Rise of the Tomb Raider - PS4 Release Date leaked

A lot of people know that Rise of the Tomb Raider is a timed exclusive for PS4, however, we now know the release date as well because the gaming media channel, "The Know" managed to get their hands on a confidential document from a trusted anonymous source. 

The Xbox release is to be published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with a release date set for Q4 2015. The confirmed release date for the Xbox versions is a nailed November 10th. Now, for the PS4 version, the game is to be published by Square Enix for a release of Q4 2016, with a likely release date sometime in November, which is a very large difference in release dates.

The document even covers some damage control issues, as Square Enix expects a large backlash for when they officially announce the release date, around mid-2016. To offset the backlash from fans, Square Enix is planning to release the game at a discounted price, that could be heavily influenced by how angry fans are.

Now I cannot vouch that any of this information is authentic, I am simply spreading around information. The Know trust that it's authentic, as they trust their source as well.

Batman: Arkham Knight has been removed from Steam

Following the terrible PC port for Batman: Arkham Knight, the game has been removed from Steam due to bugs, performance issues, and it being no where near the bar PC gamers expect ports to reach at a minimum. With all the delays, it was logical to think the game would be a perfect release, incredibly polished and a fine conclusion to the Arkham series of games. For console gamers, this may be the case. However, the PC port has an awful array of bugs, most notably that the game can delete itself whilst verifying the game's cache.

As a result, Warner Bros. has decided to suspend sales of the PC version of the game, here's the full statement:

"We want to apologize to those of you who are experiencing performance issues with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards. We greatly value our customers and know that while there are a significant amount of players who are enjoying the game on PC, we want to do whatever we can to make the experience better for PC players overall.

Thank you to those players who have already given valuable feedback. We are continuously monitoring all threads posted in the Official Batman: Arkham Knight Community and Steam forums, as well as any issues logged with our Customer Support (support.wbgames.com). If you purchased your copy of the game and are not satisfied with your experience, then we ask for your patience while these issues are resolved. If desired, you can request a refund at help.steampowered.com (Steam refund policies can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds) or the retail location where you purchased the game."

- Yorick, Community Admin for the Warner Bros. Games Community Forum

This is a very rare incident indeed, and most surprising as well considering that in the past Warner Bros. has showed little care for PC games as a platform, such as with Arkham Origins and the recently released Mortal Kombat X. They may have realised that ignoring such huge issues will cause irreparable damage to their brand name. At least we can now we expect a proper release for the game, with no bugs and expected performance levels. No PC hardware can currently run this game at full details, even PCs that literally blow the hardware requirements out of the water. 

Batman: Broken Knight - Woes

With the release of Batman: Arkham Knight, fans were ecstatic to play the conclusion to Rocksteady's Batman series of video games. However, the game has had a rocky release, as the PC version is riddled with gameplay bugs, performance bugs and a sinful 30 FPS lock; only changeable by editing an INI file. Steam's Refund system must be hard at work, the game has been reviewed over 4,500 times by Steam users, with a generally negative reception. 

Performance wise, the game stutters, has random FPS drops and sometimes when attempting to verify the game cache, the game ends up being deleted from the system. Fans that were excited to use the Batmobile will most likely find it unplayable, as sequences that utilize the Batmobile (of which there are many), cause the FPS to tank to an all time low. But really, a game deleting itself can't possibly get any worse.

The game is experiencing performance issues with both Nvidia and AMD cards, though the latter is having the worst problems.

Rocksteady has responded with:

"Hi all,

We're aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. This is something that Rocksteady take very seriously. We are working closely with our external PC development partner to make sure these issues get resolved as quickly as possible.

We'll update this thread when we've got more info to share.

Thanks,

CODA"

Feels like a very generic response from such a highly praised company, would be nice if we got a more "human" response rather than some generic jargon about how they know about the problem. However, this response has not stopped PC gamers from speaking their opinions.

Console versions are not having any issues currently; at least someone is enjoying their newly purchased game. We can only hope that Rocksteady stands by their word, and fixes the game quickly.

