Evil Geniuses wins first Halo X Games Aspen Invitational

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This past weekend was a big one for competitive gaming, with major tournaments taking place for games like Killer Instinct, Hearthstone, Pokken Tournament, and Super Smash Bros., among others. But while there were high stakes involved there, the world of Halo got into a different kind of competitive event. Halo 5: Guardians just wrapped up its first X Games Aspen Invitational, as part of the Halo World Championship Tour.

Eight of the world's top Halo teams flew from around the world to convene in Colorado for this event. The action kicked off on Thursday, with ESPN keeping tabs on everything going down. The Worldwide Leader cut to the Halo event at various points over the weekend, televising a number of the weekend's biggest matches. The final day of competition saw Team Allegiance sweep the Los Angeles Renegades team for the bronze medal, despite a strong performance from Braedon 'StelluR' Boettcher.

That led to the Gold medal match between Evil Geniuses and Counter Logic Gaming. Evil Geniuses had its backs to the wall, on the brink of elimination. However, CLG couldn't ward off the EG comeback and Evil Geniuses was able to take the final two sets on Plaza Strongholds and Regret Slayer to win its share of the $30,000 prize pool.

While this weekend's event did not influence the Halo World Championship Tour standings, it did offer an indicator on teams to look out for in the future. In particular, Evil Geniuses now has a target on its back, having cemented itself as one of the best Halo teams in the world. It was also an interesting event from a spectator's standpoint, as it further showed ESPN's seriousness towards pushing into the realm of eSports.

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Assassin's Creed Identity sneaks onto mobile devices later this month

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With Ubisoft spreading the Assassin's Creed franchise as thin as it already has, a mobile version of the core AC experience was bound to happen at some point. And thus, Ubisoft has finally stepped forward and released a trailer for Assassin's Creed Identity, well over a year since it was first revealed by the publisher.

Prepare for #ACIdentity, coming to the @AppStore on February 25thhttps://t.co/YwShG4hqiT http://pic.twitter.com/mMCzZ8nkJs

— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) February 1, 2016

To help make this idea more enticing to the AC audience, Ubisoft is returning to Renaissance Italy, arguably the setting of the series at its absolute peak. The game is described as an action-RPG and will allow users to craft their own assassins. As hinted in the tweet above and explained by IGN, players will be able to choose from four different classes and engage in classic AC-style action through tapping movements or a gamepad.

AC Identity is set to release on February 25 and it should be noted that Ubisoft has seemingly changed its mind on the game being free-to-play. It will now go for $5 on the App Store, though it remains to be seen whether microtransactions will still be in place. Those looking for a different AC experience should also note that Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia is still in line to arrive next week. With so much AC action, no wonder Ubisoft is rumored to be taking a break from the core series.

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Ant Simulator cancelled after team blows funds on 'liquor, cars, and even strippers'

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Ant Simulator has been canceled, Eteeski LLC. announced over the weekend, with Eric Tereshinski resigning from the company.

The reason for the cancellation was detailed in a video published on Saturday, in which Tereshinski reveals his ex-business partners were secretly stealing company money and spent the “overwhelming majority” of funds raised via Kickstarter and the Ant Simulator investment money on “liquor, restaurant, cars, and even strippers.”

"A year and a half ago, I signed an LLC agreement with them," Tereshinski says. "I trusted them and they had been my friends for 11 years. I made the mistake of trusting them. So, that means that resigning, and therefore cancelling the development of Ant Simulator, since I was the programmer of Ant Simulator, is really the only option available to me right now."

Those who pre-ordered Ant Simulator should expect an email in order to try to arrange a refund, although we have no idea when Tereshinski will be able to pay as the situation sounds pretty bleak.

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PlayStation Plus freebie vote returns: Looking at the three candidates for March

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The free monthly PlayStation Plus offerings have been somewhat... uninspired, as of late. After blowing players away for the first couple of months, the freebies haven't felt quite as good in recent times. So the folks at PlayStation are hoping to offer a jolt of energy into the proceedings by restoring the player vote.

In the early days of the PlayStation Plus freebies, players could vote on one of three games to join the monthly list. That vote is back, according to PlayStation.Blog. The three choices are Action Henk!, Assault Android Cactus, and Broforce, all of which will be making their PS4 debuts.

Action Henk! first released on PC back in May, centering around an action figure that races around a child's playroom filled with toys. As mentioned, this would be Action Henk!'s PS4 debut and will coincide with the PC version's big multiplayer update. (No worries, Xbox One owners, it'll come to that platform in March, as well.)

Assault Android Cactus, from Witchbeam Games, released on PC back in September, but made an appearance at the recent PlayStation Experience event. Shacknews had a chance to go hands-on with the PS4 bullet hell shooter and enjoyed the sheer chaos created by the multiple enemies and their relentless attack patterns. Even though the enemies don't stop coming, players can fight back with massive weapons, including unique weapons that are unique to each of the game's characters.

And finally, what can be said about Broforce that hasn't already been said, bro? Broforce exploded out of Steam Early Access late last year, having grown from a perfectly enjoyable beta into a full-fledged action juggernaut. Broforce has grown to feature an entire campaign and a full roster of Bros, all with their own abilities. With side-scrolling precision required for some action-heavy jumps (slow motion not included), a PS4 controller will be helpful here, making this an ideal console port.

Either way, players can't go wrong with any of these choices. The vote is set to kick off on February 9, with users able to vote via their PlayStation 4 systems.

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