With only days to head before the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Activision has now revealed one among its last efforts to encourage pre-orders for the once a year shooter. The publisher has released a brand new gameplay trailer featuring multiplayer action in a competitive map named “Free Fall.”

Free Fall would be a free downloadable bonus map for players who pre-order Call of Duty: Ghosts. Activision previewed the map back in August when it was announced as a pre-order bonus with a video showcasing developers at Infinity Ward describing their efforts at shaping the map.

Free Fall is slightly special for the decision of Duty franchise, because it features more dynamically-changing elements than other multiplayer maps within the series that experience come before it. Players will battle inside a crumbling building it really is wedged between two skyscrapers. The floors of the map will partially be the glass windows of the building, forcing players to conform because the environment changes over the process a match. It’s Infinity Ward’s answer to Battlefield 4′s much-touted “Levolution” concept.

The trailer for the map put out today actually shows some simulated multiplayer gameplay on Free Fall:

Ubisoft today announced that South Park: The Stick of Truth have been delayed. Again.

At this point the delay announcement should come as little surprise for fans who’ve been waiting greater than a year for the title’s release. The sport was originally scheduled to launch in March of this year, but was delayed last November by publisher THQ. It was then caught up inside the bankruptcy and piecemeal selloff of THQ, ending up within the seemingly capable hands of Ubisoft. The sport were listed as a tentative late 2013 release for months before Ubisoft gave it a December 10, 2013 release date just last month.

Ubisoft stated that the sport has taken way more work for developer Obsidian to get it finished than originally anticipated. Apparently, the studio has needed to change the sport drastically from the shape it was in in during its THQ days.

“Within three weeks after acquiring the sport, we sadly realized we needed to turn this thing the other way up if we hoped to deliver the experience everybody wanted,” said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America. “It’s been this kind of major overhaul to get to the purpose where we’re that we couldn’t let it go, no matter if that meant missing December.”

The disappointing announcement was accompanied by a press quote from South Park’s creators, making light of the difficult time this game has had in development:

“We always wanted the sport to feel like you’re actually in an episode of South Park,” said Matt Stone and Trey Parker. “Getting the sport as much as the crappy standards of the show was an actual challenge and we’re excited to mention it’s taken way longer than we thought it’s going to.”

Along with the delay announcement, Ubisoft has released a brand new video preview of the sport. This one shows actual gameplay from the title, demonstrating for fans that the title does, as a matter of fact, exist:

The beauty of gaming is that there are many appropriate games to play during each major holiday. For Independence Day, we’ve 50 Cent: Blood at the Sand. For Christmas, we now have Home Alone for the SNES. For Halloween, take your pick of any Castlevania title. Should you don’t have a Castlevania title for today, maybe a trailer for the newest game will tide you over.

The new Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 trailer – simply titled “Dracula’s Vengeance” – gives us more details in regards to the story players can expect from the following and final chapter within the Lords of Shadow trilogy. As expected, it’s pretty epic and sets the mood for what’s shaping as much as be the gothic epic of 2014.

You can test Lords of Shadow 2 for yourself because the demo is included within the HD remake of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate at the PSN and XBLA.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 might be released on February 25, 2014 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

[Image: Konami/YouTube]

Nintendo just this week announced that it managed to sell fewer than 500,000 Wii U consoles up to now six months. Those sales (and, as a matter of fact almost the whole choice of Wii U sales up to now) were easily eclipsed by the three.89 million 3DS consoles sold during that very same time frame. So with Microsoft and Sony preparing to challenge Nintendo further inside the front room q4, the corporate appears that it’ll be a handheld gaming company within the near-future.

Backing up this notion is the stellar software lineup the 3DS has seen this year – especially from Nintendo itself. Fire Emblem Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, and Pokemon X & Y were all major hits for the platform. Nintendo isn’t finished, though.

On November 22, the identical day Microsoft’s Xbox One launches, Nintendo would be releasing The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The sport is being billed as a religious successor to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo. It should feature a mechanic within which Link may be capable of transform himself right into a 2-D depiction to transport along walls.

