UK Chart: Minecraft stays top as Pikmin 3 falls out of Top 10

The retail release of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has blocked all competition from the top of the UK charts for a second week running.

Pikmin 3, which finished last week in second, dropped sharply out of the top 10 to 15th. The Last of Us climbed to second, followed by Animal Crossing: New Leaf in third.

FIFA 13, now in its forty-fifth week in the charts, finished in fourth place.

Movie tie-in The Smurfs 2 climbed twenty places to finish fifth, a 115 percent increase in week-on-week sales buoyed by the release of the accompanying film.

The rest of the top 10 was filled by all the usual suspects: Far Cry 3 in sixth, LEGO Batman 2 seventh, Call of Duty: Black Ops II in eighth, Tomb Raider ninth, and Assassin's Creed III tenth.

The only new entry in the charts this week was the budget re-release of Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package in 29th. Its successor, Saints Row IV, is due out at the end of August.

The Top 20 UK chart for the week ending August 3:

1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
2. The Last of Us
3. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
4. FIFA 13
5. The Smurfs 2
6. Far Cry 3
7. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
9. Tomb Raider
10. Assassin's Creed III
11. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
12. LEGO The Lord of the Rings
13. Max Payne 3
14. Grand Theft Auto IV
15. Pikmin 3
16. Need for Speed: Most Wanted
17. Battlefield 3
18. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
19. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition
20. The Sims 3: Island Paradise

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Ubisoft says there's an overall ending to Assassin's Creed

Ubisoft has said that it has a planned ending for Assassin's Creed, and that the series follows an overall arc despite its annual release schedule.

Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag director Ashraf IsmaiI said that the series' multiple development teams all follow an overall arc. "We have multiple development teams, then we have the brand team that sits on top and is filled with writers and designers concerned with the series' overall arc," said Ismail.

"So there is an overall arc," he continued, "and each iteration has its place inside this."

Assassin's Creed has attracted its share of criticism for adopting an annual release schedule, but Ismail says that the team has an overall ending in sight, and there are multiple ways for Ubisoft to get there.

"We have an idea of where the end is, what the end is," explained Ismail. "But of course [Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot] announced we are a yearly title, we ship one game a year. So depending on the setting, depending on what fans want, we've given ourselves room to fit more in this arc. But there is an end."

Ismail also says one of the advantages to having multiple studios working on the franchise simultaneously is that the various teams get to work in conjunction to plan plot points and characters ahead of time.

"We're now able to seed stuff earlier and earlier in our games," Ismail said. "So for example in [ACIV] we have Edward, who was seeded in AC3. But there's a lot more stuff in our game that is hinting at other possibilities."

Ubisoft Toronto, which is currently readying the release of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, has already begun work on 2014's Assassin's Creed game. Ubisoft itself has said it does not expect ACIV to outperform its predecessor commercially.

For more information on this year's game, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, check out a recent Ask GameSpot video.

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id Software's first Doom 4 project "didn't have the passion and soul"

Bethesda and id Software have spoken about the now-cancelled version of Doom 4, saying that the studio's original attempt at the game didn't feel like a Doom game.

A new version of Doom 4 is now underway at id Software, but in an interview with IGN studio director Tim Willits spoke about why it cancelled its first attempt.

"It wasn't one thing," explained Willits. "It wasn't like the art was bad, or the programming was bad. Every game has a soul. Every game has a spirit. When you played Rage, you got the spirit. And [Doom 4] did not have the spirit, it did not have the soul, it didn't have a personality. It had a bit of schizophrenia, a little bit of an identity crisis. It didn't have the passion and soul of what an id game is."

"Everyone knows the feeling of Doom, but it's very hard to articulate," added Willits.

Doom 4 was originally confirmed in May 2008 via a press release, though the project was scrapped in late 2011. Bethesda confirmed in April 2013 that development on the game had been rebooted, after sources at the time claimed the original version of Doom 4 borrowed many of its creative elements from modern shooters such as Call of Duty.

Bethesda vice president of marketing Pete Hines added that Doom 4 needs to be worth the wait. "If it was like the quintessential, 'yup, that's Doom 4,' then we wouldn't be having this conversation," he said.

"But, it was something that we looked at and the id guys looked at and said, look, it's not even that something is necessarily bad. But is it good enough? You can make a game and say, 'that's not a bad game, but it's not as good as an Elder Scrolls game should be,' and there's a difference…it's not great. It's not amazing. It's not what people have waited all this time for. It needs to be like 'this was totally worth the wait.'"

