Natsume’s Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories Plants A Crop of New Screenshots

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

A new farming adventure is coming to Wii U, PC and for the first time Android and IOS curtesy of publisher Natsume. Alongside a brand new video a whole crop of new screenshots have matured and now Natsume has shared them with us.

Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories will farmers will need to befriend various villagers to help revitalize their ailing farmland. This relationship mechanic is a call back to older titles in the franchise where multiple paths existed depending on who you chose to romance. It’s not all about building relationships potential ranchers will also raise livestock like horses, cows and chickens.

When Seeds of Destiny was announced last August company CEO Hiro Maekawa was very clear when he compared it to older titles:

“From the farm to the town, we wanted Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories to evoke the feeling of a classic Harvest Moon game with modern twists,”

The original development team behind the classic Harvest Moon titles published their inaugural entry in a new franchise Story of Seasons for the Nintendo 3DS. A split between Marvelous Entertainment and publisher Natsume two years ago resulted in Natsume commissioning the first titles in the Harvest Moon series not developed by Marvellous.

Check out the new screenshots and video below:Read More

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Learn About Customizable Dirt Buggies In Dying Light’s Latest Trailer

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Techland has released another brand new trailer for the upcoming The Following expansion for last year’s surprise hit Dying Light.

One of the key features of The Following the ability for the player to not only drive dirt buggies in a new open world environment but also customize them. You’ll be able to equip your ride with several enhancements including devastating weapons like flamethrowers, UV headlights, ramming bars & more to help you stop the undead hordes. You’ll also be able to reflect your unique sense of style in your ride with a choice of 40 unique paintjobs.

Techland released the following statement about the role of the Dirt Buggies:

“Your buggy is going to be crucial to surviving out in the open, so we want to create an emotional connection between players and their ride,”  explains producer Tymon Smektała. “On top of the lethal weapons and upgrades you’ll be able to add, there are a lot of cool paint jobs, a number of unmistakable bobble heads and little charms to put inside, so you can really make the buggy your own.”

There will be a couple of ways that players can get their hands on The Following before the undead consume us all. It will be included in the Dying Light Season Pass for those that have already purchased it. The Following is also bundled with the upcoming Dying Light: Enhanced Edition in both digital marketplaces and boxed retail copies or as optional paid DLC to add it to the original game for $19.99 USD.

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PlayStation Essentials Weekly Sale Now Live

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

The latest weekly sale for the PlayStation Network is one that Sony has dubbed the PlayStation Essentials sale. Basically they’ve partnered with a bunch of AAA developers/published and are offering some steep discounts on older content, including a few games from Sony first party studios. Some of these deals might not be Black Friday level discounts but there are some great choices among the offerings.

After browsing through the entire catalogue of discounted digital items I personally ended up picking up Project Cars (PS4), Devil May Cry HD Collection (PS3) and Dragon Age Inquisition (PS4) for under $35 Canadian. With rising game prices, even second hand prices on used games – it is nice to see some great deals on digital copies. I picked up one of 2015’s best racing games for under $20 CDN and didn’t even have to leave my house – or chair for that matter!

Here is a brief selection of some of the sales that start today:

PlayStation 4 Deals

  • Call of Duty Ghosts Gold – $19.80 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition w/ DLC Bundle – $14.00 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Complete – $20.00 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Infamous First Light – $7.49CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Infamous Second Son – $10.99 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Metro Redux Bundle – $9 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Project Cars – $14.99 CDN (with 10% plus discount)

PlayStation 3 Deals

  • Mass Effect Trilogy – $9 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Saints Row 4 – $4 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Shadow of the Colossus HD – $8 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Shin Magami Tensai: Persona 4 (PS2 classics ver) – $3.00 CDN

PlayStation Vita Deals

  • Daganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair -$14.00 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Persona 4: Golden – $9.00 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Freedom Wars – $6.00 CDN (with 10% plus discount)
  • Tearaway – $8.00 CDN (with 10% plus discount)

[Source]

 

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Activision Blizzard Announces New Co-President For TV Unit

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

This morning mega publisher Activision Blizzard announced that Stacey Sher has been named co-president of the company’s television and film production division Activision Blizzard Studios.

