academy, where you try out for a spot in the professional Premier League.



It's around this time when you choose Hunter's temperament, whether he's balanced, fiery, or cool, by selecting his verbal responses to certain situations.

It's part of the new decision-making aspect in "FIFA 17" that helps decide what kind of player Hunter is, as well as his relationship with his manager and how many followers he gets on social media. 

Yes, growing your social-media followers in-game to obtain sponsorships is now part of "FIFA," and that's kind of hilarious whichever way you look at it #lol. As in real-life, your follower number is based on your in-game performance, but you don't get to post any updates yourself, unfortunately.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Pokémon Go just got knocked out of the top spot on the charts after 74 days at No. 1

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With the changing of the seasons, so comes the end of an era: Pokémon Go's titanic reign at the top of the charts has ended, ousted by the popular-as-ever "Clash Royale" in the top grossing category on iPhone.

Pikachu

Don't worry, Pikachu: The game is still holding strong at number one in the Android charts, and it's only dropped to the third position on iOS. 

Moreover, there are still around 30 million people playing the game every month — and that's just in the US. But since the game exploded in popularity after launching in early July, the decrease in players is seen by some as an apocalyptic sign. 

The recent reports of its imminent decline miss several key points, Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad told Business Insider in August.

Pokemon Go

"Pokémon Go" exploded in popularity, and rapidly launched in many countries. It's the fastest downloaded anything on both iPhone and Android. That puts the game into a rare category of mega-hit. Simply put: the kind of user numbers that "Pokémon Go" initially enjoyed are unsustainable. Remember when it had more users than Twitter? That was never going to last.

The tapering off of those record-setting, astronomic numbers is entirely expected. Ahmad described the effect as, "what one would expect when looking at [daily active user] numbers, that the number will decrease over time and begin to level out at a much lower number."

Pokemon Go

We're beginning to see exactly that. Pokémon Go reached 50 million monthly users this summer, at peak mania, in late July/early August. 

With a new $35 accessory out now, the folks behind Pokémon Go are clearly looking for revenue from other places. Whether Pokémon Go can retake the title of top grossing iPhone game from the likes of mobile powerhouse "Clash Royale" isn't clear, but with tens of millions of users, the opportunity is certainly there.

SEE ALSO: This is what's next from the team behind Pokémon Go

DON'T MISS: No one can find the last Pokémon in Pokémon Go

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'NBA 2K17' is stunning — here's how it stacks up to the real thing

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Every year, it gets more and more difficult to tell the difference between the "NBA 2K" video games and real basketball. Seriously, out of the corner of your eye, the two are practically identical.

"NBA 2K17" is no different. It looks better than ever. Don't believe me? Look at this:

lebron comparison

Exactly! So we put together a smattering of photos of the NBA's biggest names, in real life, and juxtaposed those images with the way they look in "NBA 2K17." Check it out:

SEE ALSO: This cool new 'NBA 2K17' feature changes the game in a big way

LeBron James, who exploded to the basket on his way to a historic championship run last year, in real life:



And in "NBA 2K17":



Paul George, who graces the cover of "NBA 2K17" after leading the Pacers back to the playoffs, in real life:



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This broken-down van is a dream come true for Nintendo 64 fans

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Super Mario 64

The 1990s were quite a time.

Somewhere between "Space Jam," the Backstreet Boys and Rock the Vote!, Nintendo released its Nintendo 64 game console.

Despite its many, many shortcomings, the Nintendo 64 is home to some of Nintendo's most beloved games: "Super Mario 64,""GoldenEye 007,""The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time," and many more.

Having spent many of my formative years with the Nintendo 64, I have a lifelong affinity for the console.

The owner of this highly-customized Chevy 1500 van, however, is clearly a much bigger fan. This isn't your parents' old Dodge Grand Caravan with a flip-down TV screen — take a tour of the custom Nintendo 64 van, straight from our mid-'90s dreams:

SEE ALSO: One man created an incredible update to the original Nintendo Game Boy

The van's not a looker from the outside.



It's even got a sun-beaten roof.



But inside, it's a whole other world. The world of September 1996, almost.

RAW Embed



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Nintendo's programmers reportedly booed this one part of the best Mario game

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It's been 20 years since the iconic red plumber Super Mario, bushy mustache and all, burst into 3D on the Nintendo 64.

super mario 64 box art

Video games like Nintendo classic "Super Mario 64" are so deeply ingrained in the culture that it's easy to forget how recently they were created. 

Even crazier: All Mario games released before "Super Mario 64" were in two dimensions. Its predecessors are all on the Super Nintendo — games like "Super Mario World" and "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island." And that change meant more to the Mario series than you might imagine.

Sure, the art style would have to change, but Mario's signature jump? 

Super Mario

"The essence of what makes a 2D game 'fun' is entirely different," Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto said in a 1996 interview, according to a translation on gaming blog Shmuplations. And the "essence" of what makes Mario games fun is its perfect-feeling jumping. It may sound simple, or silly, but it's the core of the gameplay in the vast majority of Super Mario games.