Shenmue 3!

Shenmue 3 may be a thing in the future, as the original director of the Shenmue 1 & Shenmue 2 has created a Kickstarter page to help crowdfund the next game; Shenmue 3. Within 12 hours, the game had reached it's $2 million dollar goal, and as of 23/06/2015, it has reached $3.5 million dollars, with 44,733 backers. The game still has 24 days left before the Kickstarter ends. It's become fact that Sony will be working with Playstation to help make the game, including financially. Shenmue 1 had a budget of $47 million dollars, so really this is simply to test the water - do the fans want it?

Clearly they do, judging by how fast it had reached it's funding goal. However, the director, Yu Suzuki, has said if they could reach $10 million dollars in crowdfunding, he could make his dream a reality in the game.

The Kickstarter page goes into great detail about the game, and even shows off some Work-in-Progress screenshots of the game. It also has concept art, team members and a plethora of backing incentives ranging from $5 to $10,000 dollars. Naturally, all of the $10,000 dollar backer spots have been taken, which includes dinner with Yu Suzuki or getting Ryo's jacket. This jacket has been worn by Masaya Matsukaze during all of the press events 14 years ago. 

Pledging $3,000 however, gets you a replica of that jacket, which is still pretty cool. I have to admit, the variety of incentives to back this project is quite impressive; they've certainly thought of great incentives to get as many people as they can on-board with this project. 

Yu Suzuki says he has always wanted to make Shenmue 3, and during the 14 years since the release date of Shenmue 2, he has always been asked by fans about when Shenmue 3 will be released.

Yu Suzuki wanted to keep the dream alive, and so he learnt of Kickstarter, and after looking into it, he decided to give it a go. He wants the game to be made "For the Fans, by the Fans". Using Kickstarter, he claims he can finally bring about Shenmue 3. 

The trailer for the Kickstarter page also shows off some in-game footage with (what I would imagine) placeholder voice overs. The game will take place in China.

DOOM - Back and Bloody

DOOM, an all time favourite of FPS fans since 1993. Come 2015, Bethesda has announced a new DOOM during their E3 conference, and it's extremely fast paced, very interactive and simple arcade-like fun. Judging by the trailer, the game is full of gore, has beautiful graphics and menacing foes. It has all the classic monsters, such as Zombies, Imps and Hell Knights.

And, the most important part, the guns look absolutely amazing. All the guns from the original games are in there, including the Chainsaw, Shotgun, Minigun, Assault Rifle and even the BFG. There is also the additional features of which you can rip out an enemies heart from their chest, use a jet-pack, Punch, and also break an enemies leg, then kick them in the face with it.

Graphical fidelity looks gorgeous, with excellent lighting effects and high quality textures, as well as the guns themselves look amazing in their own right. All of them look visually attractive (to me at least) and it looks like I won't be picking favourites based on looks, because they all look simply amazing.

The HUD is also very clean, showing only health, armour and ammo count, situated at the bottom of the screen with what looks to be low opacity settings. This keeps your focus entirely on the game and no where else.

DOOM has single player, as per expected. However, it also has CO-OP and Multiplayer modes. The Multiplayer looks like quake style game-play, with unique power ups such as the ability to turn into a spawn of hell.

Also, DOOM boasts CO-OP mode, which lets you play either 4-player death match, survival, or an un-named game mode where you kill monsters to earn credits which lets you buy guns. 

However, the biggest announcement for the game however, is DOOM SnapMap, which is "only limited by your imagination". It is basically a heavy map customization tool that lets you design the map exactly how you want it. It lets you connect rooms together, place items such as boxes, crates, barrels and monsters anywhere within the level for either you or a friend to play with. The tool is designed so that content sharing is very easy, and it aims to provide limitless hours of fun game-play.

It also lets you make custom game modes, edit game logic (such as a switch opening a door) and make interesting things happen such as when you pick up an armour upgrade, a Hell Knight spawns. 

