Category Archives: News

NEWS – Some Catching Up to Do

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Alright, we have some catching up to do, so let’s stick to the big stuff, shall we?

Today we’ll talk more about: Star Wars Battlefront, Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed, The Last of Us, Rainbow Six Siege, DOOM, Need for Speed, Halo MCC, and Evolve.

 I’ll also briefly talk about the games I have on the go and up-coming, and plans for E3.

Star Wars Battlefront: No Ironsights, Squads or Classes
EA and Dice are doing away with some of the expected FPS features included in their previous games like Battlefield. Star Wars Battlefront won’t have ironsights for its common blasters, but some rifles will still have scopes. Looks like you’ll be shooting from the hip. Also, there will be no more Classes or Squads. You can outfit your character however you see fit, with the items you’ve unlocked, and there will be a “partner” system, that will allow you to see your friend on the UI, and will allow you to spawn on them.

Dishonored Next-Gen Release?
Looks like there might be a Definitive Edition release of 2012’s Dishonored; a fantastic game that I’d like to play through again. Fingers crossed.

New Details on the next Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will feature two main playable characters, one of whom is a woman. Brother and sister duo – Jacob and Evie Frye. The game will take place in Victorian London in 1686. The brother will be taking the lead in the story in terms of playtime, approximately 75% of the story. October 23rd, 2015 release date on the PC, Xbox One and PS4.

The Last of Us’ Left Behind DLC Now Standalone
Playstation and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us was one of 2013’s greatest games. The Left Behind DLC featuring Ellie is now available as a standalone package, no longer requiring The Last of Us game.

Rainbow Six Siege Release Date
Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege has found its release window: October 13th, 2015.

DOOM Gameplay Teased, Full Reveal at E3
Bethesda has revealed that it will be showcasing its DOOM reboot at its E3 press conference on June 14th. I’ll discuss my E3 plans at the bottom.

Need for Speed 2015
Electronic Arts and Ghost Games are rebooting Need for Speed, and it’s titled just that: Need for Speed. EA promises “deep customization, authentic urban car culture, a nocturnal open world, and an immersive narrative that pulls you through the game”. Seems like it’s going back to the Underground days? Release date is November 3rd, 2015, and will require an online connection.

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“It’s been going from studio to studio, and creatives were creative, but there wasn’t really a strategic way of thinking of what the brand is and what it stands for,” EA Executive Producer Marcus Nilsson. “For sure, it’s been delivering great experiences, but not experiences that can build on top of each other to become better and better necessarily.

“If you look at the last few games – Hot Pursuit, The Run, Shift, Rivals, Most Wanted – and you asked people, ‘What does Need for Speed stand for?’, you’d get a million different answers.

Halo 3: ODST Re-mastered Now Available
The re-mastered edition of Halo: ODST for the Halo Master Chief Collection, is now available for those who played the game during the launch window.

Evolve’s New Arena Mode Free
Evolve has a new update and it’s free, and it’s a new mode: Arena. The 4 Hunters face off against a stage 2 monster in that typical 4 v 1 method. The change is that it’s in a small enclosure now, and it’s best of 3. No longer are the hunter’s required to  track down and chase the monster. Take-Two recently announced that Evolve is permanent franchise for the publisher, joining Borderlands, Grand Theft Auto, among others.

So I recently went through my queue of games that I currently have on the go:

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China
Assassin’s Creed IV – Blag Flag
Battlefield Hardline
Borderlands – The Pre-Sequel
Contrast
Destiny
Far Cry 4
Splinter-Cell: Blacklist (Xbox 360)
State of Decay
Tales From the Borderlands
The Crew

Contrast I should be able to wrap up pretty quick. Unmechanical is a quick puzzle game I just finished recently, and there’s a review for that on Friday. I recently completed Sniper Elite III as well, with a review around the corner.

I have a few games on the shelf waiting to be played: Metro 2033 and Last Light bundle, Badland GOTY that I picked up today, Assassin’s Creed Unity (after IV), Shadow of Mordor. I’d like to give The Evil Within another shot, but who knows. Also, out in the wild is Evolve, Alien Isolation, and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. These are homeless, out on the streets, looking for a nice warm home on my hard-drive.

Lastly, E3 is just around the corner. I’m going to be posting a new section for E3 news on the title bar, and I’ll be watching the press conferences on Sunday, June 14th, and Monday June 15th, and live blogging those all day.

Exciting stuff is just around the corner: New Games and deals tomorrow, early reviews and What I’m playing on Thursday, an iReview on Friday. Stick around, as I’m back.

-iRogan

Game Night: The Crew – W/ iRogan and Illestrader

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Welcome back to the land of the living, you’ve been gone for quite some time . . .

