The Wolf Among Us review - game noir

I’ve never read a single issue of the Fables comic, but that makes me the perfect audience for The Wolf Among Us.

It takes a simple premise and flips it on its side. All the fairy tales we heard about as kids, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, Jack and the beanstalk, they’re all real. But rather than living happily ever after, they were forced from their homes by ‘The Adversary’ and now live in a place called Fabletown in New York City, where they live among normal people hiding their true identities with spells called glamour making make them look human.

Layoffs at 2K Marin

BioShock 2 and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified developer 2K Marin has been hit with layoffs today. Official numbers are unknown but a source told Polygon the “majority” of the studio has been let go.

According to the source, the only developers safe from layoffs were those already in transition moving the new 2K studio in the Bay Area under former BioShock Infinite producer Rod Ferguson.

A 2K Games representative said, “We can confirm staff reductions at 2K Marin. While these were difficult decisions, we regularly evaluate our development efforts and have decided to reallocate creative resources. Our goal to create world-class video game titles remains unchanged.”

One former employee took to Twitter stating he is no longer employed by 2K Games.

As of today, I am no longer employed by 2K.

— Michael Kamper (@michael_kamper) October 17, 2013

Former 2K designer Steve Gaynor, co-founder of The Fullbright Company, reacted to the news on Twitter, sending out condolences to those affected.

Word is the remaining staff at 2K Marin got clipped. Sorry to hear it, and hope they land well. Was honored to work there with such talent.

— Steve Gaynor (@fullbright) October 17, 2013

I was I think employee.. 16? At 2KMarin? Was amazing to see such talent in one place, and what so many have accomplished since. Godspeed all

— Steve Gaynor (@fullbright) October 17, 2013

Blizzard All-Stars is now Heroes of the Storm

The Blizzard themed MOBA, which first debuted as Blizzard DOTA then renamed to Blizzard All-Stars following Valve’s development of Dota 2, has a new name again: Heroes of the Storm.

“Yep, we’ve changed it again,” reads the description of the video above debuting the new name.

Heroes of the Storm first appeared a few weeks ago when Blizzard filed for a trademark for the name, leading to speculation that it might be the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion.

The video description also says to, “Set aside whatever you think you knew about Blizzard All-Stars,” as more information will be released at Blizzard’s upcoming BlizzCon on Nov. 8 and 9 in Anaheim, Calif., where it assumingly will be playable.

I played Blizzard DOTA at BlizzCon 2011 when it was still called Blizzard DOTA. It was the first time I’d ever played a MOBA. You can read my impressions here.

Watch Dogs delayed to spring 2014

Ubisoft announced the delay of Watch Dogs, its open-world game set in Chicago, to spring 2014 today on their blog. When it was first shown at Ubisoft’s E3 2012 press conference, Watch Dogs was synonymous with next-gen, heading the charge of the new comes that are now less than a month away.

“Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until spring 2014.”

According to the post, Ubisoft is using the extra time on polish to closer deliver on their desired quality.

“We know a lot of you are probably wondering: Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”

Watch Dogs was originally slated to release on November 19 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version launching alongside those consoles. It will now release sometime in spring of 2014. The push to spring leaves November 19 open to Need for Speed: Rivals and the PC version of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.

Superpowers are the glue that holds Saints Row IV together

On paper, Saints Row 4 shouldn’t work.

Originally conceived as an expansion to Saints Row The Third, it takes place in the same city, reuses some of the same jokes and gags, and has some of the same tired activities. But with a different premise, the introduction of new characters, and a varied narrative, Saints Row 4 feels like one whole cohesive game wrapped around the concept of superpowers.