Most Recent: PC

TowerFall Ascension will add PS4 version to its quiver in early 2014

Since its release this Summer, TowerFall has been the toast of the Ouya. With its retro graphics and frantic gameplay, the multiplayer archery fighter has charmed more than a few gamers. Developer Matt Thorson has been hard at work on bringing TowerFall to the PC with expanded features (including a single-player mode), but now he’s ready to announce that this new version of the game, known as TowerFall Ascension, will also be released for the PS4 in early 2014.

Ascension will add a ton of new content to the TowerFall formula including “50 new Versus levels, four more playable archers, an all­-new, twelve-player cooperative Quest Mode, six additional power­-ups, and more.”

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Grand Theft Auto V is October 2013’s best-selling game

grandtheftautov-box-largeOnce again, Grand Theft Auto V reigns supreme. The latest entry in Rockstar’s blockbuster franchise remains atop the NPD Group’s monthly tabulations of the best-selling games at retail.

It’s important to note that GTA5 didn’t pull off this repeat performance against a group of lightweights. The remaining spots in the top ten, all nine of them, were claimed by new releases. You can check out the rest of the top ten right here and, if you gambled that Pokemon X would sell more copies than Pokemon Y, it’s time to collect:

Bestselling Games in October 2013
1. Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox 360, PS3)
2. Pokemon X (3DS)
3. Pokemon Y (3DS)
4. Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
5. Batman: Arkham Origins (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
6. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U)
7. NBA 2K14 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
8. Skylanders Swap Force (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS)
9. Lego Marvel Super Heroes (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS, Vita, PC)
10. WWE 2K14 (Xbox 360, PS3)

According to Joystiq, GTA5 wasn’t the only big winner last month. The entire industry had a very profitable four weeks as last month’s software sales were higher than the same period from 2012, making October 2013 the third month in a row to see year-over-year sales gains.

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WB Games announces Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is returning to Middle-Earth with a new game inspired by the Lord of the Rings saga. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is in development for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One at Monolith Productions. If the Monolith name sounds familiar, it should, the team was also responsible for 2012’s Guardians of Middle-Earth.

In the game, players will control a Ranger named Talion as he ventures into Mordor during the time between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. Shadow of Mordor will also appear on the cover of Game Informer‘s December 2013 issue and here’s what they had to say about the game:

While many previous games set in Middle-earth have revolved around the major events or characters depicted in Tolkien’s books, Shadow of Mordor offers a new chapter that fits comfortably between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Players control a lone Ranger by the name of Talion as he journeys deep into the heart of Mordor in the days before it transforms into a blasted hellscape. Along the way, developer Monolith is exploring a fascinating next-gen approach to enemies, encounters, and storytelling, one in which every player shapes their own story through the choices they make. The Nemesis System assures that every enemy you fight is a named foe, and if they survive their battle with you, they continue to grow, improve, and act in the world, even as you attempt to do the same with Talion. Our cover story recounts our extensive look at the game in action, from combat and leveling to story and setting.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor doesn’t currently have a release date, but I’m guessing “soon” is out of the question. One doesn’t simply develop a “fascinating” next-generation game quickly.

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

Sixth World of Warcraft expansion already in the works

metatop100-worldofwarcraftThe fifth World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was announced during this weekend’s BlizzCon event. Warlords of Draenor doesn’t even have a release date yet, but Blizzard’s President, Mike Morhaime, has revealed the company has already begun development on the MMO’s sixth expansion.

Speaking to Polygon, Morhaime said: “We […] have to start looking further down the road and planning further out,” he said. “We’ve already started working on the expansion after [Warlords of Draenor]. We’ve never done that in the past. We’ve been doing one expansion at a time, sort of a very linear content creation model, and we’ve looked at ways that we can parallelize that. So that while we’re working on this expansion we’re looking at the new one.”

According to Morhaime, Blizzard is undertaking this sped up development schedule to ensure WoW remains “relevant” to the game’s subscriber base, which currently stands at 7.6 million people.

