Blog Posts by Ben Silverman

Armed and dangerous (Credit: Namiki Lab)Our robot overlords are coming, and they’re really good at leisure games.

In an apparent effort to create a Skynet scenario in which humankind is demoted to second-banana status in the evolutionary food chain, researchers at the Namiki Lab in Japan’s Chiba University have crafted a robot that plays air hockey like, well, a robot. A smart, powerful, tireless robot who exists purely to beat humans in air hockey.

Behold the chilling video evidence:

It's here! Or at least it's very, very close. E3 2013, the biggest video game trade show of the year, begins in earnest tomorrow, June 11. But for several companies, the show really starts today with a series of big press conferences -- and you can watch it all happen live right here:

LeBron, not in the mood for games (Credit: Getty Images)Kobe got a couple in the late 90s and another one in 2009. Jordan shared one with Bird in 1988, but got his own in 2010. Bird actually had one way back in 1983, then split one with Magic in 2011.

But despite being the best basketball player on the planet for years now, LeBron James still hasn't been on the cover of a video game.

That changes this fall when LeBron graces the cover of NBA 2K14, due out October 1 for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4 (sorry, Wii U owners – no b-ball for you.) This marks not only the first time James will appear on the cover of a 2K game, but the first time the four-time league MVP has ever appeared on the cover of a sports video game.

The Last of Us (Credit: Sony)The end of the world is near! Especially if you’re into pop culture.

A parade of apocalypses is storming theaters this year in an effort to turn the end of humanity into the beginning of lucrative franchises. Tom Cruise (“Oblivion”), Will Smith (“After Earth”), Brad Pitt (“World War Z”) and Matt Damon (“Elysium”) are in on the act, as are jokesters Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen (“This is the End”) and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (“The World’s End”). Optimism isn’t exactly hot in Hollywood right now.

But while moviegoers can spend their last days with good-looking celebs, gamers will be spending theirs with one of the best-looking video games ever created.

Developed by Uncharted developer Naughty Dog, post-apocalyptic survival game The Last of Us (due out June 14) has been on “must-watch” lists since its tremendous debut at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. Already the winner of numerous pre-release honors from countless outlets (us included), the PlayStation 3 exclusive is about as hyped as games come. Should we really be this excited about our final days?

One of the most beloved Disney films of all time is going interactive.

Having earned their wings crafting franchises like Rock Band and Dance Central, the music game maestros at Harmonix are teaming up with the Mouse House to create a game based on the spellbinding 1940 musical ‘Fantasia’.

Halo: Spartan Assault (Credit: Microsoft)Good news, gamers! You're getting a new Halo.

Bad news, gamers! It's probably not the one you wanted.

Microsoft has unveiled Halo: Spartan Assault, a non-console installment of its most important franchise for Windows 8 PCs, tablets and Windows phones. Despite its low price point, though, it's still likely to be the subject of criticism.

The king of social gaming is losing a lot of friends.

On Monday, Zynga laid off 520 employees -- about 18 percent of its workforce -- in an attempt to restructure its ailing business in the face of a changing gaming landscape.

"Today is a hard day for Zynga and an emotional one for every employee of our company," Zynga CEO Marc Pinkus wrote on the company’s blog. "We are saying painful goodbyes to about 18% of our Zynga brothers and sisters…The scale that served us so well in building and delivering the leading social gaming service on the Web is now making it hard to successfully lead across mobile and multiplatform, which is where social games are going to be played."

If you thought Call of Duty had realistic graphics, you haven’t seen the life-sized statue of one of the game’s characters standing guard at the offices of Los Angeles-based game studio, Robotoki.

The LAPD sure has, however -- and it nearly resulted in a shootout.

Late Thursday night, police stormed Robotoki’s office in response to a panic alarm, leading to a tense 15-minute standoff with a perfectly harmless statue of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Simon “Ghost" Riley, reports Polygon.