IDL NEWS – New Games and Deals, and The Top Games to Round of the Year

I don’t get paid on Tuesday, lest I’d be ruined come Wednesday.

New games today, and Xbox Spotlight deals. There’s also a nice list at the bottom, of the notable games still to be excited for this year. What a great year we’ve had already!

I should’ve titled this “What I Will Be Playing”.


New Games – July 21:

Zombie Army Trilogy (Xbox One, PS4) – Sniper Elite was a pretty fun game, and the first two Zombie Army games were originally released as DLC for 2013’s Sniper Elite V2. I might pick this up and play in co-op with Illestrader.

These aren't the dead you're looking for.

These aren’t the dead you’re looking for.

F1 2015 (Xbox One, PS4) – Another F1 game by Codemasters. I found these titles to be too much simulation for me, and not fun. Pass on the right. Into a wall.

Journey (PS4) – The lovely award winning PS3 indie title has finally made it;s way to the PS4.

They said I could become anything, so I became a shooting star.

They said I could become anything, so I became a shooting star.

Game of Thrones: Episode Five – A Nest of Vipers (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One) – I have the full TellTale Games game pack, which includes all the games, and subsequent episodes. I’ll wait for Episode 6 to be released before starting the story.

Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4, PS Vita) – You are a human, who lives in a cave, and falls in love with birds? Or human birds? I dunno?


Deals With Gold Spotlight Sale

Xbox One
Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Motorsport 5 Bundle 35%
Forza Motorsport 5 Car Pass Add-on 50%
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Editions 33%
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood 25%
DARK SOULS II: Scholar of the First Sin 40%
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 25%

Forza Horizons 2 was a great game and Forza Motorsport 5 was fun, if not limited. I’m not always a fan of simulation racers. And I have the physical copy of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood on its way. So expect opinions on that soon. The New Order was fantastic. I should do a replay and iReview of that one.

Xbox 360 (lots of sales this week. I’ve included the notables – all great)
Max Payne 3 75%
L.A. Noire 75%
Red Dead Redemption 75%
Midnight Club: LA 75%
Bully Scholarship Ed. 75%
Forza Horizon 50%
Enslaved 75%

Top Games Still To Be Released This Year

Rare Replay – Aug 4: Announced this year at E3, the Rare Replay is a 30 game collection of all the classics, coming to the Xbox One. There are also 10,000 achievements points available.

Dishonored: Definitive Edition – Aug 25: Enhanced visuals and including all the DLC. Great if you haven’t played it, but I’d have to see the videos to see if the visual upgrade is enough to justify a 2nd copy. Maybe I’ll just replay the 360 version for free when its backwards compatible.

Gears of War Ultimate Edition – Aug 25: A remastered version of the original game that kicked off the franchise. A game night staple.

Mad Max – Sept 1: Open-world post-apocalyptic survival game based in the universe that is Mad Max.

Metal Gear Solid V – Sept 1: I’ve talked about this game a lot already, and I really don’t think I can say anymore. Just that I can’t wait.

Destiny: The Taken King – Sept 15: The next chapter in the Destiny Saga. Comes as a stand-alone as well which includes the previous full release and 2 expansions. New maps and modes, new missions and strikes, subclasses, gear, items and a Raid.

Rainbow Six: Siege – Oct 13: Intense first-person shooter in the Tom Clancy Rainbow Six world. Infiltration and hostage extract modes look incredible and tense. Back to the one-life gameplay style. Online only competitive games scare me away, as I’ve learned with Evolve. But from a co-op Terrorist Hunt mode perspective, I’ll pick it up.

Assassins’s Creed Syndicate – Oct 23: The next game in the Assassin’s series.

Halo 5: Guardians – Oct 27: Sold. Obviously. Another game night staple is the Halo franchise. Now that ODST is out for the MCC, and the game is finally stable, I’ll do a review.

Need For Speed – Nov 3: How many times has the Need for Speed franchise been rebooted now? The E3 impressions looked incredible, and it’s going back to the nocturnal open world, focusing on the street life and car customization.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – Nov 6: Another annual title that I’m usually a few years behind on. Just finished Ghosts for crying out loud. Didn’t try Black Ops 2 either. And still haven’t gotten to Advanced Soldier. Woops

Rise of the Tomb Raider – Nov 10: Loved the first reboot, and I’m super excited for the sequel.

Star Wars Battlefront – Nov 17: First impressions at E3 show promise. The online-only direction might be a deal breaker, but the co-op missions show promise. Obviously more info has to be seen, but I’ll get first impressions through EA Access.

Just Cause 3 – Dec 1: I’m holding out on this one for now. No co-op is a huge bummer, and I quickly grew bored of Just Cause 2.

Hitman – December 8: New entry in the franchise, simply titled Hitman. Very interested as the last one was a huge improvement for the franchise in my opinion, and now with the online presence and unique one-time contracts . . . definitively appealing.


I’ll be back tomorrow with some more news, and What i’M Playing.

-iRogan

E3 2014 – Microsoft Press Conference

Alright, here we go. E3 2014 is here.

E3 Microsoft

We start today off with the Microsoft Press Conference, where they’re promising 90 minutes of games. And they delivered.

We started off with a huge gameplay reveal for Call of Duty Advanced Warfighter. The game looked incredible. Very futuristic, kind of sci-fi. Very good looking and cinematic.Truly next gen looking, but with the same gameplay that we can expect from the franchise.

