Upcoming Xbox One exclusive Gears of War 4 will run at 60 frames per second says The Coalition studio head, Rod Fergusson. According to an article in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine UK, Fergusson says that the dev team is aiming to duplicate the essence of older Gears titles, which should please long-time fans.
In regards to the framerate here is what he had to say:
“Delivering[with Ultimate Edition]the first 60fps multiplayer experience in franchise history really taught us a lot about what it means to have a 60fps culture on the team and we’re leveraging that experience for Gears of War 4.”
Last year’s Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was the first entry in the franchise to allow players to compete against each other at a full 60 FPS online. Other titles from last year – namely Halo 5 and Forza Motorsport 6 both ran at 60 FPS as well.
The first gameplay footage of Gears of War 4 debuted at E3 2015. You can view it below:
Smite: Battlegrounds of the Gods, Hi-rez Studios’ free to play MOBA title has now entered closed alpha testing on the PlayStation 4. The game has been around since 2013 and features 70 different gods inspired by many different real world pantheons. There are 5 free gods that players will be able to choice from the get-go (Ymir, Thor, Neith, Guan Yu, and Ra) and additional gods will be able to be purchased a premium currency. Like other free to play MOBA titles, there is also a weekly free rotation that provides all players with gods that cover a number of different play styles.
Exclusive skins will also be available once the game enters closed beta. Some of these skins will be tied to a “founders pack” that will become available on the PlayStation Store once the beta begins. Here is what Amanda Erickson had to say on the PlayStation Blog about the premium skins:
“As Smite makes its way to PS4, the Closed Beta will introduce several new skins for the gods of Smite, each available exclusively through PS4. Odin’s “World’s Collide” skin will serve as the free reward for players who link their PS4 accounts to their Hi-Rez PC accounts. Additionally, Kulkulkan’s “KuKu4” skin serves as the exclusive reward for all PS Plus members.”
There are lots of more information about the game on the PlayStation Blog, Hi-Rez and Sony also released the following in-game trailer:
The folks over at GameXplain have posted over 10 minutes of new gameplay footage from the English localized version of Nintendo’s’ upcoming Wii U fighter Pokken Tournament. In these brief clips we get a look at the games’ main menu as well as our first taste of the official announcer for the English version.
Some folks over at NeoGaf aren’t exactly impressed with the female announcer Nintendo of America has chosen for the game. They point out that her excitement doesn’t exactly come across very well but overall the game’s presentation and graphics have been praised by fans thanks to pre-release footage.
We also now know the final roster of playable Pokémon (not including the 15 support monsters used temporarily in battle. Here’s the full line-up:
It looks like the Games With Gold for next month might have leaked out before the official announcement according to a post on gaming forum Neo Gaf. If the rumor is true then Xbox players can look forward to complementary copies of Sherlock Holmes: Crime & Punishment and Lords of the Fallen as long as they have an active Xbox Live subscription. Xbox 360 owners may receive Gearbox Software’s classic FPS Borderlands as well as the RTS title Supreme Commander 2.
Users in the original forum thread say that not only is the original Borderlands backwards compatible on Xbox One but also is all of the game’s DLC. We’ll see whenever Major Nelson makes the official announcement if Borderlands will include all of its’ add-ons.
Are you excited to try out the Dark Souls like Lords of the Fallen on Xbox One? Let us know!
Our site is the primary place for us to post new content but if you’ve ever wanted to comment on our articles, pitch story ideas or interact with our editors that has been a little difficult up until now. Aside from dropping us an email we haven’t really provided a solid way for the community to chat with us outside of our Twitter and Facebook Page. Now you can join in on the conversation on our official Sub Reddit where anyone who visits our site can leave us feedback.
SEGA has opened up the second ‘Make Love Not War’ bundle, providing Steam users with several free games. This second bundle includes the 2005 Xbox 360 launch title, Condemned Criminal Origins, 2012’s Binary Domain and the SEGA Genesis classic Streets of Rage II.
To claim these free games you’ll have to go to SEGA’s official Make War Not Love website, enter your age then click redeem at the bottom. Unlike the first bundle – which was redeemable on the Steam Store – this bundle is only available via unique Steam code so make sure you have your email address handy.
Three more games – Renegade Ops, Vikings: Battle for Asgard and Gunstar Heroes are set to unlock in just under 48 hours as of press time.
Daybreak Games has officially announced that the split of successful zombie survival game H1Z1 has been implemented on Steam. There are now two games in the store if you search H1Z1 – “ H1Z1 Just Survive” is the game’s popular sandbox survival mode as a stand-alone product. “King of the Hill” is a competitive focused multiplayer online shooter that is much more fast paced than the survival mode.
