Most Recent: News

Xbox Store Today: Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition, Typoman, Vertical Drop Heroes HD

Posted on February 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

The Halo franchise returns as Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition is now available to download for the Xbox One. This special edition of the real-time strategy game includes the base game, a Halo Wars 2 Season Pass, and access to Halo Wars: Definitive Edition. Play five days early and get a head start on the single-player Campaign, online multiplayer battles, and the card-based Blitz Mode.

If you’re looking for something a little slower paced, the 2D puzzle platformer Typoman might be just your speed. Also now available to download for the Xbox One, Typoman asks players to struggle through “a dark and hostile world.” Thankfully, they’ll have a cache of letters available to create solutions to the puzzles blocking their way.

Finally today, Vertical Drop Heroes HD has also been released for the Xbox One. The “procedural platformer RPG hybrid with roguelike elements” drops players into a world of randomly generated stages and asks them to survive for as long as they can.

You can learn more about all of these games after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged ,

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Open Beta begins on February 23

Posted on February 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

Players itching to try out Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands will get their chance beginning next week, as Ubisoft has confirmed an Open Beta for the game will be available on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The Open Beta will begin on Thursday, February 23, and players will get all weekend to battle the cartels:

Learning how to use all of the tools in your arsenal is key for taking on the Santa Blanca. First and foremost, use your fellow Ghosts. Whether you’re playing in co-op with up to three other players or going solo with cooperative AI, the other Ghosts can provide valuable distractions and cover fire when things start to heat up. And don’t forget transportation – jeeps, helicopters, APCs, and a large assortment of other vehicles can all become part of your strategy when infiltrating a Santa Blanca base (or escaping from it).

Your environment can also be used to your advantage in Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Itacua is a lush region with plenty of vegetation to hide you from enemy view when scouting for enemies. Meanwhile, the cover of night or a strong storm may be what keeps you from being spotted around Montuyoc’s lakes and sparse terrain.

If you’re concerned your PC won’t be able to handle Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, then you should head over to the UbiBlog and have a look at the game’s Recommended and Minimum System Requirements.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands will be released on March 7. (more…)

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged

Bethesda will bring Quake Champions, Prey, Elder Scrolls Legends, and ESO Morrowind to PAX East 2017

Posted on February 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

This year’s PAX East expo is just three weeks away, and Bethesda has announced they’ll have four games available on the show floor for attendees to try out including The Elder Scrolls: Legends, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind, Prey, and Quake Champions:

The Elder Scrolls: Legends
PAX-goers will be able to test their mettle on the go in The Elder Scrolls: Legends, offered for hands-on play on iPad. The free-to-play strategy card game based on the award-winning Elder Scrolls series launches onto Apple’s tablet later this Spring.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind
The recently announced new Chapter in The Elder Scrolls Online will be available for the first time for hands-on play, showcasing the game’s new 4v4v4, small-scale PvP mode, Battlegrounds. Attendees will be among the first in the world to try their hands at The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind fast-paced new mode, and will even get a first crack at flexing the powers of the new Warden class.

Prey
Join the team from Arkane Studios for an inside peak at Prey’s exciting sci-fi action gameplay live from the Bethesda Booth stage each day of PAX. Plus, be sure to check the other interactive experiences featured in the booth to prepare for the alien invasion when Prey launches worldwide on May 5, 2017.

Quake Champions
This wait is over – PAX East will be the first opportunity for fans to play Quake Champions, id Software’s latest entry in the Quake franchise, the granddaddy of all eSports shooters. Attendees will test their reflexes – and rocket jumping skills – in fast and frantic 5v5 Team Deathmatch battles. PAX-goers will also be able to sign-up for the game’s exclusive Closed Beta test, coming soon in 2017.

The 2017 PAX East expo will kick off March 10 and take over the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center all weekend.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged , , ,

Weird Al Yankovic recorded a Pac-Man parody in the 80s… and now we can finally hear it

Posted on February 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

Weird Al Yankovic’s career has spanned more than 40 years, but in all that time, the geeky icon only rarely delves into doing game-themed parodies. Perhaps that’s because of a bad experience he had early in his career with “Pac-Man,” a parody of “Taxman” by The Beatles.

Speaking to Nerdist, Weird Al believes an overzealous lawyer initially rejected the song without ever listening to it: “I’d like to think that none of the Beatles ever actually heard the song back then. It was just some office [clerk] whose whole job is to litigate and prosecute people for copyright infringement.”

