Dark Souls 2 isn’t set to release until March 2014, but Namco Bandai is giving gamers an opportunity to test the game out next month.
Update:
As of now, only European can sign-up for the beta with the North America ticket sign-up going up later. Also, Xbox 360 and the PC version of Dark Souls 2 will not be receiving a beta as confirmed by videogamer.
Original:
Announced today, PlayStation 3 owners in in Europe will be able to download a beta registration ticket through this PS Store link.
Now, the ticket does not represent an actual spot in the Beta, but more of an entrée into a drawing, from which the team will select players who will then be able to download this ticket. No word whether the Beta will be available on the Xbox 360, though we’ll be sure to update you if it is announced.
There is also no word on what the content of the beta will include, though we do expect it to test out the new online structure that the game is said to boast.
The depth of the Dark Souls 2 Closed Beta experience will truly test players’ skill, intestinal fortitude, and their sheer will to survive. The Dark Souls 2 Closed Beta will delve into one of the most treacherous areas of the Dark Souls 2 world; players will not only get an opportunity to explore an entirely new area of the game, but also experience overwhelming enemy encounters, diabolical challenges, and the unrelenting difficultly that only the developers at From Software can deliver.
Note: Many other sites have reported that it’s available in North America, however, I had to create a European account in order to download the ticket from there.
Dark Souls 2 is set to release March 14th on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the PC.
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
It seems that the PlayStation 4 isn’t the only piece of gaming hardware that the guys and gals at Sony have been working on for the past few years.
Sources have stated that Sony is working on it’s own VR Headset, one that has already been shown off to multiple developers at this year’s E3 and is said to be more accurate than the current popular VR Headset, the Oculus Rift.
GamesIndustry reports that the VR Headset would use the PS4 PS Eye 2.0, which developers have told them has made it more accurate than the Oculus Rift. The headset was suppose to be shown at this year’s Gamescom, and then at this year’s upcoming TGS, but it seems that Sony has pushed its reveal further so it wouldn’t take away from the PS4 launch. The headset is rumored to launch some time in Fall next year, so if it does exist, we will most likely hear more about it at E3 2014.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Sony experimented with a VR headset as they have demoed to selected media outlets their HDTV Personal 3D Viewer, which received some well impressions. This headset however, is not tied with the PS4 VR Headset.
So, would this be something that would interest you if it had the right fit and was inexpensive? Let us know in the comment section.
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Thanking all Bungie fans around the globe, the studio has put together a little “thank you” video compiled of moments from E3 2013, Gamescom 2013 and PAX Prime 2013 where the team showed off their brand new shared-world FPS, Destiny.
The video is filled with tons of brand new gameplay clips as well, so we definitely recommend checking it out.
Bungie’s official Twitter account also mentioned that a few hints about the game lie within the video. Anything noteworthy that you happened to spot? Let us know in the comments!
Destiny is coming to the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in 2014.
Despite Microsoft’s doing away with one of the Xbox One’s more promising features; the family sharing plan, it appears fans of the ex-Xbox One policy may be hopeful for its return after all.
Microsoft’s senior director, Albert Penello, who recently spoke with with Gamespot, looks back on the company’s original views of loaning and trading back when the Xbox One was first announced:
I believe, in retrospect that people have calmed down and gone back and actually looked at what we said, people are starting to understand, ‘Wow, they did want actually to allow me to loan and trade’ which other digital ecosystems don’t want to do, I think we need to do that. That has to be part of the experience. Right now, we’re focused on launch and we switched the program back to discs, because that’s what customers wanted.
Additionally, Penello goes on say that Microsoft will revisit this feature when the time is right. If you haven’t been keeping up with Xbox One’s features when it was first revealed, this family sharing would essentially allow you to ‘lend’ any game in your library to either friends or family in your list digitally, without the need for discs.
The Xbox One is set to release in 13 markets around the world on November 22, with the retail price of $499 USD.
Are you hopeful to see the return of the Xbox One’s family sharing plan?
Thinking about purchasing some of this year’s biggest titlest like Battlefield 4 and Call Of Duty: Ghost for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles, but don’t want to pay twice for the same game? If so, Microsoft is unveiling a promotion that will definitely save you some cash.
