Blood and Wine, the last expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, is out next week, so CD Projekt Red have released a launch trailer to get you in the mood for some more beast slaying. Blood and Wine gives players a brand new region to explore, a remote area untouched by war known as Toussaint, which is comparable to the main game’s No Man’s Land area in terms of scale. All is not well in the seemingly peaceful land however, and its inhabitants have been forced to call upon Geralt and his monster dispatching skills to rid themselves of a beast terrorising the region. Players will meet new characters and take on new monsters as they unravel the horrifying secret behind the land’s woes. Blood and Wine is available to download from Tuesday 31 May on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. PlayStation 4 users based in the UK may be interested to know that GAME are offering an exclusive limited edition boxed version of the DLC, which features a download code for Blood and Wine, physical versions of the Nilfgaard and Northern Realm Gwent decks, a Gwent guide, and a special collector’s box. Let us know your thoughts on Geralt’s final adventure over in the forums.
Life Is Strange developer, Dontnod, have released some new images of their upcoming RPG to whet your appetite. Here’s those deliciously dark images for you: Torn between the Hippocratic Oath he swore and his need for sustenance, Jonathan - and you - will have choices to make. Given that blood is required to keep your health up and the use of vampiric abilities helps you gain levels, you might find yourself frequently asking "Who's for dinner?", rather than ruminating on whether it's ever justifiable to take a life. Deciding who to feast upon will take a lot of consideration in itself; if you choose to take the life of a fellow doctor to lengthen your own, you may find that the inhabitants of London succumb to the flu much quicker. Each and every person you kill will have some impact on the story and the world around you. Of course you'll have the choice to not kill anyone. You'll get stronger as you fight other vampires, hunters and creatures, but feeding on citizens is the fastest way to improve your skill set. Take a gander at the concept teaser below: You certainly can't accuse Dontnod of making the same type of game over and over again.
Vampyr is scheduled for release in 2017. What do you think of the game so far? Let us know in the forums. PTC Plays Overwatch #223/5/2016
This time around there's a few different characters on show, including the mild-mannered robot-cum-turret Bastion, deadly spectre Reaper and the poster girl for the game: Tracer.
The variety on display even within a few matches is impressive, and the game's forgiving system of crediting even the slightest assist as an elimination makes even support players feel like an asset to their team. It's pretty clear that the game is best enjoyed with a few friends in tow, rather than trying to go it alone, relying on the fairly simple emote system for communication, and you'll also notice that Sam is (deservedly) awarded Play of the Game at the end, redressing the balance from our previous community outing.
So, are you picking up Overwatch? Head to the PTC Nights thread for your respective platform to arrange gathering together with other community members, and you can expect plenty on Xbox One in particular from the staff and regulars. Stay tuned for the review from Rob too.
News round-up for the week of 16 May22/5/2016 2K and Gearbox Software have announced the first of five free DLC characters for Battleborn. Battleborn also has an extended double XP weekend running until Wednesday, so there’s never been a better time to jump in. It’s been announced that Soul Axiom is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U. Soul Axiom is a story driven, first person adventure/puzzle game set in the virtual world of Elysia. After uploading your soul to the server, you're free to "unravel the mystery of your digital afterlife." Check out the announce trailer below. If that’s piqued your interest, you can find more info on the developer's official website. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun has opened closed beta registration. A real time strategy game with stealth elements, the plot sees a new Shogun rise to power and strive to bring peace to the realm, aided by five recruited specialists. The five specialists each have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example: the samurai, Mugen, likes to get up close and personal with his opponents, whilst Takuma counts on his sniper rifle to take care of enemies from range. There’s another announcement trailer below. The game will be releasing on PC, Mac, Linux, PS4 and Xbox One, but the closed beta will only be available for PC. If you want to be in with a chance to test it out come June, you can sign up here. Being developed by Spiders (that's the company; not actual spiders), The Technomancer is set to release on 28 June for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. A sort of spiritual successor to the slightly dodgy Mars: War Logs, players will return to Mars as, you guessed it, Technomancers - mage-warriors with the ability to control electricity. War Logs received a lukewarm reception upon release, as frankly all of Spiders’ games have, so let's hope that they’ve learned from previous mistakes and can produce a decent RPG this time around. Here's a video explaining the various gameplay elements. Halo 5's forge mode is coming to PC in some rather bizarre news. Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition will be completely free, but won’t enable PC players to get in on any campaign or multiplayer action. That said, you will be able to invite Xbox Live friends into a custom game to test out your creations before publishing them. 4K resolution will be supported, as will keyboard and mouse controls for undoubtedly welcome precision control of the editing suite. Microsoft believe (correctly) that this will make it quicker and easier to bring your ideas to fruition. Look out for Forge – Halo 5: Guardians Edition later in the year. If you've been getting stuck into DOOM, you'll likely know there's an Ultra-Nightmare mode; an incredibly challenging difficulty level that also boasts perma-death. Only days after release, someone has completed Ultra-Nightmare in just under five hours. Speedrunner, Zero Master, achieved this remarkable feat on his second attempt, after dying just before the final boss during his first - how furious would you be! He warns that it's not very entertaining in some parts, but if you've got a few hours to kill and some popcorn, you can watch the full run below. Finally, we’ll leave you with a feel good story. As reported by VG247.com, a disabled gamer helped Naughty Dog include better accessibility options in Uncharted 4. Josh Straub runs a website that rates games based on how accessible they are for those with disabilities. He got in touch with Alexandria Neonakis, UI designer at Naughty Dog, after being unable to complete Uncharted 2 due to button mashing requirements in certain encounters. Good work, Naughty Dog. Hopefully more developers will follow suit.
