News
8 CommentsGrand Theft Auto 5 tops 75 million units shipped
Rockstar Games has shipped more than 75 million copies of Grand Theft Auto 5 worldwide, parent company Take-Two Interactive announced today.
The news came in an investor release for the third quarter of Take-Two’s 2017 fiscal year, which ends March 31; the third quarter ran from October-December 2016. The company’s most recent update on GTA 5 sales came in early November, when it said it had shipped over 70 million units. That means that Rockstar shipped approximately 5 million more copies of the game in the past three months, and about 15 million over the past year.
Take-Two said that both GTA 5 and its online component, Grand Theft Auto Online, have surpassed expectations in “every quarter since their release.” Rockstar originally released the game on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in...
News
3 CommentsGrand Theft Auto Online character transfers end in March
If, for some reason, you still have and still are playing a character on Grand Theft Auto Online on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, you have a little more than one month to transfer that progress to the current console generation.
Rockstar Games announced the March 6 deadline along with its latest promotions and special events within GTA Online. Progress transfer — within a console family only — began after Grand Theft Auto 5 launched on the current console generation in 2014.
Updates and support for Grand Theft Auto Online on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ended in 2015.
Those playing on the current generation can enjoy some steep discounts on in-game gear and bonus XP events from Feb. 1 to Feb. 13 in a variety of GTA Online game modes. Rockstar Newswire has more details.
Cover Story
Issue
25
January 9, 2017
Final Fantasy 7: An oral history
30,000 words! 35 interviews! 4 videos! A trivia minigame! We take an in-depth look back at Square’s breakthrough role-playing game.
Read moreNews
44 CommentsVideo game releases for February 2017
Here are some of the big video game releases for the month of February 2017. Be sure to check out the list we put together of our most anticipated games of 2017 and subscribe to Polygon's YouTube channel for tons of gaming videos. Also, here are the free games you get with your Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus subscriptions this month. Additionally, here's what is coming to your favorite video streaming services and here's what is leaving in February.
What are you looking forward to playing? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.
Note: This is not a comprehensive list of releases and only games with specific dates are listed below. Some games are announced for February but have no firm release date.
Feb. 2:
Fire Emblem Heroes (Android and iOS) — In...
News
9 CommentsFebruary’s Xbox Games With Gold include Project CARS, Monkey Island 2
Microsoft is gearing up for Valentine’s Day with Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime as one of four Xbox Games With Gold titles for February, the company announced today.
The co-op indie game from Asteroid Base will be available free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers all month long. The other Xbox One game for February, the Digital Edition of Slightly Mad Studios’ Project CARS, will be free from Feb. 16 to March 15.
Xbox 360 owners will get two games as well during the month of February; both of them are from LucasArts. From Feb. 1-15, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge will be the free game of choice. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be available free from Feb. 16-28, which is slightly less than half the month because February is weirdly short.
As always, the Games With Gold...
Latest Xbox 360 Forum Activity View all posts
Opinion
3 CommentsSkyrim helped me fix my relationship with food
Roast chickens, venison stew, apple dumplings, cabbages … these are the items that fill my Skyrim character’s bloated pouches. Though certainly not the most efficient way to play, I’ve always opted out of purchasing potions to restore health — although I’d certainly use them if I had them — and instead turned toward the stuff that’s lying around everywhere: food. Found scraps of food in Skyrim are a cheap way to keep health up, although you’re going to need lots of it to heal completely.
And I had loads of it. Food is power in Skyrim, whether it’s boar meat stripped right from the bone or a pile of cheese wheels stolen from the vendor next door.
This didn’t extend to my own reality. My body was shriveled, and my bones were as brittle as ice at the dawn of spring. Anorexia plagued me...
The epic sword-flying, mountain-jumping, Johnson-cloning Halo 2 speedrun
A good way to beat Halo 2 quickly is to literally jump over a mountain — and that’s just one of the mind-bending tricks that the speedrunner Cryphon showed off this week when he beat the first-person shooter during Awesome Games Done Quick 2017.
Start to finish, it took Cryphon (accompanied by his friend ShenanaganSmash) less than two hours to beat the 2004 Bungie game on Legendary difficulty. You can watch the whole thing on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel. In this article, we’ll walk you through four of the coolest things that he did — and in the process, introduce you to the world of speedrunning.
Behold! sword flying
In Halo 2, there’s a deceptively simple trick that saves speedrunners time and energy. It’s called the “sword cancel” or “sword flying,” and it works by...
News
88 CommentsEvery Xbox 360 game that’s backward compatible with Xbox One
Xbox One, unlike its biggest competitor PlayStation 4, is backward compatible with a portion of its predecessor's games. The list of Xbox 360 titles playable on Xbox One expands on a regular basis, with hundreds already working on the current-gen system. While Microsoft announces old games that are newly playable on its latest hardware as soon as they’re available, it can be hard to keep track of which of your discs or downloads actually work with Xbox One.
We’ve got a big spreadsheet of every backward compatible game below to help you out. It’s sorted by the most recent Xbox 360 game to become playable on Xbox One, and we’ll continue to update it with every addition, from the big — such as classics like Dark Souls and Red Dead Redemption — to the smaller, more niche titles.
