EA Sports has released the second title update for its professional football game Madden NFL 16. The update, available today, makes more than 100 bug fixes and also implements some refinements and tweaks to the game's Connected Franchise and Ultimate Team modes.
Specifically, the patch fixes an issue where if a team called a time out on a safety punt, that team would then get to kick a regular kickoff. The update also addresses a problem in online games where, when the game was paused, the defensive timer would run out, leading the game to auto-choose the play. The full changelog for today's Madden NFL 16 update is available below the video.
Addressed issue where if a team called a time out on the safety punt, they would then be able to kick a regular kickoff
Addressed issue where sometimes a defender would have a poor pursuit angle toward the ball carrier if the ball carrier was breaking a tackle during a catch
Addressed issue where sometimes defensive linemen would freeze for the remainder of the play after being knocked to the ground
Addressed issue where the defense would not adjust alignment if the CPU controlled offensive team enacted a concept audible
Updated Individual Coverage adjustments to not only affect the pre-snap shading but also the post play leverage technique
Addressed issue where adjusting the ZONE shading would have an effect on the defenders drop location instead of just the leverage technique
Addressed issue where cancelling a PA Fake would allow for a 1-step drop on certain plays
Addressed issue where the game clock would be restarted of a declined penalty after an incomplete pass
Addressed issue where safeties in Cover 4 Deep assignments were reacting to run too quickly
CONNECTED FRANCHISE
Addressed issue where defensive holding slider would reset when exiting the screen
Addressed issue where accelerated clock would not work in H2H CFM games
Addressed issue where visual feedback settings were pulling from the user's profile instead of league settings
Addressed issue where some settings would carry back to the FE after playing a CFM game
Addressed issue where the CPU would retain an empty roster spot when simming to the regular season when there is a player on Injured Reserve (note: changes aren't reflected until after your current season is finished)
Addressed issue where the user could not sort player while in the Fantasy draft board
Removed Kick Return as a scoutable trait (note: changes won't be reflected until after your current season is finished)
CFM Trade tuning
Addressed issue in CFM H2H where uniforms would change back to default home/away even after changing them in the team select screen
Addressed a rare issue that caused some Franchise files to be corrupted, preventing players from accessing their CFM (note: this won't repair already corrupted files, and only prevents future occurrences)
MADDEN ULTIMATE TEAM
MUT Play a Friend quarter length boosted to four minutes from two minutes
In MUT H2H Seasons and Draft Champions H2H Draft, terminating the game during the load screen will give the quitter a loss and the opponent a win. In MUT, Contracts will still be removed.
OTHER
Play Now games were using regular season overtime rules rather than playoff overtime rules (removed possibility for ties)
Addressed issue in online games where the defensive timer would run out during a pause causing the game to auto pick the defensive play
Addressed over 100 general bug and stability issues
What do you make of these changes? Let us know in the comments below.
Activision on Wednesday released the first full-length story trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops III, which dives into what happens when human augmentation goes wrong.
There is a lot to take in. The video starts out with news broadcast-style footage of a world ravaged by natural and what appear to be man-made disasters. "We wanted a perfect future, and f**k, we got it," the narrator says, adding, "I wanted to be a killing machine and they made me one." Watch the video below.
"In our quest to create the ultimate soldier, we've pushed for the enhancement of our greatest weapon: our mind," the video's description reads. "But with this new power comes an unimaginable new threat."
A crow makes numerous appearances in the video, but only in small flashes. What's more, a character at the end bears an uncanny resemblance to Law & Order actor Christopher Meloni (see below).
Actor Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy) has joined the cast for the second season of superhero-themed PlayStation TV show Powers, creator Brian Michael Bendis announced today.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Bendis revealed that Madsen will play the role of "SuperShock," described as "one of the most powerful superheroes in the Powers universe."
"After retiring 40 years ago under mysterious circumstances, SuperShock resurfaces to fill the void left behind by Retro Girl's death," Bendis said. "We're incredibly lucky to have him joining our talented cast."
Take a look at some art for SuperShock, as seen in the comics, below.
Bendis also confirmed that shooting on the second season of Powers began this week in Atlanta. The show's other cast members include Sharlto Copley (District 9), Eddie Izzard (Ocean's 13), Susan Heyward (The Following), and Noah Taylor (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
The second season of Powers will debut on PlayStation platforms sometime in 2016. The first season was a big success, and original programming of this nature will be a key area of focus going forward, Sony says.
Video game retailer GameStop on Wednesday announced that it will hold a "demo day" for Guitar Hero Live this coming Saturday, October 3. As part of this campaign, GameStop stores across the country will have PlayStation 4 kiosks available where shoppers can try out the game to see what it's all about.
This sounds like a good opportunity to check out the game and try the new guitar controller. In addition, if you snap a photo of yourself playing the game and use the hashtags #BeAGuitarHero and #Sweepstakes on Twitter and Instagram you'll be entered to win an Uncharted-themed PS4 bundle.
Driveclub's PS Plus edition will be yanked on October 6, Sony said, though the company did not provide any kind of explanation as to why this is happening. The game didn't have a very long life, as it was released only a few months ago in June. The free version was supposed to launch alongside the game in October 2014, but was delayed until Sony could fix the game's initial server issues.
