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Nominees for the 2016 DICE Awards have been announced with Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3 leading the way

Posted on January 13, 2016 by John Scalzo

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The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 2016 DICE Awards.

Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider and CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead all other games with eight nominations apiece, including “Game of the Year.” They’ll be competing for the AIAS’s highest honor against three other games: Bloodborne, Fallout 4, and Ori and the Blind Forest. All told, 53 different titles received at least one nomination.

“Looking at the nominees for the 19th Annual DICE Awards, I am especially impressed by the broad range of titles catering to gamers’ increasingly sophisticated and diverse tastes,” said Martin Rae, the President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “It is always gratifying to watch our industry and its many artists and craftsmen grow and continue to challenge and thrill audiences.”

In addition to this year’s awards show, Satoru Iwata will be honored with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award and Hideo Kojima will be inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.

The ceremony for the 2016 DICE Awards will take place on Thursday, February 16, during this year’s DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit. The full list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)

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EA brings EA Access subscription service to PC as Origin Access

Posted on January 13, 2016 by John Scalzo

EA has announced that their EA Access subscription service (currently available on the Xbox One) is now available for PC players as Origin Access.

Priced at $4.99 a month, Origin Access will let subscribers play every game in “The Vault” and provide early access to brand new EA games before they’re released. According to EA, Origin’s “Vault” will also include a variety of third-party titles, such as the currently available This War of Mine (from 11 Bit Studios). So what else is available in “The Vault”? Here’s the list we found on the official Origin Access site:

“The Vault” Titles Currently on Origin Access

  • Battlefield 3
  • Battlefield 4
  • Battlefield Hardline
  • Dead Space
  • Dead Space 2
  • Dead Space 3
  • Dragon Age: Origins
  • Dragon Age II
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition
  • FIFA 15
  • Need For Speed Rivals
  • Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
  • SimCity
  • The Sims 3
  • This War of Mine

In addition to unlimited access to games in “The Vault,” Origin Access subscribers will also receive a 10% discount on all future Origin purchases. And if that doesn’t convince you, EA also commissioned a great commercial starring Bill Nye (which has been embedded above) to promote the service.

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Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be released for 3DS on March 18; Wii U version launching later

Posted on January 13, 2016 by John Scalzo

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Get your torch relay ready, Nintendo has announced (via their Facebook page) that Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be released for the 3DS on March 18. The sports-themed minigame collection will also be released for the Wii U later this year.

The 2016 Summer Olympics will kick off on August 5, so we can probably expect to see the Wii U version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games sometime this Summer.

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Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, The Banner Saga, Gone Home, more added to PS Store

Posted on January 13, 2016 by John Scalzo

The PS4 gets the spotlight in this week’s PlayStation Store update as six new games are now available to download for the new-generation console.

Leading the way this week is a pair of indie favorites including The Banner Saga, Stoic’s Viking-themed tactical RPG, and Gone Home, Fulbright’s emotional first-person exploration game. Also available this week is Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, the second game in Ubisoft’s side-scrolling spinoff series to the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Finally this week, Sony will expand their lineup of PS2-On-PS4 games with the release of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, a well-liked (but not very well-known) RPG from 2003.

More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) is available after the break. And a complete look at this week’s new game add-ons and discounts (including a “PlayStation Essentials Sale”) can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)

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Psychonauts will be released for the PS4 this Spring

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

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With the sequel now fully-funded through Fig, Double Fine is also working to reacquaint the gaming public with the original Psychonauts. So the developer stopped by the PlayStation Blog today to announce that the PS2 classic will be available to download for the PS4 this Spring:

Psychonauts follows the story of a young psychic named Razputin in his quest to join an elite group of international psychic secret agents, the Psychonauts! He runs away from the circus and breaks into their secret training facility, Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp.

As he begins his training by psychically delving inside the consciousnesses of his tutors and those around him, he realizes all is not as it seems, and soon embarks upon a psychic odyssey through a variety of levels set inside the minds of misfits, monsters, and madmen!

Like other PS2-On-PS4 releases, the unique visual style of Psychonauts will be uprendered to 1080p on the PS4. The game will also include support for Trophies, Remote Play, Live Broadcast, Share Play, and Activity Feeds.

