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Free 'Dishonored 2' Events Will Allow Fans to Play It Early[teaser]Taking place in three of America's biggest cities.[/teaser] Bethesda has announced that they will be holding three separate 'Dishonored 2' events before the first-person stealth title releases November 11th. These events, which are titled 'Karnaca Needs You!,' will be free to attend, and are open to all ages despite the game being M-rated. Not only will players get to enjoy themed food and drinks, they'll also get a chance to participate in a scavenger hunt (with the winner getting a custom Xbox One or PS4). Oh, and they'll get to go hands-on the game. The first of the three events will take place at Smokestack at Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco on Wednesday, September 28th. October 3rd will see the follow-up show in Los Angeles, which will take place at The Edison. Finally, the events will come to a close October 6th as 'Dishonored 2' will be playable at The Jane in New York. Those interested in attending can RSVP over at the official website. 'Dishonored 2' releases November 11th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. You can find the latest info on 'Dishonored 2' linked from our Video Game Release Schedule. Source: BethesdaPosted Wed Sep 21, 2016 at 08:14 PM PDT by: -
City Management, Interstellar Edition: 'Aven Colony' Early Access Impressions[teaser]The Mothership has landed.[/teaser] 'Aven Colony' is a recently announced city management sim from Mothership Games, scheduled for release in early 2017. It has entered early access/beta on itch.io and Steam, so we took a trip off to Aven Prime for a few hours to see what life as an space governor is like. (Note: the Steam beta is currently private.) Development on 'Aven Colony' has been humming along quietly for over two years, so the beta has much more content than I would normally expect from an early access game. Several different planetary biomes are available, each with their own environmental traits and missions. As you might expect from a human settlement, food is the most important consideration (after air I suppose, but no problem there because these colonies are hermetically sealed against the thin atmosphere of Aven). Colder colonies have a more difficult time growing food, as do deserts and wastelands. In one mission, the lander has been blown off course far from fertile soil, so the nascent colony must trade for food until it has accumulated enough resources for big greenhouses. Each scenario plays out not unlike the town building sims that have come before, like 'SimCity' and 'Tropico'. Underneath the mundane layer of buildings is a huge network of overlays that relate the status of the citizenry. These people need to be fed, watered, entertained, employed, and housed in order to function appropriately and more importantly, keep electing me as their planetary governor. There are underhanded ways to manipulate them of course, like a steady supply of narcotics I can crank out from chemical distilleries to keep them pacified and happy. Drug use has to be carefully monitored - the withdrawal effects are usually much worse than if they had never used them at all, so a steady supply and decent healthcare is necessary to avoid deleterious effects. The game gives plenty of resources to manage drug use and a great many other social trends. Automated drones carry out the governor's orders by building and upgrading the structures vital to the colony's survival. Power, water, agriculture, mining, crime, and even air quality must be monitored and constantly expanded to provide for growth. There are several speeds available, but things happen quickly enough that I usually stay on 1x. Instead of feeling nagged by constant requests and objectives, I love micromanaging the colony (requests and objectives do come often, but at least they have worthwhile rewards). My first few colonies kind of sucked, but I could quickly raze sections and rebuild them when I had learned how to properly manage roadways, commuting, employment statistics, and so forth. The citizens walk everywhere and thereby require an extensive system of tunnels to get around, so to reduce their commute, each section of the colony has to have a level of self-sufficiency. If I build all of the apartments in one part of town and the science/engineering district somewhere else, these lazy workers have to march across the city to get to work, and they don't particularly enjoy that. The planetary votes that hit after the colony reaches a certain size have a singular purpose. If I focus solely on growth and trade, neglecting to build creature comforts like parks, VR booths, and retail centers, happiness will be low and someone else will be elected. Frequent polls inform me of what I need to work on, and combined with the informative overlay system, I only have myself to blame if the people are suffering. This differs from 'Tropico' where happiness and law enforcement are more difficult to use properly. In 'Aven Colony', the interface is sharp and clear. There are a few quality of life issues of a minor nature, such as the inability to stop iron production for the whole colony when I want to export that particular substance (instead, each ore facility has to be individually modified), or the mill not being able to queue up a certain amount of flour instead of running through my entire wheat supply. These are things that can probably be tweaked before release if Mothership so desires. Trade with the orbital ship is very important. Not all of the harvestable materials are immediately useful; some have to be processed in mills or other buildings to get any value out of them. These