Game director Paul Rustchynsky says on Twitter that Sony makes the decisions regarding PS Plus content, not Evolution. Asked if the game is being removed so that something "more substantial" could take its place, the developer said, "I don't know, we're not involved in what is featured on PS+."
You can queue up your Driveclub PS Plus edition through this link.
The Xbox One version of Smite's latest patch arrives today, with the most significant addition being a new character.
Xing Tian is a Guardian-class character who is able to build up his health regeneration by using abilities on enemies. He can also reduce the amount of damage enemies can do and grab a group of them with his Ultimate.
Xing Tian
A number of new skins are also introduced in this update, including an excellent-looking samurai one for Odin, the Ragnarok skin for Fenrir, mastery skins for Ratatoskr, and more.
The spectator mode added in the previous patch has been improved in today's update, making it so matches can be password-protected. Games also now have match IDs that can be used to directly access replays of them.
Several characters have been modified, too. Khepri, the most recent character added before Xing Tian, has been further nerfed, while Kumbhakarna should now be more effective. Guan Yu has also been slightly improved (his trait now builds up stacks) and the cooldown on his dash has been reduced, while the damage on some of Ao Kuang's abilities has been readjusted to make him easier to play for less experienced players.
You can check out the full patch notes on the official Smite website.
If you enjoyed the music in DICE's 2008 free-running game Mirror's Edge, you may be happy to learn that the Swedish composer behind that game, Solar Fields, is writing the music for Catalyst.
Fields, whose real name is Magnus Birgersson, says the music he wrote for Catalyst will carry forward the "electronic soundscapes" of the original. As you'd expect, he's working closely with DICE on the project.
"I'm in daily contact with DICE," he says in a blog post. "Audio director Magnus Walterstad in particular has been giving me tons of information on Mirror's Edge Catalyst to help with the composing. I'm looking at the script, the biographies on all the characters, and of course the design of the city of Glass."
Fields is a hands-on composer. He says he visits DICE regularly to play through portions of the game to get an idea for the kind of musical mood he wants to set. This is also a time to gather feedback from developers.
"I get all kinds of feedback, like whether the tempo is right or if the musical themes are too positive, for instance. This input is incredibly valuable to me," he explained.
Fields also points out that the original Mirror's Edge was limited somewhat in terms of audio in that it only used one stereo channel. Catalyst, on the other hand, makes use of four different stereo channels, depending on what is happening in the game. This allows the music to be "even deeper and more dynamic."
For more on the music in Catalyst, read the full blog post and listen to the soundtrack sample above.
Ever since Daniel Craig suggested in an interview with Esquire last month that the upcoming Spectre might be his last James Bond movie, rumours have been flying about who might play the iconic secret agent next.
However, in a new interview for the Mail on Sunday in UK, Craig has explained that his departure might not be as imminent as first thought. Craig mentions that he is "contracted for one more" Bond film, which certainly implies that he is not about to leave the role. This is despite previously stating that "at the moment I can't even conceive [another Bond movie]."
In the new interview, the 47-year-old star does admit that playing Bond is a physically demanding job. "I work myself to death," he says. "It's getting harder. But such is life. I'll keep going as long as I'm physically able."
Earlier this week, it was rumoured that Homeland star Damian Lewis was the top choice to replace Craig as 007, with the Sunday Mirror quoting a source as saying that Lewis had the "unofficial nod" from producers. This follows much talk about The Wire's Idris Elba potentially becoming the first black Bond, something that former 007 Pierce Brosnan doesn't think will happen.
Last week the Spectre theme song, "The Writing's On The Wall" by Sam Smith, was released. The film arrives in cinemas on November 6, 2015, and co-stars Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Monica Bellucci, and Ralph Fiennes.
Sony has detailed the latest crop of games PlayStation Plus members can download for free in October.
In Europe, the list includes Super Meat Boy, which is making its debut on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. Along with this, there's Double Fine's adventure game, Broken Age.
Kung-fu rhythm title Kickbeat and indie action game Kung Fu Rabbit will be available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, as will Unmechanical Extended. Finally, physics-based platformer Chariot will be available to play on the PS3.
The full list of additions coming to European plus subscribers on October 6 can be found below.
In North America, meanwhile, Sony has confirmed Super Meat Boy and Broken Age will be available to subscribers, but has not mentioned any further titles.
Also worth noting is that DriveClub PlayStation Plus Edition, the free version of Evolution's racing simulation game, will no longer be available from October 6. Sony has advised users to download the game to keep it in their library, where it can be downloaded again in the future.
Today, September 30, marks the last day of September, making this your last chance to claim the month's free Games With Gold titles.
Due to the way Microsoft staggers the release of the Xbox One's freebies, only one of the two Games With Gold games leaves today. The Deer God will return to its regular price on October 1; Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, meanwhile, remains free until October 15.
To download these games, you only need to be an Xbox Live Gold member. You'll have access to any of the free Xbox One games for as long as you remain a subscriber, while the 360 games are yours to keep forever, regardless of your membership status.
