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Daily Scoop: July 15, 2015 – Well, that was disappointing

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Nicole Kline

Prime Day was definitely not worth the hype. I didn’t see anything I wanted, and even the things I kind of wanted were sold out before I saw them. It’s probably for the best, as I just spent all my Amazon points on a Wii U and a copy of Splatoon. So I see it as a relief! Anyway, if you’re inclined to check it out, feel free, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

You have a day left to pick up the Video Games Story Bundle if you haven’t already! Pay what you want for How Video Games Are Made, Kill Screen Issue 8: Virtual Reality, Boss Fight Books: Bible Adventures, and Put This In Your Brain: The Best of Unwinnable Weekly. Pay $12 or more for HG 101 Presents: An Unofficial Guide to Castlevania, Designers & Dragons: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Scroll: #12 – Introducting MSX (plus 1-11 as a bonus), and The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. That’s a lot of amazing books for one low price!

You can still pick up Crusader Kings II as the Midweek Madness deal at Steam. It’s $7.99, or you can get the whole collection for $39.99. Today’s Daily Deal is Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, which is on sale for just $2.99.

There are a lot of great shirts today! (more…)

Posted in Daily Scoop |

Randy Pitchford’s #AskRandy Q&A goes horribly wrong for the developer

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

gearbox-logoTwitter is a wonderful place. But sometimes, it can be a truly horrifying place where your worst nightmares come to life. That’s the position Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford found himself in Monday when he agreed to participate in an #AskRandy Q&A for Develop Brighton.

The intended goal was to get people to ask Pitchford questions about game development, which seems fair enough. The only problem was the timing. On Friday, Pitchford made a statement in regards to Sega’s agreement to a settlement concerning the lawsuit centered around Aliens: Colonial Marines. Sega and Gearbox were being sued by gamers who argued that Sega used false and unrepresentative demos, trailers, and screenshots to sell the game. Gearbox was included in the lawsuit as the developer of the game, though most of the work was reportedly outsourced to TimeGate Studios, and Gearbox was dropped from the suit similar this year.

Pitchford went on the attack in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, saying, “the legal system failed as it was being manipulated by what appeared to me to be, essentially, mafia-style extortion tactics.” He continued by stating the free market was the only judge for the game: “The market proved it was doing its job perfectly. The market is dispassionate — rewarding what it likes and punishing what it doesn’t. There is an objectivity and fairness in the open market’s harsh, firm justice.”

Of course, the whole lawsuit was about the game being sold on a bed of lying screenshots and trailers, and the infamous E3 2013 demo, but that’s neither here nor there.

Monday also marked the release of the latest episode of Jim Sterling’s Jimquisition show, “Aliens: Colonial Marines – Game Over, Randy,” in which he disagreed with Pitchford’s comments from Friday. This coincided with Develop Brighton’s launch for the hashtag campaign, and with the powder keg primed, angry fans were handed the match.

A sampling of the tweets Pitchford received can be found after the break. (more…)

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

Sega releases trailer for fictional “Shia LaBeouf DLC” for Sonic Generations

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

As a game critic and commentator, it’s my job to commentate on things like this. But… what is there to say? Sega has posted a video on it’s official forums advertising a “Shia LaBeouf DLC” for Sonic Generations. This is definitely a real thing that is definitely not happening, but it was uploaded to the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube Page yesterday, and is being promoted by Sonic’s offical Twitter account.

Sonic’s social media accounts have been extremely interesting, to say the least, over the last few weeks. Allow me to demonstrate:

This could be the start of a recent attempt by Sega to regain the public’s trust after publicly apologizing for recent missteps. I can see an old man at Sega HQ saying, what better way to reconnect with “da kids” than by quoting memes (like Shia LaBeouf’s “You can do it!” message) and posting bizarre jokes to Twitter? Maybe he’s got his feet up on the desk, with a big fat cigar in his mouth, yelling at Peter Parker to get those pictures of Spide-Man while he’s at it.

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

Personal user data exposed after a hack of Epic Games forum

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

epicgames-logoEpic Games, the creator of Gears of War and the Unreal Engine, has released a notice detailing a hack of their community forums. The full details of the hack and what Epic is doing to fix the problem can be read right here:

Dear Epic Games Forum Member,

We have just discovered that the Epic Games forums located at https://forums.epicgames.com were compromised by a hacker. We are sorry to report that the incident may have resulted in unauthorized access to your username, email address, password, and the date of birth you provided at registration.

We have taken https://forums.epicgames.com offline. When the site reopens, your password will be reset. If you use the same password on this site which you use on other sites, we recommend immediately changing your password on those sites as well.

The affected forum site covers UDK, Infinity Blade, Gears of War, Bulletstorm, and prior Unreal Tournament games. However, the separate forum sites covering Unreal Engine 4, Fortnite, and the new Unreal Tournament were unaffected.

