Category Archives: News

NEWS – New Game Tuesday and New News Tuesday

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Welcome to Tuesday. We got some new games and some news.

Big releases this week are Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, and Goat Simulator. 

And the big news includes: Write/Director Leaves Gearbox, New Microsoft IP, Steam Features, Halo 5:Guardians, Alan Wake Sequel?, Gears of War Cinematic Director Leaves Epic for Black Tusk, Destiny, and this week’s Xbox Deals With Gold.

assassin_s_creed_chronicles_china

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (PS4, PS3, XBox One, PC) – Chronicles is a series of 2.5D Assassin’s Creed games developed by Climax Studios, and published by Ubisoft. The games will feature a new protagonist. China’s protagonist is Jun, who was trained by Ezio Auditore.

The follow up games later this year will be Chronicles: India, and Chronicles: Russia.

 

Release Trailer below shows the story and gameplay. I’ll be picking this up shortly and playing through it. The art style and gameplay looks intriguing, and I’m all about the Assassin’s Creed titles.

goats

Goat Simulator (XBox One, XBox 360) – Finally released on all the Xboxs, Goat Simulator is here. I played some over the weekend, and I’ll be talking more about it tomorrow, with a review on Thursday.

Trailer

On to some news for Tuesday:

Writer/Director Leaves Gearbox

Matthew Armstrong has left Gearbox Software. Credited as a writer and game design director of Borderlands.

“Things changed. No longer working at @GearboxSoftware. I will always love Gearbox, but it’s adventure time.”

New Microsoft IP at E3 2015

Xbox head Phil Spencer announced that new exclusive IP would be announced this June at E3 2015. He confirmed that it would not be another military space marine game or racing title.

I’m excited about E3. And I’ll be live blogging the day of the press conferences, June 15. So look out for that.

Steam Features Unlocked to Paying Customers

Valve announced that, in a move to protect its customers against spamming and phishing, it would be locking some of its features to all but paying customers.

Users who have not spent the $5 will not have access to features such as sending friend invites, voting on Greenlight, or submitting content on the Steam workshop.

New Halo 5: Guardians Trailer

Regardless of the fact that its a trailer announcing pre-order bonuses, it is a pretty cool gameplay trailer showing off new weapons and abilities. The trailer focuses on Spartan Locke taking out Covenant in pursuit of Master Chief.

Alan Wake Sequel Possibilities

Remedy has announced that even though the Alan Wake 2 sequel project was scrapped, a prototype was created after the first was released. The company opted to work on their next game Quantum Break instead. But the possibilities are still there.

“For Alan Wake, from the get-go, we assumed there was going to be a sequel and we mapped things further out when it came to character, story, details and focus changes. We knew we would have to iterate and refine, but there was always a rough road map there.”

Remedy is 100 percent focused on the upcoming Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break, which was just recently delayed until 2016.

Epic Cinematic Director Leaves Epic

Greg M. Mitchell, who was previously responsible for the cinematics in the Gears of War franchise, has left Epic Games to join Black Tusk Studios, to most likely work on, yup, cinematics, on the next Gears of War game. Way to branch out.

“BIG NEWS!! I’m leaving Epic, but heading to @blacktuskstudio to work on #Gearsofwar!! I’ll quote Marcus Fenix, by saying “NICE!!” :)”

Destiny’s House of Wolves Reveal Trailer

Destiny has launched a newer trailer showing off some new information about the upcoming DLC House of Wolves: New social space, new characters, new gear upgrades.

There’ll be a Twitch reveal tomorrow.

XBox Deals With Gold

Mostly Call of Duty games this week on sale. Maybe it’s time to get Advanced Warfare? Let’s see . . . (nope):

Call of Duty: Ghosts and Ghosts Hardened Edition are 60% and 40% off on the Xbox One, respectfully, and Never Alone is 40% off. Ghost review is upcoming, and check out the review for Never Alone here.

Ghosts, Black Ops II, and COD 3 are on sale as well, on the Xbox 360.

That’s all for today. Check in tomorrow for thoughts and impressions of Goat Simulator, and Thursday for the review.

It’s raining, so don’t go outside.

-iRogan

NEWS – And the Monday’s Have It…

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So I was finally able to export some of the screenshots from my time in Far Cry 4. Sadly, I haven’t gotten around to completing the game, but I’m getting there. The only frustrating thing so far with the Upload studio on the Xbox One, is you’re only able to Upload one photo at a time. This alone, coupled with the fact that I had approx 300 screenshots saved, was quite time consuming. I’ll have to make an effort to export them daily, instead of building up a queue. Check out the screenshots here.

Moving onto some news for the week: Star Wars, Cities: Skylines, Destiny, Dues Ex, EA’s Free-To-Play, 2K Australia,

Star Wars Battlefront

Lots of news came out over the weekend regarding all things Star Wars. Check out the launch trailer below. The game will be first available to Xbox One users who have EA Access (me), so that’s exciting. The game looks really exciting, although disappointing is the exclusion of any type of campaign. There are smaller co-op/split-screen missions that can be played, but the main point of the game will be the large scale battles online. Also excluded are any type of space battles as all flying segments will take place in-atmosphere. Also announced was that this game with be the original trilogy, before the prequel era.

