Tag Archives: Gearbox

IDL FEATURE – PAX Day One: Stickers and Lanyards, Cosplayers and Weddings

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-I arrived into Seattle at around 11:30pm Thursday night in anticipation for the 4 days that will follow. The eve of PAX Prime 2015 is finally here, and I am excited as ever. This will be my 7th year in a row at PAX Prime, and the show gets better and better, although more spread out than ever.

-Not only does the 4 day convention take over all 6 floors of the Seattle Trade and Convention Centre, but also the adjacent Annex but the surrounding 4 hotels and two theatres. The weekend takes over the downtown district of Seattle every year.

Day 1 – PAX Prime 2015

-Day 1 started for me, around 12PM. Having the passes already, I didn’t need the lineups or waiting around. I can do PAX on my own time, thanks.

-Our first stop was to go straight to the 4th floor Exhibition hall and check out the new exhibits. First stop after the trip of 3 escalators, passing hundreds of other participants, is the Small Dev, Tech Land and Indie exhibit hall. Highlighted by the always popular Behemoth Booth

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-Every year I buy a Castle Crasher figurine and get it signed by the artist and developer, and this year they were handing out unique lanyard, and empty swag bags primed for filling.

IMG_4847-This exhibit hall is filled with many of the smaller devs, indie devs, larger tech companies advertising their wares, and geeky companies selling their gaming swag. As this is also one of the main entrance points, it is also populated by a lot of cosplayers.

-Cosplayers roam everywhere, and this year, unlike previous, patrons have been asked to refrain from taking photos inside the exhibit halls stopping the flow of traffic, and instead asked to do it outside the halls in the open areas.As there are SO MANY people roaming around, traffic flow is important, and prevents accident collisions.

-The indie hall is always a lot of fun to see the smaller up-and-comers on display, and team like Behemoth or Team Meat showing their new stuff. But as day one is primary just a quick tour to see whats available, we list our favourites and move on. We have 3 more days to actually spend quality time with our favs, but today is to take it all in.

-Center skybridge is available to more sales teams and alternative mediums,like comic books, furniture,tech equipment, and cards. Cards Against Humanity a popular feature, and MAGIC. Skybridge is a popular meeting area for groups, and cosplayers, thanks to the lighting.

-Into the main hall Battleborn is the highlighted entrance feature. 2K’s and Gearbox’s next big game. Play solo, or co-op or split screen, the game features first person shooter gameplay involving 5 heroes on the map against waves of enemies and other heroes in competitive. The game boasts 25 playable heroes at launch in February, 2016. Every hero is unique, with lots featuring melee or snipers.

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-Xbox have big booths dedicated to Rise of the Tomb Raider and Halo 5. Playstation has the Uncharted Collection featured, and Uncharted 2 playable. I briefly played the demo for Uncharted 2. I’d played this originally on the PS3, and it plays just as good now. It does feel a little more colourful, and plays a tiny bit more cartoony, more blood, more animated. Maybe I’m just remembering it wrong. It does play smooth though, and as fun as ever.

-Ubisoft has Rainbow Six Siege playable, which I’m stoked for, and Tom Clancy’s The Division as well.

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-Heavily featured is Deep Silvers Homefront: The Revolution. This for sure I will get my hands on as I loved the first, and I’m curious to try out the latest iteration, and new direction.

-Mad Max and Just Cause 3 have big dedicated areas this year and I’ll be hoping to try these out, Mad Max comes out next week so it would be nice to get some early impressions before it shows up at my door.

-Bethesda also has a large corner all to themselves, as they have Fallout 4 featured, and Dishonored 2. Talking and moving and everything.

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-Done with our first quick tour, we headed off towards Gameworks and had lunch. Gameworks is Seattle’s large arcade and restaurant. After lunch we went to the Westin Hotel for the PAX Swag Bag. On the streets we see Mad Max in full advertising mode, joining with Uber.

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-Swag bags this year have the staples: MAGIC card pack, and lots of adverts and giveaways. Included is also a beta code for Rainbow Six Siege.

-Heading back to the convention hall for a quick 2nd tour we spend a little more time in the first exhibit hall, saw the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate area, which I assume is a closed demo, and played some Street Fighter V for a few rounds.

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-The only panel we went to today was the Gearbox Software Showcase. Filled to capacity, the Main Theatre is the Benaroya Hall. Getting there takes a quick walk through some less-than-clean streets, but we find the line, and get inside.

-Gearbox had a lot to talk about today, primarily focusing on Borderlands, Tales From The Borderlands, and Battleborn.

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-Tales from the Borderlands takes the main focus as they show the trailer for the latest episode, discuss the bringing on of Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson as voices, and state that they’ve had a great experience working alongside another company to expand the Borderlands brand. They then announce that 2K and Gearbox have joined with Lionsgate as well as Ari and Avi Arad to release a Borderland movie! Huge news. And exciting.

-Battleborn is discussed at length, and they bring out the devs and artists to discuss some of the character designs, and they go through the Helix for a few, highlighting some of the special abilities. Thousands of different characters combinations, coupled with 5 members to a team, equaling millions of team combinations.

-Next up was the cosplay showcase during the panel, and a couple got married in front of the whole crowd.

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-Wrapping up the panel, Randy Pitchford did an amazing magic trick, and then discussed Homeworld, and the dev’s new game, Shipwreckers. Everyone in attendance was given a free copy of Homeworld Remastered, sending everyone home happy.

-On the way back we stopped in at the Convention Centre Annex and saw some of The Magic card tournament setup and free play, and checked out the Bring Your Own Computer floor and PC Freeplay floor. As the convention exhibition hall had closed, this area was quite busy with large lines, so we left, and said good-bye to day one.

