Microsoft has been dominating the automotive simulation scene for the last few years, and that streak looks to continue this week with the release of Forza Motorsport 6 for the Xbox One. This new entry in the franchise includes over 450 Forzavista cars with “working cockpits and full damage.” Even if you limited yourself to eating, sleeping, and playing Forza 6, it would still take you a long, long time to see everything the game has to offer.
Also available to download this week through the Xbox Games Store is Destiny: The Taken King, the final chapter in Destiny’s “Year One” storyline. Players who have defeated Crota will now find themselves face-to-face with Oryx, his very mad dad, and a rampaging army of alien zombies. Yikes. Destiny: The Taken King is now available to download on the Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Finally this week, sports gamers will get a double dose of new sports simulations with EA Sports’s NHL 16 (Xbox One) and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Xbox One, Xbox 360). Whether you prefer the pitch or the ice, there’s something new for you this week.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break.
It’s a wild day today! It’s the middle of the week, that sweet ol’ Wednesday, and I’m heading off to another great Girl Geek Dinners talk after work. Tonight’s talk is by Adrienne Shaw, author of Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture. I’m really excited!
We’re down to the final hours of the Super Slam Showdown Weekly Bundle! I highly recommend bypassing all other tiers and just giving them $7 or more for Sportsfriends. You can’t go wrong!
The Midweek Madness at Steam is on Life Is Strange. You can get episodes one through five for 20% off right now – just $15.99. The Daily Deal is early access to TerraTech. Get the game for $13.99, and add in the DLC for $6.99. Or grab the Deluxe Edition for $20.29.
Some good shirts today, especially for Link fans, Squids, and Kids!
Telltale Games has announces that Minecraft: Story Mode, their episodic adventuring adaptation of Mojang’s Minecraft, will kick off on October 13 with the release of Episode 1 (The Order of the Stone) for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and iOS/Android mobile devices. A special Season Pass Disc will also be available on October 27, which will include the first episode on the disc and online access to subsequent episodes as they’re released.
“Developed in partnership with our friends at Mojang, this all-ages adventure series kicks off a thrilling story full of many elements essential to the world of Minecraft, combined with Telltale’s trademark choice-based gameplay,” said Kevin Bruner, the CEO and co-founder of Telltale Games. “There are plenty of exciting details we’ve been keeping under wraps, and we’re thrilled that players will soon be starting their own adventure through the Nether to the Farlands and beyond with Jesse and The Order of the Stone.”
In other exciting news, Minecraft: Story Mode will also be available for the Wii U and Vita at some future date. This is the first time a Telltale adventure game, or any version of Minecraft, will appear on the Wii U… and just in time for the console’s likely replacement by the NX next year.
Kingdom Hearts III might be even further away than we feared. During this week’s Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced plans to release a remake of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for the PS4 as Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue. Presumably, this prologue would appear in stores before Kingdom Hearts III, but we’re more in the dark on that than ever because Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue doesn’t have an official release date yet.
However, we do know that the remake will include a “Full HD” version of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, which was originally released for the 3DS in 2012. The package will also include two bonus episodes that further links the Kingdom Hearts story:
Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage
A completely new playable episode that links to the story of Kingdom Hearts III, taking place after the storyline of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep played from the perspective of Aqua.
Kingdom Hearts X [chi] Back Cover
A new HD movie that tells the mysterious story of the Foretellers, connecting the earliest parts of the series’ history, showcased in the upcoming mobile title Kingdom Hearts Unchained X [chi].
Square Enix also announced that the first trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue will be available beginning tomorrow, September 17. For now, you’ll have to make due with the first five screenshots, which you can see after the break.
Are you ready to take on the Taken King? Destiny‘s “Year One” is almost at the end, but there’s still one more major expansion on the way. Destiny: The Taken King will ask players on the PS4 and PS3 to do battle with the army of Oryx, The Taken King, who is looking to avenge the death of his son Crota.
Also available on the PlayStation Store this week are a pair of sports titles that are sure to get the Fall/Winter athletes out there excited. Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 was released this week for the PS4 and PS3, and it includes “new and improved features” for its 20th year on the pitch. However, if you prefer your sports surfaces to be a bit colder, EA Sports will also release NHL 16 (PS4) and NHL: Legacy Edition (PS3) this week for hockey fans.
You can learn more about all three of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break. And don’t forget to check out the PlayStation Blog for a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts.