Under this promotion, which will be valid between August 27 through December 31 of this year, Microsoft has selected a number of Xbox 360 games that will be eligible to be ‘upgraded’ to their Xbox One counter-part for the low price of $9.99 USD at Microsoft Stores.
Here are following titles eligible for an upgrade:
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Battlefield 4
Call of Duty: Ghosts
FIFA 14
Madden NFL 25
Need for Speed Rivals
NBA 2K14
Additionally, both Amazon and Best Buy will be participating in this promotion and will also offer Ubisoft’s open-world title, Watch_Dogs, for eligibility.
The Xbox One will launch this November 22 in 13 markets around the world for the retail price of $499 USD.
Are any of the above titles will you be purchasing for the Xbox 360 that you plan to upgrade to the Xbox One? Let us know in the comment section below!
Call of Duty is going mobile with a brand new title from The Blast Furnace built from the ground up with platforms like the iPhone and iPad in mind.
Call of Duty: Strike Team mixes first-person action with top-down strategic gameplay that has been optimized for tablet glass mechanics. Players can fight through the single player campaign or Survival Mode using similar weapons found in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and equip customizable perks. Players can even rank up and Prestige as they do on the console titles.
“Call of Duty® fans can take the action on-the-go with Call of Duty®: Strike Team, available at launch exclusively for iPhone®, iPad®, and iPod touch®. Call of Duty: Strike Team isoptimized for mobile and tablet glass mechanics*, offering a choice of how to play: as players control a squad of up to four highly trained Strike Team members, each with customizable skills and loadouts, the in-game view can be seamlessly switched from classic first-person action, to a top-down, third-person perspective providing a full range of both action combat and tactical decision making.”
Call of Duty: Strike Team is available for download now on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for $6.99. You can find it right here on the Apple App Store. The studio also plans to bring the game to Android devices later this fall.
Grand Theft Auto Online is going to be huge. This October 1, Rockstar is going to offer Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers one of the biggest and most expansive online experiences ever in GTA’s history where you and 15 other buddies will be able to take part in all sorts of shenanigans in the fictional city of Los Santos.
IGN recently had the chance to go hands-on with GTA online and explored a few of the crazy (and not-so-crazy) things you and your crew can get up to while online. Author Ryan McCaffrey writes, “Based on what I saw, it is everything you’ve always dreamed an online GTA should be. It even has elements of persistence, though it’s definitely not an MMO.”
Here are a few of the activities you’ll be able to partake in:
“Rob a Liquor Store Together…and Then Betray Each Other” – Players will also be able to insure their vehicles in case of theft. After all, it is Grand Theft Auto.
“Race Your Friends…and Hope Your Other Friends Don’t Get in the Way” – Players can drop pins anywhere on the map to initiate a race with others.
“Steal a Frickin’ Plane…and Land it Safely While Your Friends Escort You” – Placers will be able to race in the air just as they can on the ground. Of course, players will be able to tackle missions using a variety of vehicles.
“Full Multiplayer Golf and Tennis” – GTA Online’s not-so-mini mini-games will let players relax with less stressful activities like Gold and Tennis in several of Los Santos’ Tennis courts or its 18-hole Golf course.
“Chill Out at Your House and Spark a Bowl” – However, nothing is more relaxing than hanging out with your pals on your couch in your own apartment watching some in-game TV while getting high off virtual pot.
“The Most Popular Missions Bubble Up” – A mission playlist will be available to players where players can vote on missions to partake in.
“Go to the Movies” – Rockstar is keeping quiet about this feature in particular, but according to IGN, 16 of you will be able to pack a theater in GTA Online.
“ATM…but Not the Gross Version You’d Probably Expect GTA to Make a Joke About” – Like in real life, you don’t want to keep a loaded wallet in your pocket as you walk the streets of cities like Los Santos. You’ll want to stop at the many ATMs located throughout the city to deposit some of that hard earned cash before things go awry. You can also bank from your “iFruit” cell phone.
“Create Your Own Missions” – Rockstar is providing players with a whole set of edititing tools to create their own missions.
“Visit a Strip Club” – Watch girls dance, but don’t touch them while bouncers are looking. Bad things will happen. Rockstar has even included a “make it rain” button…
For the full details, check out IGN’s piece on GTA Online. Now, for some screens!