"I think what the guys at id are working on is…they're pushing the boundaries and challenging themselves. I don't want anybody to look at id's next project and have this reaction that it's still stuck in the '90s," concluded Hines.

While images of Doom 4 have surfaced online, these are believed to have been from the now-scrapped version. "Those images have nothing to do with what you're gonna see in Doom 4," said id Software design director Matthew Hooper.

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Call of Duty: Ghosts producer teases "squads" gameplay

August 5, 2013 5:08AM PDT

Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin tweets 7-second video teasing new gameplay mode for latest entry in shooter series.

Call of Duty: Ghosts may add "squads" gameplay, according to a recent tweet from Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin.

The developer recently tweeted a seven-second video showing off what appears to be a menu for Call of Duty: Ghosts featuring the words "options," "online play" and "squads."

Rubin did not give any additional information about the video clip. Activision will show off the game's multiplayer component for the first time on August 14 at a Los Angeles event.

GameSpot will carry a live-stream of the presentation.

Call of Duty competitor Battlefield has supported squads since 2005's Battlefield 2. The next entry in the Battlefield series--Battlefield 4--launches a week before Call of Duty: Ghosts, on October 29.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

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Valve's Dota 2 International Championship begins

August 3, 2013 3:14AM PDT

World's best teams descend on Valve's headquarters in Seattle to compete for over $2.8 million.

Valve's yearly Dota 2 Championships, The International, which is now in its third year, have begun with nearly 400,000 concurrent live viewers within hours of going live.

The world's best Dota 2 teams have descended onto Valve's headquarters in Seattle to compete for what is now over $2.8 million in prize money. Teams have flown in from around the world, including 2011 International Champions Na'Vi from Ukraine, 2012 International Champions Invictus Gaming from China, and 2013 favorites Alliance from Sweden.

In addition to the main tournament, Valve will also be hosting a 1v1 Solo Championship, and an All-Star match with players voted on by the fans. Star players competing in both include Danil "Dendi" Ishutin from Na'Vi, Luo "Ferrari" Feichi from Invictus Gaming, Jonathan "Loda" Berg from Alliance, and Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung from Orange Esports. A full list of teams and competitors can be found on the official International site.

"Despite the importance of the tournament itself, I think players will remember the All Stars and 1v1 matches with great fondness," Dota 2 analyst Bruno Carlucci told GameSpot. "One can only imagine how much some of these legends dreamt of playing with each other on a LAN environment, or even, for some of the youngest competitors, face their idols in a 1v1 and prove themselves to the world as the best individually skilled player."

The prize pool, which continues to increase by $2.50 with every purchase of the $10 Interactive Compendium, is the largest amount ever given out for a single-event in competitive gaming/eSports history.

"TI3 is already the tournament with the biggest prize pool in eSports," Carlucci said. "With such an amazing start in stream numbers, I'm betting it will soon become the biggest tournament in stream viewer numbers as well."

Last year Riot's Season 2 World Championships peaked at 1.1 million concurrent viewers watching online only, making it the most watched competitive gaming event of all time.

The International 3 Main Event will begin on August 7 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington. The entire event will be streamed on the in-game spectator client Dota TV, and on TwitchTV. GameSpot eSports will be at the event to sit down with Valve regarding the release of Dota 2 and The International, and provide live coverage all week long.

→ More coverage of ESPORTS on GameSpot.com

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Top Five Skyrim Mods of the Week - Kevin VanNord and the Kevin VanSword

@NovahJCMP PC as in the machine, definitely do so. Purely from the gaming standpoint, apart from mods you also get some neat discounts on PC games. If you are serious about it, make sure you get some advice and make a custom-built one, not a pre-built PC. More often than not you're going to get more performance for less money with a custom-built PC.

As for Skyrim PC version, wait a bit and go get The Elder Scrolls Anthology with all Elder Scrolls games, because if you get bored with Skyrim, you may want to play the previous games and there are mods that can make both Morrowind and Oblivion look pretty up-to-date. 

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Xbox One "witch hunt" somewhat unjustified, says Carmack

Industry veteran John Carmack, who cofounded Doom studio id Software, believes the blowback surrounding Microsoft's since-reversed Xbox One policies was somewhat unjustified.

"I think the witch hunt was a little bit unjustified there," Carmack said during this keynote address at QuakeCon. "I personally am extremely fond of having all of my digital purchases in a curated garden. All of my iTunes, all of my Amazon stuff, all of my Steam things. And it's a positive thing."

