Games

Grand Theft Auto V Takes The head Spot On Xbox Live

Posted on November 20, 2013 at 1:06 pm

Despite its online issues, Grand Theft Auto V still managed to leap to the highest of the Xbox 360’s most played list for the week September 30.

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson’s list, which he posted recently on his blog, tracks games played by those people who are signed into Xbox Live, even supposing they are not participating in multiplayer. Here’s the entire list for retail games, in addition to the partial list for Arcade titles:

  1. Grand Theft Auto V

  2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II

  3. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

  4. FIFA 14

  5. EA Sports FIFA Soccer 13

  6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

  7. Madden NFL 25

  8. GTA IV

  9. Battlefield 3

  10. Call of Duty: Black Ops

  11. Halo 4

  12. Diablo III

  13. Skyrim

  14. Ascend: Hand of Kul

  15. Modern Warfare 2

  16. NBA 2K13

  17. EA SPORTS FIFA 14 Downloadable Demo

  18. Rainbow Six Vegas

  19. Halo: Reach

  20. Gears of War 3

Xbox Live Arcade titles

  1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

  2. Terraria – Xbox 360 Edition

  3. State of Decay

  4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

  5. Castle Crashers

[Source: Major Nelson]

Our Take
Major Nelson doesn’t post these lists a week, but I wish he would. It’s usually fascinating to look what individuals are playing, even supposing they’re freed from big surprises. It seems if you sell $1 billion worth a game, plenty of people are going to be playing it.

Posted in Games

Drakengard 3 Will Keep The PS3 JRPG Alive In 2014

Posted on November 20, 2013 at 7:11 am

Over the past few years, Square Enix’ support of the JRPG has dropped considerably. The publisher would release multiple games a year in its home country of Japan, but it surely perceived to really only care about Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts within the West. Fortunately, the publisher has decided to take an opportunity at the third game in a franchise that many may not remember.

Square Enix announced today that it intends to publish Drakengard 3 at the PS3 next year. The title, that’s actually a prequel to the primary Drakengard at the PS2, upholds the franchise’s hack-and-slash gameplay in addition to its aerial combat that’s harking back to Star Fox. It also promises the identical dark and twisted story that fans have come to expect from the series.

Check out the 1st trailer below:

If you have got yet to play the Drakengard franchise, i might highly recommend it. The games haven’t aged incredibly well, but they did a number of interesting things. If you need something a bit more contemporary, a similar development team worked on 2010′s NieR – a criminally underappreciated JRPG.

Drakengard 3 will launch in 2014 exclusively at the PS3. Square says the sport will only cost $49.99, and it kind of feels to be only available for pre-order from the Square Enix store. The publisher hasn’t yet said if the sport would be available elsewhere, but it surely wouldn’t surprise me to peer a distinct segment game like Drakengard 3 to be only available straight from the publisher.

[Image: PlayStation Blog/YouTube]

Posted in Games

‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Bonus Content Previewed

Posted on November 19, 2013 at 3:17 pm

The latest Quantic Dream experiment in interactive storytelling, Beyond: Two Souls was released this week. Gamers who pre-ordered the sport from some retailers were promised half-hour of “additional content,” and now that content have been previewed online.

The add-on is titled “Advance Experiments” and sees protagonist Jodie wading through a lot of test chambers. The half-hour promised to gamers looks the high-end estimate for the way long it can take players to get during the content, because the test is on a 30-minute timer. Also, though it’s far certainly “additional content” for Beyond, it doesn’t seem to advance the tale of the sport in any significant way – that can turn off fans who came to the sport trying to find a David Cage story primarily else.

The video previews the whole add-on, so those seeking to play it spoiler-free should want to give it a pass. The tests look like fairly simple puzzles by which Jodie and the metaphysical entity named Aiden must interact to unravel.

Posted in Games

The largest Stories Of The Week (October 5, 2013)

Posted on November 19, 2013 at 5:14 am

This week brought plenty of little tidbits, but nothing significant (apart from the continuing moaning and gnashing of teeth on the topic of Grand Theft Auto Online's rough start). No deep dive this week, so dig into the links! 

