As I prepare to lay down my head and completely upend my internal sleep clock, I wanted to reach out to thank you for your generous donations. You helped make Saturday, November 7th the biggest day in the history of the Extra Life program, and helped me beat my last years donations, and my personal goal this year.
I was able to raise $715 dollars for the BC Children’s Hospital, and I couldn’t have done it without you.
Thank you all.
And thanks to the people who were able to come out and play games with me tonight. Always happy to see your faces.
Special thanks to Nichole for her unwavering support, and staying up with me for the full 24 hours.
So October is somewhat of a bittersweet month for me. I take part in a month long endeavor to draw more – appropriately titled #Drawtober. I draw quite a bit throughout the year, whenever motivation and inspiration sparks simultaneously. But with this blog, and my game queue, and other distractions, I find it harder and harder to actually find the time, sit down, and draw.
So, I quite look forward to October. But that also means setting everything else aside, including games, so that I can actually draw something every day. That’s the part that sucks.
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I’ll let you in on a little secret of mine.
I’m not a good artist. Therefore I rely heavily on my ability to critique my own work – unlike some truly talented artists who can produce godly work even without thinking off half their brain. It sometimes works and sometimes it doesn’t. It depends entirely on my condition that day.
Sometimes it takes me a few strokes to achieve the effect I want, and some other times it takes a few hours just to draw some damn random crap. It is entirely up to left side of my brain (the logical side) to figure out if something make sense or not. And THAT even depends on if I had a crappy morning or not.
But while my skill tends to fluctuate, my ability to self-critique is on a steady rise, and that is my only hope.
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This year, because of the blog, and because of the imposing Extra Life gaming marathon in November, I’m doing a full month of video game themed drawings. My hope is to complete enough that I’ll be able to auction some of them off during the event, possibly raise some more money.
Head over to the Extra Life page, I’ll be posting my work, daily.
In the mean time, I still hope to find some time to do some writing.
Oh, The Taken King is out? OK, I’ll leave you alone forever now . . .
Just kidding. New games, new deals, and news: Uncharted 4, Mortal Kombat X, and Metal Gear Solid V.
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New Releases – Sept 15
NHL 16 (PS4, Xbox One) – EA’s annual NHL game is back for a new season, and thankfully fuller than last years bare bones edition. Online Team Play has returned, and EA has bolstered the Be A Pro mode. A new training mode is also available, as a new feature to catch new fans up to speed. NHL is an annual pick-up for me so expect some more impressions.
Forza Motorsport 6 (Xbox One) – Microsoft’s big simulation is back in a big way. 24 opponent races, rain and water physics and night-time races. The career still feels like a checklist and needs an overhaul, but the game is as gorgeous as ever with 1080p 60fps races.
Grand Theft Auto V Online – Freeworld Events (PC, Xbox One, PS4) – Today marks the new Online update. This has me interested in stepping back into the GTA world, and I already own the game.
Destiny: The Taken King (Xbox One, PS4) – The big 2.0 addition is finally here now, with actual story-telling, new missions, a new raid, new weapons, new playable area, new player sub-classes. All the things that will change Destiny is a big way. I’ll be jumping in tonight to transfer everything over and check it out. Check out future impressions in the weeks to come.
Uncharted 4 – Uncharted 4: The Thief’s End will be released on March 18th, 2016. Sept 29th will mark the release of The Nathan Drake Collection on the PS4, remastering 1-3 into one nice package, and to catch everyone up on the series before 4’s release. Uncharted is a great series and one of the real reasons to own a PS3/PS4.
Mortal Kombat X – NetherRealm Studios has confirmed that it is still working on DLC for Mortal Kombat X. This includes new playable characters, skins and a new stage, due out in the first half of 2016.
Metal Gear Solid V – Konami has confirmed it has fixed the bug that plagued the game on all platforms, causing saved games to become corrupt when Quiet was brought along as a buddy on either Mission 29 or 42. The fix is available on the PS4 and PC, and will hopefully be coming to all platforms soon.
