A new rumour date of the launch of 8th November for Xbox One in the USA, this does make sense with me as the PS4 release date in the USA is the 15th November. But a source has told me that the release date for the UK release should about the 22nd November for the Xbox One as the PS4 has a release date of the 29th in the UK. So it looks like the last two weeks of November will be very busy in the UK console busy.
Picture from kotaku.com.au
Yesterday Microsoft released a new update for the Xbox 360 dashboard that retires the Microsoft Points in favour of the real world local currency. The Xbox 360 update will start to filter its way around the world that will put the end of the Microsoft Points system. Its will convert any Microsoft Points on your account into your local currency of region.
Nordic Games has released Ancestry Of Lies, the second chapter of the point and click adventure The Raven – Legacy Of A Master Thief.
In the second chapter, players experience the ’heist’ part of the story for the first time and switch perspectives.
Ancestry Of Lies can be purchased from Steam as a Standard Edition priced £20.99 and is also available as a Digital Deluxe version for £24.99 including the official soundtrack, ‘making of booklet’, story book and printable posters. Both versions will unlock the first episode The Eye Of The Sphinx instantly and will also unlock the third episode on September 24th.
The Raven – Legacy Of A Master Thief is a crime tale set across 1960s Europe which will immerse players in both sides of the story, as players adopt the role of the thief and the investigator. Elements of a whodunit-mystery and a heist-story are combined as players follow The Raven’s trademark black clues.
The daring hunt across Europe is a story that features more camera shots and character animation than all of KING Art’s previous point and click adventures put together. Journeying through thrilling and dense atmospheres with the aim of catching the thief players will follow his trademark black feather clues to capture him and protect the legendary sapphire, the “Eye of the Sphinx”.
The Raven – Legacy Of A Master Thief is now available for PC via Steam, and will be available later this year in digital format for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Rockstar have released some more details and screens from the Grand Theft Auto V Special and Collector’s Edition.
The high-end Khamelion electric car. Available in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of the Collector’s Edition.
Grand Theft Auto V‘s Special and Collector’s Editions (available for pre-order from select retailers while supplies last) include a bevy of enhancements and accessories for all three of protagonists as well as your character in Grand Theft Auto Online as you navigate the streets, skies and showrooms of Los Santos and Blaine County. Here are more details about these unique digital items that are included as part of the Special Edition and Collector’s Edition:
Additional Weapons
Regardless of which version you’ve chosen, your local Ammu-Nation will always be stocked with a pair of special firearms at no additional cost that also have their own unique customization options, skins and attachments – the .50 Caliber Pistol and the Bullpup Shotgun. You’ll also have access to the Hammer, which acts as a brutal melee weapon.
Bonus Outfits, Tattoos and More
When visiting any shops around Los Santos and Blaine County, Michael, Franklin and Trevor will receive a special 20% discount along with access to special items either in their personal wardrobes or from stores. Each character will receive 1 outfit each, one article of clothing (shirt, hoodie and jacket) each, a special haircut, facial hair look and tattoo.
Michael, Franklin and Trevor each sporting some of the unique additions to their personal wardrobes.
Custom Characters for Grand Theft Auto Online (Collector’s Edition only)
GTA Online introduces a new spin on traditional character creation with the hereditary-based creation system. Select your character’s appearance by choosing your parent’s heritage, then use the gene dominance meter to dial-in which parent your appearance favors more. Additionally, you’ll customize your character’s daily activities – everything from family time to illegal work and sports to couch potato hours all have an impact on your character’s appearance and skill set (and you can always rank up your skill stats more via gameplay). As part of the Collector’s Edition package, you’ll get Niko Bellic, along with both Claude and Misty from Grand Theft Auto III to use as parent options within the character creation system.
Special Ability Boost
Michael, Franklin and Trevor each have a their own unique Special Ability, which can be activated once each of them fills up the Special Ability bar based on various actions. Michael is an expert marksman – his Special Ability slows down time in a gunfight allowing him to pick off his targets with greater ease. Franklin is a skilled driver with sharp reflexes – his Special Ability lets him slow down time while driving any road-based vehicle, allowing him to quickly navigate through traffic with ease and take corners at high speeds. Trevor is a drug-addled sociopath with a short fuse – his Special Ability sends him into a rage, causing double damage to enemies while only taking half as much damage himself when hit. With the boost that’s included in both the Special and Collector’s Editions, the Special Ability bar will generate 25% faster.