It's the je ne sais quoi of Mario, that you only notice when it's broken. And it all had to be thrown out and re-made for 3D.

1 super mario maker

"In earlier Mario games, we were able to measure the number of pixels Mario could jump and know exactly what was possible," Miyamoto says. "But this time, we had to design the levels so that as long as your jump was 'close enough,' you’d make it; it was too hard for the player to judge." 

That seemingly small difference meant the world to the programmers working on the game under Miyamoto. "There was a lot of booing from the staff,"he says in the 20-year-old interview. Part of that came from the timing of the change, no doubt: "This was a design change we made in the middle of the development, when the game was far already."

Given how game development works, it's not easy to make major changes when you've already completed much of a project. It could cause any number of problems, from game-breaking technical bugs to harder-to-quantify stuff (like breaking the "flow" of a game, for instance). In short, it can be an expensive proposition.

Yet, if Miyamoto hadn't insisted, perhaps "Super Mario 64" wouldn't be considered the classic we think of it as today. Be sure to check out the full translation of the interview at Shmuplations.

SEE ALSO: There's one simple reason Nintendo is bringing Super Mario to the iPhone first

DON'T MISS: RANKED: The 10 best Super Mario games of all time

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'Virginia' is a surreal, sci-fi thriller that feels like a video game version of 'Twin Peaks'

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Virginia screenshot

Though many modern video games are epic adventures that can take upwards of 50 hours to complete, there's been a surge in recent years of small, intimate games that can be completed in just a couple of short hours.

Since these games are made by small teams with limited budgets, it's easy to overlook them in favor of something like "Grand Theft Auto," which can afford giant billboards and flashy TV commercials.

In truth, however, it's a space in which some of the most inventive, ambitious storytelling in the gaming industry is happening.

One such game is "Virginia," a new first-person narrative game from a studio called Variable State. It takes many stylistic cues from '90s sci-fi crime noir, like "Twin Peaks" or "The X-Files," but those are really just a jumping off point for a game that tells a story unlike anything else I've ever experienced.

This is "Virginia."

SEE ALSO: A major video game developer is defending itself against accusations it 'cloned' Blizzard's 'Overwatch'

You play as Anne Tarver, a recently-graduated FBI agent who's been assigned to a missing person case in a small, rural town.



"Virginia" never tells you any of these things outright, though. The game itself is entirely devoid of dialogue.



You might catch a glimpse of text in a newspaper, or read what someone is typing on screen, but "Virginia" puts a lot of trust in you to put the pieces together.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This gorgeous new racing game does something incredibly smart

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I don't know about you, but I play video games to play them. Not to watch pretty videos, not to adjust settings — my time is limited, as is yours, so I appreciate it when a game gets to the point quickly.

The gorgeous new racer "Forza Horizon 3" nails this.

Forza Horizon 3

I started the game, and within minutes of the absolutely ridiculous "Fast & Furious-style" intro, I was behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Centenario you see above. 

The premise of "Forza Horizon 3," as explained in the intro, is simple: You're the boss of a festival — the "Horizon" festival — which combines street racing culture with, uh, like a fancy version of Burning Man? Kind of?

burning man

The ridiculous tone of the rest of the game is set in these two minutes. Here's an actual quote:

"It's big and it's hot and the roads are just wide open. Bro, we're talking fast cars, cool beats, summer sun, classic style, blazing days, banging nights, burned rubber, wild parties, and exotic animals. So put your pedal to the floor as we welcome you to Horizon Australia."

Indeed.

"Forza Horizon 3" is a game that revels in being over-the-top, and it's thankfully done with a wink and a nod (and probably the word "bro"). 

After a late title screen, three minutes after pushing start, I'm behind the wheel of the aforementioned Lambo. Like so:

Forza Horizon 3

And that's tremendously meaningful! I got this racing game to race cars, right? That's the point? Well here I am! Racing cars!

More seriously, it's just a crazy way to start a game. Most racers ask you which car you'd like to start with, if you want to drive in automatic or manual, and all sorts of other stuff. Heck, most games in general still open with stuff like brightness settings and difficult levels. 

Instead, "Forza Horizon 3" says, "Hey, you're in Australia. The game is very pretty. There are lots of cars. Now get in one that's going fast and make it go even faster." Sure thing!

Forza Horizon 3

In doing so, the game teaches basic mechanics (pull the trigger to accelerate, push Y to rewind the race, etc.), sets a tone for the game (go FAST!), and immediately pulls you in. It certainly pulled me in. 

And then, when you're getting comfy? "Horizon 3" thrusts you into a totally different vehicle:

There's good reason for that: "Forza Horizon 3" is a racing game where you'll drive through a diversity of regions. It's totally normal to jump from a street race to a rallycar race in one step.