Quick Hits

  • Team Meat's Tommy Refenes got his hands on a Steam Controller and posted extensive hands-on coverage.
  • A report indicates more layoffs popping out of EA, this time via closure of a free-to-play studio in North Carolina.
  • Sega has no current plans to bring Yakuza 5 to North America.
  • Precursor Games has halted development of Shadow of the Eternals, and the studio's future is unknown.
  • Rayman Legends should be headed to 3DS in fact.
  • Twitch has announced $20 million in new funding from an investor group featuring Take-Two.
  • Blizzard has filed a hallmark for something called Heroes of the Storm.
  • The box art for Bungie's Destiny was revealed.
  • Ubisoft has announced the creation of 5 hundred jobs over the following seven years in Quebec.
  • Xi3 has announced pre-sales for his or her Piston Steambox, however the details aren't fully fleshed out.
  • Eidos “life president” Ian Livingstone is leaving the corporate.
  • Nintendo had a giant Direct presentation this week:
    • Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is delayed into 2014.
    • Sonic returns to Smash Bros.
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds will feature non-linear progression through dungeons.
    • A new Kirby title is coming to 3DS next year.
    • Pikmin 3 is getting paid mission DLC.
  • Sony's Kaz Hirai could be honored on the annual Nite to Unite.
  • Destiny pre-orders include beta access.
  • Two Half-Life 3 related items this week: a brand new trademark filing (later revealed to be hoax) and an apparent accidental leak of Valve's project management system.
  • Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 closed out its Kickstarter campaign with over $4 million.
  • Some of the PlayStation Plus services was extended to all PSN users.
  • Author Tom Clancy gave up the ghost on the age of 66.
  • Eidos Montreal has announced it’s engaged on a next-generation Deus Ex.
  • Xbox Live Gold is free this weekend.
  • A double punch of EA/Maxis news: studio head Lucy Bradshaw was promoted to senior vice chairman and her studio is now exploring bringing SimCity offline.
  • Bethesda has opened a brand new business office in Australia.
  • Capcom is within the means of cutting its European staffing by half.
  • Sony and additional Life are teaming as much as raise money for charity.
  • The Last Guardian isn't dead, it's just being re-engineered.
  • You can pre-order Telltale's The Wolf Among Us straight away.
  • A huge Borderlands 2 promotion will put $100,000 and funky prizes into the hands of gamers.
  • Valve has released the fundamental specs for the various prototype Steam Machines.

Previews/Reviews

  • Grand Theft Auto Online (Preview)
  • Lego Marvel Super Heroes has a brand new villain: MODOK! (Preview)
  • Nascar: Redline (Preview)
  • Golem Arcana (Preview)
  • Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1 (Preview)
  • Routine (Preview)
  • Etrian Odyssey Untold (Review)
  • Rain (Review)
  • Rune Factory 4 (Review)
  • Angry Game Nerd Adventures (Review)
  • Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness (Review)
  • F1 2013 (Review)
  • Pokémon X (Review)

Announcements and Release Dates

  • Sniper Elite 3 was announced.
  • A Marvel Comics-themed Puzzle Quest was announced and released.
  • The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is getting its first DLC next week.
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut has a release date: October 22, 2013.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus is approaching November 12, 2013.
  • Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition approaching November 15, 2013.
  • NimbleBit and Disney have teamed as much as create Tiny Death Star.

Posted in Games

‘XCOM: Enemy Within’ EXALT Faction Previewed

Posted on November 18, 2013 at 2:18 pm

Back in August, 2K Games and developer Firaxis announced XCOM: Enemy Within, an important update add-on for last year’s hit XCOM: Enemy Unknown. On the time of the announcement, the focal point of the content gave the look to be new soldier powers. Players would be ready to train their soldiers in numerous new biologically-engineered powers or suit them up with heavy “MECs.”

Today 2K released another teaser for Enemy Within, this time showing an extra side of the content. Players will, during their revamped campaigns, arise against EXALT, a rouge group of humans who’re using alien technology for his or her own ends. Scanning for EXALT hideouts takes time, but finding one means sending in soldiers on a covert mission to destroy their operations.

The new trailer shows lots of the content already previewed for Enemy Within. It also shows, however, what seem like new story scenes set contained in the XCOM base. It appears the XCOM organization itself can have been infiltrated by EXALT:

Posted in Games

Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate Developers Have “Non-Arkham” Game Within the Works

Posted on November 18, 2013 at 11:39 am

Armature Studio, that is manufactured from former Retro Studios employees, has confirmed that its next game won’t be an Arkham title.