Yesterday, a few of you may have noticed a bit of an outage in Battlefield 3‘s Battlelog service.
According to DICE, the studio was busy working away at a few Battlelog improvements, which you may notice when booting up the game today.
It’s a relatively small update, but here are the notes regardless.
Battlelog Update – September 4th
This update mainly contained backend and infrastructure changes in preparation for Battlefield 4, and therefore not a lot of visible changes for users.
Improvements & Changes:
New header/menu design and layout
You can now choose to have your feed, game activity and personal info only shown to friends
Completely new UI for the Game Manager (only available for select few people)
Now only friends can see what server you are playing on in your profile
Fixes:
Issue where your presence would not change when you stop playing Co-op
Issue where the site didn’t scale correct in 1280×720 resolutions
Various compatibility issues with the Opera browser
Various issues with Battlefield 3 multiplayer Quickmatch
Issue where you couldn’t publish your emblem to the feed
Vehicle warfare has always been a huge part of the Battlefield series, but unlike some other shooters out there today, the vehicles game can be a rather intimidating one that is tough to master. After all, nobody wants to be that guy who takes the team’s one good chopper, only to run it into the nearest building.
As a result, newcomers to games like Battlefield 3 tend to shy away from vehicle usage, leaving it to the pros. According to IGN, DICE has taken note of this concern and plans to do something about it in Battlefield 4.
“We’ve definitely heard that people are afraid of getting in there [and using vehicles like helicopters] and that’s not our intent,” DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson told IGN’s Cam Shea. “…so what we’ve done is, we’ve added a test range, which allows you to try out all the hardware ahead of time so that if you want to learn to fly a helicopter you can get in there and you can find the settings that work best for you. And then start doing some stunt flights just to feel safe before you go out and get the responsibility of a bunch of other people sitting in your helicopter, so I truly hope that this will help people feel more safe about trying out the whole battlefield.”
To us, that sounds like a great idea, something that would have proven wonders in a game like Battlefield 3. Looks like Battlefield “noobs” will finally have a place to get comfortable with the idea of flying helicopters or jets. Heck, I too could use some practice.
What do you guys think? Are you going to be using Battlefield 4’s test range? What vehicle do you need more practice with?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2‘s fourth and final map pack has been announced to arrive on the PlayStation 3 and PC later this month.
On September 26, PS3 and PC users can download Apocalypse for $14.99 USD.
As a refresher, here’s what the map pack will include. Feel free to relax and watch some gameplay footage of all the new content we recorded while down at Treyarch studios right here!
Pod
A failed utopian community from the 70’s has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an abandoned cliff side in Taiwan. Its residents long gone, the modernist compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods, as well as navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.
Frost
Fresh snow meets explosive gunpowder in this snow-capped European city, where the bridge over a frozen canal separates it into two sides, requiring players to employ multi-level traversal strategies to outsmart and ultimately outshoot their enemies.
Takeoff
Fans of “Stadium” from the original Call of Duty®: Black Ops First Strike DLC will find themselves at home on “Takeoff.” Marooned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this remote launch site is all about close-quarters combat, combining tight corners with open spaces for intense encounters.
Dig
An adaptation of the fan-favorite “Courtyard” from Call of Duty®: World at War, where two archeological dig sites in Afghanistan become the perfect playground for combatants eager for hectic, unceasing confrontations. Treyarch, has retained the spirit of “Courtyard” with two major chokepoints, a wide open layout and raised platforms, but has provided fans with a fresh take on the multitude of paths.
Origins
Apocalypse also features Origins, the most horrifying and imaginative Zombies experience to date. Players will be deployed to a Dieselpunk-stylized World War I-era France where they will encounter the return of the four original heroes – Tank, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen – from the very first Zombies map featured in Call of Duty: World at War, as well as hordes of undead that have overrun the French countryside’s trenches and fields, as well as the ruins of an ancient and mysterious location.
This morning, vice president of marketing, strategy and business Yusef Mehdi finally announced to the world the date at which Microsoft’s Xbox One will be available for purchase in the 13 countries it will launch in first.
Those who have pre-ordered or thinking about purchasing an Xbox One can get their hands on the next-generation console this November 22, according to a recent posting on Xbox Wire.
13 territories, who are Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and USA, will be the first to be able to walk home with an Xbox One when it launches. The console’s launch in the rest of the world will follow throughout 2014 with no exact date given at this time.
