geekosystem

Anyone that's at all familiar with the gaming press knows well the infusion of rumor that's fed to the public on an almost daily basis. Sometimes these tidbits pan out, and other times they do not. They range from the incredibly outrageous to the too good to be true. It's...tiring, to be frank, but sometimes it leads to speculation that's quite exciting. It's in this vein that we present Game Rumour Generator: A bit of JavaScript that generates absurd video game rumors.

Arguably the best part of the Xbox One, or Xbone, reveal event was the amount of time spent discussing the addition of a dog to the squad in Call of Duty: Ghosts. The lack of any real gaming-related announcements meant that the hardcore crowd was looking for something -- anything at all -- to sink their teeth into, and they found it with the Call of Duty: Ghosts dog. It's popular enough that Brandon Sheffield of Necrosoft Games even made a Twine game called Call of Doggie: Ghosts.

After the reveal of the Xbox One, there were still a lot of questions floating around about exactly how Microsoft would be handling used games and whether it'd play Xbox 360 titles. Those questions were answered, in conflicting ways, and they're "it's complicated" and "no, no it will not." Bummer.

I have little to no idea what's going on with the Call of Duty: Ghosts reveal trailer. It's part PTSD-fueled drama, part nationalistic jingoism, and all Call of Duty. On the other hand, it doesn't have to be high art to sell a boatload of copies, and I'm pretty sure Activision's well aware of this particular fact. Guess we'll all find out come November 5th.

Well, the next-gen Xbox reveal event has come and gone. First things first: It's called the Xbox One. Also, Microsoft would very much like you to stop using every other device you have in your entertainment system. As made clear by the event, the Xbox One is definitely being marketed as The One Device to Rule Them All, but I'm not sure I buy into all the hype.

Today marks the official announcement of the new Xbox 720 Durango Infinity... you know what, the technical name is kind of immaterial, and we'll all have an official one for it in just a few hours when the big reveal kicks off at 1 pm ET/10 am ET. Join us for the launch and watch the live stream to learn more about the latest console you can't afford to buy but probably will anyway.

A study released this week finds that not all aggression associated with gaming is created equal. Reporting their findings in the latest issue of the journal Mass Communication and Society, researchers from the University of Connecticut found that games in which the villains are clearly human may make players more aggressive than those where the player is battling hordes of inhuman monsters.

If you haven't played Team Fortress 2, you should really go do that. The team-based shooter video game's found a kind of longevity that publishers and developers that aren't Valve dream about. TF2's received numerous updates over the years, dropped to being a free-to-play game, and even added a third faction of robotic enemies. Community-made items have appeared in various packs over time, but their latest update is the first that's been 100% made by the community.

Batman: Arkham Origins is set to launch October 25th, 2013, and this recently dropped teaser shows off some impressive CG, a grizzled Batman, and a really, really cool take on Deathstroke. Between you and me, Deathstroke's definitely in my top five when it comes to DC, so I'm pretty excited that he's been getting a lot of love lately. Young Justice, Arrow, and even his own ongoing for a bit there in the New 52 come to mind. This teaser him battling with a younger Batman is just gravy.

Yesterday, we were almost giddy over the news that you can now green screen Arrested Development's Tobias Funke (doctor, actor, and the world's first analrapist) into any video through the promotional magic of the new InsertMeAnywhere tool. We were so excited at this development, though, that we actually may have missed one of the other awesome uses for InsertMeAnywhere -- putting the many faces of Tobias Funke to work in video games. Capcom didn't miss a beat, though, and their supercut of Tobias guest-starring in a number of classic Capcom games has officially won Tobias Funke green screens. Well, it's won Round One, anyway.

Well, folks, EA's finally gone and dropped their Online Pass program. In case you weren't aware that this was a thing, the publisher was essentially holding multiplayer and similar video game features behind a gate that was meant to help promote anything but used game sales. That's dead and gone, at least going forward. That said, the fact that EA's officially discontinued the Online Pass so close to Microsoft's next-gen console reveal is worrisome.

You may recall a certain Pikachu-branded Nintendo 3DS XL that hit North America earlier this year. I say "you may recall," because it's highly unlikely that you actually got your hands on one. As if taking this scarcity as a challenge, Nintendo's going to release an Eevee-branded 3DS XL that's even more limited. Like, you enter a lottery for the chance to even buy one. Yeah, that kind of limited.

The Nintendo DS and 3DS game from WayForward, Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!, was a bit slapdash, but overall entirely adorable. Short, sure, but fun. Cartoon Network and D3Publisher apparently heard the call for a longer, more expansive game, because it's been announced that WayForward is now developing Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and once again the Nintendo 3DS. Yeah, that's a thing that's happening.

In case you weren't already a bit skint thanks to saving for the inevitable Sony/Microsoft console war that looks like might go down this holiday season, Nvidia's hoping you might want an Android-powered handheld. The Shield, previous Project Shield, is set to ship in June for price of $349. If that seems a bit much to you, you're not alone. We like to see new handhelds as much as the next person, but this seems like poor timing.

The good news for everyone still playing Half-Life 2 because Half-Life 3 hasn't come out? You'll have a whole new way to play the game soon, as Freeman and friends are coming to play on the Oculus Rift headset, with a beta version already available for developers. The bad news, of course, is that this is not Half-Life 3.