B...
Culture
13 CommentsHalo was getting a Mega Bloks game, according to leaked build (Update)
Halo was at one point a candidate for a kid-friendly adaptation undertaken by N-Space with a Mega Bloks license, according to this video by Andrew Borman of PtoPOnline.
Borman, thanks to an "anonymous contributor," unearthed a prototype of the Halo Mega Bloks game for Xbox 360, codenamed "Haggar." He dates it to September or November 2013, around the time when N-Space would have been wrapping it up. The studio went belly-up in early 2016, and before that was mainly known for its ports of big-AAA titles to the Nintendo DS or Wii.
“Haggar” had a polished campaign level to show off and promised multiplayer co-op and siege modes, Borman says.
For those wondering why Lego, which has a hugely successful video games line adapting IPs from all corners of video gaming, didn’t get a crack at...
News
15 CommentsNative Xbox controller support comes to Steam
A client update for Steam is now in beta, adding native support for Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers, alongside other, generic gamepads. Players will be able to map features to these using the Steam Controller Configurator, giving them more input on how they play their PC games.
Although many games previously offered Xbox controller support, that functioned on a game-by-game basis. The expanded options open up the platform to a bevy of gamepads without any extra work, and they allow players to customize the controls to their liking.
Generic X-input gamepads are easy to come by, and with the addition of Xbox controllers, Steam will now support the gamepads of both major consoles. Official PlayStation 4 controller support came late last year, and the beta now also allows players to use...
News
10 CommentsPlatinum’s Ninja Turtles game pulled from digital stores after less than a year
PlatinumGames’ poorly received action game based on the Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, is no longer for sale digitally. The game appears to have been pulled from all digital retailers less than eight months after it first went on sale.
Mutants in Manhattan was released on May 24, 2016 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. As of this week, the game is no longer listed or available for sale on the PlayStation Store, Steam or Xbox Games Store. The game is not available digitally through the Humble Store or Amazon, though physical copies of Mutants in Manhattan are still available for purchase from the latter retailer.
It’s not clear why Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan was unceremoniously delisted digitally, but...
Explainer
7 CommentsHow to protect your gaming accounts with two-factor authentication
Cybersecurity is of paramount importance these days, considering our ever-increasing dependence on cloud-based services. We store more and more data online, often for convenience but often because there is no other option, and we trust giant corporations to safeguard our sensitive private information — passwords, addresses, credit cards, Social Security numbers and more.
But paradoxically, our reliance on these systems is increasing exponentially even as our faith in them is dropping. It seems like reports of massive hacks are coming more and more frequently.
To hear our next president tell it, we live in challenging times.
Cybersecurity is of paramount importance
“I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly,” said President-elect Donald Trump last Wednesday, speaking to...
Deals
7 CommentsYear-end Xbox games sale has deals on Overwatch, Doom, Watch Dogs 2 and more
Microsoft continues its sale on Xbox One and Xbox 360 games leading into the new year with a fresh batch of deals on games both new and old. The latest deals in the Xbox “Countdown” sale include savings on recent releases like Watch Dogs 2, Dead Rising 4 and Steep, as well as a long list of backward compatible Xbox 360 games.
Xbox owners can save up to 60 percent on dozens of titles and take an extra 10 percent off if they’re Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Here’s a selection of some of the Xbox One games on sale and their markdowns:
Watch Dogs 2 - $41.99 ($35.99 with Gold)
FIFA 17 - $35.99 ($30 with Gold)
Dead Rising 4 - $44.99 ($40.19 with Gold)
Overwatch - $44.99 ($40.19 with Gold)
Rocket League - $13.99 ($11.99 with Gold)
Doom - $35.99 ($24 with Gold)
Steep - $47.99 ($41.99 with...
Best Games
39 CommentsBest Xbox One games for new owners
Microsoft and the Xbox One had a rough start to this console generation, but they've really picked up steam since then. Along with the Xbox One S and the upcoming Project Scorpio, Microsoft has a slate of excellent console-exclusive games. All of that may have pushed you off the fence into buying an Xbox One, or maybe you got one as a gift during the holiday season.
Your Xbox One almost certainly came with a game, since Microsoft offered many different bundles. Either way, you're probably looking for more games to play on your brand-new gaming console, and you're in luck! There are plenty of great titles available on the Xbox One, and we've compiled a list of some of the best. (Note: We've generally stuck to console-exclusive games, plus a multiplatform list at the end.)
The Big Ones
...
News
10 CommentsXbox Games With Gold starts 2017 with Rayman Origins, Killer Instinct
In tumultuous times such as these, you can at least rely on a few sure things: The sun will rise in the east every morning, traveling during the holidays will be a nightmare, and Microsoft and Sony will offer free games to customers who subscribe to their respective online services. January 2017 will be no different, with Xbox Live Gold members getting access to four games as part of their subscription.
Xbox One owners will be able to download Neocore Games’ World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap (regularly $19.99) all month long, and the Ultra Edition of Iron Galaxy Studios’ Killer Instinct Season 2 (reg. $39.99) from Jan. 16 through Feb. 15.