Fulfilling a promise made before Gran Turismo 6's launch in December 2013, developer Polyphony Digital has now released the racing game's long-awaited course-making editor. Called the "GT6 Track Path Editor," this tool lets you build your own track after choosing from four different themes.
As announced previously, this is done through a free iOS and Android app, which lets you create, save, and then import your courses into Gran Turismo 6 to use in the PlayStation 3 title. After applying a new update today, you'll find a "Track Path Importer" option has been added to the game's Home screen.
The Gran Turismo 6 course-making tool lets you determine the layout of a course, including fine details like the placement of curbs and other roadside items such as trees, buildings, and grandstands. Once you get it into the game, you can use it across the Free Run, Arcade, and Open Lobby modes or post it to the Community tab to share with friends.
For a closer look at the tool, watch the video below or click through the images in the gallery above.
Today's Grand Turismo 6 also makes other tweaks and changes; see the changelog below.
Penalties have been disabled in Free Run mode.
With the addition of the GT6 Track Path Editor, the maximum length of best lap replays that can be loaded in the Data Logger has been set to 20 minutes.
The engine sounds of certain cars have been improved.
GT Academy 2015 has been removed from the [SPECIAL EVENTS] section in accordance to the end of the Online Qualifier period.
Looking ahead, Polyphony Digital boss Kazunori Yamauchi, who is also the creator of the Gran Turismo series, says Gran Turismo 7 will probably launch for PlayStation 4 before 2017.
While you'll have to wait until November to play the next Need for Speed game for consoles, the EA racing series sees a new release today in the form of mobile game Need for Speed: No Limits.
No Limits includes 30 different licensed cars, as well as more than 10 game modes, 38 courses, 900 race events, and 100 levels to unlock. You can also square off against other racers in the game's head-to-head mode to earn rewards and other in-game items.
Australia-based studio Firemonkeys (Real Racing 3) developed the free-to-play No Limits. You can download it today from iTunes and Google Play. As with other free-to-play games, it offers a variety of microtransactions.
For a closer look at No Limits, watch the gameplay video above or click through the images in the gallery below.
Amazon Prime members can get a 3.5mm jack-equipped Xbox One controller with a Play & Charge Kit for $58. Just add the bundle to your cart (make sure it's the one sold by Amazon, not a third party) and proceed to checkout to see the discount.
The newest Humble Indie Bundle is a good one. It includes games like Skullgirls, Planetary Annihilation: Titans, Xenonauts, and more. You can get everything for $10, or only select games by beating the average (currently $6.77) or paying any price you want.
The latest Humble Weekly Bundle is the Fantastic Arcade bundle. You can get a handful of games no matter how much you spend, while ponying up $8 or more gets you everything, including Fez, Luftrausers, Hotline Miami, and Fract OSC.
PlayStation Gold Wireless Stereo Headset -- $70 (Amazon)
PlayStation Silver Wired Stereo Headset -- $22 (Amazon)
Amazon prices are accurate as of publishing, but can fluctuate occasionally throughout the day.
GameSpot's gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site.
Konami has detailed the first major content update and upcoming regular updates for PES 2016.
The weekly updates, which are "designed to ensure players within PES 2016 match performances with their real-life counterparts," will begin from October 1.
"Players on good streaks will have their various abilities raised, while others will be tweaked to reflect their current performances," Konami explained.
The first download pack for the football sim, meanwhile, will be released later in October and will "refresh all summer transfers and team rosters across all modes with the inclusion of new teams and player faces." The update will be available for free.
"We have to be respectful about that," he continued. "We have to keep closing that gap. In a couple of years we'll clearly lead again. But we have to convince a lot of people."
"There's little worth in assessing soccer sims by the weight of their game modes, or indeed, the breadth of their official licences," said reviewer Rob Crossley.
"All that truly matters is what unfolds in those virtual ninety minutes, either against a friend, an online stranger, or the computer. On that test alone, PES 2016 represents the best game in the series since the PlayStation 2 era."
Texas-based Twisted Pixel, the studio perhaps best known for The Maw and 'Splosion Man, has split off from Microsoft and is again an independent studio. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2011, but according to studio co-founder Josh Bear, the studio had been talking with Microsoft for a while now about going independent again "if the timing made sense for us."
Executive producer Bill Muehl explained to IGN that the transition has been in the works "for a few months." He added that Twisted Pixel will "continue [its] strong partnership with Microsoft," but is also looking forward to "new relationships and platforms." Further details about the split were not made available.
Twisted Pixel's latest game release was motorcycle racing game LocoCycle, which was released as an Xbox One launch title in November 2013 before coming to Xbox 360 and PC in 2014.
The studio is currently working on an unannounced game that is "very different from anything they've done before," Xbox boss Phil Spencer said last year. He added at the time that the game "will likely be the biggest game they've ever built from the look of it."
It is unclear if Twisted Pixel's separation from Microsoft will in any way impact the release or scope of this game.
Bethesda has published the next installment in the Fallout 4 "S.P.E.C.I.A.L." video series, this one focusing on Charisma and why it's important to cultivate it to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.
