Valve Launches Lunar New Year Sale On Steam


Posted on February 5, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Valve has launched a brand new steam sale to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Each day until February 12th they’ll be featuring new deals on the front page of the store, reminder that all of the discounts stay the same throughout the sale as Flash Sales and Daily Deals no longer exist. So if you’re waiting for one of your most anticipated games to go on sale but are waiting until payday you have time.

New to the store for the Lunar Sale are “obstacles” – questions like “There is a massive body of water in your way what do you do?” appear on the page and If you select “swim” like I did then Steam will serve you a page of aquatic themed games. Sadly there aren’t any apparent trading cards tied to this new activity.

We will update this post with some of the better deals as we dig through the thousands of games that are on sale. Here are today’s featured deals:

  • Tomb Raider Franchise Up to 75% Off
  • Rust for 50% off
  • Older X-Com games for up to 80% off (doesn’t include X-Com 2)
  • Killing Floor 2 for $21.99 CDN
  • Counter Strike GO for $8.24 CDN
  • ARK: Survival Evolved for 33% off

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Learn About Ken Masters In This SFV Character Introduction Trailer


Posted on February 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Capcom has released the first character introduction video for their upcoming Street Fighter V. This two-minute long video will give viewers a crash course about some of the changes coming to series staple Ken Masters.

Ken isn’t just about spamming hadukens or being a slight pallet swap for Ryu anymore. Thanks to the introduction of new mechanics like V-Skills Ken finally has quite a few differences from his long time rival that help set him apart. His V-trigger provides him with an extension on all of his combos and gives him a slight damage boost while active and his V-Skill allows Ken to run forward charging at his opponent for a short time.

Make sure you watch all the way to the end to hear Capcom Fighting community manager Matt Edwards give some helpful split second advice that could give Ken players the upperhand.

Street Fighter V will be released on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC in just 12 days – Feb 16th.

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Id Software’s DOOM Reboot Dated For May 15th Release


Posted on February 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Doom Alpha

Today Bethesda and id Software finally revealed the release date for their long in development reboot of the classic DOOM. The game will hit the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC on May 15th in Europe (and presumably May 12th in North America) the two companies announced in a press release this afternoon.

Alongside confirmation of the games’ release date was the announcement of a limited collector’s edition of DOOM featuring a limited edition Revenant, steel collector’s game case and in-game skins * emblems. If you’re looking to put a physical piece of DOOM on your shelf full of games it’ll set you back about $119.99 USD, no price has yet to be confirmed for Canada.

Here is how Bethesda described the collector’s edition of doom in their release:

“The limited DOOM collector’s edition, created in conjunction with TriForce, includes an exclusive, fully-realized 12” tall collector’s statue of one of the game’s most iconic demons: the Revenant. Modelled from actual in-game 3D files and striking in appearance, the demonic Revenant stands on an LED-lit base with internal, slow-spinning turbine from the UAC facility on Mars. The DOOM collector’s edition also includes a copy of the game packaged in an exclusive, battle-worthy metal case.

The development process behind the latest version of DOOM has been quite long, with mentions of the game dating back all the way to 2009. It looks like after several false starts the world will finally get to frag some hellspawn on current generation consoles this May.

Bethesda has also released a new trailer focusing on the game’s single player campaign. You can check it out below.

[youtube id=”3SAFSz8yxrE”]


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Have Some Faith In The Closed Beta For Mirror’s Edge Catalyst


Posted on February 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

 Electronic Arts confirmed today that a closed beta for the upcoming open world parkour title Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. Potential testers can already fill out a registration form on the games official website for the chance to test drive the game before its release. You’ll also need an EA account in order to be considered for the Mirror’s Edge closed beta. 

No date has been announced for to closed beta, the length it will run or what content it will contain. If previous closed betas run by other publishers are any indication it will probably give testers a small slice of the open world from early in the narrative for at least a few days.

EA has also released a new trailer explaining some of Faith’s back story in this reboot of the 2008 original.