Stunt Plane Trials
Take in Los Santos and Blaine County at breakneck speeds in the Grand Theft Auto V Stunt Plane Trials. In five thrilling and unique challenges, you’ll zip through mountains, deserts, oceans, and cities as you navigate through a maze of checkpoints, each placed to push your Stunt Plane to the limit. Completing each Trial will improve the piloting skill of your character. Compare your times with friends and vie for the top spot on the leaderboard.
Hit the streets of Los Santos with the CarbonRS sports bike.
Unique Vehicles and Garage Property (Collector’s Edition only)
The Collector’s Edition also features an exclusive garage to store custom vehicles, that comes stocked with the CarbonRS sports bike and the Hotknife – an open frame 1930’s style hotrod. In Grand Theft Auto Online your garage and the high-end Khamelion electric car, which is specific to GTA Online, are both purchased through in-game websites accessed through your Online character’s cell phone.
Treyarch and Activision have released a gameplay video for Apocalypse, the final Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 DLC pack.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II Apocalypse marks Treyarch’s fourth and final DLC map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, capping-off the year with two all-new Multiplayer Maps, two re-imagined fan-favorite Multiplayer classics, and an alternate-reality Dieselpunk Zombies experience that transports players to the undead-infested trenches of a World War I battlefield.
Here it is:
MULTIPLAYER:
Pod: A failed utopian community from the 70’s has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an abandoned cliff side. Its residents long gone, the modernist compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods and navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.
Frost: Fresh snow meets explosive gunpowder in this snow-capped European city, where the bridge over a frozen canal separates it into two sides, requiring players to employ multi-level traversal strategies to outsmart and ultimately outshoot their enemies.
Takeoff: Though marooned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this remote launch site is all about the close-quarters combat, combining tight corners with open spaces for combat encounters reminiscent of the multiplayer map “Stadium” from Call of Duty: Black Ops “First Strike.”
Dig: Two archeological dig sites in Afghanistan have unearthed the perfect playground for combatants eager for hectic, unceasing battle, as this re-imagining of the fan-favourite Call of Duty: World at War map “Courtyard” delivers two major chokepoints, a wide open layout, and raised platforms.
ZOMBIES:
With Call of Duty: Black Ops II Apocalypse, Treyarch reveals Origins, the most horrifying and imaginative Zombies experience yet. Players will be deployed to Dieselpunk-stylized World War I-era France where they will encounter the return of the four original heroes from the very first Zombies map, as well as hordes of zombies that have overrun trenches and fields, as well as the ruins of a mysterious and ancient location.
Last week at Gamescom, EA revealed some Sims 4 gameplay to the world.
The Sims 4 gives fans an entirely new way to experience the excitement and delight of life’s moments. Built on a brand new technology platform, The Sims 4 empowers players to create and control an entirely new generation of Sims like never before. Through powerful new creative tools and dynamic, emotion-rich gameplay, every relationship is interwoven to create a ripple effect that shapes the life journey of the Sims. The world debut gameplay trailer for The Sims 4 is available to view at www.TheSims.com.
The Sims 4 brings all new ways to play with life. Built on the foundation of a brand new technology platform, the nuance and delight of being human come together to create more intelligent, more emotionally rich and more relatable Sims. These Sims have evolved into beings whose every action is informed and affected by interactions and emotional states.
Because players are in control of life’s triumphs and failures, life’s moments make stories richer, Sims more relatable and their homes more personal. Pair these revolutionary new Sims with brand new creative tools that are powerful, agile and tactile, and the result is a provocative new gameplay experience that powers a new era for The Sims.
Pre-orders begin today at http://www.TheSims.com/TheSims4. Those who pre-order now will receive the Limited Edition which comes with the Life of the Party Digital Content. . Fans across Europe can also pre-order The Sims 4 Collector’s Edition which contains an interactive Plumbob Statue, the Creator’s Guide Hardcover Book, Life of the Party Digital Content, Up all Night Digital Content and The Sims 4Digital Soundtrack. Both The Sims 4 and The Sims 4 Collector’s Edition will be available for PC in 2014 and are not yet rated by the ESRB.
For the latest on The Sims 4 please visit the all-new franchise website at www.TheSims.com
Most people love a good RPG, plenty appreciate the Western style, such as an Elder Scrolls variant; the JRPG also gets a large following, despite the Final Fantasy debacle over the past few years. So why not create a hybrid of the two? The mechanics and heavily stat driven gameplay of the East, along with a setting chocked full of mythical creatures and locales from the West. The result? Dragon’s Dogma.