As you'll see in the video, boosting your charisma stats can be very beneficial in the wasteland. You can use your charisma to charm people (and animals), and can even use your skills to help in bartering negotiations or to convince people to do your bidding. If you lack charisma, you may end up with a fork in your eye.
This is the fourth video in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L series. Catch up on the previous videos through these links: Strength, Perception, Endurance. Next week's will highlight Intelligence, while three additional movies will follow in the weeks thereafter.
Fans of the Harry Potter movies wishing to experience a different Christmas this year are being given the chance to visit Hogwarts and dine in the magical school's Great Hall.
The Warner Bros Studio Tour in London has allowed fans to visit the sets of the Harry Potter series for some time. But now a special holiday event is being laid on, with food, drink, and dancing all happening in the huge Hall where Harry and friends ate dinner. The Warner Tour website provides more details:
The Hogwarts dining room will be dressed for the occasion with the original props used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, including flaming Christmas puddings and hams studded with cherries. A wand will be waiting for you at your table and you'll enjoy the first two courses of a delicious Christmas dinner with all the trimmings on the authentic set.
The after-dinner experience includes the full studio tour, dessert by the Hogwarts Express, pints of Butterbeer in the backlot cafe, and a stroll up Diagon Alley.
The whole thing doesn't come cheap-- it's £230 ($350)--and the event is now sold out. But for fans who have been unable to lay their hands on tickets, the studio will also be running a "Hogwarts in the Snow" exhibition from mid-November until the end of January.
If Naughty Dog does make a sequel to The Last of Us, it probably won't be here anytime soon. That's according to PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida, who confirms in a new interview that Naughty Dog is brainstorming ideas for a sequel, but the project is not yet confirmed and could be a long time away.
"We haven't confirmed The Last of Us 2," Yoshida told Eurogamer. "But ever since the launch of the first game, people like [The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann] are talking about some ideas for a potential sequel, some experiments that they want to do. It's just talks around development."
Yoshida went on to say that Sony has "no confirmed information" about The Last of Us 2. However, the executive said he's eager to see the ideas that Naughty Dog comes up with for it.
"Like many people, we wish to see what it's going to be like, how the story's going to develop, what life these characters have after what happened in The Last of Us," Yoshida said.
Nintendo has released new DLC for its fighting game Super Smash Bros. in the form of a Super Mario Maker stage, but also more content we didn't know was coming. A "Pirate Ship" stage, based on the one that originally appeared in 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is now available to buy for the Wii U version.
The Super Mario Maker stage, meanwhile, was announced earlier this month. It's available to buy now for $2.50 on Wii U and 3DS; a bundle that includes both versions can be purchased for $3.50.
A variety of new DLC costumes are also now available for 75 cents on Wii U/3DS or through a $1.15 bundle. These costumes are based on the Monster Hunter, Star Fox, and Kid Icarus franchises, among others. For a closer look, watch the video below or click through the images in the gallery above.
GameStop chief executive, Paul Raines, has said he believes disc-based games will always exist alongside digital delivery as a complementary business model.
In an interview to Fortune, Raines discussed the video game retailer's approach to selling non-physical products, as the industry rapidly adopts digital delivery.
"Disc-based games will be around forever," he said. "The market has seen physical music sales down 50% from its peak and physical movie sales down 60% from its peak, but even in a doomsday scenario, disc-based games will be around for a long time.
"I see a complimentary business where we sell discs plus download like the current console mode. Virtual reality games will also likely follow this model."
According to Raines, GameStop already has a healthy digital sales business, thanks to the sale of DLC and full game download codes, as well as points.
"We have a pretty healthy digital business," he said. "[This] includes downloadable content (DLC) for PC and console games, full game downloads, Steam points cards and currencies, and Kongregate's online and mobile games sales. We see that as a $1 billion business this year."
The company's human resources executive, Lisa Keglovitz, said hiring thousands of temporary employees means stores will be "appropriately staffed to meet our customers' needs this holiday."
Wouldn't it be great if you could play with D-Dog in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain outside of missions? Imagine that: A walk around a park, sharing an ice cream cone, maybe even snuggling up to watch a movie on the couch.
Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, the big games that come out each month are pretty snazzy. We all know this. They give us big worlds to explore and plenty to do. Shooting goons, stealing cars, jumping off buildings; it's all good fun. But there are hundreds of games that come out each month that offer us different flavours. Want more comedy in games? It already exists if you know where to look. One game that came out this month had me in stitches. And it let me date a skeleton.
Discovering the weird and wonderful games floating outside the gravity of blockbusters is what this new column aims to do. Each month GameSpot will endorse a list of undiscovered and obscure titles that deserve your consideration. We start here, with five of the best released in September.
5. Panoramical
The Pitch: Lose yourself turning music into landscapes.
Scientists say we only experience a fraction of the world. Our eyes don't see infra-red or UV light, and our ears don't pick up ultrasonic sounds. What else are we missing out on? Panoramical suggests a lot. Or maybe that we don't appreciate the beauty of what we do get to see and hear.
"Imagine if paint had sounds and motion when applied to paper. That is Panoramical."