If you’ve any thoughts to share with us, our forums are always open. HITMAN’s next Elusive Target will be ready to dispatch in your manner of choosing from 27 May. As well as the limited time in which to make the assassination, the Congressman can only die once, and there will be no second chances for players - mess up or die during the mission and the Elusive Target is gone for good.
And to make things even more interesting, intel on the Congressman will be limited. His location will be unknown to you, and he won’t appear in instinct mode or via the mini-map, meaning you’ll have to go out and find him by yourself. Certain rewards will be unlocked by completing a specific number of Elusive Target hits. Five successful assassinations will unlock the Hitman: Absolution suit in game, and ten gets you the Blood Money suit. Alongside Escalation Contracts and Featured Contracts, Elusive Targets make up the weekly content available in HITMAN between each release of new episodes. You can read our thoughts on the most recent of those, Episode 2, here. Will you be heading back to sunny Sapienza next weekend? Let us know over in the forums. The news comes via parent company Take-Two Interactive’s latest earnings report, a sizeable post detailing the firm’s progress for the fiscal year of 2016. You can read the post in its entirety here. Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, mentions in the report that “Rockstar Games is of course hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon”.
Assuming the new projects include a fully-fledged game and not an expansion to one of Rockstar’s existing titles - such as GTA V - any game revealed is unlikely to be released this year, with Zelnick’s comments regarding the projects mentioned in the same breath as Take-Two’s fiscal 2018 outlook, which would suggest it’s not part of the firms immediate plans. Zelnick also fails to mention any new Rockstar project as being part of Take-Two’s fiscal 2017 plans (which runs 1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017), with titles such as Battleborn, Mafia III, Civilisation VI, NBA 2K17 and WWE 2K17 completing the next fiscal year’s line-up. While there may be very little in the way of details regarding Rockstar’s future projects, with E3 almost upon us it’s possible something could be revealed at next month’s expo. What would you like Rockstar’s next project to be? A sequel to Red Dead Redemption? GTA V story DLC? Or even a new Table Tennis game? Come and speculate with us over in the forums. Rumours suggest that the next instalment in Capcom's famed Resident Evil franchise could be revealed at next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo. 2016 marks the 20 year anniversary of the series and Capcom recently teased that they will be launching a “full scale offensive” to celebrate. If Mr. Toto is correct, we should have more info in the coming weeks.
The news will no doubt please the many RE fans who dislike the series' more recent entries for being too action oriented. Capcom’s hiring of Jordan Amaro is certainly a step in the right direction; having worked on Konami's ill-fated P.T., he certainly knows how to set hearts racing. A "clean slate" seemingly suggests a reboot, but given the success of the recent HD remasters, it’s clear that fans still have an affinity for the existing story and characters. With an RE2 remake, as well as re-releases of 5 and 4 also on the way, it seems unlikely that events will stray too far from the established - and convoluted - timeline. Then again, Capcom don’t always follow the obvious route, so perhaps we'll be introduced to a whole new world: new characters and organisations, maybe even a new virus. Either way, it's exciting to potentially see the father of survival horror gaming get back to what made it great. Are you looking forward to Resident Evil (potentially) returning to its roots? Let us know in the forums. Warner Bros. have officially confirmed a spruced up Arkham collection is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
As was revealed by the leaked image, Batman: Return to Arkham will indeed feature remasters of both of Rocksteady’s award winning games, with all previously released Game of the Year content and DLC included. However, one thing the leak did get wrong was the bundle’s release date. Return to Arkham will release on 29 July and not 10 June, with a suggested retail price of £39.99. You can take a peek at Batman’s HD makeover in the announcement trailer below: The remaster is being handled by Virtuos, and it will be the first time any game from the Arkham series has been rendered with Unreal Engine 4.
Did you miss out on Rocksteady’s Arkham games on the last generation of consoles? Or are you looking to relive the Dark Knight’s adventures once again in HD? Let us know your thoughts on Batman: Return to Arkham over in the forums. The Division’s second free update, Conflict, introduces another incursion and new features, plus some new gear sets. A new feature being added is high-value targets. The HVT officer in your base of operations will give you a list of targets, including a description, their level, and the recommended gear score you'll need to go after them. You'll have a limited amount of time and only one chance to take down these targets. The Dark Zone will be seeing an update to the loot extraction process, one that makes the experience even more tense. Gone are the days of attaching your contaminated gear and getting the hell out of there. Agents will now have the ability to hijack your loot by cutting the extraction rope, causing all items to drop to the floor and allowing someone else to pick them up. Watch the trailer for the Conflict update below: As in the previous update, Falcon Lost, new gear sets have been added which will complement certain playstyles.
Conflict is the second and final of the sizeable free updates coming to The Division this year, with the first of the three paid for expansions arriving next month. How do you feel about the new update? Let us know in the forums. Project Spark support coming to an end17/5/2016 Microsoft have made the decision to stop supporting Project Spark.
After that date, you can still create worlds, but you won't be able to share them or download worlds that others have created.
In October of last year, Project Spark dropped its original microtransaction-heavy model in favour of being completely free and open. Whilst this was good news for some, the more hardcore community members believed that, without financial support, it wouldn't be long until the Spark servers were turned off. Developer Team Dakota continued to release updates for some time. Minor bug fixes and tweaks accompanied bigger content drops, whilst the maximum world size was doubled. There was still an enthusiastic community of both players and creators, making it a real shame to see it go. If you purchased the retail version of the game, you could be entitled to a refund. Anyone who used the download code between 5 October 2015 and 13 May 2016 should receive a credit to their Microsoft account. You can have a look here for more information. With Disney Infinity recently being cancelled, it isn’t a good time to be a friendly world building game. Unless you’re Minecraft, of course. Were you a fan of Project Spark? Share your fond memories with us in the forums. |
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