Whether they jumped on for a short time and hated it or loved it and stuck it through the entire beta phase, the game’s senior producer, Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, revealed the the beta is officially the largest open beta in Electronic Arts history by accruing over nine million active users through the course of its tenure.
Considering that a lot of Star Wars franchise fans have been salivating for a Battlefront game for a very, very long time, now, this isn’t entirely surprising. What is surprising, however, is the mixed responses it’s gotten from those who have played. While there are reports that this game is one of the most anticipated of the last quarter of the year, after playing the beta, there seems to be some hesitation among some of the people I know that are playing the game, hoping, at the very least, that it will improve.
Star Wars: Battlefront is coming on November 17th of this year, putting it in direct competition with another titan of a franchise being release around the same time: Fallout 4, which is coming out a week earlier. The season pass, which will set you back fifty dollars, will give you access to all planned expansion content.
Digimon Cyber Sleuth will not only be getting a physical and digital release in North Americanon Feb 2nd 2016 for PlayStation 4 and (digital only) PS Vita but Bandai Namco have also announced a number of extra bonuses for those who pre-order.
Players who put down some cash on the physical PS4 release will receive the following:
Black color variant for Agumon and Gabumon
Two new Digimon exclusive to the Western release of the game: Beezlebumon (Blast Mode) and Cherubimon
Agumon “Tachi Yagami” Costume Set
Agumon male and female “Hero” Costume Set
Useful Item Set: Hunter USB, Full Revive x2 (can revive all fainted Digimon 100% HP), Brave Point C x3 (Giving one Digimon +10,000 EXP)
Digimon Cyber Sleuth takes place in the near-future where occurrences in the digital world are common place. As the teenage protagonist it’s up to you to solve the game’s mysteries! Here’s a brief rundown on Cyber Sleuth’s features that Bandai Namco released:
Features
Featuring more than 200 Digimon from the animated series!
Become a detective to investigate and gather clues to solve the digital mystery!
Turn-based battles return! Connect attacks together for more powerful combos!
Scan, raise, train and battle Digimon. Digivolve to unlock more powerful forms!
Traverse and explore the vivid and immersive environments of the real & digital worlds.
There was a time when the Rock Band franchise was on top of the world and being played by millions of console owners worldwide. Like most celebrity stories an eventual decline in fame is to be expected after a string of successive hits. After nearly five years out of the limelight Harmonix returns with a brand new game for a new generation of consoles. For returning players – like myself – is it time to get the band back together? Or is Rock Band 4 a greatest hits album that you could easily skip over?Read More
Dragon Age is another in a strong list of BioWare franchises that has a strong, loyal, and sometimes fierce following; when games in their franchises try to hit a massive audience outside of their core user base things often get kind of messy and, unfortunately, as a result, good standalone games and franchise entries get dragged through the dirt. Inquisition is one of those games and, in an effort to try and re-establish itself with that wider audience and show some loyalty to its core audience, BioWare releases a Game of the Year edition to give those who either haven’t played the game at all or haven’t engaged in any of the extra content that’s available for the game.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Like most AAA role playing games, the first twenty minutes is almost purely exposition and introduction to the setting, the characters, and the gameplay: what you’re getting and what you’re introduced to is a blending of the previous titles in the franchise and looks to wrap everything up. Even if you’re a newcomer to the series, there’s not a noticeable detriment to coming into the franchise as you have options; you can either work with the default world state or you can experiment on Dragon Age Keep, a website that ties into your Origin account and allows you to mess around with world states, which is really cool. Due to circumstances out of my control, Dragon Age Keep allowed me to recreate the world state in saves I had used in previous titles.
Introduction to combat doesn’t happen without too much hand-holding and it’s done within the narrative so it doesn’t feel as though it creates too much of a interruption in the experience. The first bit of this game is exactly what I expected to see from a BioWare title.
In my humble opinion, they took everything that succeeded in both of the former titles in the franchise and blended them together to provide the framework that this game is built around. BioWare knows that if they have a vision they know how to bring it to life and that’s something they’ve done for as long as I’ve known them and their role playing games have been spot-on for this. Inquisition is absolutely no different in this as it provides an experience that feels just as great at being a game as it is a wonderfully presented narrative.