As such, the first five or so minutes of "Forza Horizon 3" is one of the most satisfying I've played in any game. It goads you in with silliness, then throws you into racing at full speed — and that's a damn-near killer combo.

"Forza Horizon 3" arrives on September 27, exclusively on Xbox One and Windows 10. Check out the first 30 minutes of gameplay below (including the amazing intro), care of Polygon:

SEE ALSO: This is the most beautiful game on Xbox One by a mile

Join the conversation about this story »

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The director of 'Overwatch' isn't worried about the competition

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"Overwatch," Blizzard's multiplayer shooter that's sold more than 10 million copies since its release in May, is far and away one of the best games to come out so far in 2016.

lucio overwatch

It's part of an emerging genre in gaming called the "hero shooter," in which a diverse cast of characters with completely different sets of abilities go head-to-head in combat.

Over the past week or so, there's been a conversation within the gaming community about whether Hi-Rez, developer of the forthcoming hero shooter "Paladins," copied aspects of the design of "Overwatch." Certain character designs, weapon sets, and animations are similar in many ways, but the COO of Hi-Rez, Todd Harris, adamantly defended himself against these claims in a lengthy post on Reddit — you can catch up on the whole situation here.

In an interview with Business Insider, "Overwatch" director Jeff Kaplan seemed unconcerned with these comparisons.

"I think it's very common for people to make comparisons about games like that, but I think players should play what games are fun to them, check them out, and have fun with what's out there," said Kaplan. "You know, I play every game that I can get my hands on that comes out, and even if they might have some similarities, they're usually drastically different, so my suggestion to players is just to play what's fun to you and don't worry about the comparisons."

So, while I'm personally a little disappointed we won't get a point-by-point Reddit post rebuttal from Kaplan, it's nice to have some kind of response from him on the whole situation.

Other information from this interview, like when players might see changes to a certain turret-building Support character, will be available shortly.

SEE ALSO: A major video game developer is defending itself against accusations it 'cloned' Blizzard's 'Overwatch'

Join the conversation about this story »

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You won't believe how realistic this PlayStation 4 game looks

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Like so many things revealed in Paris, PlayStation 4 exclusive game "Detroit: Become Human" is unbelievably beautiful. See for yourself:

Not bad, right? That's the main character of a new game from French game-development studio Quantic Dream. And that's not computer graphics you see above — that's the game itself.

But maybe you don't go in for all-white robot people. How's this?

detroit, playstation

"Detroit: Become Human" is an upcoming game for the PlayStation 4, with no release date (or even a window) in sight. What we've got right now is a gorgeous debut trailer for a project that's likely awhile out still. Join us below for even more.

SEE ALSO: This is the most beautiful game on Xbox One by a mile

"Detroit" is a game about artificial intelligence and humanity's future. Guess where it's set?



The game is set in a near-future version of real-world city Detroit, Michigan. Things haven't improved much from current day, it looks like.



The debut trailer starts with a drive toward the city, passing dilapidated houses and infrastructure:



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Palmer Luckey denies writing blog posts slamming Clinton, says he's not voting for Trump

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Facebook-owned Oculus VR, the folks behind the Oculus Rift, are in the middle of a public relations nightmare.

It was revealed this week that 24-year-old millionaire and creator of the Oculus Rift, Oculus VR's main product, contributed $10,000 to a group called Nimble America. The group's focus: putting up billboards that slam Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in juvenile ways.

Like this one, said to be up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, already:

Nimble America anti-Hillary Clinton ad

Nimble America employs memes, of the type passed around on Facebook by that guy from high school you keep meaning to un-friend, and its plan for supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is to deploy those memes, in billboard form, against Hillary Clinton.

As a member of Nimble America said on Reddit: "We've proven that s---posting is powerful and meme magic is real."

On Thursday, The Daily Beast published an article that revealed Palmer Luckey as the financier behind Nimble America. He continues to admit that.

But Luckey also told the publication he, "had used the pseudonym 'NimbleRichMan' on Reddit with a password given to him by the organization's founders." By Friday evening, Luckey was denying that admission.

palmer luckey

"I did not write the 'NimbleRichMan' posts, nor did I delete the account. Reports that I am a founder or employee of Nimble America are false,"Luckey said on his Facebook page, which is public.

He apologized for "negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners" in the note, and said he intended on supporting/voting for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson (the full note from Luckey is at the bottom of this piece).

That said, if Luckey was in fact the "NimbleRichMan" poster on Reddit — which he said he was to The Daily Beast — then we have a much clearer picture into how Luckey actually feels. "We know Hillary Clinton is corrupt, a warmonger, a freedom-stripper. Not the good kind you see dancing in bikinis on Independence Day, the bad kind that strips freedom from citizens and grants it to donors," the "NimbleRichMan" poster wrote on Reddit (since deleted). "Hillary Rodham Clinton is not just bought and paid for. Everyone around her is, too. The elite of the country know it. They don't care. They know she is the candidate that will do what they want."