Panoramical injects you into soundscapes that patiently hum as you arrive through a warbling kaleidoscopic aperture. You have nine separate dials that each correlate to a collection of elements, both visual and auditory, letting you make changes huge and minuscule. Starting with a still horizon you may raise oceans and mountains to great crescendo. Flowers that trumpet can be grown into trees that shout. Hues can be altered and the timbre with it. Let a stream of stars drag or rush past and the tempo will match accordingly. Imagine if paint had sounds and motion when applied to paper. That is Panoramical.
There's fun to be had in turning everything up to maximum for a sensory overload. But tempering and toying with display and effects is more artistically satisfying. Then you'll see that each of Panoramical's main scenes suggest familiar bucolic worlds. You can create foggy swamps with leaping creatures and fireflies. Or oceans fringed by cotton clouds and lit by an arcing moon. These tend to be the more sonorous and choral choices, whereas giving more alien compounds--such as rocky webbing or crystalline splinters--takes you to more vast and mysterious pieces. Whatever marriage of sight and sound you go with, it's all transitory, able to shift as easy as liquid. And so each arrangement has this precious quality that encourages you to sup on their pure sensations while it lasts.
4. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
The Pitch: Fight with a friend, or a pet dog, in a frantic and fumbled battle with space aliens.
The Death Star in Star Wars was deliberately made in an unremarkable color so that it would resemble a moon to onlookers. Nothing to see here, just a large rock that definitely doesn't house a super-weapon capable of destroying entire planets. But Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime isn't interested in keeping a low profile. The mini Death Star that you pilot in the game is colored a bubblegum pink. It has the subtlety of a disco ball at a flashlight party.
This ship is an emblem for everything the game is about: love. This works on a couple of levels. You literally embody love as a weaponized beacon sent out to face the evil forces of Anti-Love and rescue the space-bunnies they've kidnapped. But to be successful, there must also exist a love between you and your co-pilot. If you can, you should play the game sat alongside a friend, as it lends itself to hysterical fits of ecstasy in its best moments. If you're forced to do it alone then you'll be given an AI-controlled cat or dog to boss around. (Think of it as a mascot for your loneliness.) Either way, each function of your ship (driving, shooting, shielding) is tied to a separate console and then distributed across individual rooms. The pair of you must run between them frantically, popping up ladders, and jumping across small gaps while under attack. It's a micro-platformer inside a space shooter.
The extra mobility requirements keep the energy levels high as you both race between destinations. With it comes the same rapport that keeps a busy kitchen alive, each cook bouncing off each other, knocking back the orders. The difference is that you have to deal with a cartoon cast of dive-bombing space beetles and cannon-faced robots. Upgrades let you wield massive ray guns and buzzsaws that you fling out on tethers. There are wilder options, too, such as turning the engine into a laser cannon. Playing around with these upgrades appeals to the overblown fantasies of youth in which everything is improved by increasing the numbers. But with such power it's easy to forget there's just the two of you to operate it all.
"It's a micro-platformer inside a space shooter."
Charge inside a planet housing a busy nest of jagged-toothed flies and your Swiss Army knife of a ship will be shown up for its ridiculousness. But more often than not you'll be high-fiving your way out of narrow escapes afforded to you by serendipity, such as being caught in the orbit of a nearby planet. It's a game that lets you see the universe through the bright colors of a child's eyes once again. It encourages you to dive into chaos, to embrace possibility, and to remember how fun it is to do so with a friend.
3. Else Heart.Break()
The Pitch: Find your place, and maybe even love, in a world that's almost completely hackable.
"Everyone is growing old and boring," says Pixie. We're on our way to a club. We always are. She and the rest of the young tech activists in Dorisburg stand out like neon-plated anachronisms. The clothes they wear appear to have been dipped in disco lights. Orange-framed sunglasses and pink headphones. They embody the electronic code and music they grew up with.
Now they live to party: smoking, drinking, raving into the morning. But the drizzly city island around them is made of cobblestones and cracked brick. It's an old European town founded on its mines and harbour; exporting goods to the rest of the world. One day, we dance carefree to a DJ in those mines, yards away from a hardhat zone, and I see the clash of the old and the young captured in a single image. Everything made on this island is sent off elsewhere, all except its youth. They seem eager to explore the world but there's something stopping them.
Their cause is a cyberpunk one: Fighting against an austere authority by meddling with electronics. Yes, they're hackers, ones that have as many excited exclamation marks as they do awkward ellipsis in their speech. As new-guy-in-town Sebastian, curious and hopeless, you seem fated to join them. He arrives in Dorisburg to sell soda on the streets. He has to hustle but it's useless. No one is interested in buying, and any money he does make goes straight back to the company. The initial experience plays like The Sims without the hunger bars and interior decoration; stuck in a crappy job trying to make money without much of a purpose. But, if nothing else, Else Heart.Break() is about the fantasy of escape and seeing it come true. It should speak to anyone who has seen the job market disappoint their dreams.