One of the largest things that stand out for this game is that it was made with two ideals in mind: broad appeal and taking advantage of current generation technology. It’s very clear that they’re trying to create a singular type of experience and if you’re a fan of the franchise like I am, this is exactly what you want. I came in with a certain set of expectations and I feel that Inquisition hit every one of them. I feel that one could dive in as any kind of player and feel that you could be immersed relatively quickly.
The graphical and audio presentation is extremely satisfying – on current generation consoles, the game looks, feels, and sounds marvelous. Voice acting is very well done and, surprisingly so, the lip sync is actually done pretty well, most times. There’s rarely any slowdown.
Its greatest strength, however, is also its greatest failings: I feel that the experience does not transfer over in the same way into previous generation’s systems. The appeal is so broad that, at times, it feels watered down. It’s clear to me that Inquisition was tailored for a very specific experience and everyone else that has any different demands from the game gets to suffer.
There are trivial issues that I could list off that are nothing more than just pet peeves but there are enough of them to note that I feel they should not be featured in the game the way that they have been: the worst of all is the removal of mana and healing magics. This means that, between rest stops and reload points, you’re limited to a certain number of healing potions and that is it. That’s creating a false sense of difficulty and that’s a terribly lazy design choice. In previous generation systems, there are a massive amount of pathfinding and collision detection bugs that can break the experience of traveling between locales. Story progression happens in spurts and the spots in between those spurts really only cater to those who greatly enjoy the lore of the franchise.
While this defines me, gameplay and story progression only rewards those who greatly enjoy both. If you feel that one or the two are lacking, it will taint the other experience. This game would be awesome if only it were way more refined, smooth, and immersive.Read More
The lights dim down on the crowd as the neon lights come up on the stage and a lingering anxiousness hangs in the air as I begin to pluck at my guitar for the first time in seven years. Surely this is what my in-game avatar would have felt while playing her first set-list in over six years. She wasn’t playing with her old crew, in fact this show was probably just a guest spot, and she’s now rocking a brand new look complete with a side cut. After spending a night out living the rock star lift vicariously through my avatar with Rock Band 4 here are my first impressions.
Harmonix’s first Rock Band title on the new generation of consoles offers complete compatibility with their previous generation of instruments (as long as you are upgrading within the same console family) as well as compatibility with a select few Guitar Hero instruments. This meant that I was able to wield the dusty Fender Stratocaster that I had played with on the PlayStation 3 back in the Rock Band 2 heydays of ’08. Strumming away on the green, orange, yellow and red frets felt just as enjoyable as it did eight years ago. Granted I was in my early 20s when Rock Band was in its prime and now I’m entering the end of my 20s, and just like any rocker who’s maybe past their partying prime I was a little rusty out of the gate. Where as in Rock Band 2 I could easily hammer out most of the songs on hard mode I was limited to medium for this opening act.
I chose the Play a Show option for my first foray into RB4 – this new mode allows you (and if you have them up to three friends) to begin playing what amounts to a near endless set list with the game making suggestions for your next track. After the successful completion of a song the game will ask you to vote on the next track by asking you examples like if you want “a nu-metal song” or “a song from the 1980s”or even “a song by Aerosmith”. Presumably the option with the most votes will win the voting round but because I was performing this show solo the only vote was my own. I’d imagine that when you have a living room full of folks ready to rock out the discussions before voting can get quite intense.
Last night’s show started with Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic a song that I had until that point not even heard – my tastes in music aren’t really that broad to be honest. It helped set the mood perfectly for our set with its strong drum beat and fast paced. Despite this rocker’s lack of practise we wow’d the crowd with a four star performance. As the gig continued during voting I selected “a song from the 2000s” and the game had selected Disturbed Prayer as our second song. Disturbed is a band that I honestly haven’t really listened too in a long time – at least since high school – but their energy and chord progressions fit nicely with the lively night that Toys In The Attic helped establish. As things wound down and I played a few more songs I wanted to go out with a bang – the game prompted me with Avenged Sevenfold’s Hail To The King and I immediately lit up. Hail To The King was one of my favorite albums from 2013 and to see it included on the disc was a nice surprise. We wrapped up the night of fast metal-infused rock with a more modern take and as I selected quit the crowd begged for an encore – literally, in a new option available during Play a Show the crowd will chant “one more song”. Sadly I had to turn them down because my hands were starting to cramp.
