Bandai Namco’s Tekken 7 PC Release will be available in Early 2017 via Steam. Confirmation of this comes as the official Steam Page for the game has gone live – you can view it right here.
During Microsoft’s E3 press conference the game was confirmed for both Windows PC & Xbox One with a trailer showcasing a battle between long time series antagonist Heihachi and new guest character, Street Fighter’s Akuma.
Tekken 7 is also expected to be released on PlayStation 4, although the publisher only had the Xbox One version of the game on display at E3, which we got the chance to play.
Here is the official description of Tekken 7 from the Steam Page:
Love, Revenge, Pride. Everyone has a reason to fight. Values are what define us and make us human, regardless of our strengths or weaknesses. There are no wrong motives, just the paths we choose to take.
Experience the epic conclusion of the Mishima clan and unravel the reasons behind each step of their ceaseless fight. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, TEKKEN 7 features stunning story-driven cinematic battles and intense duels that can be enjoyed with friends and rivals alike through innovative fight mechanics.
As a fan of Bandai Namco’s Tekken series since the launch of the 3rd game back on the original PlayStation, I’ve followed the series through four numbered installments, several spin-offs, numerous guest characters and three console transitions. Somehow, against all odds, Namco has been able to maintain the series’ identity of wacky interconnected storylines, multiple unlockable endings, deep strategic fighting and of course the Mishima Zaibotsu.
Bandai Namco announced that Tekken 7 would be coming to home consoles on Microsoft’s Xbox One console along with another hidden surprise – the inclusion of Street Fighter‘s often secret combatant, Akuma! Behind closed doors at Namco’s small private booth at E3 the home console version of Tekken 7 was playable on the Xbox One and I got the chance to watch several matches.
Akuma as well as one of the PC/Console exclusive stages – Abandoned Temple – were on display in the build that the developers were showing off at E3. If you’ve played Akuma in other Street Fighter titles then some of his familiar strategies also apply to Tekken 7. Akuma’s tatsumaki forward whirlwind kick is featured as one of his standard moves in T7. He also has access to a focus meter, which works similar to the one found in Street Fighter IV, and builds over time allowing him to land a slowed down but devastating blow to his opponent. In the version of Tekken 7 on display the Focus Attack meter replaced the traditional Rage Meter when Akuma was selected. Another popular strategy that Akuma players relied on at E3 was one particular move combination that had him perform an upwards low kick before transitioning into a downward punch at the ark of a jump.
The Xbox One version of Tekken 7 is expected to include all of the additional content that is going to be found in the Tekken 7: Fated Retribution update which is due out in Japanese arcades next month. This arcade upgrade includes 28 characters (including bosses) – returning favorites like Jin, King and Steve Fox join newcomers like the Saudi Arabian born Shaheen and the Otaku-like cat girl Lucky Chloe. In terms of stages Fated Retribution (and presumably the console port) will include 10 stages at launch including Artic Snowfall, Devil’s Pit, Forgotten Realm, Mishima Dojo as well as the PC/Console exclusive Abandoned Temple and Mashima Building.
Tekken 7 is expected to be released for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs sometime in the first quarter of 2017.
Square Enix brought not one but two demos for the upcoming Final Fantasy XV. Microsoft and Sony both secured exclusive demos for Squeenix’s next huge game but in different way – MS’ demo video showcased the world smashing battle with the soon-to-be summon Titan. Noctus can be seen warping, slashing and dodging his way past titan’s ginormous ground based attacks. Sony’s demo took things in a lighter direction with the series’ memorable chocobo music opens their demo with the later half consisting of the reveal of PlayStation VR support for the game.
Final Fantasy XV will be out in North America on September 30th 2015. A PC port is “possible” but not confirmed at this time.
Check out the trailers in the embedded players below.
It’s going to get seriously creep in July. Capcom showed off a teaser trailer for Resident Evil 7 biohazard at the Sony Interactive Entertainment E3 press conference last night. And it looks slick.
Resident Evil 7 looks to be going back to its roots as it puts the story right back to where it all began – in the middle of nowhere. And to make things even more terrifying the game is going to be set in first person view in a photorealistic style. There hasn’t been a first person Resident Evil game since the side-game Reside Evil Survivor.
Resident Evil 7 is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC in North America and Europe on January 24th, 2017. The full gameplay experience will also be available via the included PlayStation VR Mode.