However, Weird Al would later become friends with George Harrison’s son Dhani, and he helped work out a deal to include “Pac-Man” on Squeeze Box: The Complete Recordings of “Weird Al” Yankovic, an upcoming retrospective box set. Squeeze Box will be available this Fall on vinyl and CD, and it’ll include every album from Weird Al’s career housed in a replica accordion (of course). A 15th disc, Medium Rarities, will feature several unreleased songs (like “Pac-Man”), as well as alternate takes on more popular parodies.

But if you can’t wait that long, you can listen to “Pac-Man” at Nerdist right now.

Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro | Tagged

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard shambles to the top of January 2017’s best-selling games report

Posted on February 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

It looks like there’s still some life left in the Resident Evil franchise. The latest game in the series, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, topped the NPD Group’s report on the best-selling games in January 2017. The only other new release to crack the top ten was Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, which camein at #6.

“With only five days in the market, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was the best-selling game in January. The last time Capcom had the best-selling game of the month (in dollar sales) was in March 2009 with Resident Evil 5,” NPD Analyst Sam Naji told GamesIndustry.biz.

Overall spending on game titles was up 14% last month over January 2016, thanks mostly to continued demand for 2016’s biggest releases including Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (#2), Battlfield 1 (#4), and NBA 2K17 (#5). And Grand Theft Auto V (#3) continues to burn up the charts more than four years after it was first released.

The complete list of best-selling games from January 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Farom Studio unveils Lost Region, their upcoming survival action game

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Brittney Williams

What is Lost Region? There’s a good chance you asked yourself that as you read the headline. Am I right? Good, because that’s the whole point of this news update.

Lost Region is currently in development by Ukraine-based Farom Studio, the team behind Bad Day, a mobile title released in 2013.

The game initially started off as a Bad Day sequel running on Unreal Engine 4, however due to the loss of one of the team members, production of any and all additional Bad Day titles had to cease, likely for legal reasons. However, this hurdle didn’t stop the other developers at Farom Studio. Instead they chose to push forward, in the process creating what we now know as Lost Region.

Okay, so now you know some of the backstory. But that still doesn’t really answer the question does it? So, what is Lost Region?

As you’ve probably guessed from some of the screenshots, Lost Region is an action game, a third-person survival action game to be exact. Lost Region features a fully explorable world, spanning a massive 64 sq/km (that’s over six feet of map) Players can visit any building in the game, and travel to any portion of the map, in order to loot tools and additional supplies.

But wait, there’s more. Not only are players capable of explore all of the in-game buildings, but said buildings also differ in size, from tiny houses to large bases. A key component of the game is setting up a base. According to Farom Studio, you absolutely cannot survive in Lost Region as a homeless player. Therefore setting up camp is extremely important, but layers will have the ability to choose the path of a bandit, mechanic, or soldier. Players can opt for none of the aforementioned titles, and simply play as an adventurer.

Lost Region also features multiplayer, sporting the ability to team up with your friends and create clans, becoming a bandit group, mercenary, or research team.

Currently, Lost Region has no definitive release date set, however the game is expected to release on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows platforms. Farom Studio will showcase an alpha version of the game on their social media channels next Monday, February 20.

More screenshots from Lost Region are available after the break. (more…)

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Nintendo Download: Tank Troopers, Ogre Battle 64, more

Posted on February 16, 2017 by John Scalzo

It’s war in this week’s Nintendo eShop update!

First up is Tank Troopers, a tank battling game for the 3DS published and developed by Nintendo. Players will choose their tank, customize it, and then go into battle against their friends in six-player local multiplayer battles. But if you’d rather go it alone, Tank Troopers also includes a single-player mode with 30 unique stages.

Also available to download this week is Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, a tactical RPG originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. Wii U owners will be able to take control of Magnus Gallant, a nobleman who has to decide whether to desert his kingdom and fight with the rebellion, or “turn a blind eye to the evils of his rotten society.”

More information on both games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U |

Crash Banidicoot N. Sane Trilogy will be released for PS4 on June 30

Posted on February 16, 2017 by John Scalzo

Activision and Vicarious Visions have announced that the Crash Banidicoot N. Sane Trilogy will be released for the PS4 on June 30.

The publisher, working with Sony, plans to include the first three games from the franchise (Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped) in the compilation, and each game will get a complete makeover with remade graphics and audio:

This is a AAA remaster. We’re giving this the love and attention to detail that we pay to all of our AAA games. We’re building it using the original level geometry so that it plays as close to the original as possible. We’ve also referred to this as a remaster plus, as we are adding new features that we think the fans are going to love!

Members of the Vicarious Visions team also stopped by the PlayStation Blog today to discuss some of the development choices they made with the Crash Banidicoot N. Sane Trilogy.

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