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Back tomorrow, with Day 2, and more dedicated impressions of games I played.

-iRogan

IDL NEWS – Hideo Kojima :'(, Duke Nukem, and Xbox Streaming

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Hooray for Mondays, hooray for inconsistency.

Today in the news we’ll talk about Hideo Kojima’s downward spiral of sadness, Dead Island 2 woes, Duke Nukem, and Xbox Streaming.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the new games of the week and Tuesday’s deals, and then the remainder of the week is dedicated to What i’m Playing, an iReview, and achievement stuffs. Next week I’ll be starting a 2 week offline break, but I will have a Xbox 360 daily feature planned to be posted while I’m away, and a short story that takes place in Titanfall.

Newandexcitingthings. Yay!

So, onward and upwards!

Kojima, Kojima, Kojima! Konami, Too. 😥

So, the web of intrigue that is Konami vs Kojima continues to unravel. Godzilla and the Kaiju couldn’t make this more interesting.

The latest news in the deteriorating relationship has the publisher, Konami, removing Hideo Kojima’s name, creator of Metal Gear Solid, from the Phantom Pain’s box art. The Kojima Productions logo has also been removed.

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The story also got a unique twist when an internet light was shone on a specific mission in The Ground Zeroes, that might have alluded to Kojima knowing he was on his way out, earlier last year.

A mission in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes set players the task of deleting the logos of Metal Gear games directed by Hideo Kojima.

As spotted by GamesRadar, the Déjà Vu mission requires you to use a UV light to erase the logos of all games crafted under Kojima. If you’re successful, the following message appears:

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There’s also a personal voice message, seemingly from Kojima, thanking the player for “all [their] support”.

Kojima is the man!

Yager Gone from Dead Island 2 – Mutual Parting

Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager has officially been removed from Dead Island 2 project. This troubled game has seen problems with delays, and now developers parting ways. Publisher, Deep Silver, stated that they will be sharing more information at a later date, but reports show that this was a mutual parting, a difference in opinions towards the game’s progress.

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Dead Island 1 developer Techland released their other open-world zombie game Dying Light earlier this year, making me wonder, is a Dead Island sequel even necessary at this point?

Gearbox’s Duke Nukem Plan

Randy Pitchford, of Gearbox, has stated that concept development has been started for Duke Nukem, but it might not be Gearbox working on it as they’re busy. They’re are looking into bringing in the correct developer and working alongside them.

“I did not acquire the franchise merely so we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever. That was the toll to pay to give Duke a chance. That said, I liked that game,” he said.

Xbox One Game Streaming

Microsoft is moving the Xbox One game streaming feature out of the Preview Phase into full release. With an Xbox One and and a Windows 10 machine, we will now be able to stream our console through to the machine using the Xbox App. I’ll post more info and hands-on when Windows 10 is released later this month. I’m excited for this feature, and all it really requires is a wired Xbox One/360 controller, Xbox One, and a PC.

So there’s the important stuff out of the way.

New Games and Deals tomorrow, and we’ll discuss So Many Me, and this week’s Xbox sales. Then more on Titanfall, Arkham Knight, maybe an iReview and then Achievement stuff to wrap up the week.

As I mentioned at the start, I’ll be offline for two weeks starting Friday, but I hope to be posting a daily article about the top 5 Xbox 360 games, and a new short story, with the Titanfall setting. I’ll just be missing the news. Sad face.

-iRogan

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Tales from the iRogan – Episode Wednesday

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Tales From the Borderlands is the first Telltale Games’ game that I’ve played since The Walking Dead Season One. To be honest, I didn’t really like The Walking Dead game. I found it too slow paced with characters that weren’t interesting, and puzzles that were boring.

Executive Vice Janitor

Executive Vice Janitor

It set the bar low for what to expect from Telltale games in my case, and I haven’t, to this day, made it past Season One Episode Two. A failing on my part, I’m sure, as I’ve heard many a good thing about the series.

Late last year I purchased the Telltale bundle on the Xbox One hoping I would get into the games provided. I had heard good things about The Wolf Among Us, Borderlands, and Game of Thrones. So I bought it, and then waited.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I typically buy a lot of games, and don’t necessarily get to them in a timely manner. Now that I had excess HDD space I am now able to install these games, and at least try them out, get a feel, before diving into, head game first.

Tales from the Borderlands is a hell of a lot of fun, and I’m disappointed in myself for waiting so long. I’ve always loved the Borderlands games. They’re fun, fine tuned, and hilarious. The Telltale game is no different. It flows along the same Telltale formula: story-centric, some quick time events and dialogue choices. But it’s so good. And it has many interesting characters, and plenty of surprises. I’ve just about wrapped Episode 1, and excited to jump into Ep 2, so I’ll have a quick review up for it next week. Tomorrow I’ll have a piece written on #IDARB.

Onto some news, which, curiously includes some Borderlands. How quaint.

25 Keys of Borderlands, Please

With the release of the Handsome Collection, Gearbox is giving away a cache of golden keys. The codes can be found on the Gearbox Facebook Page, and can be redeemed in-game on the console of your choice, on both Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel. You don’t need the Handsome Collection to redeem the codes. They expire March 31st!!!

Mine On, Minecon.

Microsoft announced today that they will not be interfering with the annual Minecraft convention in July, even though they now own the Minecraft IP.

A Microsoft spokesperson assured that Minecon 2015 would be run by Mojang the same way it has in the past, stating, “We’re playing a supporting role; we want to listen, learn, and be inspired by the community that has made Minecraft great.”

Borderlands 2 Makes Millions of Dollars

Randy Pitchford announced today that Borderlands 2 sales have surpassed the 12 million mark. I’m assuming that’s including the repackaged version in the Handsome Collection.

Mystery Solved.

-iRogan