Those expecting to purchase the Xbox One on day one can expect these games to be available at launch.
Yesterday, Microsoft revealed that their upcoming next-generation console has entered full production and received a slight bump in it’s CPU power, feel free to read about it here. Xbox One retails at $499 USD.
With the League of Legends Season 3 World championship inching closer, Riot Games has released patch 3.11, which will most probably be the last patch the tournament client receives.
This patch includes champion balances, as always, but also adds new HUD improvements, especially for spectator mode, where Riot Games added features the community asked for.
Check out the entire list of patch notes below:
Champions
Draven
League of Draven
Now grants a base 50 Gold bonus upon killing an enemy champion (from 0)
Now consumes all Adoration stacks on kill to reward Draven with Gold (previously only consuming half)
Gold per Adoration stack consumed reduced to 2 (from 3)
Visuals and sounds for League of Draven play on every Draven kill, instead of only playing on kills which consumed a large number of stacks
Fiora
Blade Waltz
Will now choose untargetable and invisible targets if necessary to continue the Blade Waltz. If Fiora needs to jump to such a target to continue Blade Waltz, she will do so, though the ability will not deal damage to untargetable/invisible units. If the target is revealed when Fiora jumps to them (in brush), she’ll deal damage as normal
Galio
Idol of Durand
Cooldown reduced to 150/135/120 (from 170/150/130)
Mana cost reduced to 100 (from 100/150/200)
Mordekaiser
Iron Man
Now displays shield amount in segments, similar to health segments
Singed
Fling
Fixed a bug where Fling was dealing more damage than the tooltip values indicated
Thresh
Death Sentence
If the target cleanses the initial spell or blocks it with a spell shield, the chain will now shatter, preventing Thresh from casting Death Leap
Udyr
Phoenix Stance
Phoenix Stance’s buff now displays a timer for Udyr’s next Phoenix Breath attack
Zac
Cell Division
Adjusted passive chunk drops to be more contestable by enemies
If an enemy champion is within 1000 units of Zac, his chunks will spawn in a contestable zone between him and his opponent (this isn’t a change, but is listed for clarification)
Increased the range at which champions cause chunks to be contestable (fly away from Zac) to 1000 (from 700)
Slightly increased the distance contestable chunks travel from Zac
Chunks are now credited to whoever is closest to them in the event that both Zac and an enemy champion are present (rather than automatically going to Zac)
Reduced chunk invulnerability time to 0.25 seconds (from 0.75)
Chunk invulnerability now applies to both Zac and enemies (previously only applied to enemies – Zac now has to wait 0.25 seconds before he can absorb his chunks)
Zac now has an increased chunk pickup range and bypasses the chunk invulnerability delay timer during Let’s Bounce
Elastic Slingshot
Fixed a bug where the landing point visual effect was not appearing for enemies
Items
Guinsoo’s Rageblade
Fixed a bug where the visual effects included the generic “increased Movement Speed” visual
Map Specific Changes
The following changes are for Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline only
Bushwhack reveal and Armor and Magic Resist shred duration reduced to 6 seconds (from 12)
Bushwhack trap duration reduced to 2 minutes (from 4)
Teemo
Noxious Trap duration reduced to 3 minutes (from 10)
Crystal Scar
The following changes are for Crystal Scar only
Kassadin
Null Sphere silence duration reduced to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds (from 1/1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6)
Kha’Zix
Taste Their Fear isolation damage reduced to 35% bonus (from 45%)
Evolved Enlarged Claws additional missing Health damage reduced to 6% (from 8%)
Lulu
Wild Growth cooldown increased to 120/110/100 (from 110/95/80)
Wukong
Stone Skin changed to 2/4/6 Armor and Magic Resist per rank (from 4/6/8)
Cyclone cooldown changed to 120/110/100 (from 120/105/90)
Yorick
Omen of Famine cast range changed to 500 (from 550)
Omen of Famine cooldown changed to 8 (from 10/9/8/7/6)
Game Interface
Undo Button in the Item Shop
Players can now undo recent transactions within the in game item shop
Undo history is cleared under certain events such as leaving the shopping area, dealing damage, receiving damage, or casting a spell
Items will remove benefits they granted you when undone, such as gold gained from gold over time items
Certain items cannot be undone such as Homeguard or Captain’s Boot enchantments
HUD
Mousing over a champion’s passive icon will now show a range indicator if the passive has a range of influence (e.g. Soraka’s Consecration)
Spectator Mode
Team Fight UI
Context: We’ve developed a new Team Fight UI for spectator mode that minimizes and concentrates the UI so that it’s easier to focus on the action during team fights. With this change we’ve optimized the display of battle information in team fights, including who’s involved in the fight, who’s winning, and how many people have died on either team.