Mind you, it's also a game about embracing failure. Friends will give you times and places to meet up. If you don't remember or find your own way then you'll miss the opportunity (if only temporarily). Relationships, after all, require dedication over long periods. So you grab maps, ask for directions, and write down passwords. Learning how the city and its people work is all preparation for the larger challenge. Dorisburg is a place where you can hack into anything, from a cup of coffee to an entire building, but it isn't without its restrictions. These exist only inside you. When hacking into an object you have to modify actual code, which means learning the correct syntax for a range of functions, and it can be intimidating. Help is at hand, either in the form of manuals found on floppy disks, or tutorials given by friends. Eventually, you'll gain some confidence, and this is when the magic happens.
"Else Heart.Break() is about the fantasy of escape and seeing it come true."
After being in the red for so long, I had one of the most immense feelings of satisfaction as I engineered a simple hack to get as much money as I liked. It's as though I had invented a cheat code; a literal life hack. Suddenly, the world had opened up. Now I had to learn how to hack everything, to chase new enigmas and new freedoms. It's tough, but Else Heart.Break() has enough drama to counterbalance its tests. Assigned missions see you sneaking into corporate workplaces, stalking the city's VIPs, and steadily working your way towards what you think might be love. Of course, you need a break every once in a while, but you needn't leave your computer. Guide Sebastian into one of Dorisburg's quiet cafe's and have him sit down with a smoke and a coffee, listening to dozy synth-pop. In these moments you may realize your own intense synthesis with the character. His story relies on you understanding how to code after all. And what you learn in Else Heart.Break() can be applied outside of it. That's if you can ever depart from the mysteries of this compelling virtual world.
2. Assault Android Cactus
The Pitch: Gah! Hundreds of killer robots and you're running out of battery.
As we increasingly rely on electronics to organize our lives we get closer to submitting ourselves to them entirely. Already there are those that immediately put everything on hold until they can find a charger for their smartphone or laptop. We can't face being offline or unavailable. This is why we can understand the tragedy of Assault Android Cactus, which is running out of battery at the worst time possible: when you're doing battle with killer robots.
"Arena shooters work best when they force you to perform risky maneuvers. Assault Android Cactus does this constantly and it's exhilarating."
As one of the game's diverse cast of android heroines, you spend your time back-pedalling around disco-like arenas, blasting a torrent of robots until one of them pops out a glowing green battery. Nothing else matters when your energy levels are low. You rush through the crowd uncaring for any hazard in the way. Taking damage is secondary to running out of battery as it's the only way to fail.
As you're battling against a fast-depleting power source the game becomes a manic rush against time. This urgency is the game's brilliance. Arena shooters work best when they force you to perform risky maneuvers that interrupts your measured effort at crowd control. Assault Android Cactus does this constantly and it's exhilarating. You cut lines through the mass of writhing metal to grab temporary power-ups and mechanical parts that gradually upgrade your weapon (resetting if you take too much damage).
But it's the transforming arenas that really grab you by the pants. The floors will move and ripple with color, lasers and walls divide open space into segments, and doors close to trap you in pockets. One memorable stage has you on a flatbed railcar, rocking as it tilts around corners, intermittent red-hot lasers forcing you to take cover, crates rolling around and bursting open to reveal bigger foes. It's a rush to play and a welcome change of scenery. No matter the stage, you must keep on your toes at all times, dancing around hundreds of blazing bullets, or risk losing all momentum and delaying the arrival of the next precious battery.
1. Undertale
The Pitch: Who wants to battle monsters when you can date them?
There's something gloriously teenaged about Undertale. As if its creator Toby Fox read Edge magazine's 1994 review of Doom, which is remembered most for how it remarked "if only you could talk to these creatures, then perhaps you could try and make friends with them," and his response was along the lines of "yeah, what if you could kiss them too?"
But let's not be inaccurate here. This has nothing to do with Doom. Undertale is the result of someone turning Earthbound and Chrono Trigger into a joke book. This is an RPG that knows how to raise a smile and refuses to be predictable. It has a turn-based battle system but half of it plays more like a top-down shooter. During enemy attacks you have to maneuver a love heart inside a small box as projectiles are fired at you: skeletons throw bones, ghosts cry harmful tears, planes dive bomb you. Right at the start, it has a dig at hand-holding tutorials, literally having a mother figure hold your hand through anything that may harm you. But its biggest deviation is allowing you to let every single monster survive. You can befriend instead of battle.
"A tsundere airplane will get jealous if you attack other characters while battling it. The robot that wants to kill you decides to host a quiz and a cookery show beforehand, with you as the special guest."
For once, you can explore the "what if?" that Edge's writer proposed in that classic sentence. What if you could talk to the monsters? What would they say? An awful lot, it turns out, most of it endearingly funny. "I wish I had eight legs," says a spaghetti-loving skeleton called Papyrus, "so I could wear four pairs of hot pants." Papyrus is the best. But he's only one of the standout characters in Undertale's loveable cast. Some are shy and need a hug. A tsundere airplane will get jealous if you attack other characters while battling it. The robot that wants to kill you decides to host a quiz and a cookery show beforehand, with you as the special guest. As to Papyrus, he fails spectacularly in his efforts to capture a human by dating the single one he does find.
