NEWS – Those Mid-Week Lulls Tho

So I have a new co-op buddy and we’re going to be going through Tomb Raider – Temple of Osiris. Yay!

On the 360, in 2010, Tomb Raider – Guardian of Light was released and it revealed that the single player Tomb Raiding narrative isn’t always needed. It provided a smart simplistic co-op game, in the top-down dungeon crawler view, with clever puzzles and fun combat.

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4 years later, and a next-gen transition – Tomb Raider – Temple of Osiris. Graphically it’s not much of an upgrade, but it is bigger in scope. It is now 4 player capable, and the puzzles actually reform, depending how many players are in the room. More of a preview to come.


Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is Real, and its actually called Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
The team at DICE have confirmed that this is not Mirror’s Edge 2, it’s not a direct sequel.

“is not a sequel, this is not Mirror’s Edge 2. We have landed on a vision that honors the first game — pushing the boundaries of first person movement and diving deeper into the story behind our heroine Faith — but also brings a lot of great new, interesting gameplay and features to the experience for our players.”

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Mirror’s Edge will be at E3 as well. Colour me excited.

Adr1ft – So, Like Gravity – The Video Game?

Will We See The Last Guardian at E3?
The Last Guardian will finally be getting a re-reveal at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, apparently.

“on very good authority that this will be the year that Team Ico finally presents its follow-up to much loved classics Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.”

The Last Guardian was first announced for PlayStation 3 back in 2009, but thanks to studio troubles, the title still has yet to see the light of day.


Over the next few days I’ll be discussing Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and posting an iReview for Sniper Elite III.

We’re getting into the real news, just around the corner with E3. I hope to bulk up the E3 Hub page with more info heading into the event that starts Sunday with Bethesda.

-iRogan

NEWS – E3 is Around the Corner, and Destiny Won’t Go Away

Ah, Monday, the day everything reboots.

Today in Video Game News, we’ll talk about Gearbox’s Battleborn, Uncharted, Dues Ex, Mirror’s Edge, Wolfenstein and Destiny.


Battleborn’s Reveal – E3 Trailer

Gearbox presents Battleborn, their latest game since Borderlands 2, and it appears to be a fusion of game genres. It’s a very stylized first person shooter with a MOBA framework. The game boasts 25 different playable characters that we can play alone or co-op, in a narrative driven campaign, and online competitive.

Uncharted – The Nathan Drake Collection
Nathan Drake’s first three adventures are coming to PS4, remastered in full 1080p and at 60 fps.

Dues Ex: Mankind Divided E3 Gameplay
Square Enix has confirmed that gameplay footage for the Dues Ex highly anticipated sequel will be revealed during their upcoming Square Enix E3 Press Conference. Square Enix’s showing will be on Tuesday, June 16th, however I will not be watching it live like Monday’s shows, so I’ll be doing a late write up post that evening.

EA files Mirror’s Edge Trademark

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New intriguing info has come to light as EA files trademark for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. The sequel for Mirror’s Edge has been confirmed for 2016, and is currently under development at DICE. Hopefully we’ll hear more about it at EA’s E3 press conference next week.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood gets Physical Release
Previously thought only to be digital, a disc version of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC will be available July 21, Bethesda Game Studios announced today.

Even More Destiny Info, Possibly MORE at E3
New rumours have surfaced about the next big Destiny expansion, The Taken King. $40 expansion, to be released Sept 15th, 2015.

The new content will offer a new subclass and new elemental super ability for each of the three character classes.  Warlocks will get an electrical storm (arc), Hunters will receive a gravity bow (void), while Titans will have a flaming hammer (solar).

The expansion will introduce new Strikes, new PvP maps and a new raid.


Enough News, check back tomorrow for some new games and Gold Deals, and then impressions on an older but amazing title, in Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Hopefully an iReview before the week is out – I think I promised Sniper Elite III. Maybe a column, and then Achievement of the Week to wrap it all up.

-iRogan

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK – Unmechanical

This week’s Achievement of the Week goes to Unmechanical, on the Xbox One, a cute little physics platformer. Recent review here -> iReview – Unmechanical.

This game was a little frustrating when it came to the achievements.

Not that any of them were in any way truly difficult, but just how the value of each achievement was chosen. Typically, achievements are in multiples of 5, so its always nice to end my gamerscore in a 5 or 0.

Unmechanical does away with this trend, and ends the majority of its achievements in 6. Most are actually worth 66G. This is great if I wanted to land on numbers like 99, but I like the clean zeros, where my next milestone is 200,000G. Luckily this game can be 100%’ed.


Achievement of the Week, in Unmechanical:

97889-hiInner Peace – 30G
Balance an object on your head for 10 seconds

Work/Life Balance?

Work/Life Balance?

This is an achievement that is easily miss-able if you don’t know about it. There’s plenty of physics objects to carry around in this game, but the tractor beam is on the bottom of our little robot, so it would counterintuitive to carry something on our head. Counterintuitive: word of the day. ;).


Tomorrow, and the week following is back to news, and new games, and reviews, and progress updates on what I’m playing. I’m also thinking up ideas for a weekly column/opinion article each week.

Lots of things always in store ’round here, just not consistency.

-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.

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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

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.

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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