Sher’s credits include producer roles in recent films like Quentin Tarantino’s recent release The Hateful Eight, 2000’s Erin Brockovich, 1997’s Gattica among other major film and television productions. She will be joined alongside existing president Nick Van Dyk.

The recently formed studio aims to bring some of Activision’s longest running franchises to both television and film. The first property to be adapted for the big screen is Duncan Jone’s adaption of the popular Warcraft series which is due out this June. A Call of Duty movie franchise is also in development.

  

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Call of Duty: World League Kicks Off Today With International Events

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Call of Duty World League

Today marks the start of the first season for the Call of Duty: World League, Activision’s brand new international e-sports ladder for the Call of Duty franchise.  For the next 11 weeks teams from all over the world will battle it out in a series of “Best of Five Matches” in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The current slate of matches will culminate in regional LAN events to determine who will enter the first stage of the CWL this March.

Live streams will be available today and tomorrow for three different regions: North America, Europe and Australia / New Zealand. Each region also have their own team of commentators who will be calling each match for viewers.

You can watch all of the matches today and tomorrow on Activision’s official website. Here’s the full line-up for the next two days including times and casters:

North America

Tuesday, Jan. 12: 3pm PST

Wednesday, Jan. 13: 3pm PST

 

 

 

Europe

Tuesday, Jan. 12: 4pm CET

Wednesday, Jan. 13: 4pm CET

 

 

 Casters

Clint “Maven” Evans

Matt “MrX” Morello

John “Revan” Boble

Jack “Courage” Dunlop

 

Casters

Philip “momo” Whitfield

Alex “Machine” Richardson

 

 

 
Australia & New Zealand

Tuesday, Jan. 12: 6pm AEDT  (11pm PST Jan 11)

 

Wednesday, Jan. 13: 6pm AEDT (11pm PSTJ an 12 )

 Casters

Joshua “Inmaniac” Inman

Michael “Myksta” Evidis

 

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Have Left For Dead 3 Details Leaked From Valve?

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Left For Dead 3

Get out your tinfoil hats and listen up because apparently if you listen really close you can hear the dead stirring.

According to outlet Express.co.uk(via Neogaf) Left for Dead 3 is currently in active production at Valve for a 2017 release although this latest report does not list any platforms for L4D3 or would that be L3F7 F0R D34D?

Apparently the creative team at Valve has dreamt up three brand new protagonists for this supposed zombie slaying sequel – three male characters and one female character named Katherine. Previous “leaks” have corroborated one of the characters being named “Katherine” with the names of the 3 male leads being “Irvine”, “Keenan” and “Garret Jr.”.

It is said that there will be six campaigns for Left for Dead 3 including some returning favorites. The six playable scenarios are said to be: Crashland, Impasse, Inquisitor Land, Early Destination, Cliff Hanger and No Mercy. Players of the original 2009 Left for Dead game may remember No Mercy as the first campaign setting in Turtle Rock’s game that featured players escaping a hospital filled with the undead.

Back in 2013 access to an internal Valve planning tool called Jira was made available to the public and screenshots found their way onto longtime Valve fan site, Valvetime. At that time 68 separate Valve employees were listed in various Left For Dead 3 development groups. The Jira screenshots were one of the first acknowledgements of the Source 3 engine which was recently utilized in the DOTA 2: Reborn client update.

Do you think that ant of these details are true? Could this just be the case of anonymous internet trolls reposting old rumors to try and get our hopes up?

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Xbox One Isn’t Kryptonite To DayBreak Games’ DC Online, Cross Play Coming Jan 25th

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s DC Online coming to the Xbox One later this Spring thanks to developer Daybreak Games.

To celebrate the 5th anniversary of the licensed superhero MMO set in the DC Universe the folks at Daybreak made two major announcements: First that the game will make its way to Microsoft’s latest console sometime this spring, Presumably that means that the game will launch before June 21st of this year.  Their second major announcement was that cross-platform play will finally be available to players on both PlayStation 4 and PC starting in just two weeks on Jan 25th!

Lots of changes have come since the game launched in 2011. Just last year alone Daybreak updated Supergirl’s appearance to fall in line with the recent television series, two major power sets were released  and tie-in content was developed in conjunction with the  DC Comics Bombshells line. In the coming year not only will the game launch on Xbox One but new water based powers will become available for aspiring heroes.

