Most Recent: Xbox One

New Retail Releases: PlayStation 4 Pro, NES Classic Edition, Dishonored 2, More

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Are you in the market for a new console this week… well good news, you’ve got three new options to choose from.

Sony is kicking things off with the launch of the PS4 Pro, their hyper-powered new PS4 that promises to deliver “resolutions up to 4K, HDR imaging technology, and faster, more stable frame rates.” For games to get the most out of the PS4 Pro, they’ll need a special “Enhancement” patch, and so far, the patches for 39 games will be ready this week, with more to come by the end of the year.

While Sony’s PS4 Pro is the biggest and beefiest new console launch this week, the smallest might possibly be even larger (metaphorically speaking). The NES Classic Edition shrinks Nintendo’s beloved NES console down into an HDMI-powered nostalgia machine that’s packed with 30 of the greatest games of all time. If you just want to relive your childhood, or maybe introduce a new generation of kids to games like Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda, and Final Fantasy, then you should hunt down an NES Classic Edition this week.

Last, but not least, the Retro-Bit Generations will stuff more than 90 games into its retro-styled chassis including a huge number of 8-bit and 16-bit classics from Capcom, Data East, Jaleco, and Irem.

If you’re looking for new games, you’ll also find a handful of new titles on store shelves this week, including Dishonored 2 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Players will be able to control both Corvo and Emily Kaldwin as they attempt to once again return Emily to her rightful place on the throne.

Finally this week, a pair of new PlayStation VR titles will be available for the PS4… Robinson: The Journey, an exploration adventure, and Eagle Flight, a flight simulation.

A complete look at this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)

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Xbox Store Today: CoD Infinite Warfare, Atari Flashback Classics Vol 1 & Vol 2, Gas Guzzlers Extreme

We’re going back to the past and forward to the future (while also going back to the past) in today’s Xbox Games Store update.

Infinity Ward is taking the Call of Duty franchise into a far-flung future with sci-fi-style weaponry, cyborgs, and space battles in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare for the Xbox One. But if you’re someone who’s looking for something a little more familiar, the developer has also worked hard to produce Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, a bonus game included in Infinite Warfare’s pricey Legacy Edition.

If you’d rather go further back, Atari has released two new collections of Atari 2600 classics for the Xbox One… Atari Flashback Classics Volume 1 and Atari Flashback Classics Volume 2. Both packages include 50 different titles, with Combat, Centipede, Swordquest, and Star Raiders included in Volume 1, and Asteroids, Haunted House, Adventure, and Major Havoc in Volume 2.

Finally this week, Gas Guzzlers Extreme is now available for the Xbox One and it features the type of car combat that was all the rage back in the late 90s. Oh, and there’s also zombies for some reason.

More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged ,

Blizzard introduces Sombra to Overwatch in a new animated short

Blizzard has been dropping hints about Sombra, Overwatch‘s newest Hero, for months. Today, the character made her debut at BlizzCon in a brand new animated short.

One of the world’s most notorious hackers, Sombra uses information to manipulate those in power.

Long before she took up the alias “Sombra,” XXXXXX was among the thousands of children who were left orphaned in the aftermath of the Omnic Crisis. With much of her country’s infrastructure destroyed, she survived by utilizing her natural gifts with hacking and computers.

[…]

She later reemerged as Sombra, upgraded and determined to find out the truth behind the conspiracy she had uncovered. Sombra launched an even more audacious string of hacks, and her exploits earned her no shortage of admirers, including Talon. She joined the organization’s ranks and is believed to have contributed to its massive cyberattacks against corporations with strong ties to their governments. These efforts incited a popular revolution in Mexico against LumériCo and breached the security of Volskaya Industries, the manufacturing arm of Russia’s anti-omnic defense.

Like the title of her animated short, Sombra is someone who’s skilled at “Infiltration” and manipulating technology for her own gains. The Offense character can get close to her enemies with “Thermoptic Camo” to go invisible for short periods of time and she can escape with her “Translocator,” a beacon Sombra can instantly return to as long as it’s active. Once she’s in, her “Hack” ability can stop opponents from using their abilities, while her “EMP” disables barriers and shields in the blast radius.

Sombra will be available to download for PC players using the Overwatch Public Test Region next week, and she’ll be accessible by all sometime in the near future. In the meantime, you can learn more about Sombra on PlayOverwatch.com.

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Supergiant will release Bastion for Xbox One on December 12

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Supergiant Games burst onto the scene in a huge way with the release of their debut game, Bastion, in 2011. The Action RPG combined Zelda-like gameplay mechanics with a revolutionary audio presentation that also included an ever-present narrator. Today, the developer announced that Bastion will be released for the Xbox One on December 12.

Instead of going the Backwards Compatibility route, Supergiant teamed up with BlitWorks to rebuild Bastion from the ground up for the Xbox One. This new version of the game will be displayed in full 1080p and come packaged with the Stranger’s Dream expansion. An entirely new set of Achievements will also be included. Best of all, everyone who owns the Xbox 360 version of Bastion will be able to upgrade to the Xbox One version for free until January 1, 2017 (new players will pay $14.99).

Finally, Supergiant had a message for their fans in a new blog post on their website: “We remain ever grateful to all of you out there who love and remember Bastion, because it’s thanks to you that we get to stick together as a team and keep making games day to day.”

