It seems the apple in this teaser that was released recently is Apple Inc. as the news is out today that Bioshock is coming to iOS. Get it, BiOShock? Hahahahaha I'm a riot.

The original Bioshock finds a new home on newer iPads and iPhones. Touch controls replace the familiar keyboard and mouse or controller schemes of old. Destructoid found them capable until you get into combat situations, where the weakness of the touch controls shows itself. It does have compatibility with the various controllers released for iOS devices, so if you have one of those, you're all set.

http://www.destructoid.com/that-bioshock-teaser-was-an-ios-port-and-it-plays-well-sort-of--279025.phtml

In another change of course, Microsoft has announced that retail XBox One consoles will not be capable of converting to dev kits.

During a Q&A, Martin Fuller said that the plan was abandoned in the early stages, and that he really couldn't give any details as to why. He added that he knew of no future plans to develop the program further.

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a583173/microsoft-no-longer-plans-for-xbox-one-retail-units-to-double-as-dev-kits.html#~oJxRgD679LzzPh

Update: The story has now been updated to reflect new comments from Microsoft denying the comments from Martin Fuller, and promising more updates on the program to come in the future.

Honestly that's even more worrying if the guy doing the Q&A doesn't know what the team is working on.

From the game's site: VIRGINIA is a first person interactive drama. It is the story of a recently graduated FBI agent and her partner as they seek to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young boy. In the birthplace of America nothing is quite what it seems.

Virginia is coming out next year from Variable State, a team comprised of industry veterans from titles like GTA and Battlefield. It's inspired by a mutual love of 90s mystery shows, specifically The X-Files, Twin Peaks, and The Outer Limits, Virginia puts you in control of your own episode of 90s TV.

The first screenshot, above, already shows off the inspiration. Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks referred to many cups of coffee and slices of pie as "damn fine," and the diner is offering up just that. Dale Cooper would love it.

This game takes place in my home state and takes inspiration from two of my favorite shows. It's like it was made for me.

For more:
http://variablestate.com/virginia/
http://variablestate.com/

This is going to be a terrible night.

The townsfolk stave off an eyeball invasion in the first episode of Terraria: The Animated Series, a fan project that isn't affiliated with Re-Logic but made by people who obviously love the game.

I was pretty impressed with the animation and humor of this. Especially the skeleton. I wish the arms dealer had been around, though, and I'm surprised the guide wasn't there just to die immediately.

Get it? Dig? Yeah, that was low-hanging fruit.

When I first saw Shovel Knight on Kickstarter, there was just some concept art, basic gameplay info, and a little gameplay available to view, but I was hooked. I backed it early and have been waiting patiently ever since. Yacht Club games has regularly shared information and trailers with us, only making the wait harder.

Well, the wait is over. Today, June 26, Shovel Knight is out! Yacht Club Games was kind enough to share review copies with us a few days early so we could share our thoughts on release.

If you're familiar with the difficult platformers on the NES, this fits right in. The only thing missing from the experience was fidgeting with an NES cartridge to get the game to work. The gameplay takes inspiration from a few different games in the era. It feels like Zelda II, Duck Tales and Mega Man were all thrown into a pot, and it's a match made in heaven.

The game plays extremely well, with tight controls and a satisfying difficulty curve. Your shovel is your constant companion. Bash your enemies with it, or use it to reach new areas Scrooge McDuck style. There are NPCs who can help you unlock new special attacks for your shovel and new armor that has different benefits/drawbacks. You have an overworld map like Super Mario Bros. 3 to select the level you want to take on, and you fight your way through enemies and platforming segments to fight the knight at the end of each level. These boss fights are incredibly varied and require some skill to take down.

There's no classic lives system in Shovel Knight, so you'll never get a game over screen. The penalty for dying is losing a chunk of your gold. It will drop where you die, so as long as you get back to that spot again, you can get it back.