You play as this human, who has fallen into an underground realm of monsters, and must journey through to the other side to escape. You pass by ruins, laboratories, castles, and towns, each with their own memorable and often laugh-out-loud encounters. One snowy town is guarded by small dogs that sit in huge humanoid suits of armor far too big for them. You can deal with them in typical RPG fashion by choosing 'Fight' in the battle menu. But the more entertaining option is making a snowball for them to fetch so that they drop all hostility and can be spared. They'll turn up later belching inside a pub. Part of the delight is exploring how to make each of the monsters your friend. For some, you need to flirt to soften them up, while others may require you to sing, tell jokes, or console.
Undertale's mission throughout is to grab the weary norms of the RPG by the pants, and then twist them until they go light-headed. Sure, it has multiple endings to discover, but you'll want to replay for more than the sake of trading a pacifist run for a genocidal one, or vice versa. Upon playing its demo two years ago, being drawn in by how it was able to surprise and humor me, even make me feel guilty, I worried it wouldn't hold out for an entire six hours. But it does. Some jokes still make me laugh upon thinking about them. Characters exist in my head as if people I've actually met. It's an unexpected multiplex of tones and emotions, too: disturbing, silly, heart-warming. But mostly it's funny. Really, genuinely, properly funny.
Microsoft has announced its next Xbox One bundle, this one themed around the Lego franchise.
Due out in October for $350, the package comes with a 500 GB system and a copy of The Lego Movie Video Game, which is based on the 2014 film, TheLego Movie. There are more than 90 playable characters in the game, including Batman, Superman, and Gandalf. This bundle does not include a Kinect camera.
"The Lego Movie Video Game is a faithful take on its source material. While not everything is awesome, The Lego Movie Videogame should be just the ticket if you're ready to spend another 10 to 12 hours in the fantastic world of animated plastic blocks," our reviewer said.
The Kickstarter campaign for Divinity: Original Sin II ended today, with the final funding tally for the PC role-playing game standing at $2,032,434. A total of 42,713 people contributed to the campaign.
The final funding figure is likely higher, as developer Larian Studios is also accepting donations on PayPal. Whatever the case, with $2 million raised, Larian has achieved the game's final stretch goal: Game Master Mode. This exciting-sounding mode lets players create their own dungeons and change their attributes on the fly as other players move from them. Read more about it here.
Original Sin II far surpassed its initialgoal of raising $500,000. As with Original Sin, Larian is using this funding not to build the game, but to expand it beyond what its budget would otherwise permit. Things turned out well with the previous game, which GameSpot named its PC Game of the Year for 2014.
The game is currently slated for release in December 2016. Among the improvements it'll offer are four-player co-op support, a new crafting system, skill crafting, and competitive questing.
Super Mario Maker, the newly released Wii U level-building game, has now sold more than 1 million copies worldwide, following its launch earlier in September. This figure is based on Nintendo's internal estimates of physical and digital sales, as well as copies of the game sold in bundles.
"The game won't necessarily turn you into the next Shigeru Miyamoto, but you can almost feel a little bit of that magic rubbing off every time you upload a new creation," he said.
For more on Super Mario Maker's critical reception, check out this review roundup.
Crystal Dynamics has provided some context for just how big of a game Rise of the Tomb Raider is. Lead designer Mike Brinker says in a new interview that you'll be able to beat the game in about 15-20 hours, but that's only for a simple run-through of the story. To get "everything done," including completing all sidequests and collecting every weapon, you should expect to spend around 30-40 hours in the game.
"It all comes down to how you want to play through the game," Brinker said. "Running through the game will take you around 15-20 hours," he told PixelVulture. "So expect double the play time collecting everything and exploring every secret tomb."
On the subject of scale, Brinker said Rise of the Tomb Raider's "hub spaces," which are places that players can explore and determine how they want to proceed, have been "increased by three times the size" compared to the last game.
"So there will be lots more to see and do in each area of the game, too," he explained. "We have more challenge tombs, crypts, caves, and a bunch of extra things to do like the side missions for the Remnant people, and the tomb guardians."
Independent developer Rebellion's Sniper Elite franchise has reached a new sales milestone.
The UK-based studio on Wednesday announced that the series has now passed 10 million copies sold worldwide. The franchise debuted in 2005 with the original Sniper Elite. Sequels V2 and V3 were released in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Check out the video below for more on the milestone.
"Whether you've bought one or whether you've bought all of our Sniper Elite products, thank you very much for supporting indie development in the UK," Rebellion CEO and co-founder Jason Kingsley said. "It's been a pleasure to deliver great games for you and hopefully we'll go on to do more in the future."
2015 marks the 10th anniversary of the shooter series. To celebrate the birthday and the 10 million sales, Rebellion is holding a month-long celebration that will include livestreams, giveaways, and more. Rebellion has also marked down the three core Sniper Elite installments by 80 percent on Steam.
Rebellion's next game, the Sniper Elite spinoff game Zombie Army Trilogy, was released in March. No future entries in the series have been announced.
Although the PlayStation 4 first-party lineup this holiday may be "a little sparse," that doesn't mean people who pick up a new Sony console this year will be hurting for titles to play. In a new interview, PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida was asked to compare the PS4 lineup to the Xbox One's this holiday, which Microsoft says is the strongest in the history of the platform. Yoshida said shoppers think about more than just first-party games when they're deciding which console to buy.