projects must also be researched and farmed. Despite its importance, the trade system is a little thin and I wouldn't mind seeing more options for resources, like being able to cherry-pick certain rewards or a few more levels in the value chain. Even with the current resource system, 'Aven Colony' is the rare management sim where I don't have to wait around or speed up time extensively for things to happen. The colony has so many different systems to manage that I had nearly the perfect level of engagement at all times. Powered by Unreal 4, 'Aven Colony' looks very pretty even in this early stage. It has a convincingly alien palette, with truly weird flora covering the planet's surface and involved environmental effects to go along with the seasonal changes. There are a few creatures that can occasionally plague the colony ("creep" is a contagious building infector that functions like fire in other sims, for instance), and they have an equally strange appearance. On some maps, mission objectives require the colony to study or interact with local artifacts, which provide another layer of involvement other than "grow this colony as big as you can" (which is still a very fun objective). For some time now Steam has been flooded with early access games of all stripes. Some of them are worth the cost of entry and many are not, but 'Aven Colony' is firmly in the former class. It mixes realistic sci-fi with likeable, easy-to-learn management mechanics. There are many scenarios listed in the menu that aren't yet playable, so hopefully we can expect more missions and objectives from Mothership in the months before release.Posted Wed Sep 21, 2016 at 12:00 PM PDT by: -
'Gears of War 4' Launch Trailer Released[teaser]Gives us a major look at the game's plot.[/teaser] Microsoft has released a new launch trailer for The Coaltion's upcoming third-person horror shooter 'Gears of War 4', due out for release on October 11th. You can check out the new trailer showing off the game's story right here. As is something of a tradition for the series at this point, it features a cover of an old song, in this case Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters', covered by Lissie: The game sees a return to the first entry's horror overtones, casting players as JD Fenix, the son of old series protagonist Marcus Fenix, as he and his friends try to save thier loved ones after surviving an attack on their hometown. As someone who started playing the games because of the horror aspects, I'm glad to see this one giving that a major emphasis. The game will be available on Xbox One and Windows 10 on October 11th. Source: MicrosoftPosted Wed Sep 21, 2016 at 06:38 AM PDT by: -
'Persona 5' Becomes Fastest Selling Entry in Franchise History[teaser]PS4 sales shot up dramatically in Japan.[/teaser] Today, sales have been released for 'Persona 5' following its debut in Japan last week. Thanks to a variety of factors such as the extremely positive reception 'Persona 4' received over time, as well as a recent price drop for the PS4 in Japan as a result of the PS4 Slim being released, the game has become the fastest selling 'Persona' game to date. The game has sold 264,793 copies on PS4, and 72,924 copies on PS3. By comparison, 'Persona 3' opened at 127,472 copies, and 'Persona 4' opened at 152,499 copies sold. The PS4 itself saw a huge uptick in sales, selling 96,433 units this week. This is a terrific success for the franchise, and I'm going to be curious to see how it sells in the West. The game received a healthy bump when 'Final Fantasy XV' was delayed from its original September release date, leading to pre-orders of 'Persona 5' to jump 450%, and launching this close to the PS4 Slim was terrific timing. It's a bold, ambitious game, and I'm glad to see it paid off for Atlus and Sony. 'Persona 5' will see an English release in February 2017. Source: AtlusPosted Wed Sep 21, 2016 at 06:27 AM PDT by: -
With 'Forza Horizon 3' Comes HDR Gaming, Come See the Review[teaser]This is demo material.[/teaser] With something of a staggered release model, 'Forza Horizon 3' has two release dates. This Friday is the day for 'Ultimate Edition' buyers and Next Tuesday, September 27th, is the day for everything else. And of course, there is a little more to it. 'Forza Horizon 3' is Microsoft's first HDR-enabled game, which makes it the long (E3 2016) promised Xbox One S showcase. But of course, it also plays on the original Xbox One, and, thanks to the new Play Anywhere initiative, getting the digital Xbox One version will also net the buyer a cross play and cross save Windows 10 version. But if you check out the 'Forza Horizon 3 Ultimate Edition' review (see here), you may find that this sequel has broken the mold. Or at least, given the player the tools needed to make their own racing game mold. With so many cars in such a beautiful and fun setting, this kind of access changes what can be done, and how it feels to play the game for any extent of time. One thing to mention here. I have a whole bunch of screen captures I took of the game in HDR mode (and a video), but none of it came out in a way where I can share it. In these early days of HDR gaming (like very early days), there are some challenges. (Such as finding the in-game HDR adjustment.) As a reminder, HDR is only for specific Xbox One titles, and HDR is limited to the new Xbox One S console (see the 2TB console review here). You can find the latest info on 'Forza Horizon 3' linked from our Video Game Release Schedule. Order from Amazon Order from Amazon Order from AmazonPosted Tue Sep 20, 2016 at 06:11 AM PDT by: -
