gaming

This fall, many gamers will return to the battlefield -- Battlefield 4, that is. We've got all the details, including preorder information and console availability.

During an event yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, game maker DICE delivered a heart-pumping trailer featuring 17 minutes of Battlefield 4's single-player action. As Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" played in the background, the montage opened with the protagonist, Recker, waking up to find himself and his outfit trapped in a Jeep that was sinking to the bottom of the ocean.… Read more

So many deals, so little time!

1. Mo' terabytes, mo' savings. If your PC doubles as a media center, especially one that pulls DVR duty, you can't have too much storage. Likewise, if you work with a lot of video, you can't have too much storage.

While supplies last, TigerDirect has the Western Digital Elements 3TB USB hard drive for $99.99, plus $3.80 for shipping. That's after redeeming a $20 mail-in rebate (PDF), which makes this the least expensive 3TB external drive I've ever seen.

It's a USB 2.0 drive, alas, but … Read more

Auralux (iOS|Android) on its surface is a beautiful and simple strategy game, but it quickly gets very challenging as you progress through levels. Your job is to conquer suns, and ultimately two AI-controlled teams using a single type of unit.

There have been other similar strategy games for mobile devices, but none that kept the gameplay so incredibly simple. When you start out, you have one sun that is producing an army per second, as does each other team. But before you rush to attack another team, you'll want to conquer gray, uninhabited suns by sending your armies. … Read more

If you're starving for information about Battlefield 4, three new screenshots found on EA's Web server might whet your appetite.

CNET confirmed the authenticity of the screenshots after downloading the files from an insecure EA Web directory associated with the official Battlefield blog. In comparison with its predecessor, BF4 appears to contain massive upgrades, especially when it comes to textures and draw distance, as well as considerable improvements in the way soldiers and weapons appear. … Read more

Game maker Popcap today revealed Plants vs. Zombies Adventures (PvZA) beta for Facebook, but gamers might be more interested in the mention of Plants vs. Zombies 2.

The social spinoff PvZA takes gardeners out of the backyard (the primary setting in the first game) and sends them on the road to fight off ravenous zombies. To freshen up gameplay, Popcap enhanced the title with new plants, zombies, and defenses, as well as the implementation of social features that include leaderboards and community challenges. … Read more

Announced today, Verizon's Android devices will soon come loaded with a new Games Portal, a standalone app marketplace for games (separate from Google Play) combined with a social network similar to Apple's Game Center.

Powered by PlayPhone, an experienced builder of gaming networks, Verizon's Games Portal figures to be an attractive marketplace for developers. The platform not only offers distribution to millions of Verizon customers, but it also allows these customers to take advantage of direct carrier billing, a low-friction option that could result in more games-based purchases. What's more, since Android doesn't (yet?) have … Read more

Game developers on Facebook's platform generated $2.8 billion last year, Facebook executives told developers today.

The social network, in hopes of snagging more game creators, has been very vocal about wanting to beef up its platform with mid- and hard-core games -- the type of games in which players spend the most time and money. Executives said they are working on making Facebook a place for these committed gamers.

"Anywhere in the games business we are investing heavily," Facebook's Sean Ryan said at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Calif.

In addition to trotting … Read more

True story: Attracted by the sounds of Star Wars, my kids wandered over to where I was playing a game on my iPad. "What's that?" they asked. "Star Wars Pinball," I said. "What's pinball?" they replied.

I told them pinball was a game people used to play at the arcade, before video games came along. They said, "Whats an arcade?"

I said an arcade is where kids used to go after school when they got tired of listening to records. All together, now: "What's a record?"… Read more

How much do you value your productivity? If you're smack in the middle of an important work or school project, or you've got important life events to deal with -- eating, drinking, and so on -- you might want to steer clear of this deal.

Because I warn you: once you start playing Peggle, you won't want to stop.

Don't believe me? Peggle comes from PopCap Games, makers of such addictive pastimes as Bejeweled, Bookworm, and Plants vs. Zombies. And I'd say it ranks just as high as those classics on the time-suck scale.

It'… Read more