On the Xbox 360, players will get the Double Fine adventure game The Cave (reg. $14.99) from Jan. 1-15 and the classic Ubisoft Montpellier platformer R...
News
10 CommentsWalking Dead’s new season skips PS3 and 360 — and that could mean trouble for old save files
cThe third season of The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series, A New Frontier, won’t launch on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, Telltale Games announced on its website. That may not surprise newcomers to the series, but anyone who finished the earlier seasons on those older consoles may need to start digging them out.
That’s because importing saves from Season Two of The Walking Dead requires downloading a patch, which will then allow players to upload their files and bring them over to modern hardware. If they played the second season on PS3 or 360, they’ll have to plug those consoles back in to patch their games and get access to their old saves.
They’ll also need to have a Telltale account, which they’ll be able to upload their save files to and then download onto a new device. There’s a...
News
5 CommentsTelltale’s Walking Dead returns a great video game hero to the spotlight
Telltale Games' adaptation of The Walking Dead returns Dec. 20 titled not as "Season 3," but A New Frontier. A two-part episode will be available at launch, reintroducing players to Clementine, and pairing her with a new protagonist, Javier.
Clementine is one of the all-time great slow-burn video game heroes, emerging from the frightened grade-schooler for whom you put your life on the line in Season One, through an expedited adolescence where she accepts very hard lessons about people in Season Two. Now, as a teenager, she's acting first, and no longer being acted upon by this cruel world. Zombie stories are best when people realize the will to live and fight for it, and that is the truth of Clementine’s character.
Javier is her companion and another playable character, the first time...
News
8 CommentsBatman: The Telltale Series concludes next week (update)
The finale of Batman: The Telltale Series will arrive Dec. 13, publisher Telltale Games announced today.
Here’s the synopsis from Telltale for “City of Light,” the fifth and final episode of the series’ first season:
In Episode 5, the leader of the Children of Arkham prepares to execute the final act of a plan to destroy the Wayne family name, and the people closest to you are in their path of vengeance. Can Batman’s ultimate secret be kept — his very identity — when it is causing chaos and death in Gotham? The fate of the Wayne family and of the city itself rests on your choices. What will you do? How far will you go? Which mask will you wear?
Telltale noted that the finale will begin in “very different places” depending on the choice that players made at the end of the fourth episode.
...
News
13 CommentsTelltale’s Walking Dead season 3 premiere will be the first two episodes
The third season of Telltale Games’ acclaimed Walking Dead series of adventure games looks to be as heart-wrenching as ever, as seen in footage the studio debuted tonight at The Game Awards 2016.
The premiere of A New Frontier, the third season, is called “The Ties that Bind.” Clementine, the hero of the first two seasons, will return alongside a second playable protagonist, a new character named Javier.
A New Frontier takes place four years after the zombie plague began. But part of the episode offers a glimpse of the moment of the outbreak, with a devastating death in the family that gets even worse when Javy’s grandfather, well ... you can figure it out for yourself.
Here’s the synopsis from Telltale:
When family is all you have left... how far will you go to protect it? Four years...
Analysis
31 CommentsXbox Games With Gold gave out $930 worth of games in 2016. Was it worth it?
Last week, Xbox Live announced its schedule of Games With Gold for December, bringing to 48 the number of free games it offered in 2016. Were they any good? What would they cost otherwise? In short, what do the numbers say about the value of this Xbox Live Gold benefit?
We’ll try to answer that question this year as we have the past two. To that, however, we’ve added a few more questions: How old is the game? and Did Microsoft publish it? Did these appear earlier on PlayStation Plus?
These questions may shed light on where these free games programs are headed are headed, particularly as the previous console generation ages and the Xbox One’s backward compatibility program continues to pile up old titles.
What about PlayStation Plus?
• That analysis is here.
Getting Started
In all, there...
News
12 CommentsVideo game releases for December 2016
Here are some of the big video game releases for the month of December 2016. Be sure to check out the list we put together of our most anticipated games of 2016. Also, check out the free games you get with your Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus subscriptions this month. Additionally, here's what is coming and going on Netflix in December.
What are you looking forward to playing? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.
Note: This is not a comprehensive list of releases and only games with specific dates are listed below. Some games are announced for December but have no firm release date.
Dec. 1:
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Android and iOS) — The fourth entry in the visual novel series was the first not to have Phoenix Wright in the lead role, f...
News
11 CommentsThat time Castro appeared in Call of Duty, angering Cuba
Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba who was an antagonist to 11 U.S. presidential administrations, died on Friday. He was occasionally a character or figure in American popular culture, nearly always the villain. His last cameo, in 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops, kicked up enough of a fuss as to warrant a state-level response.
For those who don't recall it, Castro was the target of an assassination attempt by the U.S. (as he was many times in real life). In it, the fictitious Alex Mason carries out the mission as intended, only to discover he'd shot a body double. (Mason's then captured and shipped off to a Soviet Gulag.)
It’s the first mission in the game, so it was noticed in the mainstream immediately. The day after the game's launch, Cuba's state-run Cubadebate called it a "perverse"...
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