Nintendo today released two new trailers for A Link Between Worlds. The primary is almost two minutes of gameplay that shows off classic top-down Zelda mechanics, and sound effects. The second one previews among the music so that it will be included within the game – always a necessary a part of a Zelda title.

After months of previews and pushing the oddly-named “Levolution” feature, EA and DICE have finally released Battlefield 4. The sport is out today on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Though the Battlefield franchise has historically been fascinated about massive multiplayer battles, EA strongly pushed the only-player campaign through the run-as much as launch. Battlefield 4‘s campaign may have an in-depth military story, presumably to bring it in the direction of its goal of competing directly with the present type of console shooters, the decision of Duty franchise.

For launch, however, EA goes back to what it knows fans want. The launch trailer for Battlefield 4 focuses exclusively at the massive online battles that players shall be jumping into today – especially many of the vehicles they are going to be ready to command:

Battlefield 4 can also be coming to PlayStation4 and Xbox One consoles once they are released next month. Reviews for those next-gen versions were also released today, and comparisons between the recent consoles are already being made. Though other third-party titles may very well be different, the PlayStation 4 version of Battlefield 4 will run at an improved resolution and is reported to have a more consistent framerate than the Xbox One version.

Voice over IP is a standard feature of most, if not all multiplayer games. Some games decide to limit who can hear in-game chatter, keeping team chat streams break away each other. In an open-world game like GTA Online, however, there aren’t any teams, so the in-game chat could be heard by anyone who’s logged into that specific session. This implies unless fellow GTA Online players are actively muting their counterparts, they could hear the entire verbal diarrhea being spewed. This, unfortunately, includes poor attempts to flirt with virtual strippers who appear inside the game.

As you’ll discover within the lead video, such attempts at flirtation can result in funny and embarrassing results. Who knows? Maybe the man being recorded was only goofing off, however the outcome is pretty cringe-worthy. Again, this may be the intended reaction by the lady’s man being recorded; but when it’s not, then the awkward level increases exponentially.

With that during mind, what did we learn from this little public service announcement? Everyone on your GTA Online session can hear what you are saying, unless they’ve muted you. Granted, one of these feature only invites the trolls to come back out, but that’s why Rockstar was kind enough to incorporate the mute option. For sure, some players want to get rid of the default open mic status, but I’m undecided how realistic that’s. Rockstar has already patched GTA Online a couple of times, and the open mic status remains. This suggests player awareness is vital. When playing, do not forget that in case your mic-or PS Eye camera is on-everyone who logged within the same game can hear everything you’re saying.

Tread appropriately.

[Lead image via Rockstar]

The Walking Dead proved last year that the journey game genre was still alive and well. It also proved once and for all you could take a great popular license and transfer it to a different medium without losing what made the unique work so special. Now the developers at Telltale Games are back for season two, and a well-known face is here to greet fans.

In the premier trailer for Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season Two, gamers are treated to what an older, presumably more seasoned Clementine seems like. In a bigger surprise, gamers would be ready to control Clementine this time around as she’s the primary character in season two.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The Walking Dead: Season Two continues the tale of Clementine, a tender girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse. Left to fend for herself, she was forced to profit how you can survive in a worldwide gone mad.

Many months have passed for the reason that events seen in Season One of the vital Walking Dead, and Clementine is are trying to find safety. But what can a regular child do to stick alive when the living may be just as bad — and often worse — than the dead?

As Clementine, you may be tested by situations and dilemmas so they can test your morals and your instinct for survival. Your decisions and actions will change the tale around you, on this sequel to 2012′s Game of the Year.

As inside the first season, players may be tasked with making hard decisions that affect the end result of every episode. Telltale also notes that decisions made in season one and 400 Days will impact the events in season two. In other words, you better get those saves ready for when The Walking Dead: Season Two hits the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac and iOS within the coming months.

[Image: TelltaleGames/YouTube]

The launch of the Xbox One is below one month away now. Microsoft is ramping up its big ad campaign for the brand new console, and today the corporate released a brand new teaser trailer for one among its biggest launch titles, Ryse: Son of Rome.