In perhaps the most unexpected, and at the same time exciting news, Crash Bandicoot is coming to Skylands! Of course Crash Bandicoot has been a longtme sibling game to Spyro the Dragon, on which the entire Skylanders series was based.
Crash will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of the game.
In this next game, a wormhole has opened in Skylands and the great Aku Aku appears! He has come to announce the once-in-two-decades Synchronization Celebration–a time when all of the worlds align perfectly. All the inhabitants of Wumpa Island are having a party and they want to invite the Skylanders. But with Kaos on a quest to take over Skylands using his army of Doomlanders, the Skylanders must focus on stopping his evil plans. Never one to shy away from danger, the legendary marsupial Crash Bandicoot leaps through the wormhole to join the Skylanders in the ultimate battle against Kaos!
Have you played the original State Of Decay? You should really get on that! I quite loved the original and besides some frustrating moments seeing my characters become too weak to continue the fight, it was a great title! Featuring an open world, new characters to take over as your current survivor eventually dies, and safe houses to develop into havens for those who have not yet turned, it’s a great game! Not to mention the expansions that even took the game into a pretty detailed city connected by highway sections to explore.
So we now know that there is even more of that great action to come!
Last year Rare had a first glance ready for us with the premiere of Sea Of Thieves. Today we were treated to some actual multiplayer gameplay with some selected players experiencing the game for the first time. It’s something else to see Rare’s take on something like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. This is certainly a game we’ll be following and a genre that has been a ton of fun in the past.
The Coliation showed off the world premiere demo for Gears of War 4 at the Microsoft E3 briefing in Los Angeles. Fans of the series will be right at home with the return of the series trademark behind cover gameplay, with some new additions of course – we saw one weapon in particular that looked to be straight out of Unreal Tournament, similar to the ripper it launched devastating blade projectiles at the enemy,
A female protagonist is front and center in this demonstration – from what we know of her story-line she will be attempting to find her mother. The trailer ends with her facing the camera and promising that she will “Burn their fucking hives to the ground”.
Gears of War 4 will be out this Fall for Xbox One & Windows 10 PC.
Respawn Entertainment has confirmed that DLC for the game’s multiplayer will be free according to a statement given to our fellow games journalists at Game’s Radar.
Details about the exact nature of the post-launch add-ons will be confirmed closer to the game’s October 28th launch date according to EA executive Dough Wightman. The previous Xbox Exclusive Titanfall had 4 DLC expansion packs that eventually shifted to a free model as the player base for the multiplayer only first game dwindled.
Titanfall 2 is playable at EA’s “EA Play” events in Los Angeles, CA and is separate from the E3 conference which is happening all this week.
It is official – Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts will unleash an assault upon both online & offline players in the form of Titanfall 2 on October 28th. Unlike the first title, which was released exclusively for Windows PC & Xbox One, Titanfall 2 will include both a single-player campaign and multiplayer component.
In the narrative driven portion players enter the shoes of Jack Cooper, a member of a paramilitary militia that links with a one of the titular Titans after its’ pilot is killed. It appears that this link between robot & pilot will be front & center in the single player portion of the game. In Titanfall 1 the link between the two wasn’t really emphasized save for the ability to have your titan defend you through an automated A.I if you ejected during combat.
On the multiplayer front things appeared to have evolved quite a bit since the last time pilot’s strapped on their uniforms. The parkour movement system that helped set the original apart from the pack of other sci-fi shooters has been upgraded with the ability to use a grappling hook and then slide into a safe space. EA will also launch a network test for the game’s multiplayer ahead of release but no solid information on that has been confirmed at this time.
Check out the two debut trailers below from EA’s E3 press conference.
Parkour wunderkind Faith Connors returns in this reboot of the 2008 classic, Mirror’s Edge which is out today on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. I got the chance to sit down with the game for six hours this past weekend and jump into Faith‘s shoes as she runs, runs, zip lines and slides around the City of Glass. DICE’s latest entry in the franchise not only tinkers with the narrative but also opens up the gameplay with a gigantic open world environment that players of the last game could have only dreamed of on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Here are my initial impressions.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is not a straight retelling of the original title, DICE has decided to tinker with key elements of the game’s narrative – when things kick off we meet the defiant young Faith as she is about to be released from juvenile prison. This technologically advanced prison features futuristic neon displays that advocate for the various corporations around the City of Glass and reminds prisoners that they “should reform and consider employment with any corporation of their choosing.” Once Faith is released from prison she is informed that she was two weeks from release to find employment with one of these corporations or she will be locked back up for an extended period. This version of Faith is very different from the one we saw in 2008, In the 2008 game she was driven by the need to clear her sister’s name for framed murder the plot of Catalyst centers more on corporate espionage than the bond between sisters. This lack of a key motivator and a change in voice actress makes Faith less of a compelling protagonist based upon the time I spent with the game.