The posts by "NimbleRichMan"— which Luckey now says he didn't write, but he specifically confirmed with The Daily Beast as his — were mostly found on Reddit's meme-centric unofficial Donald Trump subreddit, dubbed "The Donald." Many have been deleted (which Luckey also claims to not have done), but can still be found archived elsewhere.

The full note from Palmer Luckey on Facebook is right here:

SEE ALSO: Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey is financing a pro-Trump meme group

Join the conversation about this story »

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The Philadelphia 76ers just became the first American sports franchise to acquire an eSports team

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It's been a rough few years for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. Former general manager Sam Hinkie asked everyone to "trust the process" as he traded away decent players and stockpiled draft picks, only to win fewer than 20 games in each of the last three seasons before his unceremonious departure.

The team's on-court prospects aren't especially promising this year, but in the world of virtual competition, they've never been better. According to Rift Herald, the 76ers organization has acquired Team Dignitas and Apex Gaming and merged the two, becoming the first North American sports franchise to pick up an eSports team.

76ers Brandon Ingram

Apex Gaming's "League of Legends" team will now play under the Dignitas name, joining other Dignitas teams that play games like "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and "Overwatch." The 76ers will run day-to-day operations and provide publicity, merchandise and more, but there's no indication that the 76ers name or logo will adorn team uniforms or anything.

The move to acquire Apex and Dignitas is more in line with European sports than North American sports, as several football clubs across the pond have picked up or formed their own eSports teams in recent years. On this continent, it's a bit more conventional for individuals like Shaquille O'Neal to own their own teams.

This is a pretty big deal in the quest for eSports to gain mainstream acceptance in North America. While their recent performance may suggest otherwise, the 76ers are a major professional sports franchise, and if they openly embrace eSports, who knows what could happen next?

Personally, I envision a future where injured NBA players compete against each other in eSports while they recover. That would be must-see TV. Let's make it happen.

SEE ALSO: The most popular game in the world is incredibly complex — here's how to play it

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The NX is coming: Nintendo is now taking 'final orders' for the Wii U from retailers

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wii u

At 13.02 million units sold, Nintendo’s Wii U is about to finish its run as the company’s worst selling home console.

A recent financial earnings call from the company states that only 800,000 units are expected to be sold throughout the rest of the fiscal year, and Nintendo is now reportedly taking final orders from retailers.

According to Gameseek, retailers will be able to order the Wii U until Sept. 30. From then, it will cease production, continue to be phased out, and make room for Nintendo’s highly anticipated and hopefully more successful NX console.

Fans are eagerly awaiting a reveal for the console in the coming weeks.

Some are interpreting this news as a surprise reveal for the NX this holiday season, but the timing for killing off the Wii U works out more for a release in the spring of 2017. Either way, this is the end of yet another Nintendo console generation, and the future is looking a little brighter if the NX’s portable rumors prove to be true.

SEE ALSO: The wait for Nintendo's next console is testing the company's most passionate fans

Join the conversation about this story »

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New features shine in 'NBA 2K17,' but not without some issues

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With about a month to go before the beginning of the NBA regular season, it's the perfect time for video game basketball.

The annual "NBA 2K" games allow you to live out your dream season with your favorite team, before the crushing reality that they just aren't very good sets in. Unless you like the Warriors or the Cavaliers or a handful of other teams. If that's the case, you're probably stoked for basketball.

Anyway, after spending more than a week with "NBA 2K17," it's time to find out if this year's game is any good or not. Here we go:

SEE ALSO: I scanned my face into 'NBA 2K17' and the results were nightmarish

Let's get the most important part out of the way first: Playing basketball feels fantastic in "NBA 2K17."

If the part where you play basketball in "NBA 2K17" wasn't any good, nothing else would matter. Fortunately, it just feels right this year, as it has in previous years.

The players animate and travel with momentum that feels real, and even though I'm far from an "NBA 2K" expert, I generally feel like I'm always able to do the things I want to do without thinking about it too much.

I generally feel like I can navigate through the defense to get in position for a three-pointer or slash my way to the bucket for a layup or dunk in the same ways as the best NBA players. It's tough to put into words, but the act of playing the sport feels about as pitch-perfect as it has in any sports game I've played in recent years.



The re-worked career mode represents the biggest new addition to "NBA 2K17," and it has its ups and downs.

Last year's edition of "NBA 2K" had a story mode that was written and directed by filmmaker Spike Lee, and it was a bit of a disaster. It was quirky and ambitious, but that tale of a hoops phenom coming up from nothing and becoming an NBA star had lengthy, clumsily-written cutscenes that made it a drag.

This year's offering loses much of the charm since it plays it pretty safe with the storytelling, but the execution is better all around. It's the same rags-to-riches sports story we've seen a million times, but your on-court rookie partner is played by actor Michael B. Jordan, and that's pretty cool.