Harmonix was nice enough to provide us with a review copy of Rock Band 4 for the PlayStation 4. I’ll be posting a full review of the game as soon as I get some quality time with the other instruments as well as make a dent in the career mode.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is now complete with the addition of its Metal Gear Online feature, the third of its kind in the franchise and it has never felt better. Like previous renditions, this version of MGO uses the engine of the game you have been playing alongside it for so long and turned the scenario on its head. You’re given a series of basic scenarios and it’s up to you to be the best damn infiltrator you can be.
Writers Note: This beta was reviewed using the PlayStation 4 copy of the game.
There was a time when I was actually pretty decent at FPS games: back when graphics on PC games weren’t as demanding so the variety of computers they worked on was greater, back when twitch shooting wasn’t the entire focus of gameplay, back when franchises like Rainbow Six focused on tactical play and thinking outside of the box. You see, I like FPS games when they demand a little more than being the quickest, most accurate trigger on the block. I like when FPS games require a lot of tactical thinking and even the most trigger-happy, balls-out shooter on the team can be taken down by preemptive thinking. Rainbow Six: Siege seems to be a kind of return to form for this franchise in that regard and for that, it makes me feel like the kind of FPS player that can actually grow and become more skillful as I play. That’s the kind of game I like.
Skinned knees, sore joints and maybe the occasional broken bone are all expected hazards when learning to skateboard but how about glitching through the walls and stuttering back and forth? From early first hand reports the retail version of Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is absolute mess. What happened, Bird Man?
Activision’s revival of the long dormant Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise shipped to retail this morning and it sounds like the game turned out to be a complete bail. With reports (and YouTube videos) of skaters glitching back and forth on the rails, to riders clipping through the environment it looks like the developers may have let more than a few minor bugs slip through the certification process.
As of the time of writing there are more than few threads over on the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Redditwarning potential buyers that they should “know what you’re signing up for” before putting down $60 for the game. Reports have varied from the aforementioned bugs to a large 7 gigabyte patch that’s nearly double the initial install size of the game being available out of the box.
It is no wonder Activision hasn’t supplied us or many other press outlets with review codes for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. We’ve sent multiple requests for a review code and will update this article if we hear anything back from the publisher.
Perhaps you should do a 180 if you approach this game at your local GameStop? If you’re having issues with THPS5 we’d love to hear from you!
I’ve been eagerly awaiting for my chances to check out EA’s upcoming Star Wars Battlefront reboot since it was announced over two years ago at E3 2013. As a lifelong Star Wars fan it’s always my hope that the next playable Star Wars experience will bring me one step closer to channeling the force. Now we’ll all get our chance to see if EA & DICE will make this dream become reality with the Star Wars Battlefront Open Beta on PS4, Xbox One and PC next weekend – October 8th thru the 12th.
The open beta is meant to stress-test the game’s multiplayer servers ahead of the game’s November release date and includes a lot of the content that was present in the E3 2015 build of the game. That is to say a 40 person VS match set on the iconic ice planet Hoth as well as a co-op survival mode. Making its playable debut in the Open Beta is the brand new Drop Zone mode.
Here’s a quick run-down for all of the open Beta’s content:
Walker Assault on Hoth: Fight in epic 40-player battles as a Rebel to destroy the Empire’s onslaught of AT-AT’s by calling in Y-wing bombers. Or, side with the Empire and protect your walkers while utilizing their mighty weaponry to crush the Rebel objective.
Drop Zone on Sullust: Escape pods are crashing down and you and your team must fight to control them. With its frantic 8v8 matches, Drop Zone is sure to put your combat and strategy skills to the test.
Survival Mission on Tatooine: Play alone or with a friend via co-op or split-screen as you battle to hold off waves of Imperial forces including AT-ST’s, TIE fighters, elite stormtroopers, and more.
The game’s companion app will also be available on iOS and Android and allows you to earn credits via a special “Base Command” mini-game which can be used to purchase new gear in Battlefront.
