Game Night: The Crew – W/ iRogan and Illestrader

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

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.

acsalbertteaserknucklesig1000x1000042715gif-a6e9c0


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

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 :)

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:

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  • 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

NEWS – New Games Get Released, and Konami Taketh Away

So, to get the big news out of the way, Konami has confirmed that Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s Silent Hills featuring The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus has officially been cancelled.

Say it ain't so....

Say it ain’t so….

Originally revealed during a Playable Teaser released on the PS4, Silent Hills had a lot of buzz surrounding it, namely because of the people attached to the project. The project, however, has had an air of confusion surrounding it ever since the announcement of Kojima Productions and Konami splitting after the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Since then it’s been a downward spiral of negative revelations.

Following the announcement of the split, the PS4 playable teaser was announced to be removed from the PS Store. Then Guillermo Det Toro announced that he was no longer attached to the project with Norman Reedus and Hideo Kojima. Then Konami delisted itself from the NY Stock Exchange as they felt it wasn’t economically viable. And then the final nail in the coffin was Konami’s announcement of the official cancellation.

They didn’t rule out future Silent Hill games, just that this particular project was over.

Womp womp.


After the break we got some, hopefully, lighter news, about Dirt, Arkham Knight, and Just Cause 3, and Tuesday’s new games.


Dirt Rally

PC only version of the upcoming Dirt game has been released on Steam Early Access. It seems to be a truncated version of a potential full release, or not. Maybe this will be the only new Dirt game for now? I dunno.

dirtrally

Dirt Rally features 17 cars and 36 stages across 3 large areas. It is meant to be a true rally game, without the additional modes like previous Dirt games had, like races, or Gymkhana. Sad to see this is PC only. I’m curious what the next-gen future holds for this brand.

Arkham Knight Reveal – All Who Follow You

YES!

New Trailer. Yes! June 23rd release day cannot come soon enough. Yes.

New info came out that the game will now be rated M – Mature Audiences. No Complaints. And the new trailer debuted the new gameplay mechanic called Dual Play, which allows the player to switch, Like Grand Theft Auto 5, between Batman and his allies to engage in seamless tag-team style combat.

The game also will have a season pass, including 6 months of content including new story missions, additional super-villians, challenge maps, skins, race tracks, etc. All the stuffs. Comes at a hefty price though – $39.99 – or available in a Premium Edition of the game priced at $99.

Why? Just Cause! Three.

Yup. Mayhem.


Last up we have today’s notable video game releases. The best day of the week that’s not Friday. Behold:

Tropico 5 (PS4) – This construction and management simulation game previously released everywhere else, has now been released on the Ps4. No news yet if there’s a Xbox One version in the future. It was previously released on the Xbox 360 last November.

The Golf Club (PC, Xbox One, Ps4) – Simulation Golf Game developed on the Unity engine by HB Studios. The game boasts a powerful procedurally generated coarse creator which can be shared and played online.

State_of_decay_logoState of Decay: Year One Survival Edition (Xbox One, PC) – Third-person persistent open world zombie survival game. The game focuses on survival tactics like stealth and evasion, resource management and base building. Player choice effects how the gameplay evolves. The game also features dynamic progression; the game wold continues acting whether or not the game is being played.

I think I will be picking this game up as it sounds intriguing.


That’s all. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ll have further Far Cry 4 impressions and screenshots, and I hope to jump into Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China tonight. Thursday I’ll throw up a review for Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Adios!

-iRogan