The first 4 planets were revealed to be Endor, Tatooine, Hoth, and a previously unexplored planet Sullust.

First DLC will be free for those who pre-order, and will be The Battle of Jakku, from the new movie, The Force Awakens.

Release date November 17th, 2015, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Cities: Skylines

Paradox Interactive announced that Cities: Skylines has sold 1 million copies within the first month. This is obviously exciting news for the brand and genre. I should get back into my city, as I’ve been neglecting it.

6GB Destiny Patch

Destiny’s latest patch, 1.12 is a whopping 6GB. Included in the fix is some online multiplayer changes, bug fixes to the Raid bosses, and a new Colourblind mode. The House of Wolves Expansion is just around the corner, dropping on May 19th.

More on the patch, Data miners have discovered the plans for two more social spaces to be added to Destiny. To be included in the Expansion, or at a later date, who knows?

Dues Ex: Ghost Mode

The director of Dues Ex: Mankind Divided announced last week that the ghost option will be available throughout entire levels and even the boss fights. Ghost option is the ability to make it past all enemies and levels completely unseen.

EA’s Free2Play Games Getting Shut Down

EA announced that they will be stopping development and support for several of their free-to-play games, including: Battlefield Heroes, Need for Speed World, FIFA World, and Battlefield Play 4 Free.

They did announce, however, new story content and continued support  for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

2K Australia Closing

The Borderland: The Pre-Sequel developer has been announced to be closing. 2K Australia is Australia’s only remaining AAA studio. Previously they were apart of Irrational Games,, best know for the Bioshock series.

“We can confirm we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams.  We are very grateful for the team’s valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible.”

Stick around for the new game releases tomorrow, we’ll talk more about Goat Simulator, Battlefield Hardline, and Far Cry 4 on Wednesday, and I’ll have a quick review up for Goat Simulator on Thursday.

Going outside now….

-iRogan

NEWS – Games Tuesday (The Title Almost Works ;) )

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You all have your monies out, and your beefy machines, NVidia Titan X cards, and 4K monitors ready? GTA V PC edition released today.

Does anything else really matter, then?

Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One, PC) – Besides GTA V’s inevitable, but oft delayed, PC release, Mortal Kombat X is probably the biggest game of note to be released. We’ve been reading a lot about it, as the hype engine is out in force. System of  Down is behind it, or at least their music is used heavily in the trailers. The gameplay looks as gory and disgusting as ever.

You can check the trailer below (w/ System of a Down :3)

Apparently there’s a story? Who knew? Nothing will beat the E3 Announcement Trailer. Nothing.

Tower of Guns (PS4, PS3, Xbox One) – Tower of Guns is an arcade FPS with no story. Just random generated levels, and lots of guns, enemies, massive battle bosses, and obviously lots of bullets. Just a classic type of arcade shooter filled with mechanical mayhem.

oh, I almost forgot…

Grand Theft Auto V (PC) – All the delay jokes aside, patience pays off:

"Now Go! I Need To Meditate."

“Now Go! I Need To Meditate.”

-iRogan

NEWS – How Does This Thing Work Again?

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Lets get this thing back on track, the inconsistency is killing me…

Visceral Games Boss Leaves

Sad to see, but Steve Papoutsis, the Executive Producer on Battlefield Hardline, has left his position as General Manager of Visceral Games. Unsure at this point is if he still works for EA. Hardline, which was just recently released is still expected to receive upcoming story-related DLC. Papoutsis is also known for his work on the Dead Space series, a series which I quite enjoyed.

GTA V Retail

Grand Theft Auto V’s DVD retail version is presumably set to ship as a 7-disc box set. I guess Blu-ray is uncommon on PC? DVD it is. I’d recommend just buying the digital copy ;). Tomorrow!!!

Much DVDs

Much DVDs

Don Mattrick Steps Down as Zynga CEO

Zynga, the mobile games giant, announced that their new-ish CEO, Don Mattrick is stepping down after just 2 years. Mattrick was the former President of Interactive Entertainment at Microsoft until 2013 (before the Xbox One launch) when he joined Zynga.

“I am excited about the company’s trajectory and wish the best for Mark, Zynga and NaturalMotion as I plan to return to Canada to pursue my next challenge,” Mattrick said.

Mankind Divided

Check out the launch trailer for Dues Ex: Mankind Divided:

You’re welcome!

Black Ops: Another One

Call of Duty Black Ops III was announced, no gameplay trailer yet, just a teaser. Activision has confirmed that the game will release in 2015, and it is the Treyarch team that will be releasing it, now that all three teams are working in the 3-year dev cycle. It looks like this will be the first true next-gen exclusive Call of Duty game. Black Ops 3 takes place in a “dark, twisted” future where the lines between humanity and our technology are blurred. Military robotics are the core of warfare.

