The Witcher 3, Farming Simulator 15, Life Is Strange: Episode 3 added to PS Store

Posted on May 20, 2015 by John Scalzo

witcher3-header

Woo hoo Witcher man see how high he flies
Woo hoo Witcher man he got the moon in his eye

Nah, doesn’t have the right ring to it… Lyrical paraphrasing aside, CD Projekt finally added The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to the PlayStation Store this week and the final adventure of Geralt of Rivia can now be explored in full. And explored, and explored some more, as The Witcher 3 is supposed to be an absolutely massive open-world RPG.

If hunting isn’t your thing, how about farming? Farming Simulator 15 is now available on the PlayStation Store for the PS3 and PS4 courtesy of publisher Focus Home Interactive. Farming Simulator 15 is said to feature a “brand new graphics and physics engine” for the most realistic farming ever and online multiplayer.

Also available this week is Life Is Strange: Chaos Theory (PS3, PS4), the third episode in Dontnod’s episodic adventure series. Max and Chloe have found even more “dark secrets” within the walls of Blackwell Academy and the pending apocalypse is closer than ever. Good thing Max can rewind time.

Finally this week, HyperDimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed transforms the HyperDimension Neptunia franchise into a hack and slash brawler for the first time. The Vita game features “frenzies of enemies” and a “whirlwind” of special attacks.

More details on all of these games can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog.

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

Kickstart This! CCTV Nation, Overdosed, Power Drive 2000

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Andrew Rainnie

While my own Kickstarter campaign, The Illuminant Midnight Project, didn’t reach its funding goal, the first big crowdfunding story of 2015, Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee, zoomed past its initial funding goal of £1,000,000 in less than 24 hours, and met its “final” stretch goal a few days later, pushing Playtonic to add further stretch goals. The campaign still has a little less than a month left to run, so there is little doubt it will reach the £2,000,000 goal of free DLC for everybody. The campaign’s success has been built on months of anticipation, coupled with a sweet price point for backers. I pledged £15 to get the game on Wii U, which is insanely good value for the money.

Of course, the former Rare employees have two decades worth of nostalgia to help them succeed, whereas other developers must rely on more modest means to help them complete their gaming projects, bringing us to this week’s Kickstart This! We start with the curious augmented reality game CCTV Nation, before plunging into the depths of hell with top-down shooterOverdosed. Finally, there is stunning sci-fi racer Power Drive 2000.

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…

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Posted in Features, Mobile, PC, Top Story |

Daily Scoop: May 19, 2015 – Just more games and shirts

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Nicole Kline

It’s Tuesday! Which is actually kind of depressing. I hate to be one of those “I can’t wait until Friday” people, but when it’s only Tuesday and it feels like an entire week has gone by, you know you’re in trouble.

Anyway, let’s talk about deals! There are lots of sales happening over at the Humble Store. You can get the absurdly awesome Shovel Knight for $9.99, Worms Blast for $0.99, Crypt of the Necrodancer for $10.04, and one of my personal favorites, Papers, Please, for $2.99.

Meanwhile, at Steam, the Midweek Madness is Assetto Corsa. You can pick up this racing game for just $24.99, or get it plus the Dream Pack for $32.99. The Daily Deal is BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, which is $14.99. You can also get BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger for just $2.49.

And now, for today’s t-shirts!

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Posted in Daily Scoop |

H-Hour: World’s Elite gets a new trailer after being added to Steam Early Access today

Posted on May 19, 2015 by John Scalzo

H-Hour: World’s Elite, a tactical military shooter that is being billed as the spiritual successor to SOCOM, was originally scheduled to be released through Steam’s Early Access program on April 21. Unfortunately, SOF Studios hit a bit of a snag, and was forced to delay the game’s Steam debut to May 19… wait a minute, that’s today!

According to the development team, H-Hour is currently available through Early Access in a “pre-alpha” state. So if you’re looking for a “full-featured game without bugs,” you may want to wait before pushing the “Purchase” trigger. As of today, SOF plans to release the final version of H-Hour in late 2015/early 2016, but these things can change at a moment’s notice.

Players who plan to jump in to H-Hour: World’s Elite will find the basic framework of the game: “lobbies, 8v8 matches, several maps, two game modes, and weapon and armament selection for characters.” SOF Studios is also promising players will get a realistic military shooter right from the start:

H-Hour: World’s Elite is a tactical, team-based military shooter in which cooperation among players is required for success. The game uses a third-person “battlefield” perspective to enhance the player’s situational awareness, allowing for more strategic game play. The design philosophy is simple: bullets are lethal and players who fail to work with their teammates will not last long, just as in the real world.

H-Hour: World’s Elite’s missions and settings are inspired by real world events—based on the personal stories and recollections of US Special Operations veterans – repurposed and staged in new and equally deadly locations for the purposes of preserving national security. All missions are presented in a plausible and realistic manner.

