If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.
This week, a Valve engineer built a hybrid rocket engine under the backdrop of acquisition rumors, Activision revealed a ton of Call of Duty: Black Ops II details, and GamesBeat kicks off our Pitch us in one Tweet indie game series.
You’ll also find a review for Hell Yeah and our new “Threeview” series, which starts with Borderlands 2. Threeview is a feature with reviews from the perspectives of a critic, an analyst, and an academic.
News
- The DeanBeat: After raising $8.6M on Kickstarter, Ouya keeps the ball rolling
- Kingdoms of Amalur developer’s assets to be sold off at auction
- Minecraft creator refuses Windows 8 certification, tells Microsoft to “stop trying to ruin the PC”
- Nintendo to unleash fresh New Super Mario Bros. 2 levels
- Analyst — World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria performance ‘disappointing’
- Valve engineer builds a sweet hybrid rocket engine (video)
- Day 1 Digital proves Sony cares about digital distribution (analysis)
- Nintendo realizes it still has a Virtual Console in this week’s download report
- Ubisoft: Free-to-play will affect all of our games
- Spend over $100 on PSN in October and get $20 back
- Will Asian online game publishers Nexon and NCSoft buy blockbuster publisher Valve?
- PlayStation Network’s Spelunker HD getting brutal new downloadable stages
- Zombies game within Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be a big, bloody, burning massacre — on a bus
- Xbox Music pricing leaks online, mimics Spotify model
- Getting a Wii U on November 18? Here are the 23 games you can choose from
- Cable TV giants might be plotting cloud gaming service to take on Xbox, PlayStation
- German agency calls Steam license agreement ‘coercive’
- Bethesda turns to 2D animation to explain Dishonored’s backstory (updated)
- Gambitious launches crowdfunding platform for video games only
- Laid-off Sony PR employee: ‘You have to wonder what the hell’ Sony was thinking
- When you search for ‘casino’ games on iOS, here’s what pops up (Hint: it’s not a Zynga game)
- Game media veteran John Davison joins Red Robot Labs
Mobile news
- Pixowl raises $1.2 million to create story and character-driven mobile games
- iOS app-download rate dropped in August; likely due to iPhone 5 anticipation
- Justin Bieber winning joust with Joustin’ Beaver game creator
- Koolbit shows social mobile casino startups can still get traction in a crowd
- Kabam to make social and mobile games based on The Hobbit film
- Apple’s iOS 6 App Store search will be tough for game discovery
Pitch us in one tweet
- The top 10 games of ‘Pitch us in one Tweet’ (#7: NEO Scavenger)
- The top 10 games of “Pitch us in one Tweet” (#8: TwinSpin)
- The top 10 games of “Pitch us in one Tweet” (#9: Sir Gentleman Backyard Rumble)
- The top 10 games of ‘Pitch us in one Tweet’ (#10: Oh Snap!)
Interviews
- Why Guardians of Middle-earth (wisely) chooses not to compete with PC games like League of Legends (interview)
- Sony explains why you’re getting a smaller, but not cheaper, PlayStation 3 (interview)
- The Facebook Gaming Platform: expanding everywhere
Reviews
- What’s in the box?! Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set (review)
- Threeview: A critic, an analyst, and an academic review Borderlands 2
- Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is an homage to bad ‘90s platformers (review)
- What’s in the box?! World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition (review)
Previews
- 90 seconds of combat in Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer (hands-on video)
- 10 cool revelations about Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer revelations are all about killing, keeping score, and bragging (hands-on details)
- Destroy all humans in XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s multiplayer (hands-on preview)
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s hits and misses (hands-on preview)
Pieces of flair
- Calculator figures out real-world value of Mario coins
- The best of Skyrim mods #2: Floating fortresses, treehouses, and Hobbit holes
- Mass Effect 2′s epic characters get their own iconic posters (gallery)
- Need a statue of Wonder Woman lassoing Batman? The Injustice Collector’s Edition has that
- Check out this amazing augmented-reality Angry Birds game