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Activision reconfirms Destiny 2 will launch in 2017

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Bungie has produced four expansions for Destiny since its launch in 2014, and after re-releasing all the add-ons as part of Destiny: The Collection in September, the developer has now set their sights on the future and Destiny 2. Publisher Activision is also ready to start talking about the second game in the shooter series, and it came up several times during yesterday’s quarterly financial report.

COO Thomas Tippl started things off with confirmation that Destiny 2 will indeed be released sometime in 2017: “Activision and our talented partners at Bungie are hard at work on a sequel to Destiny which should energize both Destiny’s passionate fan base and bring millions of new fans to the franchise next year.”

Later, CFO Dennis Durkin added that Activision expects the sequel to broaden the appeal of Destiny even further: “We’re on track and really excited about what we think is going to be an awesome sequel for Destiny in 2017. No announcements today on timing just yet. But what I will say is, that sequel is designed to both excite our highly-engaged current players, but also to broaden the appeal even further, bringing in new fans and bringing back lapsed fans, as well. So that’s our primary focus right now.”

Activision and Bungie are keeping a tight hold on information related to Destiny 2, so it’s unknown exactly what gameplay changes might “broaden the appeal” of the franchise. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about the sequel soon.

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Xbox Store Today: Super Dungeon Bros, Earth’s Dawn, Bullet Soul: Infinite Burst

It’s November… and that means that Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to pick up a handful of new games through the Games With Gold program.

This month’s Xbox One selection is Super Dungeon Bros, and its also newly available to download this week from the Xbox Games Store. Players will take control of the Super Dungeon Bros (Axl, Lars, Freddie, and Ozzie) in this co-op “dungeon brawler” as they battle the evil undead in search of epic loot. Also available to download today on the Xbox One is Earth’s Dawn, a side-scrolling brawler where players take on the alien invasion force in a game with a “hard-edged manga aesthetic.”

If you’re a fan 2D action, over on the Xbox 360 side of the Xbox Games Store, players will be able to download the vertically-scrolling shooter Bullet Soul: Infinite Burst.

More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One |

EA reiterates that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 will be released in Fall 2017

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This past Summer, executives from EA confirmed that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 would be released sometime in 2017. Yesterday, during a quarterly financial report to investors, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen confirmed the game will be available in Fall 2017.

“So we have talked obviously about the next Battlefront coming a year from now, and we’re working very hard on making sure that is an extremely deep and engaging offering,” Jorgensen said.

EA actually has multiple Star Wars games in development, and the publisher plans to release a new Star Wars game every year for at least the next three years.

Visceral Games will launch their Star Wars game in 2018, and it is widely believed to star Han Solo. And Repawn is working on a third-person Star Wars adventure that will feature Lightsaber duels in some capacity. It doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’ll likely launch in 2019.

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SAG-AFTRA Strike: Is Telltale working on a Guardians of the Galaxy game? And Call of Duty 2017 might be titled Lethal Combat

man-screaming-at-computerSAG-AFTRA, the largest union for voice actors and stunt performers in Hollywood, authorized a strike against some game developers and production studios nearly two weeks ago. Because of the strike, all work ceased on a number of in-development projects, including a few unannounced games, such as Madden NFL 18 and Brothers in Arms 4.

Today, the union updated their list of projects that aren’t being struck, and it too includes a large number of unannounced projects.

Perhaps the biggest inclusion in the non-struck list is Guardians of the Galaxy: The Video Game (AKA “Blue Harvest”). It’s easy to assume that Marvel is developing a tie-in mobile game for the film sequel, but it interestingly shares a production house with Telltale’s The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. So it’s not too far of a leap to assume that Telltale’s mysterious Marvel project might star the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which launches this Friday, is also on the list, presumably because of the voice work needed for its Season Pass content. But the 2017 Edition of the long-running franchise, which is in the works at Sledgehammer Games, is included as well. The game is currently known as Call of Duty: Stronghold, though an additional codename, Call of Duty: Lethal Combat, is also included. Unfortunately, neither of these names gives us any idea where Sledgehammer is taking the Call of Duty franchise next.

Electronic Arts has four titles on the list, including Mass Effect: Andromeda. The other three are all listed under codenames, so all we can do is speculate as to what “Project X(AKA “Delta”), “Walrus,” and “Yuma” refer to.

WB Games also has four titles on the list, all under codenames: “Lego Zeus,” “Metallica,” “Sabbath,” and “Kraken.” I know it’s just following the naming convention established by the others, but I would love a Lego retelling of the Greek myths.

Another mystery game is in the works at Take-Two, and it has three codenames. Dust (AKA “Dark Future & Aces High”) could be literally anything. However, the references to gambling and deserts might lead some to make the leap to Red Dead Redemption 2.

Insomniac has a single game in the non-struck list and it goes by the codename “Sleepless.” It’s possible that “Sleepless” is a stand-in for their Spider-Man game, which does take place in “The City That Never Sleeps.” I’d also wager that Final Fantasy Black is actually a codename for Final Fantasy XV, which has previously been referred to by Square Enix executives as the “dark side” to Final Fantasy XIII‘s “light side.”

Finally, a listing for Project Atlas (AKA “Saints Row”) is no doubt referring to Volition’s recently announced Agents of Mayhem, which is said to take place in the same universe as Saints Row.

The SAG-AFTRA union plans to hold a second picket this Thursday, November 3, in front of the offices of WB Games in Burbank.

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