The game boasts a wide variety of locations, including man-made areas as well as Hell itself; where Demons call home.

I would like to see some weapon customization, or the ability for content creators to not only make maps, but also make custom assets such as weapons or textures.

The game will be available Spring 2016.

Fallout: Shelter - Announcement

Fallout: Shelter, is an iOS based game that became available sometime around Bethesda's announcement slots. It's available to play now, for iOS devices, and Bethesda are hoping that it will sate the appetite of Fallout fans whilst they wait until November for Fallout 4 to release. Fallout: Shelter will eventually be available for Android devices too in a "couple of months". I imagine by then it would have been forgotten whilst everyone plays Fallout 4.

Fallout: Shelter, is a game in which you need to build a Vault for your Fallout Dwellers. You need to build an array of rooms, generators and food stores in order to help your people survive. Each individual inhabitant can level up and specialize in certain areas, such as engineering or water works. 

Not only do your dwellers level up, but you also need to keep their happiness levels optimal, lest they leave out of anger. During the development of your Vault, incidents will occur such as an infestation of Roaches which will need to be promptly dealt with, as they can kill your dwellers. Any injured dwellers will also need medical treatment in the form of Stimpaks.

You create rooms by expanding into the earth, deeper and deeper you may go. To start, the player has a very basic fallout shelter with a couple of rooms, and dwellers. It's up to you to build generators and other systems that will enable sustainable life within the fallout shelter. You can watch a 2-hour long game-play video below:

The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Announcement

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is the next "installment" in the Elder Scrolls series of video games. It's a strategy card game, coming to PC and Mac. It's also free to play, and it will be available sometime in Autumn. I suppose this game has been announced to whet the appetite of Elder Scrolls fans, as well as the fact that it is diversifying into another audience; strategic card games.

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls: Legends as part of their line-up of games at E3. Aside from what is shown in the trailer, we know nothing else about the game. It could be Bethesda's take on a Hearthstone however, which would be quite welcome. Thus far however, the game has received negative comments from fans, with bad ratings on Legends related videos. Fans are viewing it as a potential Hearthstone clone, and most are upset that they have waited five years for a new Elder Scrolls game. They've got a new game, but not in the way they were expecting it. 

I don't think it's bad that Bethesda are branching out into different genres, Blizzard have done it with their Warcraft games, so why not Bethesda? Blizzard does not receive such hate, yet Elder Scrolls does when they attempt the same thing; it's double standards and people need to think twice before passing judgement. The Warcraft universe currently goes into RTS, MMORPG, CCG and finally MOBA. I say lets lay down our torches and pitchforks, and give Bethesda a chance to show us what they can do when they dive into another game genre. We may be pleasantly surprised.

Watch the Teaser Trailer here:

Dishonored 2 - The Story Continues

With Bethesda's host of E3 announcements, Dishonored 2 was one of them. It's not a surprise, seeing as the first game was so well received. The trailer depicts an overview of the city, with disease and cruelty running rampant. It then swaps to the perspective of a girl, as she makes her way to a building in the distance, that overlooks the city. Once she gets there, she attempts to fire a crossbow bolt at the target, only for it to be sliced in half mid-flight, by robots. It's at this point that the girl is revealed to be none other than Emily Caldwin, the girl you save at the end of the first game. Caldwin also seems to have gained the powers that Corvo wielded in the first game. Caldwin pursues her target, and eventually kills him. It then cuts to a dirty beach where we can see the mask of Corvo lying in the muck, and The Outsider picking it up.

My main question is, where's Corvo? Is he dead? Alive? Answers to these questions will undoubtedly be answered in the next installment. The release date has yet to be revealed, but it will most likely be next year as Bethesda has already listed Fallout 4 to be released on November 10th. 

I guess what we can expect are improved graphics, new game-play elements and the almost certainty of new powers for the player to use, given by none other than The Outsider himself.