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This week I will continue to plug away through Metal Gear Solid V and will be jumping back into Destiny: The Taken King. I’ll be leaving my impressions of both, and possibly even writing another story, this one set in MGS V land. The game just lends itself to so many awesome encounters and creative experiences. I’ll also be picking up NHL and I know I’ll be dumping a ton of time into that, maybe even doing my first NHL review. And lastly, GTA V’s Online is calling.
This week’s Preview will focus on one of those games, and the What i’M playing feature will definitely be more MGS V. This is an exciting week to say the least.
The day the new week starts and new news starts coming in. E3 is over, Gamescom is over, PAX Prime is over. Tokyo Game show is coming up this weekend, and then the year’s shows should be done. Luckily I’m almost caught up on the news as those shows take up a lot of time. I’m not sure yet if Tokyo Game Show actually has press briefings or not, or if it’s just a game showroom. Will continue to investigate. <- *Update at the bottom*
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Onward though, to news:
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Night Dive Studios has announced that it will be restoring and publishing modernized versions of Turok 1 and Turok 2. Both Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil will be getting graphical upgrades and other improvements. Unsure yet if this is only PC, or console release.
Mad Max 1080p and the Map Isn’t Finite
Avalanche Studios has revealed that Mad Max is 1080p which is nice to see, as a lot of the games to date on the Xbox One have not been true 1080p. And the map is also not finite.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Release Date
Square Enix and Eido Montreal have announced the release date for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The sequel to Human Revolution will be released on Feb 23rd, 2016 and is set 2 years after the events of HR, in the year 2029 with augmented people separated from normal residents. I’m super excited for this sequel, and should probably replay the first at some point. Hopefully it’s backwards compatible before February.
Borderlands Backwards Compatibility
Speaking of backwards compatibility, the original Borderlands is among the games that will be backwards compatible day one in the upcoming update in November.
GTA V Online Freemode
GTA V Online is getting a new feature update that will have structured events pop up in the open world for the players to join and play, with entering a lobby first.
Released tomorrow, the goal is to blend the freeform gameplay with structured events that offer rewards. Every 12 minutes in the open world, a new Freemode Event will start, with a countdown alerting players. If you miss the start or opt not to join, you can still spectate. Over 200 variants will be available at launch including cooperative battles, stunt challenges, king of the hill modes, and damage and speed limit tasks. Two new adversarial modes will be made available as well.
Nintendo’s New President
Nintendo has announced that Tatsumi Kimishima, 65, will assume the role of President and Representative Director for the company. The election will be for a 1 year term.
Kimishima’s appointment as the new head of Nintendo comes two months after the sudden death of former president Satoru Iwata from a cancerous bile duct growth. Iwata was 55.
Halo 5’s 60 FPS
Studio head at 343 Industries has confirmed that Halo 5 will consistently run at 60 frames per second. The goal from the outset was to deliver 60 fps across all game modes. This meant re-engineering the gameplay systems at the core and uses a “progressive resolution system” that scales the games resolution based on what’s on the screen at that time.
“This enables us to deploy resources where they have most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever.”
PC Need For Speed Stalls
Ghost Games has announced that the latest PC installment of Need for Speed, titled Need For Speed, has been delayed. Expected to be released alongside its console counterparts in November, the PC version wont be seeing its released until “Spring 2016”.
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Well, that enough news for today I think. Tomorrow we’ll talk about some more news, and new games and deals, and awesome things. Wednesday will be a Metal Gear Solid V wrap up: part 2. More game previews around the corner and then Tokyo Game Show 2015 stuff around the weekend.
Tokyo Game Show takes place from September 17th-20th, and is getting kicked off with Sony’s keynote tonight at midnight, so I should have a wrap-up later in the week. Sony, Square Enix, and Capcom are some of the main companies in attendance, so there should be some exciting news coming soon.
tudio head at 343 Industries has confirmed that Halo 5 will consistently run at 60 frames per second. The goal from the outset was to deliver 60 fps across all game modes. This meant re-engineering the gameplay systems at the core and uses a “progressive resolution system” that scales the games resolution based on what’s on the screen at that time.
Idly Playing the Waiting Game 