Techno Guiders

For a lot of people, Watch Dogs is the true herald of next-gen gaming. At E3 2012 there was a feeling that the console generation had run its course, but when Ubisoft teased its open-world hacktopia many of you sat up and got excited. And for good reason - this actually felt like something new . But it wasn't just about the graphics or how big Ubi's version of a hyperconnected Chicago was. There was something fascinating about a game where your most powerful weapon was your smartphone, where you wouldn't just roam the city but control it. What's more, there was something awfully real about it all. Ubisoft's intention was to make something that was authentic, enjoyable to play, and also served as a comment on how smart cities could come back to bite their creators. "Everything we've done was based on reality," says Thomas Geffroyd, the game's content director. "Everything you do in the game is feasible in one way or another." You only nee...

Lock up your sons and daughters - Bioware is adding more dynamic, complex relationships to Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third entry to the DA franchise, due in October this year. As well as simply showing romantic affection for another character, you'll be able to have a passionate, hate-filled tryst with a rival, or fool around with a mate. No word yet on whether drunken one-night stands will be a viable option, but we live in hope. Bioware has gotten a lot of flack in the past for the romance sub-plots in its games, despite its fairly tame depiction of love and sex compared to The Witcher series, where if characters aren't doing it, they're talking about doing it, usually when you're right in the middle of slaying a monster or traipsing through a dungeon knee-deep in troll dung. The difference is The Witcher series centres around one straight male character, Geralt, whereas Mass Effect and Dragon Age have always made a point of providing options for every sexual orie...

Flick open the gaming section of Writing for Film and TV for Lazy Hacks, and find the chapter on RPGs. You'll recognise the description instantly: man in late twenties sits in mother's basement, his face illuminated in an otherwise pitch-black room by the glow of his LED gaming keyboard. He's either painfully thin or morbidly obese, and his on-screen character is a grubby, throbbing mess of manliness in ebony armour carrying a sword bigger than Peter Crouch (the book recommends making the most of this reality-game disparity for maximum lols). He clatters at his keyboard and mouse like a concert pianist while a dragon gets hosed by magical abilities in a forest. Just before the mighty beast's health bar is fully depleted, in comes the guy's mum to tell him dinner's ready. The dozy cow! Doesn't she realise the whole realm's at stake? And scene . In short, RPG gaming doesn't have a tremendously glamorous or likeable image. Perhaps part of role-playing...

With last year's EB Games Expo breaking records and giving Australians one of their first experience with the PS4 and Xbox One , the 2014 expo is set to be all about the games. Returning to the Sydney Showgrounds at Sydney Olympic Park between October 3-5, this year's show is destined to be the biggest expo yet, with organisers confirming that it will host a brand new pavilion, expanding to a whopping 35,000 square metres. The fourth annual event from the games retailer is set to improve on last year's event in almost every way, with more exhibitors, more games and more engaging events for the whole family. There's still five months before the event kicks off, so there's still plenty of time for new announcements, but in the meantime here's everything we know about the 2014 event. 1. All aboard the gaming train Now that we have the Xbox One and PS4 on shelves around the country, this year's expo is going to be less about the hardware and more about the so...