Most Recent: PS3

Does Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes reference Kojima leaving Konami?

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes has been out for over a year now, and it seems to keep providing Easter eggs. One major Easter egg that may hint at the recent strife between Konami and Director Hideo Kojima was recently found by YouTube user “timeSplitter88.”

In the Metal Gear Solid throwback mission “Deja Vu,” you’re given a weapon with a blue light that erases words found throughout the level. Those words aren’t random though, they’re all past titles and logos from Metal Gear’s history.

Hideo Kojima had nothing to do with some of those games, such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance or Metal Gear Acid, so they can’t be erased by the light. However, the ones designed by Kojima, such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, can be erased. Once you’ve deleted all the titles created by Hideo Kojima, players get a message from Kaz reminding them to cherish their memories. Kojima himself then comes on the com to thank you for your support.

The “Deja Vu” mission has been available since the release of the game, originally exclusive to PlayStation consoles before coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One several months later. But it seems that no one put together the possible hidden meaning of erasing all the titles until now. It seems likely that everyone at Kojima Productions knew they were getting the boot months before the information became public.

Since the release of Ground Zeroes, Konami has removed “A Hideo Kojima Game” from all marketing and packaging for both Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. No one outside of Konami knows why this messy divorce is happening, though I’ve got a good feeling once it becomes official after the release of The Phantom Pain, Kojima won’t remain silent for long.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be released on September 1.

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Tremor will shake up Mortal Kombat X beginning tomorrow

Posted on July 20, 2015 by John Scalzo

Many seismologists believe that earthquake prediction is impossible. Someone at NetherRealm Studios clearly agrees as the developer has announced they’ll unleash Tremor, the fourth (and currently final), downloadable character for Mortal Kombat X much sooner than expected.

Kombat Pass owners will be able to download Tremor, along with Klassic Skins Pack 2, beginning tomorrow, July 21. Everyone else will get a crack at the character on July 28 as a standalone download ($4.99) or in a bundle with Klassic Skins Pack 2 ($7.99). The Skins Pack, which includes “klassic” duds for Kung Lao, Quan Chi, and Jax, will also be available by itself for $3.99.

Tremor first appeared in 2000’s Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, and has been a fan favorite ever since. It was these fans that encouraged NetherRealm to make Tremor a fully playable character for the first time in Mortal Kombat X. Able to control the earth itself, a trailer starring the latest incarnation of Tremor was unveiled during this weekend’s EVO event. It’s been embedded above.

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Classic JRPG Odin Sphere getting an HD remaster in Japan on PS4, PS3, Vita

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

Atlus and Vanillaware, the publisher and developer of cult classic PS2 RPG Odin Sphere, announced today that a high defintion remaster is in development for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita.

According to Siliconera, this will be more than the typical paint job that many remasters from the PS2 era receive. In addition to the expected HD visual makeover, Vanillaware will add “new battle actions, maps, enemies, [and] animations” to game, along with with “an enhanced fighting system and additional features to make the overall gameplay smoother and faster than before.”

The remaster will be known as Odin Sphere: Leifdrasir, a title I’m sure many of us won’t be able to properly pronounce for some time. And we don’t have much time to figure it out as the remaster is scheduled for a January 14, 2016 release in Japan. There has been no word yet on an overseas release, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted when that changes.

The original Odin Sphere was released on the PS2 in 2007. The game was well received, and beat sales expectations in Japan. To date, Odin Sphere has never received a sequel or spinoff, making Leifdrasir a welcome return for players who have missed out on it the first time.

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Batman: Arkham Knight stands watch atop the best-selling games list for June 2015

Posted on July 17, 2015 by John Scalzo

batmanarkhamknight-header

Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy went out with a bang last month, and it looks like a lot of fans went along for the ride, as The NPD Group has confirmed Batman: Arkham Knight was the best-selling game for June 2015.

Aside from the problems with the PC version, WB Games had a pretty good month as four of the publisher’s titles placed in the top ten. Newcomer Lego Jurassic World joined Arkham Knight near the top of the list in the #3 spot, while The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (#4) and Mortal Kombat X (#8) held over from May. NPD’s Liam Callahan told GamesIndustry.biz, “Warner Bros. Interactive is the top corporate publisher so far in 2015, with dollar sales growing 217% versus the first half of 2014.”

But WB Games wasn’t the only company having a nice Summer as Bethesda has a hit on their hands with The Elder Scrolls Online. It was also a good month to be a squid as Nintendo’s Splatoon held strong at #5, and became the only platform exclusive to crack the top ten.

The industry as a whole should be very happy about last month’s sales as consumers spent a lot more than they did last year. Overall sales were up 18%, $869 million versus $734 million, over June 2014. And that includes increases in hardware (+8%), software (+21%), and accessories (+34%).

The complete top ten list of best-selling games for June 2015 can be found after the break. (more…)

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Telltale will release Game of Thrones: Episode 5 on July 21

Posted on July 16, 2015 by John Scalzo

Things aren’t looking good for the Forrester family in this trailer for the fifth episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones adaptation. Hopefully, things will turn out better once Game of Thrones: A Nest of Vipers is released next week:

In this penultimate episode, the actions of every Forrester are vital to the survival of the house. Rodrik’s alliance with House Glenmore, and his defiance of the Whitehills, has drawn the ire of an even greater threat: Ramsay Snow. Far across the Narrow Sea in Essos, with Meereen now a free city, Asher is close to securing the army he desperately needs to return home, and save his family. In King’s Landing, Mira’s activities at Tommen’s coronation have not escaped the attention of Margaery Tyrell, and Cersei has realized that the handmaiden may prove useful in her political games. Finally, beyond the Wall, Gared’s unlikely allies are reluctant to help in the search for the North Grove… but this far into the frozen wilds, Crows and Free Folk have a common enemy; and Winter is coming.

As usual, Game of Thrones: A Nest of Vipers will be available through a number of digital storefronts. Here’s the release schedule, courtesy of Telltale:

  • Tuesday, July 21: PC/Mac, PS3, PS4
  • Wednesday, July 22: Xbox One, Xbox 360
  • Thursday, July 23: iOS, Android

The final episode of the series, Game of Thrones: The Ice Dragon, will likely be released sometime this Fall.

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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…)

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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.

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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.

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