While spectating, press ‘A’ to toggle the Team Fight UI
Minimalist UI mode that focuses on presenting information relevant to on-screen conflicts
Team health bars communicate the momentum of the fight and impact of AoE damage
Crowd control indicators visualize the power of crowd control abilities
Pentakill counter tracks progress towards double, triple, quadra and pentakills
Automatic Dragon and Baron Timers
Timers will display in the upper left corner of Spectator Mode with a countdown showing Dragon and Baron spawn times
General
Fixed the minimap bug showing champions at incorrect locations when emerging from the fog of war
Cancelled Auto Attacks will no longer fire a damage-less missile at the target
The damage-less missile will no longer consume buffs or passives
You may still hear a sound effect without the missile. We are still investigating a fix for this
Minions will now disappear from the map sooner after their death
Cursors will be set to the center of their window by default, preventing the camera from panning to the far left or right corners of the map at game start
Cursors will also be set to the center of their window for a short period of time after player switches full-screen focus (alt-tab)
Removed the default key bind for “Show/Hide Summoner Names” (previously, Shift-K). The function can still be bound in the Key Bindings menu if you wish to use it
Reduced the amount of time you can spend AFK before being kicked from the game
Tower health is now updated even if you’ve never had the tower out of the fog of war
The Champions tab in the Summoner Profile has been updated with a new layout
The Champion grid has been widened, allowing more Champions to be seen at once
The primary role selector has been changed from a button group to a dropdown in the upper right
Friends List
Parts of the friend list view have been rewritten in order to increase stability and performance
Fixed a bug causing the friend list to be corrupted with duplicate and missing entries when scrolling
Friend Notes are now visible in friend tooltips without needing to hover over the note icon
Custom Games
AFK detection reduced to 3 minutes (from 8)
The game now kicks you at 5 minutes (previously 12 minutes)
The minimum time custom games need to last to be eligible for IP/XP rewards has been increased to 7 minutes (previously 5 minutes)
A minimum number of human players must now participate in a custom game to receive IP/XP rewards. The current thresholds are:
5 players minimum for Summoner’s Rift, Crystal Scar, and Howling Abyss
3 players minimum for Twisted Treeline
A notification has been added in the end of game results screen to explain why players did not receive IP/XP
Don’t forget to tune in for the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship starting September 15 until the finals in October 4. The LA Staples Center will be the final venue and tickets for the event sold out in less than an hour.
Lastly, for making it through all those patch notes, we’re giving away some codes for Riot Blitzcrank as well as Arcade Hecarim on our Twitter account, so be sure to give us a follow!
Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the quirky third-person shooter in the works over at PopCap Games, will not feature a single player campaign but will, instead, be dedicated purely to multiplayer, according to a recent interview with Shacknews.
Garden Warfare will support four player co-op and host 24 players in it’s competitive mode. Because the game won’t feature any single player content, PopCap Games has announced that Garden Warfare will be a ‘budget’ title and will be priced at only $39.99 USD on the Xbox One or $29.99 USD on the Xbox 360 and PC.
Additionally, the studio has also announced that those purchasing Garden Warfare on the Xbox One platform will receive exclusive content such as the new “Boss Rush” mode, which was revealed during this year’s Gamescom convention.
Although Garden Warfare will be sold at a budget price due to lack of single player content, PopCap Games will be supporting the title after it’s launch via downloadable content additions. Garden Warfare’s creative director tells ShackNews that they will be taking a cue from Plants Vs Zombies 2 to keep the players engaged for the long haul.
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is set to release on the PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms sometime in 2014.
With only a few months ’til release, Guerrilla Games has updated the official Killzone: Shadow Fall website with the first details about the game’s multiplayer component.