We apologize for the inconvenience this causes everyone. To further understand what’s happened and prevent it in the future, we’re working with a computer security firm to identify the nature of the compromise. We will report further information on the forums when they reopen.

While the investigation into the security compromise is ongoing, we are reaching out to you directly to let you know of the potential unauthorized access to information you provided at registration. It is possible that any information stored or sent by you using the forums may have been accessed. Since this is a public forum, we do not collect or maintain financial information, but we advise you to be alert for suspicious email such as phishing attempts.

Thank you for being a part of our community, and for your attention to this issue.

Best Regards,
The Epic Games Team

Best of luck to everyone affected by this hack.

Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 |

GoW3 Remastered, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Rory McIlroy PGA, more added to PS Store

Posted on July 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

It’s a big day for the PlayStation Store as some of this Summer’s biggest releases are now available to download on the PS3, PS4, PS Vita, and the PSP (yes, really).

Let’s start with the PS4 first as its now home to a remastered version Kratos’s final assault on the Pantheon of Gods (God of War III Remastered), the first PGA Tour game not to star Tiger Woods in more than a decade (Rory McIlroy PGA Tour), a moody first-person mystery (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter), and a surprise remake of a pair of PS3-era open world games from Activision (Prototype: Biohazard Bundle).

On the PS3, Godzilla will roar to life on the video game stage and do battle with other kaiju in Bandai Namco’s latest adaptation of the radioactive beast. The game is also available on the PS4.

Meanwhile, the Vita welcomes Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess, an updated and enhanced version of Deception IV: Blood Ties. Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess is also available for the PS4 and PS3.

Finally, the PSP comes back to life with Angus Hates Aliens, a tactical shooter starring a redneck shooting aliens. Angus Hates Aliens is also playable on the Vita.

More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. And as always, a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)

Posted in News, PS3, PS4, PSP, Vita | Tagged , , ,

Here’s the video game deals for Amazon Prime Day 2015

Posted on July 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

amazonlogo

UPDATE (8:15 PM): We’re in the final stretch of Amazon’s Prime Day 2015 festivities and another PS4 bundle is available to purchase. More deals will surely go live before midnight, but here’s what Prime members can pick up at a steep discount right now…

UPDATE (7:10 PM): Prime Day 2015 is beginning to wind down (and some people aren’t entirely happy about what’s been offered), but Amazon is still posting new deals…

UPDATE (3:55 PM): Are you in the market for a 3DS? If you act fast, you can grab one as part of Amazon’s latest update to the Prime Day 2015 page. There’s a few other new deals of note too…

Previous Prime Day deals, many still available by joining a waitlist, can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One |

Konami removes Hideo Kojima’s name from the cover of Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain

Posted on July 14, 2015 by John Scalzo

metalgearsolidvthephantompain-header

As the secret war between Konami and Hideo Kojima continues to rage, the publisher has taken another public shot at the developer with the release of the final cover design of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. In an attempt to distance Kojima from the title, Konami has officially removed the developer’s name from the game’s packaging. This includes an above-the-title text credit (“A Hideo Kojima Game”) and the Kojima Productions logo. A previous version of the Phantom Pain cover included both. The original cover and the updated version can both be found after the break.

Though Kojima publicly states he is “100% involved” with The Phantom Pain’s development, this redesign of the game’s cover is more proof of the strained relationship between the developer and the publisher. It could even be said that the removal of Kojima’s name is a personal attack on the developer as he’s been given a text credit on the cover of every Metal Gear Solid game since 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on September 1. Two weeks later, the game will also be released for the PC. While still unconfirmed, Kojima is expected to leave Konami after the completion of The Phantom Pain.

Last year, Kojima announced an intent to resurrect the Silent Hill franchise in collaboration with director Guillermo Del Toro and actor Norman Reedus. That game, Silent Hills, was canceled by Konami back in April. (more…)

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

Deep Silver confirms Yager is no longer developing Dead Island 2

Posted on July 14, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Earlier this year, Deep Silver delayed Dead Island 2 after they said that development on the game wasn’t meeting up with their expectations. Today, the publisher issued a short statement confirming that Yager will no longer be the developer behind Dead Island 2:

With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver has always been dedicated to delivering the sequel that Dead Island fans deserve. After careful consideration, today we announce the decision to part ways with development partner Yager.

Development on Dead Island 2 will continue, and Deep Silver plans to announce further details about the game “at a later stage.” It’s unknown if this developer shuffle will further push back the game’s release date (currently penciled in for 2016), but it will likely be a while before we get the chance to play Dead Island 2.

The original Dead Island and its sequel, Dead Island: Riptide, were developed by Techland. After Deep Silver and Techland parted ways, the Polish developer teamed up with WB Games to release Dying Light, another first-person zombie game, earlier this year.

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