H-Hour: World’s Elite is also in development for the PS4. Presumably, we’ll learn more about that version of the game when the Early Access period comes to an end.

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Get your first look at M. Bison in this new Street Fighter V trailer

Posted on May 19, 2015 by John Scalzo

“For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.”

Capcom first teased M. Bison’s Street Fighter V debut back in February (also a Tuesday, for the record). Today, the publisher is ready to deliver a full trailer for the boss, giving gamers a first look at his brand new Psycho Powers including a projectile block that tosses out a fireball of his own in return.

Street Fighter V will be released for the PC and PS4 sometime next year, possibly in the Spring. Everyone who pre-orders Street Fighter V will be eligible to join a closed beta test, which should take place later this year.

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Catlateral Damage will be released on Steam, Ouya next week

Posted on May 19, 2015 by John Scalzo

Have you ever wanted to become a cat? Now you can… in Catlateral Damage. The game, from developer Chris Chung, will be released for the PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) via Steam and the Android-powered Ouya microconsole on May 27.

Players will have all the freedom of their favorite feline as they embrace their cat’s uncaring nature and completely wreck the house without any sense of remorse or shame. Catlateral Damage will include a wide variety of procedurally-generated levels including an entire suburban home, a supermarket, and a museum. Knock dishes off the counter! Tear up unread magazines! Destroy priceless family heirlooms and antiquities! The choice is yours!

Act now and you can also view the brand new “Informercial” trailer for Catlateral Damage, which has been embedded above.

Posted in Mobile, News, PC | Tagged

This is what Doom 4 used to look like

Posted on May 19, 2015 by John Scalzo

Yesterday, Bethesda confirmed we’ll get our first look at Doom 4 during their E3 Press Conference next month. But it won’t be the same version of Doom 4 that id Software originally began development on in 2008.

A short video clip from that version made its way onto Doomworld yesterday and it’s startling to say the least. Instead of the “back-to-basics” version that Bethesda showed off at QuakeCon 2014, this version of Doom 4 would have taken a few cues from Call of Duty and infused its “military shooter” mileau into Doom’s “humans versus demons” DNA. In the 30-second video, we see a whole platoon of soldiers gear up to square off against the invading denizens of Hell. It doesn’t look much like the franchise we all know and love, but it actually fits with the modern retelling of Doom II: Hell on Earth that id was supposedly working on at the time. The idea was to create a remake/reboot that could be paired with Doom 3‘s modern resurrection of the original Doom storyline.

Kotaku has confirmed the clip’s authenticity, saying it came from a trailer that was being cut together by Blur Studio. While I’m a little disappointed we’ll never get to play this version of Doom 4 (it looks completely bonkers), the throwback version of the game that’s coming has me truly excited.

Perhaps it’s for the best, as id’s Tim Willits said “it did not have the soul [of Doom]” and “it didn’t have a personality” in 2013.

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Take-Two CEO doesn’t know anything about GTA5 story expansion

Posted on May 19, 2015 by John Scalzo

grandtheftautov-box-largeWay back in December 2013, Rockstar Games announced that at least one “Story Mode Update” would be released for Grand Theft Auto V. The developer said they had “big plans” on how to expand the story, with the first expansion scheduled to launch in 2014.

Unless your name is Rip Van Winkle, you’re probably quite aware that we’re now in 2015 and no story expansions to Grand Theft Auto V have ever materialized. Instead, Rockstar has focused on the PS4/Xbox One port of Grand Theft Auto V, as well as GTA Online enhancements like Heists Mode. To further rub salt into the wound, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said he didn’t know anything about the expansion during yesterday’s investor Q&A:

Doug Creutz: When you had originally launched GTA5, I believe that you had said that there was going to be some story-based DLC content shipping eventually and obviously where your past game launch. Is that still something that you have planned? And I’m sure you’re not going to talk about timing but is there still something that’s in the pipeline for you guys, eventually? Thank you.

Strauss Zelnick: No, we haven’t discussed any story-based downloadable content. We did talk about the Heists and they’ve been released.

Doug Creutz: But I am correct in remembering that you had talked about that around the launch of the game?

Strauss Zelnick: We have different recollections.

Sadly for Zelnick, Take-Two executives also mentioned the work being done on GTA5’s story expansion so he owes Mr. Creutz an apology this morning. So what happened between then and now? Speaking to GameSpot, a Take-Two spokesman said that Zelnick “misspoke” and that “we leave it to Rockstar Games to share information about their games when they’re ready.”

While Take-Two has always deferred to Rockstar to make announcements on their own time, it’s troubling that the CEO of the company doesn’t remember a fairly major announcement concerning his most important product. It’s possible the Grand Theft Auto V story expansion is dead, but it’s just as possible Rockstar is working on it in secret. However, after the success of GTA Online, I think the latter scenario is unlikely.

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