'New Danganronpa V3' Details and Boxart Revealed[teaser]New characters, plot details, and more.[/teaser] Spike Chunsoft has revealed a ton of new details for the upcoming 'New Danganronpa V3', the third mainline entry in their popular muder mystery series. The game will take place in an entirely new setting and feature a totally separate cast from the previous games, being set in an academy for extremely gifted delinquents who are treated like inmates. Trials will introduce new mechanics such as bluffing in order to make everything move a little more smoothly, as well as Scrum Debates that divide the group into two teams. When the game starts, the school is totally overrun with greenery. The protagonist is Kaede Akamatsu, a responsible girl with a bright and positive personality who is something of a natural leader who takes charge when she needs to. In place of Monokuma, the usual series mascot, the game will have five "children of Monokuma" who control the school and oversee the killing game. Each one will have a totally distinct personality. Lastly, the Japanese boxart for the game has been revealed, which you can see right here: The game is due to launch in Japan in January on PS4 and Vita. No localization has been confirmed, but given the popularity of the series in the West, it's extremely likely we'll hear news about that soon enough. Source: Spike ChunsoftPosted Tue Sep 20, 2016 at 06:09 AM PDT by: -
'Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom' Releasing in December[teaser]Get a look at Engami's great looking Fighting/RPG hybrid.[/teaser] Today, publisher Focus Home Interactive has announced that Enigami's 'Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom' will be released this December. Additionally, the publlisher has released a new developer diary for the title, which you can catch right here: The game is a hybrid of RPG and fighting game mechanics, where each battle takes the form of 3D arena-based fights. The story is described as follows: Walk deep inside the corrupted forest of Meonis, a land originally inhabited by Meonians. This old civilization once lived in harmony with the nature, but fled to Mantara City in order to escape the Curse of Adorn. Meonis forest is now infested by evil creatures from the obscure Shi, and home to the palace of the dead King Meos, a dark place where only the bravest of heroes would dare visit. Further in the North, at the Peak of Shiyawo Mountains, Chado observes the Hall of Giants - the only gate for exiled people to access the lands of Adorya. Source: Focus Home InteractivePosted Tue Sep 20, 2016 at 06:09 AM PDT by: -
Latest 'Destiny' Expansion 'Rise of Iron' Launches Tomorrow[teaser]Guardians might want to take a sick day.[/teaser] Bungie's latest expansion for their hit first-person shooter 'Destiny' arrives on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One tomorrow. Called 'Destiny: Rise of Iron,' the $29.99 expansion will occur on a new part of Earth called the Plaguelands (which comes with a new hub called Felwinter Peak). In addition to brand new story content, it'll include a six-player Raid called the "Wrath of the Machine," and an assortment of new weapons, multiplayer modes (including private matches) and maps. That's a lot of new content, and it really shows how far the base game has been completely reinvented since 'Destiny' originally released two years ago. Since then, Bungie and Activision have shipped Destiny Expansion I: The Dark Below, Expansion II: House of Wolves, 'The Taken King,' and 'Rise of Iron.' New (and existing) players can actually get all of that content by purchasing 'Destiny - The Collection,' a new physical release that includes all of the content released to this point for $59.99. That's quite the deal. Like previous 'Destiny' releases, PlayStation 4 owners will be able to enjoy a bunch of exclusive bonuses. This includes an exclusive quest line called 'Show of Strength' that will give players access to a pretty rad looking ship. PlayStation owners will also get access to a new multiplayer map called Icarus. Previous "PlayStation-exclusive" content has come to Xbox One in the past, so this could very well be a timed-exclusive for now. So, Guardians on Xbox One shouldn't totally give up on piloting the Timeless Tereshkova. 'Destiny: Rise of Iron' releases tomorrow, September 20th, on PlayStation and Xbox One. It'll cost existing players $29.99, while those looking to upgrade can pick up 'Destiny - The Collection' for $59.99. You can find the latest info on 'Destiny: Rise of Iron' linked from our Video Game Release Schedule. Order from Amazon Order from Amazon Order from Amazon Source: BungiePosted Mon Sep 19, 2016 at 07:41 PM PDT by: -
Co-Opting the Magic Police: 'Divinity Original Sin II' Early Access Impressions[teaser]Can the Kickstarter darling catch lightning in a bottle twice?[/teaser] Belgian studio Larian has been working on the 'Divinity' franchise for the better part of fifteen years. Once relegated to the niche world of fantasy strategy, their million dollar Kickstarter campaign for 'Divinity: Original Sin' brought them into the spotlight, heightened by the game's high reviews and subsequent console re-release. The upcoming 'Divinity: Original Sin II,' which, like its predecessor, offers co-op, did one better at $2 million and is headed for a full release this December with all stretch goals intact. This last week it entered Steam's Early Access as an alpha build, so I recruited a hapless friend for co-op and we descended into the mythology of Rivellon. 