[youtube id=”vOe3ik_RViE”]


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The Division Does A Lot of Things Right That Destiny Year One Got Wrong


Posted on February 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

The Division

Over the weekend, I got a chance to take part in Tom Clancy’s The Division closed beta on PC with some staff members. The three of us were lucky enough to get into to Ubisoft’s massive stress test and I’m happy to report that not only was Ubisoft’s test apparently a success but my brief few hours with The Division showed that the game has a lot of promise in areas that recent releases like Bungie’s Destiny failed to deliver upon.Read More


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Overwatch Beta Returns To Active Duty On Feb 9th


Posted on February 3, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard’s upcoming objective based team shooter Overwatch will return to closed beta on February 9th according to a post on the developer’s official blog. The Overwatch beta began late last October and continued until right before Christmas, the devs took the game offline for an extended period to put the finishing touches on new maps, make a number of balance changes and the highly anticipated new persistent progression system.

Here are some of the new features/fixes according to Blizzard:

  • An all-new progression system
  • Two new maps, including a new game mode
  • Several hero balance updates
  • And a variety of Private Game updates, including full A.I. matches

Players who already had access to the closed beta will gain access to this second phase of testing. It is not known if previous Stress Test Weekend members will get a shot at beta phase 2 but Blizzard did stress that they will be looking into adding more players as testing continues.

We don’t have any details on what this new game mode or two new maps will be, I guess we will all find out together in just six days time.


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Square Enix Reminds Us About The Hitman Beta With New Trailer


Posted on February 3, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Do you realize that Square Enix’s episodic version of Hitman is only about a month and a half out from release? To remind us all that not only is the full game coming out on March 11th for Xbox One, PC and PlayStation but those who pre-purchase the game can gain access to a limited beta version on February 12th on PS4 and February 19th on Windows PC. Sorry Xbox One owners it looks like you won’t be getting a beta version of Hitman.

Hitman (2016) serves as a prequel to the existing entries in the franchise. Like other versions of Hitman this game will allow players to approach their missions in a variety of ways, although the series is well known for allowing Agent 47 disguise himself and carry out assassinations covertly without being detected.  This version of Hitman will also feature open-world gameplay similar to 2006’s Hitman: Bloody Money instead of the linear mission structure of the older PS2 Hitman titles and 2012’s Hitman: Absolution.

When the game was announced at E3 2015 Square Enix promoted the game with an “intro pack” that would consist of three locations, six story missions and several sandbox missions.  Last month it was revealed that the game would follow an episodic format instead – with the intro pack containing a prologue mission and the Paris open world map only. New locations like Thailand, The United States, Japan and Marrekesh will be released starting in April. Along with the new location these $10 episode packs will also include brand new story missions and assassination targets.

There will be six PlayStation exclusive contracts for Agent 47 to take. The PlayStation Blog summarized one of them as:

“The first PS4 exclusive contract will be available when the game launches on March 11th. We’re calling it “The Director.” Your target is Scott Sarno, Director of European Operations for the CICADA private military corporation. He is a thirty-year veteran of clandestine operations and has been linked to a number of questionable operations in Europe and the Middle East as far back as the mid-nineties. He is highly trained and incredibly observant, you should expect him to be accompanied by several CICADA agents at all times.”

All of this this means that the price for entry will be quite a lot lower than the initial $30 that was expected – you can pre order the Hitman: Intro Pack for $15 USD on PlayStation 4 or the full package for $60 USD and either way guarantee yourself access to the beta.

Check out the trailer in the embedded player below.

[youtube id=”iDgOwNVFBxQ”]


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Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Satirizes The Film’s Trailer


Posted on February 2, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

How do you spoof the trailer for one of the highest grossing films of all time? Excellent lighting? A colorful script ripe with satire? How about building your cast entirely out of Lego people? Travelers Tales returns to A Galaxy Far Far Away with Lego Star Wats: The Force Awakens for Xbox One and Xbox 360.

The game promises to allow players to experience the story of The Force Awakens through the unique lens of Lego combined with the humor that Travelers Tales have provided in previous Lego Star Wars entries.

No word on a price point or whether or not the game will be released on competing consoles. The Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions have been dated for June 28, 2016 as per the recently released reveal trailer.