We’ll have more on Star Wars Battlefront ahead of its November 17th release.
NIS America brings the fifth entry in the long running Disgaea series to the west with the upcoming release of Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance exclusively for the PlayStation 4. Nippon Ichi software tries to shake combat up a bit with the inclusion of a “revenge” system as well as the addition of Netherworld travel. Should you recruit this game into your PS4 library or avoid it like an oncoming Prinny explosion? Read on for our full verdict.Read More
Fans clinging to hope that the long awaited Persona 5 would make its worldwide release this fall have had their hopes dashed with the announcement that the game would now ship sometime in 2016 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. This isn’t the first delay for the fifth entry in the Persona series, during the games original 2013 unveiling a “Winter 2014” release widow was promised.
In a brief statement Atlus USA had this to say:
The strengths of the Persona series are compelling characters, a moving, relatable story, and a borderline obsession with minutiae – elements which can’t be rushed or taken lightly. So while ATLUS realizes the frustration and disappointment that this must cause for the JRPG-loving public, please know that we are delaying the game in order to make sure the next iteration of the Persona series lives up to the expectations of fans.
Hopefully the release of a brand new TGS trailer will appease the series’ hardcore fanbase. Clocking in at almost 4 minutes in length it is pretty hefty. Check it out below:
Are you a fan of CapCom’s long running survival horror franchise, Resident Evil? Then prepared to be absolutely devastated with the announcement that company will be producing a team based competitive third-person shooter to commemorate the series’ 20th anniversary.
Titled Umbrella Corps this newly announced games pits teams of Special Forces against a team consisting of the undead / biological weapons in close quarter environments. CapCom’s official press-release promises “fast passed action” and an “analog cover system” – two things that the Resident Evil franchise isn’t exactly remembered or revered for. Familiar environments from the series past will be revisited in Umbrella Corps including the Raccoon City incident and the underground Umbrella Corporation’s Labs.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps is currently scheduled for an early 2016 release date with a budget friendly price of $29.99 on both PS4 and Windows PC.
With the recent warm reception games like Resident Evil HD Remake and Resident Evil Revelations 2 have received for returning to the series roots it is a bit odd that CapCom thought RE fans wanted a purely action focused game. Perhaps instead of anticipating Umbrella Corp’s release we should all contract the T-Virus, that sounds much more interesting.
Tales of Zesteria the next entry in Bandai Namco’s Tales Of series is set to launch late next month and the publisher has updated their official blog with some PS3/PS4 /PC technical specifications. If you’ve been wondering how these three different versions may differ and are concerned about things like resolution, draw distance and frame-rate then this may be of interest.
In terms of resolution Bandai Namco confirmed that both the PS4 and PC version of Zesteria will run at 1080P with the PC version supporting all the way up to 4K! The draw distance will be doubled when comparing the PS3 and PS4 version and the PC build will have a “far” option allowing PC players to enjoy even more draw distance.
In terms of frame-rate all three versions are capped at 30 FPS to preserve the flow of combat. As Bandai Namco’s blogpost explained:
All versions of Tales of Zestiria will run at a constant 30 frames per second….. The Tales of battle system has always been an integral part of the gameplay experience, and changing the framerate proved to have profound consequences on things like: animation, balance, difficulty, and overall fighting mechanics tuning. We do this in the best interest for the players’ experience!
In terms of minimum specs Tales of Zesteria should run on rigs that are even quite a few years old with the minimum graphics card and processor being Circa 2009.
Metal Gear Solid V has been probably one of the games revealed in the past three years that I have been salivating over and words can hardly express how excited I was leading up to the games early September release. Now that I’ve spent six hours with what could be Hideo Kojima’s last Metal Gear Solid title I’d like to share some impressions with all of our readers. A full review is probably quite some time away due to the sheer scope of The Phantom Pain but grab your iDroid and trustiest sidearm and let’s discuss the opening hours of my most anticipated games.Read More
Do you like going fast? Do you like hitting balls? What about going fast in a car with a rocket engine while hitting a ball towards a goal? Yes I’m talking about soccer, but not soccer like you have ever played it before. This soccer has supersonic acrobatic rocket-powered battle-cars.Read More