'Divinity' is a classic RPG, turn-based and all. It resembles 'Pillars of Eternity' and I suspect that it also shares that game's inspirations, namely the Infinity Engine games of the 90s and of course 'Dungeons & Dragons'. Each player can move and carry out abilities in a turn until their action points are spent, and then the next character in initiative goes. There are spells and special attacks galore, and also a large amount of grenades, arrows, and other items to give a party the edge in battle. Movement is very important and attempting to flee from an opponent could result in attacks of opportunity. Elevation gives bonuses to archers, and other environmental variables like pools of water and oil provide opportunities for elemental traps. The alpha only includes the game's first act, a large exterior beach map where the party washes up on shore after a shipwreck. We both had glowing collars around our neck and soon learned that the island was in fact a prison colony which houses magic-users known as "sourcerers". The Source is a font of ancient power that has been corrupted, and the wizards who are able to use it are considered extremely dangerous. The island's only settlement, a ghetto ironically called Fort Joy, is lightly guarded by magic police. Even with the police present we are free to do as we please, including robbing from and murdering the populace to our heart's desire, as long as we can defend ourselves. My co-prisoner and I wandered the island for several hours, looking for fights and treasure on the outskirts of the fort. We recruited a few henchmen, ransacked every barrel and basket we could find, talked to unstable crabs, and were basically your garden variety RPG new character rapscallions. We were mostly lawful until we had reached our wit's end with the quest system and, desperate to escape from Fort Joy, we initiated a jailbreak at the southern gate. Our necromancer and crossbowman fired magic missiles from the back row while the spellblade and scoundrel covered us in the front. To our surprise, we took down the guards with no casualties and waltzed out the door, free at last thank god almighty. We were happy to be done with the somewhat dry fort, but after that there's not a whole lot of content in Act I. I was looking forward to delving some dark dungeon, full of monsters and traps and swag, but we will have to keep waiting for that opportunity. Even the fort is riddled with secrets, however. These secrets come in many forms: quests from unexpected sources, talking animals (we had the saddest exchange with a dog whose master had just been slain, and we tried to explain the concept of death), and hidden alcoves. Conversations are still a two-way exchange and the co-op partner can't get involved, although they can listen in, even when they normally wouldn't understand the language. Character development is nearly as carefree as Larian advertised in their Kickstarter campaign, although it's clear that not all of the skills are ready yet. My crossbow-toting lizardman was able to buy skills in just about whatever discipline I wished. I complemented my party's abilities by purchasing points in wits, crafting, and trap disarming. The necromancer bought healing skills, and the fighter could supplement his blades with lightning magic. We didn't get enough levels to really test out everything, but the underlying system shows a lot of promise. We also didn't experience the skill crafting system, where spells can be mixed and matched to create rainstorms imbued with blood and lightning and other curiosities. That in particular sounds awesome, and a big draw for a genre where roles and classes are often static and conservative. The co-op gameplay is implemented in a freeform fashion. Every human player is able to wander around independently of the party, get into scraps by themselves, and accumulate personal loot untouchable by everyone else. Most players will probably want to tighten up their matchmaking requirements to prevent unruly trolls from entering their games and fouling everything up, like killing quest NPCs and destroying valuable treasures. The host controls all of the saves and also retains possession of guest characters. With my friend hosting I could join any time and bring the lizard guy along, but if I wanted to play on my own, I had to create my own character. This does not deviate from the first game, but it does make 'Original Sin II' more of an invested process and not so much a drop-in, drop-out kind of co-op, which is probably as intended. An arena section for pure pvp combat is available in the menu, but as of the time of this writing, I was not able to actually connect to a match. The visuals and performance are otherwise good - we had few connection problems and the visuals are very nice. The audio is more subdued and there is no voice acting at this time. This early access demonstrates that while there is a lot of 'Divinity' still behind the curtain, Larian is doing their best to incorporate player feedback and make an open-world RPG that is still turn-based and tactical. The story is still a mystery, but the combat is top notch, and we'll be keeping an eye on 'Original Sin II' as it nears its December release window.Posted Mon Sep 19, 2016 at 08:00 AM PDT by: -
New 'God Eater' Console Game Announced[teaser]Teaser trailer also released.[/teaser] During Tokyo Game Show 2016, Bandai Namco announced that a new game in the 'God Eater' series of hunting games will be released for consoles. With the announcement having been made by both Bandai Namco's Japanese and American branches, it's a safe bet that we'll see this in English whenever it launches. You can catch a teaser trailer for the game below: Details on the title are scarce, as we currently don't have a release date, title, or confirmed platforms, but the producer of the game was wearing a shirt with the number 3 on it, implying the game is the third main entry in the series. Source: Bandai NamcoPosted Mon Sep 19, 2016 at 04:20 AM PDT by:
