XCOM: Enemy Within, Injustice: Ultimate Edition, more added to PS Store

Posted on November 13, 2013 by John Scalzo

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The last pre-PS4 PlayStation Store update is full of this Fall’s biggest PS3 releases…

  • 2K Games released the alien invasion expansion XCOM: Enemy Within.
  • WB Games released a bigger Injustice: Gods Among Us package with the “Ultimate Edition.”
  • Ratchet & Clank rode off into the sunset in Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus.
  • And Sony expanded the Wonderbook line of games with Diggs Nightcrawler and Walking With Dinosaurs.

Also available this week is a Cross-Buy version of Flower that will add the title to the game library on your PS3, Vita, and PS4.

More information on all of these games (and a few others) can be found after the break and a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons is available at the PlayStation Blog.

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Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus Review: One Last No Frills Ride

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Michael Martin

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It can be a little intimidating to jump into the epilogue of a series when you’ve only sparingly dabbled in the franchise throughout the years. But Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus offers everything one would expect it to; steady gameplay with outlandish upgradeable weapons and some wise-cracking humor to go with a no frills sci-fi adventure. A few new mechanics have been added to spice up the mix to make Into the Nexus a solid but brief final entry that doesn’t go out of its way to be great as Ratchet and Clank ride off into the sunset with the PS3.

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WB Games announces Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Posted on November 12, 2013 by John Scalzo

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.

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PS4 Trophies will also be classified by rarity

Posted on November 12, 2013 by John Scalzo

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OK, this is neat. The Trophy system on the PS4 will work very similarly to the current system employed by the PS3 and the Vita. Trophies will be sorted by difficulty level (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) and earning all Trophies in a game will once again unlock a Platinum Trophy.

However, PS4 Trophies will also be classified by rarity.

In addition to their difficulty rank, Trophies will be tagged with a rarity indicator: Common, Rare, Very Rare, or Ultra Rare. A Trophy might be considered Rare, Very Rare, or Ultra Rare because its hard to obtain. But it might also receive that designation because few PS4 players have played the game it belongs to. A Trophy’s rarity will be constantly recalculated so a Trophy that’s Ultra Rare today could be Common by tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, the PS4 will officially be available when the clock strikes midnight tomorrow night.

[Source: Kotaku]

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Sixth World of Warcraft expansion already in the works

Posted on November 12, 2013 by John Scalzo

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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Dead Rising 3 story trailer rises ahead of November 22 launch

Posted on November 11, 2013 by John Scalzo

The Dead Rising franchise is probably best known for the copious amounts of crazy Capcom has crammed into it. So more than a few gamers have been disappointed by how straight Dead Rising 3 has played it. They ask, “Where are the zombie shenanigans?” This new “Story Trailer” for Dead Rising 3 doesn’t really change trajectory, but it does give us an idea of the sheer sense of scale of the zombie outbreak. Hopefully, Capcom Vancouver has a few surprises in store for us.

Dead Rising 3, and the Xbox One console, will be available on November 22.

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GAME announces additional next gen bundle deals for UK gamers

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Andrew Rainnie

gamegroup-logoIn addition to several previously announced packages, Video Gamer reports that UK retailer GAME has a number of new bundles they plan to make available to customers savvy enough to pre-order either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Both consoles will come with four tier options; Value, Movie, Premium, and Epic.

The Value package for the PS4 comes in at a cool £389.99 and is bundled with one additional game, with players being able to choose from the much anticipated Killzone: Shadow Fall, platformer Knack, as well as the latest entry in two of EA’s biggest franchises, Battlefield 4 and Need for Speed: Rivals. Curiously, there is also the option to take home Putty Squad, the remake of an unreleased Amiga game. There are also some sport options available, including FIFA 14, Madden NFL 14, and NBA 2K14. The Xbox One Value pack (priced at £469.99) also comes with the option of these sports titles, although gamers can get FIFA 14 or Forza Motorsport 5 free, in addition to another game. These include Ryse: Son of Rome, Dead Rising 3, as well as the EA titles mentioned above.

The Movie pack adds the option of taking home two new Blu-ray titles as well as one game for £414.99 for the PS4 or £499.99 for the Xbox One. Such titles include robot rampage Pacific Rim, hilarious cartoon comedy Despicable Me 2, and superior X-Men sequel The Wolverine. The hairy Canadian is not the only superhero in consideration, with Man of Steel and Kick-Ass 2 also on offer, along with British smash Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.

The Premium pack is where things get exciting. For the Xbox One, it removes one of the Blu-ray titles and replaces it with a 12-month Gold subscription to Xbox Live for a grand total of £509.99. The PlayStation 4’s Premium pack, priced at a cool £449.99 means you can take home two games and two Blu-ray films.

Last, and most expensive, the Epic Pack for the PS4 chucks in another Blu-ray film from the list, and includes a GAMEware starter kit including a headset, vertical stand, and a handy dual controller charging station, all for £484.99. The Xbox One Epic package comes with the same two-game, three-film combo, although no Xbox Live subscription, yet it sports a similar starter kit, but includes a Play & Charge kit, HDMI cable, and Kinect wall mount and clip, with a total bill of £549.99

The Xbox One is the first next-gen console out of the gate in the UK, releasing on Friday, November 22. The PlayStation 4 will be playing catch-up when it is released exactly one week later on Friday the 29th.

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League of Legends: What to Expect From Season 4

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Zackery Cote

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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.

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