Both games will continue to receive free content updates and balance patches as their development progresses. H1Z1: King of the Hill is expected to exit early access sometime this summer with versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One arriving around the same time.
Both games are priced at $19.99 USD individually and owners of the previously combined H1Z1 should find the two new titles in their Steam Libraries.
Sometimes a first person shooter is perfect for a lazy afternoon. You can sort of just turn off your brain and worry about not being shot in the back of the head. EA / Respawn’s Titanfall might not get a lot of play two years after its release but it is still a lot of fun.
This past afternoon I bolted myself into my mech and enjoyed a few rounds of Titanfall on Twitch.TV. Here’s a video recap of a couple matches – make note that I tend to die a lot.
Bandai Namco will be adding an optional season pass to Dark Souls III upon release the publisher announced. Details on exactly what this pass will entitle players to is currently unknown as Bandai Namco’s press release did not contain any details other than the pass will continue in the tradition of Dark Souls’ Artorias of the Abyss and Dark Souls II’s The Lost Crown add-ons. This season pass can be purchased either individual from the game or as part of a Digital Deluxe edition on all platforms.
The season pass on its own is priced at $27.99 CDN while the digital deluxe edition is priced at $94.48. Both prices are from the Canadian Steam storefront and pertain to the Windows PC version of Dark Souls III.
In addition to the announcement of future DLC, Bandai Namco will also be giving a free copy of the original Dark Souls to anyone who pre-orders the game on Xbox One. Currently, the original version of Dark Souls is only playable on Xbox 360 but will be added to Xbox One through backwards compatibility in the future.
Here is Namco Bandai’s full press release:
Today BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe announced their exclusive digital pre-order programme with Xbox for DARK SOULS III. For a limited time, gamers who digitally pre-order DARK SOULS III on the Xbox One Store will receive the original DARK SOULS; playable now on Xbox 360, or on Xbox One later via Backward Compatibility. The code for DARK SOULS will be delivered to their Xbox message center in 7-10 days.
Additionally, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe also announced a Season Pass programme for DARK SOULS III. “Artorias of the Abyss” (DARK SOULS) and the “The Lost Crowns” (DARK SOULS II) were known for expanding the experience of DARK SOULS in a meaningful way and the season pass for DARK SOULS III will carry on this tradition by supporting the game with exciting new content after launch. The season pass will be available on all platforms along with a digital Deluxe Edition: which includes the main game, season pass, dynamic theme and official soundtrack. Further details will be revealed over the next few months.
Capcom’s Street Fighter V has been available on Windows PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for little over 24 hours and players have already found a way to “restore” animation changes to fighter R. Mika’s introduction.
For the unaware, as I was until I came across the modification on twitter this morning, in pre-release versions of SFVR.Mika would slap her own ass during her V-Trigger super move activation animation. Months later in December 2015 fans noticed that these few frames of animation had been removed from recent trailers prompting the following statement from the game’s developers:
“Those changes came up internally. We decided to remove that because we want the biggest possible number of people to play, and we don’t want to have something in the game that might make someone uncomfortable.”
The above quote is from none other than long-time Street Fighter producer, Yoshinori Ono. The development team felt that the sexualized butt slap animations could be offensive to members of their fanbase and ultimately removed it before releasing the game. In my opinion Ono-San and his team made the right call in removing this animation.
So here we are now 24 hours post release and fans have moded in the pre-release version of Mika’s animations. Fans adding moded content that goes outside of the original scope of a developer’s vision are nothing new – there are whole new lands for Skyrim and even a nude mod. But despite some rather lengthy outcries on Twitter this does not amount to videogame censorship. Yoshinori’s decision to remove an ass slap from a fighting game in no way represents the suppression of any kind of dissenting opinion or information. The Street Fighter V team removed a sexualizing and degrading animation that focused on a woman’s body and now portions of the gamer demographics are up in arms. It’s almost like this has nothing to do with this particular game at all, considering the removal of R. Mika’s animations don’t affect gameplay at all, and have everything to do with objectifying bodies.
To those who still think that Capcom has censored your brand new fighting game, chill out for a second, because there is a lot of great content to be found in Capcom’s latest fighter. Clearly the developers intentions were to remove the animation as this change was made during the game’s development as it did not fit with their vision for the title. Claiming otherwise is not only going contradictory to Yoshinori’s statement but also makes it apparent that perhaps this whole thing isn’t about Street Fighter V but how we view female bodies in videogames?
In the end, this modification adds nothing to the game.
If you’ve been avidly awaiting an invite to the closed Overwatch beta on PC and are based in Asia then prepare to spam your F5 keys rapidly. Blizzard took to twitter yesterday to let potential players know that they have flagged accounts for the first beta wave since Overwatch’s December hiatus for accounts based in the Asia region.