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League of Legends: What to Expect From Season 4

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League of Legends is the most popular video game in the world. According to a newly released infographic created by Twurdy, a League of Legends community, 32.5 million players log into Riot Games’ smash hit on a daily basis. That means that if every single World of Warcraft subscriber played Blizzard’s MMO in a single day when WoW was at its peak, League of Legends would still boast nearly three times the amount of players. In addition to its massive player base, League of Legends was recently the centerpiece of one of the largest eSports events in history: The Season 3 World Championships.

The Championship match was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the same building that hosts marquee events such as Lakers games and professional wrestling shows. If there was any question as to whether or not League of Legends could compete with such events in tickets sales, they were silenced almost immediately as the Season 3 World Championships sold out in 59 minutes. But Season 3 is coming to an end very soon, and Riot Games has been looking ahead to the next season, which starts tomorrow, November 12th. Over the past week, Riot Games employees (Rioters) have been posting numerous articles to Reddit about their plans for the new season to give players a glimpse of what’s in store. After playing League of Legends for two years with two accounts that are in Gold League, I’ve attempted to compile all the proposed changes for Season 4 along with my impressions on what these changes could potentially mean for the future of the game. (more…)

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New Releases: PS4, XCOM: Enemy Within, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, More

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Part One of this year’s next-generation console extravaganza begins this week with the launch of PlayStation 4. If you haven’t already ordered one, Sony’s new machine may be hard to find, but peripherals like the PS4 Camera are plentiful. However, if you have the next-gen plunge, here’s what gaming opportunities you can expect to see on store shelves this week:

If the next-generation of consoles is still a bit too expensive for you (or you’re waiting for the impending Xbox One launch), there’s also a few current-generation games to keep us busy this week. XCOM: Enemy Within, the expansion to last year’s massively well-received XCOM: Enemy Unknown, will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. And the possibly final voyage of Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, will be released for the PS3. Finally, Mario & Sonic square off again in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games on the Wii U.

There’s more new games where those came from and you can find a complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)

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

Blizzard announces World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor expansion

BlizzCon 2013 started today, and Blizzard has kicked off the massive event with a massive announcement. The MMORPG juggernaut’s fifth expansion, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, will take players to the world of Draenor to battle alongside legendary Warcraft heroes. The expansion is set to take players back in time to face the likes of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul when they were at their most fearsome. More than just the setting, World of Warcraft‘s fifth expansion will, of course, come with all of the trappings of an expansion including new dungeons, raids, a new level cap, and much more. Perhaps the most interesting addition is that of the Garrison, which will be a personal base of operations for players to explore and expand throughout the expansion.

The level cap has come quite a way from the level 60 cap of vanilla WoW. And reaching the new level 100 from level 1 can be quite a daunting task, so Blizzard has added the option to instantly boost one character to level 90. The expansion will also add questing improvements designed to encourage exploration. This is presumably done to make the quests less linear. Another element to the expansion will be fully revamped player character models and animations for many of the older races, so that the vanilla races such as humans and orcs will be on par visually with the newer races from previous expansions.

BlizzCon attendees are currently able to play the expansion on the show floor, though there’s no official word on when the expansion will be released. But BlizzCon will continue through tomorrow, so there will surely be plenty of new announcements regarding Blizzard’s future projects.

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New Diablo III: Reaper of Souls trailer shows off the expansion’s many features

BlizzCon opens today in Anaheim, California and to get you in the right mood, Blizzard has released a new trailer for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls highlighting the expansion’s many new features:

  • Collect Bounties in “Adventure Mode.”
  • Battle a seemingly unending wave of enemies emerging from “Nephalem Rifts.”
  • Organize your friends in “Clans and Groups.”
  • Visit a new Artisan, “The Mystic,” to enchant and transmorgrify your gear.
  • And become even more of a Paragon with the “Updated Paragon System.”

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls will be available sometime next year for the PC and PS4.

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