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Rainbow Six: Siege Operation Black Ice Released With New Trailer


Posted on February 2, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Rainbow Six: Siege

Ubisoft have released a brand new in-game trailer to celebrate the release of Operation Black Ice, the first major expansion to last December’s Rainbow Six: Siege. Along with the new trailer they also updated their official site to outline all of the content that is about to go live in Operation Black Ice.

Here is just a brief rundown of some of the additions:

  • Brand new map that takes place in Artic Canada – Yacht
  • Two new operators from the JTF2 (Joint Task Force) – Buck and Frost
  • Spectator mode available on game modes.
  • New Weapon Skins
  • Various balance changes to existing content

It is pretty cool to see Canadian special forces represented in the game, complete with our own map! Trust me – even if parts of our country get really cold in the winter, our whole country isn’t some tundra arctic wasteland. Watch the video in the embedded player below or head on over to the official Operation Black Ice website for a list of all the changes.

[youtube id=”8ZMaE7MkzQk”]


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AMD Announces New Processors & Motherboards To Exist Alongside Current Offerings


Posted on February 2, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced new entries in its existing line of “A Series” APUs and “Athlon” brand processors that will co-exist alongside existing offerings. They have also announced that they will begin producing motherboards for their current AM3+/FMS2+ socket types that will feature more modern connectivity options such as USB 3.1 with the C-type connector.

In terms of new processor AMD will roll out the A10-7860K, the A6-7470K and the Athlon X4 845.  The A10 is currently AMD’s most powerful all-in-one APU providing Radeon graphics processing and a multi-core processor on one dye. The new A10 APU will run at a boosted speed of 4.0GHZ, had 8 GPU cores and has a reduced power footprint over previous versions – 65W down from 95W.

The Athlon X4 845 will run at 3.8GHZ boosted / 3.5 GHZ stock and also boasts a lower consumption compared to other Athlon X4 models – coming in at just 65W.

Both the A10-7860K and the Athlon X4 845 will be compatible with the new Wraith Cooler that AMD unveiled at CES this past month. The Wraith Cooler will replace the existing stock cooler on several of the company’s chipsets including the Athlon X4 870K, A8-7670 and other processors.

New motherboards will manufactured by ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock.

[Source]


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3 New Tracks Join Rock Band 4’s Line Up Today


Posted on February 2, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Harmonix has announced that they will be making available three new tracks on both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.  “Get Lucky” from Daft Punk, “Heartbreak Song” from Kelly Clarkson and Outcast’s “Hey Ya!” all join the optional downloadable content available for Rock Band 4.

New Tracks Launching Today On PS4 and Xbox One Include:

  •         Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams – “Get Lucky”
  •         Kelly Clarkson – “Heartbeat Song”
  •         Outkast – “Hey Ya!”

In addition to today’s new tracks Harmonix has released a bit of a brief tease for fans – a list of upcoming artists who will be added to the game via DLC this month. They include:

  •          Bruno Mars
  •          Five Finger Death Punch
  •          Generation X
  •          J. Geils Band
  •          Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
  •          masaya matsuura
  •          Motörhead
  •          Orleans
  •          Royal Blood
  •          Zac Brown Band

Finally, lest you think that Harmonix has simply been adding paid content to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace, fear not.  This month’s free content update include various exploit fixes and minor features, new gear for your avatar & more. Here are some quick patch notes provided by Harmonix:

  •          Scores earned via Play a Show mode now post to the leaderboards;
  •          New Rock Shop items include Raz’s helmet from Double Fine’sPsychonauts as well as a Whispering Rock t-shirt;
  •          Puts the end to several scoring exploits, including the Band Overdrive issue;
  •          Several fixes that improve scoring issues with the Freestyle Guitar Solo system;
  •         Audio mix adjustments which result in a more “full” and “live” mix, as well as several minor bug updates.

We reviewed the base game last October on the PlayStation 4. In general we thought that it was a pretty solid set list worthy of your time.


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Ark Survival Evolved Update Adds Gallimimus & Other Goodies


Posted on January 29, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Ark: Survival Evolved

Today Studio Wildcard dropped update 255 for the Windows PC version of their popular prehistoric survival title ARK: Survival Evolved. This latest patch to the early access game brings a brand new dinosaur type into the world – the Gallimimus – along with other small goodies for existing players to find.

