Stories by: Matt Peckham

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 15/11/2011 10:00:00

You begin in a prison cart, hands bound, juddering down a mountain path as a chorus of French horns plays a mournful melody. You'll spend a lot of time navigating Skyrim's mountains -- whether you're climbing through their snowy heights or just staring up their slopes, they're a physical presence unlike any you've experienced in a game. They surround you on all sides, their tops shrouded in rolling banks of clouds and reaching for what seems like miles toward the stratosphere. The clouds sometimes descend from the highest slopes, filling pine-thick valleys or rocky, scrub-covered flatland with curls of fog.
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Arkham City's Too-Forgiving Combat System 22/10/2011 03:56:00

I'm asking for it, I really am: I'm nearly finished with story mode in Arkham City, about to ascend the loftiest tower in the prison-city's center, preparing to do battle with forces I won't spoil here. I've been playing on the hardest difficulty setting, which matters for reasons you'll understand in a moment.
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Sony Distribution Center torched in London riots 10/08/2011 00:01:00

Rioters in London apparently set Sony's Enfield-based DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation) facility ablaze last night, reducing the massive disc distribution center to flames and smoke. The massive multi-story, 20,000 square meter building would have likely contained stock tied to multiple mediums, ranging from music labels to video games to movies and more.
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E3 2011: watch the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim demo 10/06/2011 03:58:00

I actually kind of like Adam Sessler (see Sessler's cathartic Soapbox, "Killzone Mailbag"), though I have no idea what to make of Morgan "like huge frigging dragons!" Webb. And Bethesda's been a favorite developer for me personally since Morrowind. So I'm sort of geek-twitterpated by videos like this G4TV The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim walkthrough with the game's director, Todd Howard.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be ridiculous, hit November 8 24/05/2011 23:40:00

To paraphrase, it doesn't take the most powerful nations on earth to create the next global conflict -- nope, just some skyscrapers-go-boom-now developers, channeling contemporary doomsayers.
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Sony denies PSN hack, confirms PSN Web exploit 19/05/2011 23:46:00

The PlayStation Network wasn't hacked so much as threatened yesterday when a password exploit accessible through its PSN web page login page came to light, claims Sony.
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PSN apology: What else would you have Sony do? 18/05/2011 01:08:00

Now that the PlayStation Network’s back, Sony’s trotting out something it's calling a "PlayStation Network and Qriocity Customer Appreciation Program," prompting cries of "too much" or "too little" in certain press channels.
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Sony Online Entertainment hacked, 12,700 credit cards stolen 03/05/2011 09:24:00

Not quite out of the frying pan, but into the fire anyway: Sony just acknowledged another network breach related to the first one.
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Is Sony’s PSN ‘Welcome Back’ enough? 02/05/2011 23:43:00

Sony Japan’s explanation for the PSN’s takedown yesterday didn’t tell us much, but -- nearly a week and a half on -- at least the company apologized. Sony’s deputy president Kazuo Hirai took the stage, bent forward as if to touch his toes in a deep and held bow, then apologized “for the great anxiety and inconvenience” caused by the ongoing PSN and Qriocity outages.
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Portal 2: a little better all the time 21/04/2011 00:05:00

The fleeting hour I was able to devote to Portal 2 last night, dashing through the remainder of its suddenly capacious middle chapters, proved a little better than the dull, shallow preliminary five.
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What you'll get in the Microsoft Kinect for Windows SDK 15/04/2011 04:38:00

If you're waiting for Microsoft's official do-it-yourself motion-sensing PC kit, you won't have to wait much longer. Microsoft says the Kinect for Windows software development kit (beta) will ship this spring, and they've put up a research page to prove it.