You’ll find a few highlights, including the fact that the game packs 22 weapons with 19 customization attachments, as well as details on custom games, free DLC, and more.
Player Mechanics: Most of the player mechanics available in the single-player campaign are now also available in multiplayer. This includes the cover system that allows you to snap in to/lean out of/vault over cover, as well as the sliding mechanic. In addition, the brutal melee system has been expanded with drop-down melees (as seen in the single-player playthrough).
Weapons: Multiplayer features 22 different weapons, all of them unlocked from the get-go. Your ability to master the weapons is key, as each weapon has very different dynamics. For an in-depth look at the new weapons, read our “Guerrilla Armory” articles about the StA-55 assault rifle, the VC-15 shotgun pistol, the M55 assault rifle and the VC-30 shotgun. More weapon articles are coming to Killzone.com soon!
Attachments: There are 19 different weapon attachments in multiplayer, unlocked by completing specific challenges. You can use these to extend the functionality of your weapons in a variety ways, from enhanced scopes to new ammo types to secondary fire options. Adding attachments that complement your playing style can greatly enhance your combat effectiveness.
Classes & Abilities: There are three distinct classes and 12 unique special abilities in multiplayer. Each of the classes can be enhanced with up to two special abilities, allowing for some highly specialized playing styles. We’ll cover the three classes and their available abilities in more detail in the coming weeks, but we can already reveal that there will be a Placeable Spawn Beacon ability.
Custom Warzones: Warzones, with their trademark rotating mission modes, return to multiplayer with supercharged customization features. There are eight mission modes in total, four of which are new to Killzone. More importantly, you can customize these modes to your heart’s content and share your favorite settings with the rest of the community. We will regularly highlight popular and interesting community-created Warzones for you to try out.
Combat Honors: Combat Honors are temporary bonuses that can be activated by earning enough points during a round. These bonuses stay active for as long you continue play – when your play session ends, you lose your Combat Honors. Combat Honors include bonuses such as an increase to movement speed, etc.
Post-Launch Support: We aim to keep the post-launch multiplayer experience fresh through the frequent release of paid DLC expansion packs that offer new gameplay and customization features. At the same time, all DLC multiplayer maps will be released free of charge to prevent the player base from becoming fractured.
Along with this, players who attended this year’s PAX had the opportunity to stop by the Killzone: Shadow Fall booth to get some hands-on with the multiplayer. Here are some of those play sessions, recorded off-screen (with a camera).
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Shortly before entering full production, it appears that the Xbox One has received a bit of a performance boost in its CPU power.
Today, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of marketing and strategy for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, announced that, along with being right on schedule in terms of production, Microsoft was able to squeeze an extra 150 MHz out of the Xbox One’s CPU, bringing the console up to a 1.75 GHz clock speed, previously running at 1.60 GHz.
Earlier, the console also saw a bit of a performance boost back in August when its GPU clock speed was increased to 853 MHz from 800 MHz.
Speaking at today’s Citi Global Technology Conference, Mehdi announced, “we’re on track for launch in November.” He added, “we’ll announce a launch date shortly. We recently just went into full production, so we’re now producing en masse Xbox One consoles. We’ve had real good progress on the system. In fact, we just updated the CPU performance to 1.75 GHz on top of the graphics performance improvement, so the system is really going to shine [and] the games look pretty incredible.”
Mehdi claims the Xbox One’s launch this November will be the company’s “biggest launch by a wide margin,” and that “we’ve built more [systems] than we’ve ever built for an Xbox launch.”
It has also recently been reported that the Xbox One will be able to support up to 8 wireless controllers at one time.
Last Sunday was host to one of the greatest tournaments in the history of Halo that pitted the top eight players in the world against each other for the chance to take home up to 200,000 in prize money.
The Halo 4 Global Championship, hosted by Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson, Blair Herter and Jessica Chobot and casted by Andy “Bravo” Dudynsky and Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez, saw its epic conclusion in Seattle, WA last Sunday as Aron “lx Ace xl” Elam walked away with the big “W” against fan-favorite Justin “iGotUrPistola” Deese.
Whether you’re a Halo fan or not, the event itself was rather impressive and the intense Free-for-All and 1v1 battles were a blast to watch. The final fight between “lx Ace xl” and “iGotUrPistola” could not have been scripted better as it even went to sudden death, putting everything on the line for that one kill.