There are plenty of secrets in each level, and tricky bonus stages that take advantage of unlockable abilities you'll gain. I'm not ashamed to admit leaving most of these bonus levels with less gold than I entered with. The levels start off easy but by the 2/3 mark you'll be struggling. It's a satisfying level of difficulty, and definitely falls into the "Nintendo hard" category. You can always see how you could do things better and fix your mistakes for your next run.

Graphically, Shovel Knight is stellar. Nostalgia for those old platformers I mentioned is here in spades (pun slightly intended). The sprites and levels all look like they came right out of the 8-bit era, and are perfectly designed.

The music is an important factor in these games, and Yacht Club was smart to bring in Manami Matsumae, composer for Mega Man, for her extensive talent in crafting 8-bit anthems. The music is a huge part of the atmosphere, and provides an epic soundtrack for your quest.

One interesting mechanic in Shovel Knight is the checkpoint system. As you play through each level there are a few checkpoints along the way that will save your progress if you die. However, you can bust the checkpoint with your shovel and get some loot out of it. You'll need that loot for upgrades, but when you bust the checkpoint you risk losing progression if you die. It's an interesting tradeoff that I would like to see in more games.

Overall, I can't recommend this game enough. It's one of my most anticipated games of the year and it more than lived up to my hype for it. You can get it today for Wii U, 3DS, and PC through the Humble Store and Steam (currently Windows-only, but Mac and Linux are being worked on).

http://yachtclubgames.com/shovel-knight/

You can also check out the Cheerful Ghost interview with Sean Velasco of Yacht Club Games here: http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1235/interview-with-sean-velasco-about-shovel-knight

Get ready to dispense justice: Shovel justice.

The credits for Shovel Knight, which releases this Thursday, June 26, are rolling on my PC right now. I can't think of a more satisfying platformer in recent memory.

The game takes plenty of inspiration from some old NES favorites. If you're familiar with Capcom's NES library, you'll feel right at home here. The graphics, music, controls, and every other detail have been pretty immaculately crafted.

Expect a full review of this when the game drops, this is just a teaser. If this game hasn't been on your radar, you owe it to yourself to check it out. If you backed it on Kickstarter, don't worry: you made a good call.

No genre ever falls completely out of favor. Heroes Rise takes you to a world where heroes are celebrities and you have to work your way through tons of enemies to end up on the A-list.

I missed out on the text adventure heyday, I only ever played one or two, but the idea is captivating. In a world where the next big thing has to be graphically intense, it's nice to see that text adventures can still carve out their corner of the market.

The confusingly titled fourth installment to the Doom series, which so far has publicly just been called "Doom," will be on display at QuakeCon this year.

The Cyberdemon gets all the attention in this teaser trailer, and it looks pretty badass. And did anyone else get all giddy at the door-opening sound?

Keep an eye out for more info on this game July 17-20. http://www.quakecon.org/

A new game popped up on Steam today for just a few minutes, but someone caught a screenshot of the page before it went down. It's called "Steam: The Game."

http://i.imgur.com/RvS2wW8.png

The description seems to just describe Steam itself, not a new game of any kind. It matches up to an entry on steamdb.info that refers to it as a Tutorial App. For those who don't know, SteamDB crawls through the Steam databases to look for data, and in the past has shown new games before they were announced.

http://steamdb.info/app/255700/

So what is this? Its timing makes it seem like something related to the upcoming Steam Summer Sale.

I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. I was ready to potentially write it off as a hoax until it showed up on SteamDB. Since it's there we know it's legit, but we'll have to wait for some more info from Valve.

Yacht Club Games has announced via their Kickstarter page that the official, final release date for Shovel Knight is June 26.

In addition, they've shown the box art and have released the digital instruction manual. If you're a fan of the old-school NES manuals, this will look familiar. I just wish I had spent enough to get a physical copy now.

Get the full scoop here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yachtclubgames/shovel-knight/posts/867693