You can watch the trailer here:

Fallout 4 Looks Amazing

So E3 happened yesterday, and with it a whole host of new games, especially from Bethesda. They announced Doom, Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Fallout: Shelter and Dishonored 2. In this blog I will be focusing mainly on Fallout 4, this is the most anticipated game from Bethesda since The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim or Dishonored. 

The question is, what has Fallout 4 brought to the table that is new?

Well, there's updated graphics for starters, but they have also improved or added a load of stuff, such as the ability to customize your weapons as well as your Exo-Suit to a large degree. You can practically make your gun the exact way you want it, so it seems. This is a great feature for a post-apocalyptic world, the weapons also look like they have been made from scraps of metal; jury-rigged so to speak. With the exo-suit, you are also able to jet pack around the place and shoot at the same time. It also appears that they have smoothed out the combat mechanics drastically. Despite how great a series of games Fallout is, the gun-play (in my opinion) was quite clunky, so this is a welcome improvement. 

VATs is still present in the game, also seems to have been smoothed over and instead of pausing the game, the game slows down drastically so as to keep that constant action feel going. Combat looks a lot more interactive, Death Claws, "Giant Mosquitoes" and probably many more enemies are able to aggressively interact with the player such as picking them up, knocking them down or in the Mosquitoes case, sucking out your blood.

An entirely new feature is that you can now make settlements, completely optional mind you as well. You are also able to send Brahmin Caravans between your settlements too, however I can only imagine this also means that your caravans can be attacked by enemies as well. It is likely however, despite being completely optional, that having your own settlements will also grant access to certain benefits.

I think the most interesting feature is that you can now sculpt your own face, via a very interactive character creation process. By selecting different parts of the face, you are able to sculpt it to your liking as well as switch over to the female and do the exact same thing. You can do everything that you would expect in a character creation process; skin colour, eye brows, chin, cheeks, hair colour etc. 

Overall I think Fallout 4 looks very promising, and I am most excited about the fact that we finally have an up-to-date, AAA post-apocalyptic FPS from a reputable publisher. I look forward to when the mod community gets their hands on this game, and we can see what creations can be birthed.

Steam Sale Price Scams

As many of you will know, the Steam Summer Sales have started. However, there are a lot of scams right now as well; companies are being naughty. Some developers have been raising prices in preparation for the Steam sales, so that when the discounts hit, people will buy the game based on impulse buying but also at a higher price. Impulse buying is when you purchase a product on an impulse of excitement commonly. In this case, the impulse buying has stemmed from the fact that sales don't last forever, so the idea is that you better buy the games now before the prices go up again. A key example of this is the Mustang Pack for the game War Thunder. The original price (before the sales) was $19.99, with the Steam Sales, it went down to $14.99. The developers then raised the non-sale price to $27.99, with the discount applied it has gone down to $20.99; $1 more than the original, non-sale price. 

This is an incredibly cheap strategy in all honesty, and is probably the worst thing I have seen a reputable developer do. This isn't unheard of, other companies have done this as well. However, this is the first time I have seen the sale price become higher than the original price. Some people have commented saying that this is just them catching up on the price raise they have/are going to implement on the packs on their site, but its still a pretty cheap tactic to make use of the sale to disguise it.

As of the date of this blog post, 13/06/2015 (UK date), the Mustang Pack has been removed from Steam; meaning that Gaijin Entertainment probably realized that they have been caught with their pants down and are now trying to minimize reputation damage.

The last and largest offender, is Rockstar's GTA 5. The actual game's price jumped to $79.97 making the sale price an even $59.99 after a 25% discount. The way they justify this price increase, is that they have included a "Great White Cash Card", which similarly to the Mustang Pack adds some miscellaneous stuff to GTA Online. Some people are saying that this is price gouging, but by the definition of price gouging, it isn't. This is simply a very old, and dirty, marketing trick so that they don't loose out on additional profits. Stores and online stores have done this for years, and although it is deceptive and unethical, it is not illegal by any means.

These price increases took affect a week in advance of the sales, and by all means, this is a dirty tactic. However, it is entirely the consumer's responsibility to do their research before hand.