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Deep Silver confirms May 17 release date for Homefront: The Revolution

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

Confirming last week’s release date leak, Deep Silver has announced that Homefront: The Revolution will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 17. The publisher has also released “This Is Philadelphia,” a brand new trailer that shows what it’s like to live in the game’s Korean-occupied “Yellow Zone” (Wait, really?):

In the “This Is Philadelphia” trailer released today, citizens get their first chilling glimpse into the world of Occupied Philadelphia in the year 2029: The birthplace of American freedom has been split into three occupied zones, each zone varying in the level of KPA police activity with each unique zone forcing players to adapt new gameplay strategies in order to further the progress of The Revolution. The “This Is Philadelphia” trailer showcases the unforgiving Yellow Zone, distinct from the war-ravaged wastelands of the Red Zone, and the highly militarized Green Zones, the Yellow Zone is a densely populated environment offering a unique challenge and gameplay experience to would-be Freedom Fighters.

Xbox One owners who are interested in joining a Homefront: The Revolution closed beta this February can head over to Homefront-Game.com to register for a chance to receive a Beta Token from Deep Silver.

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Gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat X: Kombat Pack 2 released

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

WB Games wants you to have a bloody good Tuesday as they’ve released the first gameplay for Mortal Kombat X‘s upcoming Kombat Pack 2 DLC. In development now at NetherRealm Studios, Kombat Pack 2 will add four new fighters to the game: Leatherface (from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), the Xenomorph (from Alien), Bo Rai Cho, and Tri-Borg (a composite character that fuses together Cyrax, Sektor, and Smoke). The new characters are incredibly fast and the chainsaw-fu practiced by Leatherface (against Jason Voorhees, I might add) is incredible.

Players who purchase Kombat Pack 2 will also receive a fifth playable character, the mighty Goro, and a number of costumes that were previously exclusive to Mortal Kombat X pre-order customers:

  • Goro – The feral, four-armed Shokan warrior will be available as a playable combatant.
  • Brazil Pack – The Brazil Pack features three new character skins: Futbol Cage, Capoeira Liu Kang, and Gaucho Kung Lao.
  • Kold War Pack – The Kold War Pack includes three new character skins: Motherland Sonya, Tundra Sub-Zero, and Revolution Kano.
  • Kold War Scorpion – Kold War-themed Scorpion character skin.
  • Apocalypse Pack (Never-Before-Released) – The Apocalypse Pack features three new character skins, reimagining characters Takeda, D’Vorah, and Erron Black with an apocalyptic theme.

NetherRealm will release Kombat Pack 2 sometime in 2016, though they’ve previously said that all four characters will be available in early 2016.

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WGA nominates Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3 for 2016 Writers Guild Award

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

wgaThe nominees for the 2016 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing were announced by the Writers Guild of America yesterday.

The WGA bestowed nominations on four titles this year, including Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It’s hard to pick a frontrunner at this point, but Syndicate is the seventh game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise to be nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing since the WGA began honoring writing for video games in 2008. The complete list of nominees can be found here:

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Ubisoft)
Story: Marc-Alexis Cote, Hugo Giard, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem
Narrative Director: Corey May
Lead Writer: Jeffrey Yohalem
Assistant Narrative Director: Melissa MacCoubrey
Scriptwriters: Richard Farrese, Russell Lees, Mark Llabres Hill, James Nadiger, Jared Schincariol, Travis Stout, Ceri Young
Additional Senior Writer: Paul Monk
Additional Writing: Judith Flanders, C.J. Kershner, Gabrielle Shrager, Danny Wallace

Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment)
Lead Writer: Eric Fenstermaker
Writers: Carrie Patel, Olivia Veras
Additional Writing: Chris Avellone, Jeff Husges, Matt MacLean, Jorge Salgado, Josh Sawyer, George Ziets

Rise of the Tomb Raider (Microsoft)
Lead Narrative Designer: John Stafford
Narrative Designer: Cameron Suey
Lead Writer: Rhianna Pratchett
Additional Writer: Philip Gelatt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt)
Lead Writer: Marcin Blacha
Lead English Writer: Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz
Writers: Arkadiusz Borowik, Aleksandra Motyka, Bartosz Ochman, Karolina Stachyra, Jakub Szamalek
Additional Writers: Marcin Batylda, Michal Galek, Tomasz Marchewka, Robert Oglodzinski, Rafal Praszalek, Artur Sliwinski, Stanislaw Swiecicki, Pawel Zych
Story: Marcin Blacha, Jakub Szamalek

The winner of the 2016 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing will be announced on Saturday, February 13.

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