You can catch the official live stream replay of the entire event over on Halo Waypoint, so be sure to check it out!
We’ll post any YouTube replays once they become available.
In other news, Halo fans also have a noteable playlist update to look forward to today.
Ricochet, the new Football-esque game type introduced in Halo 4 with the arrival of last month’s Champions Bundle DLC, is getting its very own playlist today and is available to all Halo 4 players, Champions Bundle-owners or not. That means Ricochet 24/7, if you so desire.
If you’ve yet to try out Ricochet, give it a shot. It’s one of the more exciting Halo 4 game types. In addition to the new playlist, Legendary BRs is now being consolidated into the Infinity Slayer playlist as a third voting option. Players will also notice a new second voting option; Team Slayer. Replacing Slayer Pro, players will still have complete control over their customization options, but random elements like personal ordinance will be turned off.
Be on the look out for our upcoming review of the Halo 4 Champions Bundle DLC.
Today, Blizzard brings the fastest selling PC game of all time, one that has sold over 12 million copies world-wide last year alone, to the home consoles, giving the most popular dungeon crawler in gaming a new home in the arms of Xbox and PlayStation users around the world.
Diablo III is now available for purchase on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The digital version of the game is currently available on the PlayStation Network and will soon be making its way to Xbox LIVE on October 1.
The PS3™ and Xbox 360 versions of Diablo III have been custom-tailored for gamepad-driven action, with a dynamic camera perspective that puts your hero front and center, as well as an all-new user interface and an intuitive control system that make vanquishing evil feel like second nature on consoles. Players can take on the vile denizens of the Burning Hells alone or in a party of up to four via same-screen local cooperative play or online over PlayStation Network™ or Xbox LIVE®. In addition, the game supports parties composed of both local and online players. Once gamers experience the rush of Diablo III’s unique brand of hack-and-slash gameplay from the comfort of their couch, Sanctuary will never be the same.
Diablo III will also be making its way to the PlayStation 4 sometime next year.
So, with which class will you be starting your Diablo III console adventure? The Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard, Monk or Demon Hunter?
As we previously reported, Warframe, the free-to-play shooter by Digital Extremes, is making it’ s way to the PlayStation 4 platform later this year as an exclusive.
However, it is now being reported that Warframe’s exclusivity deal is, as a matter of fact, just a timed deal. This is according to a recent statement by Digital Extreme’s creative director Steven Sinclair, where he stated the following:
With how the industry is evolving, this really is the player generation. Games are reaching players hands in so many different ways now and Sony gets it, which is why we are bringing Warframe exclusively to the PS4 first. There’s no reason not to download Warframe on day one if you’re an action game lover – it’s free.
From the looks of it, there’s a possibility that those who will be purchasing the Xbox One console when it launches in the month of November may have a chance to get their hands on Warframe once the timed exclusive deal with Sony has expired sometime this February.
Additionally, Warframe is also set to feature a companion app that allows you to perform in-game tasks, as well as schedule gaming sessions with your pals. This, of course, will be made available when it launches on November 15 in North America and two weeks later in Europe.
Every time I hear that a first-person-shooter is heading towards a portable device that I own, I cringe at the thought, with the first thing that comes to mind: “broken controls”. It’s not easy developing a first-person shooter on handheld. Even if they boast dual analog sticks (COD: Declassified, Resistance), controls have always been an issue, though it seems that the developers over at Guerrilla Games Cambridge have finally found a way to make it work.
I have played every single Killzone title to date, and I can say that from what I have played in the Killzone: Mercenary’s Beta so far, it is probably one of the better releases yet, despite being on handheld. The controls feel so right at home, so it’s easy for anyone familiar with any shooter to jump right in without issues. This is most likely due to the fact that the PS Vita is the first major handheld device to physically feature two thumb sticks, making it easy to move and control the camera at the same time. This is certainly joyful, considering that in most FPS titles that involve any sort of touch screen, the controls just feel unresponsive and displaced at many times.