The days of physical media are numbered, Carmack said, adding that a digital-only future is clearly the way forward.

"Yeah, you can have better and worse ways of doing that, but we are very quickly going to be past the age of having a game that you hold in your hands on optical media," Carmack said.

"It probably won't be many years before we wind up with SKUs that just have the optical drives deleted and everybody will just be getting it through the net," he added. "The future is obvious right there and it will be good for us in general."

Carmack also said he believes fears are overblown over the possibility that the Xbox One's new Kinect camera will snoop on users.

"If you go back ten years, the idea that everyone would carry around a phone that has your GPS-located position at all times would cause the tinfoil hat crowd to go absolutely crazy," Carmack said.

He said it is possible that the government will have backdoors into technology like smartphones and potentially Kinect to track consumers, but "that's pretty much the situation…we just kind of carry on."

He pointed out that the situation with Kinect is already in existence on laptops, which have had built-in webcams for years.

At the end of the day, Carmack said "we'll get used to it," because potential security concerns that come with new technology are "just inevitable."

→ More coverage of XBOXONE on GameSpot.com

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Whore of the Orient gameplay footage emerges

August 2, 2013 5:22AM PDT

First gameplay footage of Team Bondi's next-generation game revealed, showing third-person cover, melee combat, and gunplay.

Gameplay footage for L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi's next-generation action game Whore of the Orient has appeared online.

The minute-long video was acquired by Videogamer from a "trusted source" and shows off third-person cover mechanics, melee combat, and gunplay in a bustling city.

Check out the footage below.

Whore of the Orient puts players into 1936 Shanghai, the "most corrupt and decadent city on the planet," according to a since-deleted page on the Team Bondi website.

Team Bondi recently received $200,000 in funding from the Australian government to help finance the project.

After the release of L.A. Noire in 2011, KMM Interactive bought the assets and intellectual property rights to Team Bondi's work, including Whore of the Orient. A Warner Bros. logo appeared on the Team Bondi website, though the publisher has yet to give any information regarding its involvement with the game.

Whore of the Orient is reportedly being readied for a release in 2015, though it is unclear if the rumored layoffs at Team Bondi have affected this release window.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

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BioShock Infinite hits Mac August 29

August 2, 2013 5:51AM PDT

Latest title in series hitting Mac later this month for $60 with Steam Play, controller support, and Clash in the Clouds DLC.

BioShock Infinite will be available on Mac beginning August 29, developer Aspyr Media has announced. The game will be available through Steam and the Mac App Store for $60.

The Mac version of BioShock Infinite features Steam Play and controller support, and will offer downloadable content in the form of the $5 Columbia's Finest expansion.

The game's newly announced Clash in the Clouds DLC will be available for Mac "at or near" launch, while Mac gamers can also expect Burial at Sea - Episodes One and Two, but not necessarily at the same time the content releases for consoles and PC.

Minimum system requirements for the Mac version of BioShock Infinite are listed below.

• OS: 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual-Core)
• CPU speed: 2.2GHz
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Video Card (ATI): Radeon HD 3870
• Video Card (Nvidia): Geforce 640M
• Video Memory:512 MB
• Hard Drive: 30GB HD space

BioShock Infinite originally released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in March. For more, check out GameSpot's review.

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

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Wii system sales cross 100 million units

Nintendo's Wii console, released in November 2006, has crossed 100 million units in global life-to-date sales. The milestone was achieved during Nintendo's April-June quarter.

To date, lifetime sales for the system stand at 100.04 million units. The Wii is now Nintendo's third gaming machine to have sold over 100 million units, joining the DS (153.93 million) and the Game Boy (118.69 million).

More than 872 million games for the console have been sold to date, with Mario Kart Wii the top non-bundled game at 34.26 million copies sold since launch.

By comparison, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has sold 78.2 million systems to date, while the PlayStation 3 is believed to have sold around 77 million units worldwide since launch.

Nintendo's latest console, the Wii U, has not yet been the runaway success that the original Wii was. As revealed today in an earnings report, the system sold only 160,000 units during the April-June quarter, boosting lifetime sales to 3.61 million consoles. The original Wii outsold the Wii U in the quarter by 500,000 units.

14.44 million Wii U games have been sold thus far. New Super Mario Bros. U is the system's top non-bundled game, moving 2.15 million units to date.

Nintendo plans to sell 9 million Wii U units before March 2014. The company is hoping to spur console sales by releasing numerous first-party titles in the coming months, including The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Wii Party U, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World, and Wii Fit U.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com

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