Yes, I was dead, but I got better.

I’ve been playing The Crew a lot lately, and I’ll put together a review in progress for Thursday, but I thought I’d quickly throw together a quick time lapse of a recent race.

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I was broadcasting this on Twitch.tv last week. This is a race from The Crew, called Colorado Crawl; a race that takes over an hour to complete. I made a time lapse of it.

All the while, we kept getting a message at the top that the servers would be turning off for scheduled maintenance, at 12:30am, which was approximately the time we would be completing the race. This added unnecessary stress, as you can expect.


Enjoy.

Everything should be back to normal again. News, New Games, What I’m Playing, Reviews, and Achievement of the Week.

-iRogan

WHAT I’M PLAYING / NEWS – Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China

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The 2.5D Assassin’s Creed is an interesting project; this is my review in progress.

The first of three, China, features a female assassin, Shao Jun, and takes place during the Ming Dynasty. This assassin is tied to the Assassin’s lore through the legendary Ezio Auditore, who was her master trainer.

Throughout the game, whenever introduced to a new gameplay mechanic, we’re brought to a training room to be taught by the man himself.

The game is stealth based platforming game, and is primarily 2D in navigation. There are, however, certain areas of the map that utilize the 2.5D visuals: when we’re climbing on walls or around certain structures that bring us into the foreground, or when we traverse planks that will bring us to a section of the level in the background.

Just kell 'em with your awesome.

Just kell ’em with your awesome.

The game is very much like Klei Entertainment’s Mark of the Ninja, in its utilization of tools or actions to distract guards so that we may pass unopposed, tools, such as firecrackers or knives to disable the guards, and actions such as whistling to direct the guard’s attention to a specific place. The game also utilizes bushes and doorways to hide the player and sneak past guards.

Visually, the game is inspired by traditional brush paintings, and shows that great attention to detail was put into the level’s architecture.

Once I’ve progressed further through the story I’ll be able to share some more thoughts and a review.

In the disc tray and HDD I also have Far Cry 4 slowly plugging away without me, and I jump into GTA V occasionally when I want to just sit and watch a world pass me by, and experience the happenstance. I guess I could go outside too.

In the near future I have Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, newly pressed, and I would also like to give State of Decay a shot. Destiny’s DLC is right around the corner, and as always, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is screaming to be played. I hope to have some impressions of at least one of these games next week.

On to some news for this week:

Titanfall 2 Release Date
EA has stated that we shouldn’t expect Titanfall 2 until their company’s 2017 fiscal year. Great. Thanks for nothing.

Mirror’s Edge’s Release
Also included ion EA’s news is that the sequel will be released early next year, 2016.

Silent Hills’ P.T Gone from the PS Store
You can’t download the playable teaser anymore. It’s gone. Even if you HAD downloaded it in the past, and then deleted it for space, too bad, it’s gone. So sad.

This is the final nail in the coffin that is Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s Silent Hills.

Destiny’s Prison of Elders
New info has come to light regarding the new Prison of Elders. The game is a wave-based mode, having the 3 guardians against multiple waves of baddies plus addition objectives.

Can't wait to get home and play Destiny

Can’t wait to get home and play Destiny

  • The level 28 difficulty will include matchmaking, but levels any higher will not. So bring good friends.
  • The objectives mid match will include destroying or disarming bombs, or killing mini-bosses before they reach their destination. This will prevent the players from just hiding in a corner and shooting everything, encouraging them to stay on the move.
  • Each match with a unique modifier, similar to the ones in Strikes. These include shield modifiers, melee damage, enemy melee damage, weapon damage, etc. Next match, new modifier.
  • The arena will be littered with web mines. These are zones that will slow player movement and deal damage.

Also revealed was a new Strike to be included in the House of Wolves DLC, titled The Shadow Thief

New Assassin’s Creed Being Revealed Next Week
Assassin’s Creed, and the future of the series will be revealed next week, Tuesday May 12th, 2015. Stay Tuned.

Good thing I haven’t beat Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag or started Assassin’s Creed Unity. Wouldn’t want to fall behind.

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So, with all that being said, I have nothing more for today. It’s too late to go outside. Maybe tomorrow.

-iRogan

NEWS – New Games: News of the Week Edition

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Ahh, that new video game smell . . . mmm.

Today in the news we talk about Xbox’s Deals of the Week, Mortal Kombat X, and Star Wars Battlefront.

And of course, the new video games released this week, notably one that frustrates me. I’ll give you a hint:

One does not simply NOT play Shadow of Mordor

One does not simply play Shadow of Mordor

 

Mortal Kombat Reinforces “M” Rating
Today, to celebrate the new DLC character, Jason Voorhees, WB Interactive and NetherRealm has posted the DLC trailer, and yep . . . it’s um . . . bloody.