Once released from prison the bulk of Faith‘s early story in Mirror’s Edge centers around her reconnecting with the group of runners that she was once acquainted with. In the world of Mirror’s Edge runners are an anti-corporate movement that believe that the average citizenry have been become complacent thanks in part to advanced augmented reality technology that provides the user with a constant stream of corporate approved information. Runners try to subvert this system of iron fisted control on the citizenry visa hacking billboards with anti-corporate messages, trafficing prohibited information to the lower class citizens of the City of Glass and partaking in the more than occasional corporate espionage adventure. Ideologically it is very clear where the runners are and how the player is supposed to react to the presence of these large corporations. While the game stays on point when it comes to underlying political messaging and themes, unfortunately, the cast of side characters don’t convey a lot of personality to the player. Faith’s former contacts serve as Mirror’s Edge Catalyst’s method for providing new story missions and none of these side characters feel like fully developed human beings and could probably be swapped out for one another if it wasn’t for the fact that certain NPCs deliver certain types of activities.
The City of Glass is a gleaming white futuristic monolith to the advancements of technologies that have been produced by the various corporations in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Tall, seemingly never-ending skyscrapers shimmer as their glass reflect the in-world light sources while yellow accents adorn the area’s that Faith is able to traverse when running from rooftop to rooftop. Top this very pleasing visual aesthetic is topped off with colorful cars and pedestrians which can sometimes be tiny specks below from some of the higher vantage of points available in the game. Combine this with a slightly punk look for some of Faith‘s fellow runners, and her initial outfit at the beginning of the story, and you have a game that knows how to visually define itself.
Traversing around the City of Glass is accomplished through the series’ signature first-person parkour. Unlike the last game, which gave Faith access to all of her abilities from the onset, Catalyst opts to give our heroine a basic set of movement, combat and defensive abilities from the get-go and locks the rest behind a progression system that is tied to an experience level. I could see why players who enjoyed the openness of the 2008 title would be disappointed with progression based unlocks, considering the fact that a number of abilities that were once standard are now locked behind the XP grind. However, I can also see how this would extend the life of the game and slowly teach players about their parkour maneuvers and allow them to master them before moving onto to more advanced skills.
So what abilities did Faith have access too over the course of the six hours that I played? The left bumper allows Faith to climb up objects, contextually jump off of nearby objects and climb up pipes or ladders. Left trigger allows Faith to kick descend ladders, jump down from ledges and slide along the ground. Like in the 2008 version running forward and then tapping the left trigger will launch Faith into a sliding forward dive that allows her to fit under narrow spaces and avoid combat with NPCs. More advanced techniques like rolling from tall heights by pressing the left trigger upon impact and using a wrist-mounted retractable rope become key to completing some of the side objectives and can be woven into Faith’s cityscape acrobatics as needed.
Here is a small sampling of some of the activities that await players in the brand new Mirror’s Edge:
Main Story Missions – These missions are delivered by Faith’s comrades in the Runner’s hideout, which also serves as the main safe zone, or by various NPCs located through the rooftops of the City of Glass. For the most part of the time I spent with these missions they typically revolve around corporate espionage or teaching Faith new game-play mechanics.
Package Delivery – Faith is able to pick up packages at automated drop-off points and then deliver them to a designated location with the time-limit. Really the package delivery missions are timed obstacle courses with various paths, failing the course will give the player the option to retry.
Hackable Billboards – Located throughout the City of Glass are billboards displaying corporate messages. Faith is able to hack these billboards to display messages for the runners in exchange for XP points.
User Created Trials – Using Faith’s augmented reality contacts users are able to create custom trials using up to 4 droppable checkpoints. These courses will then be populated randomly into other players games it seems. Once you’ve completed a user generated trial your score is placed on a leaderboard that is specific for that trial.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst tries valiantly to take the parkour formula that was so well received with the original game and extend that 6 – 8 hour length into an open world experience that players could potentially lose 100s of hours in. There are dozens upon dozens of collectibles for Faith to collect and exchange for more moves, skills and pieces of gear. Longtime fans who enjoyed the first game might find the addition of an XP system and seemingly pointless collectibles to be padding used to lengthen the time spent with the game but honestly it feels like a fair tradeoff given the open world nature of the City of Glass..