If Richard Attenborough were still alive, I think WB Games would have hired him to gleefully exclaim that the publisher spared no expense when assembling the voice cast for Lego Dimensions. Unfortunately, the great actor passed away last year. But just try to picture the giant sacks of money it must have required to secure the services of this talented ensemble anyway…
Michael J. Fox (as Marty McFly) and Christopher Lloyd (as Doc Brown) will reprise their roles from the Back to the Future trilogy. Several actors from another 1980s favorite, Ghostbusters, will also get a chance to cross the streams and interact with the rest of the cast. And speaking of g-g-ghosts, Matthew Lillard (as Shaggy) will ride with Scooby-Doo in the Mystery Machine.
Chris Pratt will pull double duty in the game as Emmet from The Lego Movie and Owen Grady from Jurassic World. He’ll be joined by Elizabeth Banks (as Wyldstyle), Alison Brie (as Unikitty), and Charlie Day (as Benny) from The Lego Movie, but don’t think his Jurassic World co-stars turned down this chance. Bryce Dallas Howard (as Claire Dearing), Irrfan Khan (as Simon Masrani), Nick Robinson (as Zach, one of the kids), and Ty Simpkins (as Gray, the other kid) will fight dinosaurs one more time.
“Who” else could be joining the game? How about Peter Capaldi (as the Twelfth Doctor), Jenna Coleman (as Clara Oswald), and Michelle Gomez (as Missy) from Doctor Who… Best of all, they’re not coming alone. Every actor who has played the Doctor (including David Tenant, Matt Smith, Christopher Eccleston, Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, and William Hartnell) will lend his voice (or archival audio for the deceased actors) to Lego Dimensions.
The DC Universe will be represented by Troy Baker (as Batman), Tara Strong (as Harley Quinn), Laura Bailey (as Wonder Woman), and Travis Willingham (as Superman). Meanwhile, WB Games has recruited two members of the Fellowship from The Lord of the Rings: Tom Kane (as Gandalf) and Sean Astin (as Samwise Gamgee). Several cast members from The Simpsons will also drop by as part of the game’s trip to Springfield.
Lego Dimensions includes a lot of portals, so Stephen Merchant (as Wheatley), Ellen McLain (as GLaDOS), and J.K. Simmons (as Cave Johnson) from Portal 2 should fit right in. Nolan North is also around (in a currently unknown role) because you can’t assemble a video game voice cast in 2015 without including Nolan North. I think it’s a union rule or something…
Finally, two original characters, Joel McHale (as your robotic guide, X-PO) and Gary Oldman (as the villainous Lord Vortech), will help propel the plot of Lego Dimensions forward.
Lego Dimensions will be released for the PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on September 27.
It is perhaps somewhat ironic that Bacon Man appeared in July 2014’s Common Creative Wealth Edition of Kickstart This! While athletes from around the world competed in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the developers at Skymap Games were hard at work campaigning for their project, which stars an anthropomorphized version of the fatty foodstuff in a surreal Earthworm Jim-style platformer. The game achieved its funding target of $20,000 (with an extra $1,280 to spare), and is expected to be released for the PC and Xbox One before the end of the year.
Neal Laurenza, Managing Director at Skymap, recently sat down with us to share a slab of bacon and to discuss Bacon Man. While we pondered if the breakfast staple proves the existence of God, we also talked about the game’s Kickstarter campaign, how bad emails can do good things, and other sizzling topics.
In my free time – that is to say, the time I should spend sleeping – I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the latest in hot games. Armello is up there, as is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, as well as Xeodrifter. What new games are you playing these days?
Over at Humble, there’s the brand new Humble Total War Bundle. Pay what you want for Medieval II: Total War Collection, Viking: Battle for Asgard, Shogun: Total War Collection, a beta access key for Total War: Arena, Total War Battles: Kingdom, the soundtrack for Total War: Rome, the Exclusive Total War: Warhammer Illustrated Campaign Map, and the Total War eBooks.
That’s not all! Beat the average to unlock Medieval: Total War Collection, Empire: Total War Collection, and in-game gold for Total War: Arena, as well as a coupon for 66% off Total War: Attila. Pay $16 or more to unlock Total War: Rome II – Emperor Edition, as well as four packs: Wrath of Sparta, Caesar in Gaul, Nomadic Tribes, and Pirates and Raiders. Finally, if you want all that and a cool t-shirt, pay just $30.
The Midweek Madness at Steam is 80% off the Amnesia and Penumbra franchises. You can also play Amnesia: The Dark Descent for free until Wednesday morning at 10am PST. The Daily Deal is Magicka 2. Get the game for $10.04 or buy the Deluxe Edition for $16.74. You can also get a four pack for $33.49, or upgrade your current game to deluxe for $6.70.
It’s a wild day today! It’s the middle of the week, that sweet ol’ Wednesday, and I’m heading off to another great Girl Geek Dinners talk after work. Tonight’s talk is by Adrienne Shaw, author of 