Star Wars Battlefront Multiplayer Maps
EA and Dice have now confirmed that Star Wars Battlefront will include 12 multiplayer maps at launch, and 2 more have been announced so far as DLC.

This Week’s Xbox Deal With Gold
On the Xbox One:

  • Far Cry 4 & Season Pass
  • Assassin’s Creed Unity

On the Xbox 360

I think I’ll definitely be picking up Assassin’s Creed Unity while it’s on sale, and I think I’ll pick up the Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea DLC as well, as I missed it during my first play through. I think Infinite alone requires a second play through as it’s a fantastic game. Yep. Add it to the queue.

Onto to the new games this week:

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Xbox One, PS4, PC) – The Old Blood is a two-part standalone prequel to the incredible Wolfenstein: The New Order, featuring the hero – B.J Blazkowicz. The game is released digital only. I’m excited.

wolfenstein-the-old-blood

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor – GOTY (Xbox One, PS4) – This release kind of bugs me, only because I haven’t had the chance to play it yet, as I’ve been waiting now for over 6 months. And now the Game of the Year edition is released with all the DLC, for the same price I originally paid for it. I do, however, intend to get to this game sooner rather than later. Procrastination has worked against me? WHAT?

Forfeit your money.

Forfeit your money.

Game of the Year edition includes additional story missions, additional challenge series, and skins. I do believe that the photo mode is a free update, so I’m excited about that :).

Lately I’ve been playing some games on Twitch, and you’re welcome to come hang out – www.twitch.tv/irogans.

I recently wrapped up Goat Simulator (and by that I mean I unlocked most of the achievements) and Sniper Elite III, and I’m currently playing through Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (and loving the art style), Far Cry 4 (and getting tired of the repetition), and Battlefield Hardline (and feeling frustrated towards the lack of time I have to dedicate to it).

I’ll discuss these a little more in detail on Thursday, and new games in the queue. And then an iReview will be up for Sniper Elite III on Friday. The “i” stands for irrelevant.

-iRogan

NEWS – Happy Anniversary, Also Other Stuff :)

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So today will mark my 1 year anniversary of the website. Kind of exciting, I wont lie. I definitely had a slow start to this blogging thing, and really only started to pick it up regularly a few months ago. So we’ll see how we’re doing one year from THAT date. But I am enjoying it, as it provides a platform to get all this video game knowledge, opinions, reviews, and news out of my system, and that’s all that matters.

I hope you are enjoying it as much as me.

With that, onto the news. Today we discuss May’s Xbox Games With Gold, Dead Island 2 delays, Watch Dogs 2, and Batman: Arkham Knight news.

May’s Game with Gold
First up for the Xbox One, we have CastleStorm: Definitive Edition. I’ll be trying it out, and will be discussing my feelings next week on What I’m Playing. Up next on the 360 we have F1 2013 and Mafia II. I’ve tries the F1 games and didn’t enjoy the experience.I felt the games we’re too confusing. Maybe too simulation. Required too much effort on my part. Mafia II, however, is a great game, and worth picking up. Might try another play through.

Dead Island 2 Delays
Deep Silver has announced that Dead Island 2 has been delayed till next year sometime. Nice and specific ;).

Batter Up!

Batter Up!

Xbox 360 Now Supports Larger Harddrives
With the latest update for the Xbox 360, the console now supports hard-drives up to 2TB of space.

Watch Dogs 2 Confirmed?
The announcement of Watch Dogs 2 looks like it might have been accidentally revealed be an employee’s LinkedIn profile. No comment yet from Ubisoft.

I really enjoyed Watch Dogs 1. It had a lot of good ideas and was the first open world game on the next-gen. Obviously there were things wrong with it, but a sequel is exciting all the same.

Batman: Arkham Knight Season Pass and Batgirl
WB Games has responded to the uproar their $40 6-month Season Pass announcement created, with some new details:

batgirl-720x720

  • New prequel story set in a new location will feature Batgirl as a playable character.
  • All new story missions featuring legendary super-villains invading Gotham City (new story arcs, missions and gameplay features)
  • Play as Batman’s key allies in narrative missions extending their storylines from before and after the events of Arkham Knight
  • Drive iconic Batmobiles from the 75 year history of the franchise on custom-built race tracks.
  • Additional challenge maps and character skins

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the news and new games. I think I’ll move What I’m Playing to Thursday, even though the alliteration doesn’t work, and the Review to Friday. This gives me a mid-week break to provide more, thorough, content, and wrap the week with a Review which I think is more appropriate.

As I’m always reminding myself: this is all a work-in-progress.

Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted.

-iRogan