Some players have asked if Australia was considered part of the Asia region. According to the official @PlayOverwatch twitter account our Aussie friends are actually considered part of the Americas region.
You can check your beta status by logging into the battle.net account management page. If you see something like the below image then you’re in!
Also here is the original tweet from Blizzard:
[BETA] A wave of accounts from our opt-in pool have been flagged for Closed Beta. This wave targeted players from our Asia gameplay region.
This year at the Game Developers Choice Awards Marcus “Notch” Persson will be receiving the Pioneer Award for 2016. The Pioneer Award is given tho individuals who help develop breakthrough technologies and game design that set a new standard for the industry.
If you’re not aware of Notch’s multi billion dollar success story Minecraft then perhaps you’ve been living in one of the many caves dug by its players. Blending together survival elements, a rich crafting system, resource management and combat Minecraft helped pave the way for Early Access titles and the survival genre as a whole. With over 70 million copies sold between consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Vita), mobile and Windows PC it is no wonder that Microsoft decided to shell out $2.5 billion USD for the franchise in 2014.
Alongside Persson receiving his award – among the other great teams & individuals recognized at the GDC Awards, comedy duo Ashley & Anthony Burch will be presenting new original material created specifically for the show. The longtime games based comedy troupe Mega 64 will also be presenting an original video created spefically for the awards.
Festivities kick off at 6:30 PM PST on March 16th – if you can’t make it to the show in person the whole affair will be livestreamed over Twitch.TV as well. Staff from Broken Joysticks plan to be in attendance during the awards to bring you full coverage. More information about the awards can be found on their official website.
Yesterday was no party for the folks who work hard on Activision’s long running Guitar Hero and Skylanders franchises. As first reported by game informer via an anonymous source, it appears that the layoffs have specifically affected the development staff based in Minneapolis Minnesota.
The first entry in the Guitar Hero franchise in a number of years, Guitar Hero Live, was developed by Freestyle Games based in the United Kingdom. GH: Live was well received by critics, including us, especially for its Guitar Hero TV Mode which allows players to try out specially curated playlists, limited-time special events and downloadable content without spending any real world cash. GH: Live was a re-invention of sorts for the franchise with a revised guitar controller.
Skylanders saw the release of Skylanders Superchargers almost every major platform including mobile. With a focus on vehicles and a special partnership with Nintendo that ended up in the creation of two hybrid Skylanders / Amiibo figures it is a little surprsing that this entry developed by Vicarious Visions and Beenox under performed.
Both franchises were singled out as under performing during Activision’s recent earnings call. Although they did not confirm the layoffs to major gaming press they did issue a statement which in part read:
“We are refocusing to better align with Activision’s long-term priorities because, as always, our strategy evolves to keep us ahead of a rapidly-changing industry. We are working with those impacted by the changes to offer outplacement services and support.”
Our sympathies to everyone affected by these recent round of lay offs. The games industry can be a cruel sector to work in and turn over is never easy.
Almost exactly 7 years since Street Fighter IV came out for PS3, Xbox and Windows, Street Fighter V has released. With support for only two platforms at launch, PS4 and Windows, this is a more limited release. SteamOS support is coming “this spring” apparently. Sorry Xbox gamers, I don’t see anything planned yet for you. Unlike the version heck of the last release with Super, Ultra and Arcade Editions, this is going to be a unified online platform with players on any system able to match anyone. Considering the time between releases, and with that feature alone, this is an exciting event for fighting games. Street Fighter is the longest running fighter out there as far as I can figure, and created many of the ubiquitous tropes of the genre’s gameplay, including accidentally inventing combos in Street Fighter 2. In other words, if you’re into fighters at all, this game is big news. I played the game on Steam, where everything is already active and running. This release is well put together, as expected from Capcom.Read More
According to a now delisted item on Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi Electronic Arts could be poised to release the first current generation entry in their long-running Skate franchise – Skate 4- as soon as this August.
Alongside the supposed release date of August 23rd 2016 the website entry also featured cover-art for the game that reveals that copies of Skate 4 will also include a downloadable copy of the Xbox 360 title Skate 3 bundled with the Xbox One version.
The Skate franchise has been going strong for 9 years now, with the first entry debuting on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in 2007. Skate titles are known for their unique control scheme which uses the twin sticks on the Xbox / PlayStation controller to represent the borders’ foot movements, providing an additional degree of control not found in competing titles like Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater.
Do you think that EA will surprise the world with a Skate 4 reveal at GDC or E3 this year? After the failure that was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 I’m sure skateboarding fanatics can give another publisher a go at recreating the thrill of riding on a board.