As your custom-made player, you will spend the bulk of your time managing your daily schedule. That means practices, sponsorship events and friendly get-togethers on off-days, and regular old basketball on gamedays.

The basketball lifestyle is fleshed out a little bit this year, as you'll choose which brands to represent and which players you want to hang out with. That said, I wish they would go even further with this idea — you usually don't actually see the events you attend, you just get a stat bonus afterward.

If so much of my time is going to be spent not playing basketball, I want the non-hoops moments to have more meat to them. 



The "Orange Juice" system in MyCareer is incredibly fun, but needs some work.

Your custom character in "NBA 2K17" is best buds with Justice Young, a fellow rookie draft pick on the same team played by Michael B. Jordan. The two players want to become the next dynamic duo to dominate the NBA, dubbing themselves "Orange Juice" in the process.

In-game, this manifests itself as a meter that fills up during games when you synergize with Young on-court by assisting each other's shots. Once it's full, you can control both players at once (see above), giving you more control than ever to set up highlight reel plays.

There's just one big problem with this: It only lasts until the next rotation change, which happens two or three times per game, even if you're a starter. That means you'll realistically only get to take advantage of it for a couple of minutes at a time before it resets, instead of throughout the rest of the game you're playing in.

I hope this feature returns next year in a reworked fashion because it allows me to dictate the flow of the game in entirely new ways. It just feels slightly limited in its current state.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The graphics in 'FIFA 17' are the closest thing we've seen to a real game on TV

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fifa 17

"FIFA 17" is nearly upon us, and it looks fantastic.

EA has added its Frostbite engine to this year's "FIFA" to make player movements look more realistic and human, and it's performed some magic on the lighting and shading, too, which helps make this year's "FIFA" the best looking yet.

As per usual with every new version, player faces have been greatly improved, as well as the generally way they look.

Check out the differences between "FIFA 16" and "FIFA 17":

SEE ALSO: 'FIFA 17' is the best 'FIFA' yet, but there’s one feature holding it back

The colors in "FIFA 17" are less vibrant than they were in "FIFA 16," which looks more realistic.



The overly vibrant green grass in "FIFA 16" made it look more like fake turf than real grass, and its texture looks more like actual grass in "FIFA 17."



The lightning in general is more photo-realistic and dynamic, and there's more focus blurring, too, which makes it look more cinematic than a video game cut-scene.

Notice how much darker the dark spots in "FIFA 17" are compared to "FIFA 16," which gives the new game more depth. The "FIFA 17" screenshot shows more shading in the stands and the pitch itself, which makes for more dramatic ambience. There is some shading in "FIFA 16," but it's hardly noticeable – it looks like the whole scene is lit up.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

'Forza Horizon 3' is the best racing game on any game console

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"Forza Horizon 3" is loud, stupid, and beautiful.

Forza Horizon 3

It's that guy named Brock you met on vacation, who refers to everyone as "brah." He's so fun to party with! Everyone loves Brock. He just wants everyone to be happy. 

"Forza Horizon 3" is all about making you, the player, happy all the time. It gives you a huge world to explore — a massive section of Australia — and hundreds of cars. 

SEE ALSO: This is the most beautiful game on Xbox One by a mile

DON'T MISS: This gorgeous new racing game does something incredibly smart

You wanna drive an automatic Tesla Model S through the rainforest? Please, go right ahead! And might we suggest you race this train?

Due to the location down undah, there's a huge selection of terrain types to race through: a sprawling desert filled with dunes, muddy rallycross tracks, coastal highways, and much more.

You can visit anywhere on the (huge) map right from the start, but you only unlock new race types that pertain to those regions as you progress through the game. The good news is that it's a joy to progress through the game, opening up new "festival locations" (races in a particular region) and discovering entirely new race types along the way. 



There's a simple structure to "Forza Horizon 3." You start the game with one of several cars, and you prove your worth in races to earn money, fans, and experience. As those things accumulate, you unlock more stuff: new areas, new cars to buy, new races to race, etc. 

Thankfully, all of that quickly melts into the background as one of the game's hundreds of cars goes flying over a sand dune at 150 miles-per-hour.



Regardless of the structure of the event, the goal of "Forza Horizon 3" is always to get you into a car, driving fast.

There's a whole "story" conceit in "Forza Horizon 3." You're the boss of the "Horizon Festival" and blah blah blah. It's really just there to provide a structure. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan talked to us about 'Titan,' the yearslong game development failure that never saw the light of day (ATVI)

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Game development is a long, arduous, expensive, complicated process — and sometimes it ends in failure.

Jeff Kaplan, game director and vice president at Blizzard Entertainment, knows that firsthand, unfortunately.

Jeff Kaplan Overwatch

Kaplan's been at Blizzard since 2002. He worked on "World of Warcraft" for six and a half years, designing quests, dungeons, and all sorts of other things. Around 2007, he started work on Blizzard's next venture into the MMO — massive multiplayer online game — world, a game called "Titan."