Broken Joystick’s staff will be heading to E3 for the next 8 days but expect a full review of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst after our return!
It looks like the cat is out of the bag for one of Capcom’s big reveals at Microsoft’s E3 press briefing. The infected shall rise again, facing off against longtime Zombie slayer Frank West in a Xbox One / Windows Store exclusive Dead Rising 4 according to leaked screenshots and promotional material that appeared online yesterday.
Despite its’ title Dead Rising 4 will reportedly be a reboot/alternate telling of the Willamette Incident that introduced us to the world of Phenotrans, Zombrex and those pesky wasps that cause necrotic flesh to come back to life. Reportedly the game will also shift the time period of the Willamette Incident from late Summer to Christmas time. Unlike the other games in the franchise, DR4 will run on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, ditching the proprietary engine that has powered the series since Capcom Vancouver’s Dead Rising 2.
Dead Rising 4is expected to be revealed next week and now confirmed information has been released just yet. Check out te quite convincing leaked assets below:
Every week Microsoft posts new deals for Xbox Live Gold Members, with discounts on AAA & Indie titles, as well as DLC there is lot of savings if you subscribe to Microsoft’s online service.
A lot of AAA games are featured in the deals that will take us into June 2016. 2K Game’s NBA 2K16 is on sale along side its’ virtual currency. Also available at a deep discount is the recently released FPS by Gearbox Software, Battleborn. The next-gen version of Rockstar Game’s Grand Theft Auto V is available at a discount with or without a Great White In-Game Currency Card.
Starbreeze Studios the developers behind the popular Payday series have announced a deal with former publisher 505 games that would see Starbreeze acquire the full rights of the Payday franchise in exchange for $30 Million USD of stock.
The next game in the franchise Payday 3 is currently under development as the terms of this deal will see 505 & Starbreeze split revenue from the console versions of Payday 2: Crimwave Edition until their [505’s] marketing / promotion costs have been recouped and Payday 3 released. Revenue generated from the Steam release of Payday 2 will be in the hands of Starbreeze retroactively as of May 1st.
For fans wondering about the horrendous micro transactions that received absolutely piles upon piles of criticism, they’re being removed from all versions of the game. Introduced last October, Payday 2 would present players with locked “safes” that contained skins & stat bonuses but could only be opened with a $2.50 USD drill item. Despite other games using a similar model for cosmetics – most notably Counter Strike: GO – the addition of stat boosters on skins caused an uproar within the community., especially since the developers previously said they would NEVER EVER INTRODUCE MICROTRANSACTIONS.
Now, those nasty microtransactions are gone and Starbreeze has pledged to add new content to Payday 2 for at least the next 18 months.
Check out the “E3 Teaser” released by Starbreeze for Payday 2 below:
ArsTechnica is reporting that they have a source who is telling them that a major publisher currently planning to release a new virtual reality game on the Xbox One in 2017 and that game will be shown at e3. This is a pretty big report. Unless MS is branding an Oculus (they have a previous relationship with Oculus) this can only really mean that the previous reports of an Xbox VR are probably accurate. here is the exact quote from the Ars article
“Ars can confirm that at least one major developer is currently planning to release a new virtual reality game on the Xbox One in 2017 and plans to show that game at E3. The news lends credence to multiple recent reports suggesting Microsoft is planning a more powerful, VR-compatible Xbox One for 2017. The information was provided to Ars directly by the developer as part of pre-E3 planning and was confirmed by a PR representative.”
So that seems pretty definitive. Ars goes on to say that its a well known European Developer and that the game is in an established franchise with a lot of other fanct stuff that basically means nothing at this point. Brokenjoysticks will be live at the Xbox press conference on June 16th to bring you any news about this new device, and Microsoft willing our first hands on impressions. The game is supposedly going to release on PS4 and PC as well, so I guess we can expect to see it coming to the Rift and other VR headsets as well.
an artists rendering of what the new headset could look like.
Microsoft has yet to officially announce anything VR related, and Ars is very instant that this title has VR in the name, so they may have just blown the whole VR cover off of MS. With only two weeks left till E3 its a toss up when a rumor comes out like this one. Its probably true (reliable source, close to reveal) but as always with rumors take this with a large grain of salt, it could all just be a false flag for something else. Neogaff also has some compelling evidence, the listing of several VR categories for companies that develop for Xbox.