BLOPS

BLOPS

EA Access

EA’s NHL 15 is now free for subscribers of EA Access. Too bad I already have this game :p. After 3 sports game in a row, I’m curious what EA’s next Vault game will be.

Too bad the NHL 15 has been neutered as far as features, otherwise you’d be seeing my glorious photo ops.

Destiny House of Wolves Expansion

Destiny’s 2nd expansion, House of Wolves is set to release on Tuesday, May 19th, 2015.

The 2nd expansion will not have a new Raid and will instead offer a three-player cooperative multiplayer arena mode.

Bungie announced that a new Raid would be made for release later this year, giving weight to the information out there that states the biggest content release yet to come, is coming out after the expansion release.

Maybe its time to step back in to the fight.

All caught up on news? Good.

Tomorrow will be new games day – prep your wallets! Wednesday I’ll talk about the current queue of games. Thursday will be an iReview, and Friday will see us off into the weekend.

I feel I’ve been kind of slacking off here, and I gotta get back on track.

See you when I get there.

-iRogan

NEWS – Welcome Back to the Working Week and New Games

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Welcome back, people. Welcome back, myself. Thanks 🙂

On to business, as there’s quite a bit of news to catch up on, but . . . new games:

Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones (PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One) – The initial game was first available on Steam called Stealth Bastard, and re-released on the PS3 and Vita titled Stealth Inc. The sequel was released last year on the WiiU and has now come to the PS3, PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

Bastion (PS4) – Originally released in 2011, Bastion has been re-released on the PS4.

Dark Soul II: Scholar of the First Sin (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4) – An updated version of Dark Souls II has been released. This is a compilation of the original game and the DLC. The PS4 and Xbox One versions have also recieved an enhanced version, with upgraded graphics, among other fixes.

I see you Dragon Age, and raise you The Witcher III

I see your Dragon Age, and raise you The Witcher III

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved – Dimensions Evolved is a free title update for Geometry Wars 3 and includes 40 new levels.

Sunset Overdrive: Dawn of the Rise of the Fallen Machines – New, and final DLC for Sunset Overdrive. Definitely a fun game filled with platforming and mayhem. The game recently received a permanent price drop, and hopefully it’ll receive a sale, so that I can pick it up.

What else is new?

The Next Gears of War Game Won’t Come to Xbox 360

Black Tusk Studios has announced that the next Gears of War game will not be available on the Xbox 360, but on the Xbox One. I have no problem with this, as there were 4 Gears games on the 360. Time for this-gen.

Battlefield Hardline Patch

Battlefield Hardline will be receiving a patch to nerf the Kill Couch (not remove it, which I’d previously assumed). Available in Dust Bowl, the couch was the fastest and strongest vehicle. However, the patch will make the strength and life of the couch very small, as it was meant for one-off use only. Killing the American Dream, bro.

Quantum Break Delayed Again

Microsoft has announced that Quantum Break will not be released before next year, due to the holiday rush of Microsoft Exclusives already being released around year end, including Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza 6, and Halo 5 Guardians.

Tomb Raider has Sold 8.5 million copies

Speaking of Tomb Raider, Square Enix has announced that the Tomb Raider reboot has sold 8.5 million copies, which makes it the best selling Tomb Raider game. There’s a lot of hype for their follow-up later this year. Hopefully new info comes out around E3. You can find my review here: sorry, here.

tombraider

Xbox’s Deals With Gold

This week, on the Xbox One, Forza Horizons 2 is on sale, in all its versions, as well as the Car Pass DLC. Coincidentally just in time for the free Fast and Furious 7 Stand-Alone demo, which encourages you to buy the full version. My review for Forza Horizons 2 and the Fast and Furious Stand Alone.

There’s a slew of games also on sale on the Xbox 360 front: Serious Sam HD, Double D XXL, 3, and DLC. F1 2014, Metal Slug 3, and some of the King of Fighters games are also on sale.

Dues EX: Mankind Divided

The sequel to the awesome 2011 Dues Ex: Human Revolution was leaked, and has been confirmed, and it’s called Dues Ex: Mankind Divided. It’s a sequel to Adam Jensen’s story, 2 years after the events of the previous game. Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Unfortunately no release window yet.

Colour me excited. I may have to replay Human Revolution. Where’s the re-mastered versions now . . .?

I’ve also added some new screenshots to Forza Horizons 2, and I started playing the updated version of Half-Life 2,so I’ve added some screen shots from that, with some more coming.

Still playing Far Cry 4 (really wanting the Upload app to get updated), and over the weekend I finally got into Call of Duty: Ghosts, which is another game I’ve been sitting on due to hard-drive space. Expect a little more of an insight tomorrow.

-iRogan
“Yeah, RIP.”