"Titan" was not-so-secretly in development for about seven years, but before Blizzard could even officially announce its existence, it was cancelled in September 2013. In November 2014, Blizzard announced its brand-new multiplayer shooter, "Overwatch." It was assembled — at least in part — from the remains of "Titan."

lucio overwatch

Speaking to Kotaku in 2014, unnamed sources who were involved in the development of "Titan" said it would have been a massive online game not totally unlike "World of Warcraft." Like Bungie's MMO-style game "Destiny,""Titan" would have flipped between a third-person perspective in social areas and a first-person shooter perspective in combat zones, but it sounds as though the social zones offered players a wide variety of activities, letting them hold mundane, everyday jobs when they weren't busy shooting bad guys.

Unlike the fantasy setting of "World of Warcraft,""Titan" would have taken place in a sci-fi version of earth, "with one source describing [its art style] as a cross between 'StarCraft II''s in-game cinematics and Pixar's 'The Incredibles,'" Kotaku reported.

If you've played (or even glanced at) "Overwatch," this aesthetic sounds pretty familiar.

In an interview with Business Insider, Kaplan discussed "Titan," how he knew it was time to walk away from the development work he had poured years into, how its cancellation affected him personally, and what kinds of games he looked to for inspiration when he started on "Overwatch."


Editor's note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Tim Mulkerin: You've talked a lot about how you transitioned from working on "Titan" to eventually changing course and essentially starting from scratch with "Overwatch." But how do you come to that decision to just totally scrap a project rather than powering through and seeing it through to its conclusion?

Jeff Kaplan: Yeah, that's a great question. The tricky part with something like that is there's not really a playbook. In no part of our planning do we ever plan to have that moment happen, and if we're fortunate, those moments don't happen very often.

In general, when you're working on a game, you usually have a sense of where the team morale is at, and sort of the team sensibilities in terms of how successfully they feel the game is going. And also you have a sense of the game itself — is it fun, is the technology working, are the tools to make the game working — and in general, what happened toward the end of "Titan" is we realized that so many of the elements we had enjoyed experiencing working on other projects were just not working.

And the project went on for quite a long time. It wasn't some rush, rash decision — and in fact, I think usually here at Blizzard we're optimistic, and even if a project is experiencing some trouble, we'll find a way to pull it out of that trouble. And eventually, we realized we had hit a point where the technology was not working, the design was not working, the timeline had been dragging on, the team's morale was pretty low, and it was time to move on from that project.

Mei using her ultimate in Overwatch

Mulkerin: So, when something like that happens, was it seen as this failure that you should all be ashamed of, or was it something that's just a reality of game development, and everyone was OK with that being the eventual decision?

Kaplan: I think it's sort of both, to answer your question.

I think everybody knows on a both professional and objective level that that's just a reality of game development that that's gonna happen. I've heard [Blizzard President] Mike Morhaime say on numerous occasions we've canceled as many games as we've shipped here at Blizzard, so at some point, especially being a game designer, you know those odds. I've been working on the competitive system for "Overwatch," so I understand you're gonna win 50% of the time and lose 50% of the time, and you know that as a developer that that chance is always there — yet, you do feel there's something about being creatively invested in a project for a long period of time and really pouring your heart and soul into everything you do that it's disappointing when it happens.

I don't think the company at large viewed us as failures because I think they were very understanding how things got to where they did. I think some of us who were on the team inevitably had a sense of failure, but I think that's very different than being viewed as a failure, if that makes any sense.

Mulkerin: Yeah, totally. So did that take a toll on your own personal confidence as a designer and working in game development then?

Kaplan: Yeah, I think that I was very personally affected by the events that played out on "Titan" in sort of a deep, profound way. I had worked on "World of Warcraft" previous to coming to "Titan" for six and a half years, and even though "World of Warcraft" was stressful at times, being part of such a large, vocal community and it was a lot of work, we put in a lot of hours of our time into making "World of Warcraft," it was very rewarding and the game was very successful. I ended up spending about five years on "Titan" and we just started to drift away. Especially without any community or player interaction, you just started to question, you know, "What am I doing?"

We are very much craftsmen, and we're people who enjoy having people play the things that we make. We make fun things, and we think that they're cool, and part of that experience is sharing that with people. So having that period of time where we weren't getting to share that with somebody, it definitely affected me and it made me wonder, you know, had I done some of the best work in my career on "World of Warcraft" and was I never going to get to enjoy success again? There were definitely those feelings that happened.

Mulkerin: In a way, the failure of "Titan" seems like a kind of a pivot point in Blizzard's history, where you guys have moved away from huge, massive-in-scope projects to just making a game as large or as ambitious as it needs to be, if that makes any sense. You know, whereas "Hearthstone" was maybe seen initially as this weird phenomenon that just kind of happened, it's now becoming how you approach game development from there on out. Does that ring true at all?

