A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.
Dragon Age: Inquisition's first gameplay details revealed
Game Informer has a big preview of BioWare's latest fantasy role-player in its latest issue:
The game map stretches from eastern Ferelden to western Orlais, but while it's more open world than previous games, BioWare has not built "a million square miles of space" between the "significant" regions players will actually be exploring.
There will be no repeating level designs, and each area is larger than any seen in previous Dragon Age games. Each environment is full of little touches which lead to extra gameplay; this is designed to encourage exploration. That said, enemy encounters are rarely scaled to the player's level so wandering the wilds is not recommended.
And this may turn out to be a key element:
BioWare is hoping to allow players to approach the game from a tactical, action-oriented or hybrid philosophy, and to this end, has once more implemented complementary class-based skill trees and specializations.
Behaviour sets and character switching also return. Although many skills are immediate effect, giving the feel of action, the game's pacing is supposed to push you towards a thoughtful approach.
What inspired The Last of Us (interview) | GamesBeat
A long and interesting interview with Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog about the making of The Last of Us. Some great stuff on the motivations behind the lead characters:
"Ultimately, at least for Joel, it became this idea of exploring how far a father is willing to go to save his kid. Each step of the way is a greater sacrifice."
Can't quote more than that as its chock full of spoilers but this is required reading if you played the game.
How Bungie plans to counter trolls through design in Destiny | Edge Online
Bungie technical director Chris Butcher has been telling Edge about the importance of combating anti-social gamers online:
"I don't think you can ever design toxic behaviour out, you can't ever stop players from being toxic but what you can do is prevent them being able to ruin other players' experiences," adds Butcher. "You give people these tools that encourage them to interact positively with each other and then if someone is interacting negatively with you, well, they can't ruin your experience."
Xbox Co-Founder Warns Publishers May Vanish | [a]listdaily
Ed Fries, one of the original founders of the Xbox project tells AList about how changes to the industry may render large publishers redundant:
"Who knows if there'll be big publishers in the future? There don't have to be," Fries said. "Maybe the world of the future doesn't look like that. Maybe it's just lots of small developers, getting together and then breaking up into little teams all over the world, that's where great games are going to come from. Big publishers were formed because games were really expensive, there were big distribution issues. Walmart didn't want to deal with a hundred companies, they wanted to deal with four or five. A lot of those things changed with digital distribution. Maybe what we'll see in the future isn't like what we've seen in the past. What does that mean? There are winners and losers all through that."
Walking the line – Volition on courting controversy, gender equality and Saints Row IV | Edge Online
Saints Row 4 associate producer Kate Nelson has criticised former publisher THQ for its emphasis on using porn stars to promote both Saints Row 2 and 3.
"I did not always love how much THQ put an emphasis on porn stars," Nelson told Edge. "In Saints Row 2 and Saints Row 3 there was an emphasis on the penthouse girls, and earlier Tera Patrick. I think it's important in marketing games to make sure that the essence of the game is what's being marketed, and I think the porn star angle didn't really fit in with what Saints Row is at heart, which is a parody. We like to poke fun."
You can follow Press Start at Pinboard.