You play as a nameless townsfolk known hereafter as The Arisen, mainly due to a great big dragon delicately plucking out your still beating heart whilst intoning in a foreign tongue. You awaken afterwards, a little shaken up regarding the ordeal and rightly so. It’s not long however before you suit up with a rusty sword and some cloth armour to seek answers, truth and of course, the fate of your heart.
Right from the off, it’s clear that this is of Capcom’s doing, elaborate CG cut-scenes along with visceral, meaty combat and a menu/inventory screen that would make a statistician sigh. Straight onto the character creation screen we go; as you may expect, pretty much anything can be altered to create what you think would be a suitable, potential dragon slaying warrior. At this point, however ridiculous as though you might appear, being either very large, or very small could have an advantage or two in the future… Nevertheless, I opted for a generic space marine build along with a garish beard to suit the times.
It’s not long before you’re thrown into a seemingly impossible battle once more, this time a whopping great Hydra, are there no easy fodder around here? After a little progression, you are introduced to your pawns; the summoning of them. Essentially, you get one main follower with whom you may determine what they look like, what skills they have and what mind-set they uphold. You may also recruit two more followers to accompany you, unlike your main pawn however, these two do not level up, nor change their equipment or appearance. It’s best to try and fill out your party with talents and skills that you do not possess, eventually creating a balanced squad such as a healing mage, an archer and a couple of soldiers. Either way, don’t get too attached to them as you’ll be trading them out for new models fairly often.
Once you’ve created your own team of unnecessarily hard nuts, it’s time to quest, level up and repeat. You’ll very quickly discover that indeed, you’re not all that. Even the most basic of enemies will beat you down with relentless force for the first few hours of Dogma. You’ll take what you can get and be glad for it! After a while of grinding levels from wolves and goblins (JRPG influence right there!) you might be able to venture out further afield. To reference epic, Eurovision Song Contest winners Lordi, ‘they only come out at night’ is morbidly apt in this game. Even at your higher levels, of which there an eyebrow raising 200, the enemies that lurk off the beaten trail at nightfall, will make that arduous trek home feel a whole lot longer at dusk.
Without access to any form of fast travel until later on in the game, (and it still costs you money every time you do it) walking is quite literally, the way forwards. Due to the dynamic day/night cycle and the wariness regarding any foe you’ve not already tackled, it really makes you feel vulnerable at the start. Not only that, it makes you learn enemy positions, spawns and shortcuts from the word go. Everything you do in Dragon’s Dogma feels like progression and learning to know your limits.
The main irritancies fall in line with the whole ‘user friendly’ aspect. Not much is explained, you are expected to be able to figure things out yourself. In most circumstances, this is usually a benefit, however I would warn you to complete any and all side quests before progressing with the main narrative. Certain side quests can become locked out, automatically failing them and therefore abandoning any further quest lines associated with them. Perhaps a rare occurrence, but because I technically failed a quest through no fault of my own, a certain area of the map and it’s tragically valuable treasure regarding fast travel is now inaccessible to me. There are a few instances such as this that would be solved if multiple save slots were permitted.
The auto-save is relentless in activating at tragic points such as a mission failure; if you think you can catch it out via a quick reload you’re badly mistaken! The only way to reload is to quit to the main menu and continue, a process that takes an arduous amount of time. The main get out clause of this, is that the game runs on an ever continuing cycle of ouroboros. New game plus is encouraged to iron out those missed quests, continue levelling up and further your character on their quest to both see and do everything on offer.
Online integration is done well, though potentially not as well as it could have been done. The wish is for some form of co-op, that could potentially be included in a sequel along the line seeing as the game is practically screaming out for it. Instead, you can hire other peoples main pawns as your tertiary ones, making a much more effective squad than otherwise. You may gift items and rate the hired pawn for constructive reasons should you so wish. The main draw being the almost immeasurably powerful Ur dragon boss. You may fight it in offline mode for a potentially easier fight, but that could be a curse in itself as there are a lot of interesting ideas involving the battle and online mode that you’ll have to find out for yourself…
Not the largest world map around and certainly not the best looking either, yet it’s the little things which impress the most. Character and enemy animations are fantastic to watch and feel weighty and deliberate to control. Jumping on the back of a Chimera and separating the tail from it’s host never gets tiring, especially with the accompanying fanfare kicking in once your folly is at deaths door.
A fantastic RPG with great mechanics, an interesting locale and potentially immense replayability despite it’s monstrous length comes very close to perfection. If that’s not enough for you, how about swinging your sword futilely in the Dark Arisen DLC pack for a while before running off from the incredibly high levelled enemies that dwell here? Being limited to the one save is an unfortunate design choice; constantly swapping out pawns for slight upgrades after removing all their ill-gotten loot is a necessary evil that I cannot help myself whinging about! Either way, If you’re into RPG’s of any kind, Dragons Dogma will almost certainly sate your appetite and is well worth a go no matter which type you prefer.