Kaplan: I think the part that rings most true about what you said is chasing our passions for our next projects. "Hearthstone" was obviously very much a passion project, and there wasn't any conscious decision at Blizzard to make games of a certain scale. It wasn't like, "Hey, we should make all small-scale or large-scale games."

I think what was more important to us was to make a game that we had tremendous vision behind and that we had a lot of passion about. And that's sort of what drove us in the direction to make things like "Overwatch," and it was less about deliberate or strategic decision about what scale it should be. If I think that vision and passion we had for "Overwatch" had been a much bigger game, we probably would have made that game, but what was driving us was the desire to play the particular game that we made.

hearthstone blizzard

Mulkerin: So, what qualities did you see in other games that you saw and were like, "Yes, that's what we want to do"?

Kaplan: There were a ton of games that inspired us when it came to making "Overwatch." Obviously, the whole "Team Fortress" series, from the early days of it being a "Quake" mod, that idea of a class-based shooter. I feel like — someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong on this — but I feel like that really evolved from the earliest "Quake" mods of "Team Fortress" that existed way back, and I put countless hours into that.

team fortress 2But we were inspired by so many different shooter games: "Half Life,""Half Life 2" was amazing to us, the entire "Quake" series — and we often talked about what was different from "Quake 1" to "Quake 2" to "Quake 3."

A lot of people on the team were really inspired by "Unreal" and some of the weapons and abilities that you could use in "Unreal." I played enormous amounts of different "Quake" and "Half Life" mods, including "Counter Strike," which was a "Half Life" mod originally. You know, that's sort of how it evolved. I was in the earliest days of when it had public testing on "Counter Strike"— I was playing it as an early mod and giving feedback on the forums.

And then there was this whole other group of games, you know, the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre was very inspiring to us, too. You look at games like "Dota,""Dota 2,""League of Legends,""Heroes of the Storm," and they were really embracing more of the team side of things. I think shooters never fully got the team side of things about what's really fun about coordinating abilities and timing and sticking together as a team and making sure you didn't get picked off as a solo player. That inspiration really came from MOBA games.

Besides the obvious games that inspired something like "Overwatch," a lot of the "Hearthstone" design inspires us. There's this simplicity and elegance to a game like "Hearthstone" where only what's in the game is what needs to be in the game. We get to work with a lot of those designers, so we ask them lots of questions and we sort of try to learn from their design style.

There's "World of Warcraft" influence in "Overwatch" in the environmental art and map design. We're huge believers in a big, drastic change in environments. They should be welcoming and a place that you wish you could go to in real life, and that was directly from "World of Warcraft." And there's other minor things like the random loot pulls from the loot boxes we were actually talking to "Diablo" and "Hearthstone" devs about how their games make that work. So there's the obvious inspirations like "Quake" and "Team Fortress" and the MOBA genre, but I think there's some nonobvious inspiration as well in other games.

hanamura overwatch

Mulkerin: So did you feel equipped to make a first-person shooter? Because obviously that's quite different from anything you had ever made before, but as you said, you had been playing them a lot. Is that something you felt comfortable tackling?

Kaplan: So initially it was daunting because personally I had not made a first-person shooter, but the cool thing is we built this team around a mix of development talent. A lot of the talent came from previous Blizzard games, so they brought a lot of their knowledge about online gaming, making things fun, responsive, building things in the Blizzard style, but we also did build a lot of the team around previous shooter experience.

For example, our lead gameplay engineer, a gentleman by the name of Tim Ford, was instrumental in the "Medal of Honor" series, so he had worked on shooters for years, and before working at EA had even worked at Treyarch. So he's just one example of the types of people that we tried to build the team around.

The other thing to keep in mind was we had a first-person shooting mechanic in "Titan"— that was the combat mechanic of "Titan." So in some ways, like, somebody had asked me when we started on "Overwatch,""Well, you've never worked on a first-person shooter before," and I didn't correct him on this, but I was thinking at the time, "Actually, I've been working on a first-person shooter for five years. It just hasn't shipped."

It definitely was a difficult ramp up. It's a community that knows exactly what it wants and doesn't want, and they're very particular about the details. We were sort of humbled to be in that space, and we sort of knew that this is a revered genre and we have to be careful and respectful with the design decisions — in particular around the hardcore shooting mechanics — because we know that there's this audience who knows exactly what they want, and we need to deliver on that.


For other excerpts from this interview, be sure to check out Kaplan's comments on upcoming changes to Symmetra, as well as his take on the conversation surrounding similarities between "Overwatch" and Hi-Rez's "Paladins."

SEE ALSO: Changes to the least-used character in 'Overwatch' could be coming as soon as November

SEE ALSO: Here's how 'Overwatch' calculates who deserves 'Play of the Game'

Join the conversation about this story »

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I played the latest episode in this new Batman game and it had a pretty horrifying glitch

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batman telltale games screenshot

Telltale recently released the next chapter of its new Batman game, and while I highly recommend it to any Batfans, I was a bit taken aback by one of the glitches that I came across while playing.