Should players be able to tame this ancient herbivore they’ll find that they’ve caught themselves a brand new 3 person mount that can also equip heavy weaponry. With three players mounted on a Galli the last player will be facing backwards giving your squad an additional vantage point to watch out for oncoming threats.

Here’s a brief dossier on the Gali from in game:

  • Wild: When someone asks me what the fastest creatures on the island are, Gallimimus is always a contender. Unlike the island’s many armored animals, Gallimimus eschews strong defenses for the ability to outrun pretty much anything.

  • Domesticated: There are two general camps on the use of tamed Gallimimus. One camp thinks that their inability to actually harm hostile creatures, and their inability to harvest most resources, makes them primarily a burden to the tribe. The other camp thinks that their extreme speed and ability to jump long distances is among the best for scouting and exploring… or just making a quick getaway!

  • Known Information: A skittish herbivore, Gallimimus even looks nervous when eating in a peaceful clear meadow. Having no real way to harm predators, it simply runs away and uses its ability to stay safe. I’ve even seen wild Gallimimus outrun speed-trained Utahraptors!

Also added in game update 255 is a brand new set of SWAT armor that hunters can craft if they have the right materials. It will protect your characters arms & legs as well as your head with a helmet that’s complete with a visor!


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Ashes of the Singularity Commands Release On Steam Early Access


Posted on January 28, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Stardock‘s ambitious real time strategy title, Ashes of the Singularity, is now available for purchase via Steam Early Access. Ashes gained a lot of notoriety last year for being the first commercially available game with native support for Microsoft’s upcoming Direct X 12.

Ashes’ plot transports players to the 23rd century where they will command armies, collect metals & radioactive materials to help fuel their economy and once they’ve raised enough funds unleash massive armies that can easily dwarf the unit counts found in other RTS titles. There are two playable factions in Ashes of the Singularity – Humanity of course, known as the Post-Human Coalition and their enemies the Substrate.

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As you can imagine with a game this technically ahead of the curve Ashes boasts a number of awesome features. Thankfully Stardock was nice enough to provide a pretty comprehensive list:

●      The first native DirectX 12 game allowing each CPU core to command the player’s GPU simultaneously, which allows for more rendered units to be displayed on screen at the same time – by an order of magnitude – than in any previous RTS game to date.
●      A multi-core, real-time strategy AI that allows for excellent single player RTS gaming.
●      A new native 64-bit 3D engine called Nitrous that makes full use of the features of DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, allowing for thousands of light sources on screen simultaneously.
●      A new type of unit group organization known as a “meta” unit that makes it easy for players to manage potentially tens of thousands of units across a world.
●      Advanced Nitrous 3D engine allows players to zoom out on the map without having to transform the map into a simplified view of the battlefield

Devs at Stardock will be working with both AMD and Nvidia to ensure that the second beta, due out later this year, will provide support for Cross-Fire and SLI.

If you are interested in jumping into the beta before the final release later this Spring Ashes of the Singularity is now available on Steam Early A ccess for $54.99 CDN.

Think your rig is beefy enough to run Ashes? Here are the minimum system specs for the current beta:

Minimum:

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10 / 8.1 / 7
  • Processor: Quad-core Intel / AMD Processor
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 2 GB GDDR5 DirectX 11 Compatible Video Card
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 5 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: 1600×900 Display Resolution Minimum

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Brokencast: Niamh Schonherr Interview


Posted on January 28, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

This week on the Broken Cast we’re joined by Indie game developer Niamh Schonherr whose upcoming game Sofðu litla tófan mín is based around a magical 1900s Icelandic fable. I can’t really do the game justice – here’s the description she wrote on her website about the game:

“It’s a magical realist fable set in rural Iceland circa 1900 about a young girl who suffers from night terrors trying to regain control of her life as it begins to spin rapidly into desolation. I’ve been making it in Twine with music composed by friend Solai. There is also a melody being composed by the Super Marcato Bros for the game’s titular lullaby, so look forward to that! I’ve already heard an early take of the melody and it’s very promising!”

In this podcast we talk about the games Icelandic roots, what it’s like to make independent games among other things. You can find a playable version of her game here or follow her on twitter here.

 


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