Next up we have the Forza guys from Turn 10 announcing the Nurburbring for Forza 5, free DLC, and then they brought out Playground Games to do a full reveal of Forza Horizons 2. 200+ cars, dynamic/ dramatic weather, and the Forza Drivatar tech is coming over. More open-world and seamless multiplayer.

Next up is a quick trailer for Evolve. More info released for it – a 2nd monster revealed: Kraken, 2nd group of hunters too. The game comes out later this year with 3 monsters and 12 hunters, and over a dozen maps. Always liked L4D, so this has my attention. #Excited.

Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed Unity showcasing the co-op function. 4 player co-op missions. Not much said about whether this is throughout the whole campaign, or is this separate multiplayer focused missions. Assassins Creed 3 killed a lot of my love for the franchise. Hopefully my play through of IV reinvigorates me for when Unity comes out. Showed large outside environments which seamlessly transition into indoor smaller compact environments.

Moving along at a quick pace. 90 Minutes goes by quick when its all games… Bioware up next with Dragon Age Inquisition. Look Co-op too? Looks similar to an Oblivion. If it is indeed co-op I’d be down. But it is most likely like KotOR, where you can switch between characters in your party.

Next up, Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive which is incredible looking, and looks very fun to play. Very colourful. Breaking the 4th wall right off the bat. Insomniac knows what they’re doing, and what they’re good at. Starts off making fun of other games. Insomniac has always been known for their creative weapons, and we’ve seen a few to date: record launcher, dynamite teddy bear. Today we saw the Propane Tank launcher. Game showcases some very fast traversal, and announced an 8-player co-op mode. I believe separate from the actual campaign. Oct 28th, 2014 release. XBOX1 Exclusive.

Announcement of a 4 player arcade edition of Dead Rising 3, as DLC, $10. Looks crazy, super fast and competitive. Hyper stylized, and has a crazy name: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha Prime.

Dance Central announce Spotlight and Disney Fantasia. Moving On.

Fable Legends is up next with a 4 player co-op D&D style game.  5th player can have a top down view and play as the villain, similar to a Dungeon Master. Unreal 4 Engine. Weird.

Microsoft’s creative game, Project Spark, looks.. creative. Announced a Conker pack, essentially saying we’re not gonna make another Conker game, go make one yourself.

Finally, past the mid point, wrapping up the announcements for 2014, getting ready for 2015, bring out Teh Halozz!.

Halo: Master Chief Collection announced Nov 11, 2014 release. Includes Halo 1-4. 100 Multiplayer maps, 4000 Gamerscore, all on one disc. Halo 2 gets the anniversary treatment with the original and classic engine, and all the original MP maps, with 6 re-created.

Also announced is Halo Nightfall, which is a digital series that leads up to Halo 5 Guardian. Halo 5 Beta multiplayer beta coming this Holiday. #RedvsBlue

From AAA to Indy. ID@2015, independent developers working hard with Xbox getting their games out. Ability to self publish. Lots of cool, quaint, stylized games coming our way. Ori and Blind Forrest stood out, and a Limbo-esq game called Inside. Quick montage showing lots of titles.

Next up, an actual genuine surprise, The Rise of the Tomb Raider. Just a quick trailer showing Lara in therapy discussing the events of the first game spliced with footage of her in the wilderness again, running from a bear and launching herself off a cliff wielding her rock climbing spike.

Witcher 3 is next up. Showing gameplay of an actual hunt. Our hero tracking a Griffon and the skills that are needed for tracking. Gameplay shows combat and how organic story elements get can be integrated, as the protagonist Geralt comes across a camp of baddies harassing a female herbalist. We’re shown some pretty gory gameplay. Tracking the Griffon shows some of the terrain and we’re told that any view-able location is traversable.

Microsoft has been blazing through this conference, no breaks, no breathers. No dancing in front of the Kinect, no stats, no hardware announcements, no Apps.

Tom Clancy’s the Division is up, nearing the end of the conference. The game is gorgeous, showing some of the new HUD overlays, GPS maps and highlighting enemies behind cover. Level design is so heavily detailed as we see the characters traverse the New York tunnel system. Game looks very much like The Last Of Us, as in we get the real impression this is post apocalyptic survival. Gun play gameplay shows some fantastic damage. Really impressed, but the game is still a ways out.

Almost last up, Scalebound. a Monster Hunter style game by the guys who made Vanquish. Very Japanese. Character can armor up as he’s in the middle of a monster battle. Puts his headphones on to rock out! Probably Presented by Beats By Dre.

Last but not least. Crackdown 3! Or Crackdown rebooted? Agency Co-op returns as we seen a couple agents trying to take down a baddie who is barricaded up at the top of his fortress tower. We see some new interesting destruction. Utilizing explosive to take down a couple buildings in domino effect as another agent drives a tanker truck wrapped in explosives up the side of the felled building into the fortress headquarters. Very cool, would be awesome if this turns out to be true gameplay possibilities.

That’s it, that’s all. Final montage shows what we’ve seen, whats to come. No big shocking closer, no Halo 5 cinematic, or news on Destiny, or Gears. But everything that we saw is next-gen, and looks great.

EA Press conference is up next. Stay Tuned