If you're not familiar with the game, the story-driven point-and-click adventure puts you in control of the Batman and his alter-ego, billionaire Bruce Wayne. A number of timed multiple-choice prompts allow you to decide what kind of Batman you want to be: the Caped Crusader who plays by the rules or the more menacing Dark Knight who tackles crime with a more violent and brutal approach.  

batman telltale game

There are multiple outcomes for the game depending on your narrative choices. So I usually do more than one playthrough of Telltale's games to see if I missed out on anything good the first time around.

I finally played episode 2, "Children of Arkham," over the weekend and, as a fan of the Dark Knight, it's worth a play. It's a pretty short 90 minutes or so. Since the game isn't based on any prior Batman story, it explores and redefines some core moments in Batman's history. For example: Wayne's parents are apparently crime lords now. (What!?)

All was good until my second playthrough Sunday when the game had a few glitches. This happens here and there in video games. But this one was just too big to ignore. 

The episode starts off in Crime Alley. If you know anything about Batman, you'll recognize that as the place where Wayne's family was brutally murdered after a night out at the movies.

batman crime alley

Wayne had a flashback trying to recall exactly what happened that night so many years ago. As Wayne walks through a black and white mist to the past he encounters the memory of his family at gunpoint by a gangster by the name of Joe Chill. 

But as I made my way closer to the scene, I noticed that something was terribly wrong.

batman martha no face

Where was Martha Wayne's face!?

martha face

All you could see was just eyeballs and teeth floating among a pile of hair. This is what happens when a texture fails to load in a game.

I thought the face may come back into view during the flashback sequence if I moved around slowly.

But nope. 

batman martha face

She didn't even reanimate when Chill brutally shot and killed her and her faceless body slowly fell to the ground.

martha falls batman

The creepiest part may have been that her mouth was still moving.

bruce martha glitch batman telltale

Poor Martha.

batman telltale martha skull

Soon after the game crapped out and I had to play the entire scene over. My third time playing, mama Wayne's face was back in its place. (Thank goodness!)

martha telltale batmanmartha batman telltale

You can watch a clip of my gameplay below:

I've noticed at least one other player who has come across the Martha Wayne face glitch.

It's not the only bugs players have been spotting. Some PC players reported game crashes and audio issues while playing the first part of the five-part game series from Telltale.

Others have had issues with some black lines across the screen during gameplay.

batman telltale black line

The glitch I game across reminded me of one of the most notorious game glitches in recent history when multiple skin textures didn't load during gameplay in "Assassins Creed: Unity."

assassins creed unity face glitchassassins creed unity

Have you come across any glitches or bugs while playing "Batman: A Telltale Series"? I want to hear about them! Send screenshots and an email to kacuna@thisisinsider.com.

SEE ALSO: Amazon has a secret plan to replace FedEx and UPS called 'Consume the City'

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The 20 games you can't miss this holiday

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It's a gift and a curse — there are too many great video games coming out, and not enough time to play them. 

Final Fantasy XV

With that in mind, we took a hard look at the many, many great games expected to arrive this holiday. Then we whittled the list down to 20, including one new piece of hardware. Here's what we found:

SEE ALSO: The 31 biggest games of the holiday season

"Forza Horizon 3"

"Forza Horizon" is the "Fast & Furious" of racing games. It's reverent of cars, sure, but its focus is on fun. "Forza Horizon 3" is all about making you, the player, happy all the time. It gives you a huge world to explore — a massive section of Australia — and hundreds of cars. 

The game's selection of vehicles is, to put it lightly, very large. Over 350 vehicles of all types are in the game, and they can all be tuned as you like. It's gorgeous and fun and — best of all — respectful of your time. Check out our full review right here.

Release date: September 27

Platform: Xbox One and PC (Windows 10 only)



"Mafia 3"

In "Mafia III," you are Lincoln Clay: an orphan who found a family in the black mob of New Bordeaux. After returning from Vietnam, Clay's adopted family is killed by the Italian mafia, which sets off Clay's quest for revenge. 

At its heart, "Mafia III" is an open-world crime game in the same vein as "Grand Theft Auto." But where the latter goes for a satirical take on American culture, this game aims to feel as authentic to its fictional version of New Orleans as possible. 

Release date: October 7

Platform: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC



"Gears of War 4"

"Gears of War 4" focuses on JD Fenix, the son of the original trilogy's main character. Along with his friends Kait and Del, he fights all sorts of nightmarish creatures in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

But let's not kid ourselves: You're here to shoot, stomp, and chainsaw the so-called Locust, right? Right. "Gears of War 4" has all that and more. (And when we say more, we mean a grizzled, elderly Marcus Fenix with a sweet beard, as seen above.)

Release date: October 11

Platform: Xbox One and PC (Windows 10 only)



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