Reviewed on PS3, also available on Xbox 360.
Ubisoft have released Splinter Cell Blacklist – have you got it yet?
In Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist, players take on the role of lethal operative Sam Fisher who is armed with a new mandate to hunt down the masterminds behind The Blacklist, a series of escalating attacks on US interests. Faced with his biggest mission yet, Sam and his Fourth Echelon team must figure out how to stop these global assaults before the countdown reaches zero.
Delivering a gripping modern-day storyline, the game brings back core elements of the franchise and incorporates a new level of technical innovation and design to create the biggest Splinter Cell to date. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist will push the series to even greater heights by offering a complete package where single-player, co-op and multiplayer are tied to a universal economy system that supports a wide variety of play styles.
Our review is coming shortly…..
NVIDIA have announced a partnership with Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, which will be released for PC on 5th November, 2013.
Developed by Infinity Ward, the studio that created the original Call of Duty and the seminal Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, Call of Duty: Ghosts ushers in the next generation of the franchise. Powered by a new next-gen engine, Call of Duty: Ghosts continues the legacy of delivering phenomenal gameplay, amazing multiplayer, incredible cinematics and engrossing characters and storyline.
Call of Duty: Ghosts introduces gamers to the “Ghosts,” a group of highly skilled Special Forces operatives shrouded in mystery.
The new next-generation engine for Call of Duty: Ghosts maximises the power of cutting-edge PC tech, taking advantage of the latest graphics cards as well as high-end cards, including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 700 series.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment unveiled a new trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins titled “Nowhere to Run” at Gamescom.
The trailer showcases the indomitable super villains hell-bent on taking down the Bat and gives a first look at Firefly, one of the eight assassins featured in Batman: Arkham Origins, capable of raining fire from above.
Batman: Arkham Origins will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, the Wii U system, and Windows PC. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, the handheld version developed by Armature Studio, will be available for PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS. The game will release on all platforms worldwide on Oct. 25, 2013.
I managed to get some hands-on time with Batman: Arkham Origins at Gamescom, so check back soon for more.
Carbine Studio’s has released details of their business model for Wildstar, so if you want to play, you need to read this.
Upon purchasing WildStar through a retail outlet or digital download, players will receive 30 days free game time, plus three guest passes to give to friends for a week of galactic adventure. Players can then either opt to pay a standard monthly subscription, purchase a Game Time card, or use gold earned in-game to purchase C.R.E.D.D. from other players and avoid paying a subscription fee altogether.
C.R.E.D.D. (also known as a Certificate of Research, Exploration, Destruction and Development) is an in-game item that can be redeemed for game time. Players can sell C.R.E.D.D. to each other for gold in-game through each server’s Commodities Exchange at a rate established by the player community. C.R.E.D.D. can also be purchased for real money online at www.WildStar-Online.com. This model provides players multiple options for access to play – through a traditional MMO subscription or a ’play to pay’ approach.
At a recent event I had the opportunity to play some of Carbine Studio’s new sci-fi MMO Wildstar. I also had the chance to talk with Stephan Frost, the game director:
Wildstar will be released on the PC soon, and there will be a beta , so watch this space.
You can learn more about Wildstar and sign up for the beta on their website.
What do you think of Wildstar? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Carbine Studio’s has released a new Dev Speak video for Wildstar.
This new Dev Speak video is called Crowd Control:
At a recent event I had the opportunity to play some of Carbine Studio’s new sci-fi MMO Wildstar. I also had the chance to talk with Stephan Frost, the game director:
Wildstar will be released on the PC soon, and there will be a beta , so watch this space.
You can learn more about Wildstar and sign up for the beta on their website.
What do you think of Wildstar? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Square Enix have released a special Gamescom trailer for Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster.
And here it is:
Sin has been destroyed, and Yuna is now a High Summoner. All is well, until she’s given a sphere containing a recording – the truth of which may change things forever…! FINAL FANTASY X-2 HD Remaster is your chance to finish up the story which started in FINAL FANTASY X.
The game will be released on PS Vita, and on PlayStation 3 in a bundle with FINAL FANTASY X HD Remaster.
Rockstar have released 8 new screenshots for GTA V.
Grand Theft Auto 5 from Rockstar Games will be released in September.
Are you going to buy it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