Alongside the two major announcements Daybreak also released a 5-year infographic and a new set of screenshots which you can view after the jump.Read More

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Ubisoft Launches Viral Ad Campaign “Cash Contagion” For The Division

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

The Division

First spotted on the Ubisoft YouTube channel, the publisher has launched what appears to be an attempt at a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming Tom Clancy’s The Division.

If you live in Europe you can take a photograph of a British Pound of EURO bank note and input the serial number into the Cash Contagion website to supposedly see how far the bill has traveled around the world and the amount of bacteria present in the banknote.

In Tom Clancy’s The Division a contagion has spread throughout the United States of America that has caused the collapse of all vital services within the span of 5 days. As part of the Strategic Homeland Division (or the division) players must help stop the effects of the contagion and maintain order within society.

What do you think of this attempt at an (almost literal) viral marketing campaign? Currently the site only supports European currencies so we couldn’t try it out for ourselves.

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Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak Story Trailer Released

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Homeworld Deserts of Kharak

The Gearbox Software published revival of the Homeworld franchise – Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak has a brand new story trailer that was released over the weekend.  Set on the desert planet of Kharak 100 years prior to the 1999 original Homeworld the player assumes the role of Rachel S’Jet as she investigates a crashed alien vessel.

Gearbox purchased the rights to the Homeworld series after the bankruptcy of former publisher THQ in 2013. The development team at Blackbird Interactive are handling the production duties, Blackbird was formed by members of the original team at Relic that developed the first Homeworld titles in the 90s.

Homeworld: Remastered – a collection of updated versions of the first two Homeworld titled ported to the HW2 engine was released last February. Players who purchased the remastered collection will receive a discount on their pre-order for Deserts of Kharak, which launches next week on January 20th.

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Which Driving Game Has The Best Graphics On PlayStation 4?

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Trick question: Which racing game on the PlayStation 4 has the best graphics? This is a question that might not have an actual quantifiable answer. Do you prefer the street racing neon infused style of the 2015 reboot of Need For Speed?  The faithful interior and exteriors lead by fan input of Project Cars? Or perhaps the jaw dropping visuals to be found in Sony’s 204 racer DriveClub?

YouTube Channel Racing Video Games poses this question to its’ subscribers with a purely in-game comparison video between Need for Speed 2015, DriveClub, The Crew and Project Cars – all running on the PlayStation 4 in 1080p.

Watching all of these games in action I couldn’t fault anyone for enjoying them, to be honest. Since this comparison is meant to strike up discussion it doesn’t rely on technical data like resolution, texture quality or frames per second. I found myself enthralled with reading the comments and watching players debate which franchise was your favorite.

Check out this 8 minute long video and decide for yourself.

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What It’s Like Entering The World of Virtual Reality With A Vision Impairment

Posted on January 9, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

R2D2 Google Cardboard

With the Oculus Rift finally available for pre-order it’s easy to argue that the conversation surrounding virtual reality has never really been hotter. With all of the immersive enhancements that products like PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Open VR are providing to players – stereoscopic 3D, head tracking etc. I’ve noticed very little discussion about what VR could mean to individuals with disabilities.  I’m near blind in one eye and after having an interest in virtual reality for a number of years I finally got the chance to try out VR recently. It was a hell of a ride and I’d like to share my experience with you.Read More

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Brand New Doom Gameplay Details: SnapMap Game Modes & Social Features

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

New gameplay details regarding weapons, the ability to share maps made with SnapMap socially, new playable demons and other tidbits have found their way onto the internet thanks to a synopsis of the latest issue of Game Informer.

Players will be able to customize their weapons with mods which will allow them to add things like remote detonation to the rocket launcher for example. Two iconic weapons – the B.F.G and  Chainsaw will not be selectable by the scroll wheel. Instead, the chainsaw is mapped to the D-Pad and the B.F.G will come up in a quick-time fashion. The chainsaw will be a one hit kill on smaller enemies but larger enemies like Pinky may require multiple hits.

It was also revealed that multiplayer will have more weapon types then the single player campaign – one example given was a lightening gun that was exclusive to multiplayer. A new multiplayer mode was also unearthed, called “Warpath”, it is essentially King of the Hill with a moving territory.