Yoshida admitted that "we're not releasing new AAA titles this Christmas," with the company's first-party efforts instead extended to "smaller, creative games" such as Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and The Tomorrow Children, among others.
"That can be complementary when looking at the lineup of PS4 games," Yoshida said.
"People make purchasing decisions for the long-term," he explained. "Consoles, once they've purchased it, they expect to use it for 5-6 years. Having exclusive, unique titles coming in the near future, starting with Uncharted 4, must play a role from a first-party standpoint, to help people make those decisions."
Sony has released a new system software update for the PlayStation 4. The update weighs in at around 250 megabytes.
As previously detailed, it introduces "entirely new features" and user-interface enhancements. It creates "new ways to connect with friends and players around the world, expanding the social capabilities of the system even further."
Among the new features are the ability to share videos directly to Twitter, a dedicated PlayStation Plus section, tweaks to the interface for streaming on YouTube, improvements to the messages and favourites group, the ability save screenshots at PNGs, group creation, and more. An increase in online storage capacity from 1 GB to 10 GB for PS Plus Members will also be introduced.
The full list of new feature can be found below.
Sharing video clips to Twitter: Now it's easy to share video clips to Twitter directly from your PS4. You'll see a new icon on the Upload Video Clip menu, nestled between Facebook and YouTube. Maximum video length is 10 seconds, though you'll have the ability to trim longer clips. Don't forget — you can double tap the Share button to start recording a video, and press it again to stop.
PlayStation Plus: We've made a dedicated section for PlayStation Plus, which you can access by clicking the big Plus icon on the top right corner of your PS4 home screen. Once there you can easily manage your membership, see the monthly free games to download, deals for PS Plus members, and all of the games you've redeemed through PS Plus on PS4.
YouTube live: You'll see a new icon for YouTube on the Broadcast Gameplay Screen, accessible after hitting the Share button. Now you can live stream directly from your PS4 to YouTube. Livestreams will be viewable across YouTube.
Improvements to Messages and Favorite Groups: We've improved Messages by making it easier to access groups of people you chat and play games with frequently. Once you're added to or create a group, you'll see the online status for friends, what games they are playing, and the option to message or chat in party all in one spot. When you add or create a new favorite group, they'll appear in your Friends app under Favorite Groups for quick access. For example, you can see we have favorite groups for Call of Duty, Rocket League, and Destiny.
Communities: PS4 users will have the ability to create communities based around shared interests, like games, genres, and more. Communities include a message board with general discussion, screenshots shared by players, and the ability to join parties/games.
Stickers: From the PS4 system's Messages app, you'll see a new option for Stickers. The 3.00 update will contain stickers themed around Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Knack, LittleBigPlanet 3, Resogun, and more. Instead of typing out a message, just send a sticker — like Drake looking at a watch, asking you to wait a minute."
Microsoft has increased party chat support on Xbox One and the Xbox app for Windows 10, now letting up to 12 people partake. This is up from the previous limit of eight.
The change is live now for all users, not just Preview Program members. It's done on the server side, meaning you won't need to install an update to see the change. The feature comes on the eve of the launch of Halo 5: Guardians, which offers a series-first 12v12 mode called Warzone.
Take a look at the image above to see what Xbox engineering boss Mike Ybarra said was the first-ever 12-person Xbox party chat. As you can see, party chat works across platforms.
In other Xbox news, a new update for the New Xbox One Experience Preview has gone live. According to Eurogamer, it adds a number of fixes, as well as new features like animated avatars and a streamlined Game DVR menu. If you didn't get into the preview yet, you might this week, as more invitations are being sent out soon.
Sega has told investors that it will make significantly less money this financial year than initially expected.
The company originally forecasted net sales of $1.7 billion during the current financial year, but now expects $1.3 billion. This represents a 22 percent downturn.
Chief executive Hajime Satomi blamed weaker-than-expected business from its slot and pachinko machines.
Recently, Sega launched a Fist of the North Star (Pachisot Hokuto No Ken Tomo) and Bayonetta slot machines, but sales of these units were "not sufficient to offset the impact" of development and advertising costs.
In a bid to improve profitability, Sega has said it will restructure the division. As part of this, it is offering voluntary retirement to "around 200" employees at its Taiyo subsidiary. Its video game division does not seem to have been impacted by the voluntary retirement plans.
Looking forward, Sega has said it still plans to launch the Onimusha 3 Jikuu Tenshou and Ryu Ga Gotoku Of The End pachinko machines.
"I've been talking to employees about how [Sega] should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on," he said. "Particularly in North America and Europe, where it's always been more of a focus on schedules. I believe that if we can't maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all."
In September 2013, Sega acquired bankrupted publisher Index Corporation, parent company of Persona 4 developer Atlus. The following year, Index Corporation was separated from Atlus.
The Atlus team is currently working on Persona 5 with a team of 121 employees. At TGS 2015, Atlus revealed Persona 5 would be delayed and will now debut on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 in summer 2016 instead of the originally announced 2015 period.
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