Though the trailer would not include any gameplay, it does give an concept of the extraordinary, bloody story that developer Crytek has crafted for the sport. Gamers will tackle the role of Marius Titus, a Roman soldier who’s seeking revenge against those that murdered his family. Judging from the hot trailer, Titus will quickly become embroiled in a bigger conflict – one who the fate of the Roman Empire itself may hang on:

Ryse is scheduled to debut on November 22 together with the Xbox One.

FIFA 14 is the fútbol simulation to possess annually. Sure, there’s Konami’s PES franchise, but EA Tiburon has proven time and time again that it gets soccer better than anybody else. That, at the least, was certainly true at the PS3 and Xbox 360, but what in regards to the versions of FIFA 14 hitting the PS4 and Xbox One?

EA Sports released a brand new trailer today for FIFA 14 claiming that each one the gameplay on show is captured from the PS4 version. It’s also the flagship title for EA Sports’ next-gen rendering engine – IGNITE.

So, how does it look? You be the judge:

Personally, I can’t tell that much of a difference. Granted, I’ve been absolutely spoiled by what 2K Sports is doing with NBA 2K14 on next-gen consoles. NBA Live 14 running on IGNITE doesn’t even come close, but i used to be personally expecting something a bit better from FIFA 14.

To be fair, I’m sure the sport plays incredibly well. The extra processing power afforded by the PS4 and Xbox One will obviously result in a much better gameplay experience. It’s just that many sports fans were probably expecting a leap in graphic fidelity and realism besides. That doesn’t seem to be the case here because the character animations and designs look to be almost lifted straight from the PS3 version.

It ought to be noted that it is a compressed gameplay trailer on YouTube. The general product at the PS4 and Xbox One will obviously look a bit better, but it is advisable to probably keep your expectations in check when picking up FIFA 14 on November 15 or 22 for the PS4 or Xbox One.

And hey, no less than Xbox One buyers in Europe get it at no cost.

[Image: PlayStation/YouTube]

Fortune online game writer John Gaudiosi reported today that the most recent Assassin’s Creed franchise entry, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, is predicted to sell 8 million copies.

The number comes from online game analyst for Wedbush Securities Michael Pachter, who said “I think Assassin’s Creed is successful as a result of its novelty. It’s a 3rd-person adventure game with easy-to-learn fighting style, the historical setting is novel, and the role-playing game features make it an attractive hybrid. That provides it something for everybody.”

Peter Warman, the founding father of online game research firm Newzoo, said of the demographics that “The Assassin’s Creed franchise is likely one of the biggest console/PC franchises around with sales of over 57 million copies through retail… A minimum of 50 million Americans and 40 million Europeans still play an Assassin’s Creed game now and again. The pirate theme will entice the more youthful demographic that Ubisoft attracts with this franchise. Fifty-one percent of Assassin’s Creed players are under 35, in comparison to 44% of Activision’s Call of Duty players.”

In case you haven’t already heard, the sport casts players inside the role of a pirate with Assassin’s roots within the years 1713 to 1722, a period rich with famous pirates. “Players may be capable of interact and play with probably the most infamous pirates of all time,” said Ubisoft creative director Jean Guesdon.

Assassin’s Creed‘s fiction has leaped and bounded throughout history, permitting players to have interaction across time with historical figures of immense gravitas, including Richard the Lionheart and Leonardo da Vinci. Assassin’s Creed III had placed players on the helm of both the yankee Revolution and a brand spanking new Privateer sailing mode.

Assassin’s Creed was an especially unique series for its ability to contain stories that interweave between the fashionable day and the distant past. Guesdon: “This [storyline] allows us to attach any period of time we wish to explore right into a cohesive and protracted transmedia universe. That’s how we will switch between different time periods and historical events without making a new world each time.”

As for the discharge, the wide-open world is anticipated to maintain players busy well into the discharge of the game’s first DLC package. The series’ co-creator Jade Raymond is reported to be engaged on another story, and a film according to the primary game is in development.

[Image via Ubisoft]