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New details about SnapMap, doom’s easy to use map editor that allows players to make their own death match arenas.  SnapMap will offer a number of different game modes to creatures including VIP, tower defense, racing challenges, traditional deathmatch and even racing gametypes!  Since areans made in SnapMap are small instruction sets that inform the game on what pre-fabricated assets to use to build the map & game mode they will be easily shareable through a social interface in game called SmartHub and individual creators will have their own profiles to showcase their favorite creations.

There are a lot of details to digest here and to be honest a lot of it feels slightly disconnected because it was only provided in a brief bullet point summary. The Bethesda published Doom reboot was originally revealed to the world behind closed doors at QuakeCon 2014 before being shown publically at E3 2015. A number of Alpha multiplayer tests have taken place, with an invite-only beta (with the purchase of Wolfenstein: The New Order) to take place sometime later this year. The last available date for Doom’s release was April 2016, as leaked by Amazon France but those plans may change.

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X-Split Gamecaster Updates To Version 2.7

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Xsplit logo

Popular game streaming software X-Split have released version 2.7 today. The latest update brings support for Intel’s bleeding edge which allows streamers to use chroma-key like effects without the need for a physical green screen. Other major updates include built-in integration with Facebook and Twitter to make communicating with fans easier, they’ve also included an enhanced screenshot feature allowing you to take screen-grabs and post them right to social media.

Here’s a detailed rundown of everything included in X-Split 2.7 as per Splitmedialab’s press released issued today:

Tobii Eye Tracking Integration
XSplit Gamecaster now recognizes Tobii Eye Tracking, allowing users to display a visual representation of their eye movements on their live stream, making it easy for viewers to see exactly where broadcasters are looking and how they prioritize their screen real estate in game.

Intel RealSense™ Support
Intel® RealSense™ cameras enable users to do pseudo-green screen, chroma key type of background removal without actually needing a chroma backdrop. Version 2.7 of both XSplit products will have support for this type of camera. Aside from basic support, it also includes new options to perform background removal with lower CPU usage.

In-Game Screenshot Support
Take beautiful high quality screenshots in game with XSplit Gamecaster. Now it’s easier than ever to capture your greatest gaming moments for sharing across your favorite social network or for your own personal album.

Login with Facebook or Twitter!
XSplit Gamecaster now makes it even easier to login by letting users connect XSplit to their Facebook or Twitter account, making it even easier to start a live stream or recording!

More information can be found at their official website, they offer a free version of their software as well as paid monthly subscriptions for .

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Humble Tom Clancy Bundle 2 Sneaks Into View

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

The Division

Humble Bundle’s latest tiered selection of games once again selects titles from series bearing the name of late author Tom Clancy. Whether you are going to be planning missions for Team Rainbow or sneaking down corridors as Sam Fisher  there are a number of games available at a few price points.

Interestingly the “beta the average” tier also includes beta access to Tom Clancy’s Division on PC later this year.

Here’s the full list of available of titles:

$1 or more

  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six (1998)
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 (2003)
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas (2006)
  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
  • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon (2001)

Beat The Average

  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (2008)
  • Tom Clancy’s The Division beta access (Unreleased)
  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010)
  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (2002)

$10 Or More

  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Black List (2013)
  • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Solder (2012)

Quite a lot of entertainment to be had for $10 if you don’t mind the slightly right wing militaristic agenda that Clancy’s novels, and so some extent games drove home. Personally I was a huge fan of the first Rainbow Six – on release it was quite innovative with its planning phases and A.I.

It should be noted that all of these games require U-Play.

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Unravel Trailer Shows Us The Inspiration Behind Yarny

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

A brand new trailer for Coldwood’s Unravel has spun its way on to YouTube. This new video gives you some information on the inspiration behind protagonist Yarny , as the game’s creative director Martin Sahlin discusses how a family camping influenced the game’s creation.

In his recent blog post Martin Sahlin described his vision for Yarny:

I really wanted Yarny to be brave, and to accomplish great things despite being so small. I hoped when we were making the game that Yarny would be empathetic and relatable, and based on your support, I can see that Yarny is already reaching people.

Check out the trailer in the embedded player below. Unravel will be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Feb 9th.

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