Armature is a tender developer with has just one released title under its belt with the Vita version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate is coming to Vita and 3DS on October 25. The studio has a great pedigree, however, with former employees of Retro Studios, the developer behind the Metroid Prime series.

In a tweet yesterday Armature simple said, “Guess what? We have got a non-Arkham game popping out this Christmas! Have an excellent weekend!” It followed up on Twitter with a fan to verify that it won’t be a phone game.

Posted in Games

Mark Cerny Talks PS4, Knack And Indie Games

Posted on November 17, 2013 at 1:49 pm

Mark Cerny, the lead system architect at the PS4, is among the most pleasurable people within the industry. That’s almost entirely because of the passion he displays for the PlayStation platform and gaming as an entire whenever he talks.

In this latest interview with Game Informer, Cerny retreads his work at the PS4 from the unique concept to where they may be today. It’s not all old info, however, as he reveals the rationale behind Sony going with an 8-core CPU. Briefly, most developers said they worked best with quad or octa-core CPUs.

He also discusses his role on Knack as an inventive director. He drew upon his years of working with Naughty Dog and Insomniac to make what he calls a Crash Bandicoot for the 21st century. He doesn’t see Knack becoming a mascot for the PS4, however, as he feels that we’re past the purpose where consoles needed to sell themselves at the strength of any individual mascot.

On a last note, he touches upon the present indie scene and the way it differs from the indie games within the 80s. He finds that indie games today are a labor of affection whereas independent developers within the 80s got three months to push out a game. He also says that he would like to work with a smaller team on a small PS4 project once Knack is wrapped up.

[Image:
[h/t: Gamasutra]

Posted in Games

League Of Legends Crowns Its Season Three World Champions

Posted on November 17, 2013 at 11:07 am

The League of Legends 2013 World Championship has come to shut with the winning team going home with a trophy and a $1 million prize.

SK Telecom T1 from Korea took down Royal Club from China, 3-0. You’ll be able to try out the entire breakdown of the matches by heading to the official League of Legends eSports site. You may as well have a look at the total match within the YouTube video below.

The Grand Finals wrapped up last night on the Staples Center where 13,000 fans were available to witness the contest live.

Posted in Games

‘Thief’ Gameplay Finally Revealed

Posted on November 16, 2013 at 7:08 am

The upcoming Thief reboot is a conundrum. On one hand, fans of the series need to be excited that the franchise could be getting new games for the foreseeable future. At the other, though Square Enix was saying the correct things in regards to the title, it has seemed reluctant to privide fans with actual gameplay footage. This has caused unrest within the fanbase, fueling rumors that the sport might stray from its stealth roots into something toward Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the 2011 game from Thief developer Eidos Montreal.

Today Square Enix released the 1st gameplay trailer for Thief, hoping to reassure fans with a lot of sneaking while also previewing what seems to be an action-heavy game. Pickpocketing, multiple arrow types, and lock-picking are all previewed within the video. So are bullet-time powers and Square Enix’s infamous glowing-hint powers, making it clear the sport won’t be as unforgiving as its previous incarnations.

Eidos Montreal seems to have a knack for rebooting PC franchises while giving them barely enough modern touches to lure in a more widespread audience. Both Human Revolution and Tomb Raider were well-received by critics, though both represented substantial shifts of their respective series’ gameplay. If those games are anything to move by, Thief will a fun game, but aren’t a similar one PC gamers fell in love with over a decade ago.

Posted in Games

Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter Coming To 3DS In December

Posted on November 16, 2013 at 6:59 am

Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter, the applications necessary for moving Pokémon creatures from Black and White and its sequels to X and Y, is coming in December.

Both may be available on December 27. If you are unfamiliar, the Pokémon Bank is an internet system as a way to store all your Pokémon online. The Poké Transporter is a free companion app to the paid Bank so that it will transfer Pokémon to and out of your games. There’s a handy FAQ at the official Pokémon site that answers a few of the questions surrounding the applications.

The Pokémon Bank may have a free month trial period. The choice to download the free month trial will end on January 31, 2014. After that, with a view to continue using the Bank, you’ll have to pay $4.99 a year.

Posted in Games

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