There are some touch screen prompts but, for the most part, they are also mapped to the controller, with the exception of the melee attack, hacking, and navigation, which I’ll get into later. The melee system, while it is a bit annoying to initiate, feels completely badass. There’s nothing like going into an interactive quick time event to finish off an opponent. And not only that, but it also has a counter melee mechanism. If someone tries to CQC melee you, you’ll be given the opportunity to swipe in a certain direction on the screen to take control of the situation. If anything, it reminds me of that badass CQC teaser trailer for Killzone 3.
Hacking is something that many players seem to be rather confused with when in reality, it really isn’t at all that hard. In matches, Tac Coms drop from the sky which players will then be prompted to hack. A Tac Com, once hacked, will give players a special Vanguard, which can only be used during that life. All that you are tasked with doing is just matching up the corresponding shapes with what ever is being displayed the middle.
the bottom left and the bottom right are the right choice since they make up the shape in the middle part.
It’s pretty simple, yet the maps are so small (not a bad thing) that hacks become difficult to perform. If you succeed, however, the Vangaurd is always fun to use. A Vangaurd ability stretches from simple things like cloaks, shields, to more fire power such as the Sky Fury, which is a continuous remote-controlled airstrike. While they may seem ‘overpowered,’ the beauty of it is that it only lasts the life you get it, so if you die, you loss it, even if you haven’t activated it yet. They are also pretty difficult to get, considering that the size of the maps are small. Even with only 8 players occupying, it feels like you fighting a whole army of players at times.
In the Beta, there’s only one game mode, which is the standard Killzone mode, “Warzone”. Players will have 5 different objectives to go through, each of them being different from one another. The goal is to have the most won rounds over the opponent. This is a game mode that never truly gets tiring as it offers you a wide variety of objectives to play through.
One thing that some Killzone fans probably won’t appreciate is that this game trashes the class system and swaps it out for load-outs and character customization. The kind of weapons and armor you are carrying can all be swapped out for more powerful or more agile gear. And to be fair, this approach makes more sense, considering that it’s not a game built for 32 players where there’s enough space to do what an engineer could do or set up spawn beacons and such. I can’t imagine a sniper going around cloaked on maps designed for close quarters. It would be completely unfair, which is why it’s a Vangaurd in the game.
Graphically speaking, it nearly resembles Killzone 3 with some textures off here and there, but it goes without saying that this is a Beta and the final build will most likely be on par. Lighting is great, and while we only got the chance to try out one multiplayer map, it shows in various areas. Light emits from fire and areas of red or blue will shine throughout a cave with those colors. The animations are all fluid and don’t seem distracting at all. It’s truly an impressive feat – to see such work go into a handheld title – and this is probably one of the best looking handheld games out there.
My only issue with the Beta are some of the touchscreen action positions. When you want to collect ammo, or perform a melee/stealth kill, you must tap the center of the screen. It just feels awkwardly placed and I would have preferred them to be either on the right or left sides of the touchscreen. Also, navigating menus is done VIA the touch screen. While it isn’t too annoying, it would be been nice to have been given the option to use buttons. Otherwise, other actions such as hacking, melee swipes, and counter melee feel correctly placed.
If you own a PS Vita and you haven’t already, then I highly suggest you try out the Killzone: Mercenary Beta. You can easily get started by checking it out on the PS Store. It’s probably the best handheld shooter out there today, and if your waiting for Killzone: Shadow Fall, this will surely keep you busy ’til then. Killzone: Mercenary is set to release September 10th exclusively on the PS Vita.
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Microsoft’s new ID@Xbox program seems to keep free-to-play titles in mind for the upcoming Xbox One Platform.
Speaking to Joystiq at PAX Prime, Microsoft’s Portfolio Director of Digital Content Chris Charla says Microsoft’s new program will grant the same privileges to free-to-play and premium titles that retail releases are privileged too.
“On Xbox One, games that come through ID@Xbox are no different than any other game,” Charla said. “They have full Gamerscore, full Achievements, can take advantage of SmartGlass, Kinect – if you can do it with an Xbox One game, you can do it with anything that comes through the ID@Xbox program. That’s like a fundamental tenet of the program.”
Charla later clarified that the program will not be ready to go at Xbox One’s launch, but should be ready in 2014. While titles such as War Thunder might not be ready this year, the ID@Xbox program seems ready to serve these titles in 2014.
What do you guys/gals think of this news? Does Microsoft seem fully-ready to embrace the indie and free-to-play markets? Let us know in the comments below.
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