Black Desert‘s Second Closed Beta begins on February 18th in Europe and North America, and you don’t have to worry if you don’t have a key, because we are giving away Closed Beta codes today. This event will run from February 18 to February 22 and you’ll be able to redeem your key starting tomorrow, […]
Wargaming today announced the new battle type "Team Battles" for World of Warships will set sail in Update 0.5.3. This new battle type, which unlocks at account level 12, lets captains create an elite squadron of players, work with them to sharpen their skills, and then set out to decimate their opponents and rule […]
Funcom has released today three new screenshots of the upcoming open-world survival game CONAN EXILES, which will enter into Early Access on PC this summer. Check them out below. We have also learned some new details about this new title set in the brutal lands of Conan the Barbarian. Players will be able to […]
NCSoft West today released its first content update for Blade & Soul, only weeks after its launch in North America and Europe. Titled Rising Waters, the update features three new pieces of challenging max-level PvE content that players can access after defeating Vice Admiral Poharan herself. New content in Rising Waters includes Bloodshade/Nightshade Harbor, Mushin's Tower […]
The Division takes place in mid-crisis New York, an open world with destructive environments that are free for players to explore. The player's mission is to restore order by investigating the source of a virus. Players have to team up with other Division agents as they progress. The game's core mechanics are similar to other third-person-shooters, in which player character can carry three weapons, and explosives like sticky bombs and smart mines to fight against enemies. Players may take cover
While it isn't the Hell's Kitchen game I've always dreamed of, Overcooked has me interested. Looks like you can cook with three other friends in various kitchens while dealing with earthquakes, melting ice, space, and so forth.
Judging by the gameplay video below from Eurogamer, Overcooked will have a story mode that is just as crazy as you'd expect. The level shown has players cooking to save the Onion Kingdom by feeding a giant spaghetti-and-meatballs monster.
Infinity Ward, the developer of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series as well as Call of Duty: Ghosts, confirmed it is working on the next game in the Call of Duty series to be released this year, shocking absolutely no one.
Considering the history of the series, it would be surprising if this doesn't end up being a sequel to Ghosts, even if it wasn't that well-reviewed.
Splatoon's latest Splatfest is forcing us choose between them. Players will need to pick a side by next Friday, February 19 at 10pm PT, when the shooter's latest special event is set to begin.
The contest will last one full day and take place worldwide, though it will still be region-specific, pairing players with their neighbors and feature localized results for each territory.
I'm Team Red, all the way, baby. Come at me, Blue Bros!
After experiencing utter disappointment with the first Homefront I expected nothing less than the same crushing feeling playing the Revolution closed beta (which kicked off today on Xbox One). But to my surprise it was...okay? "Serviceable," is probably what I'm going for here.
The build is still very rough (they have a decent amount of time until May to fix it), but there's at least something there for people who like to grab a few friends and dive into mission-based gameplay.
As a nice promotion for the ongoing Consortium: The Tower Kickstarter campaign, Interdimensional Games is giving awayConsortium: The Master Edition on GOG.com for 48 hours.
In his review of the player-choice-driven sci-fi game, our good pal Steven called it "a nice change of pace for anyone who wants that older style of RPG where you learn about someone's mom who is suffering from Alzheimer's, argue whether or not video games are insulting 'murder simulators,' and are exposed to suspicious organized religion."
The promo lasts until Saturday, February 13. Try to remember your login info and jump on it.
The man who sold $120 plain white t-shirts on the side while pursuing a successful rapping career is about to add game designer to his resume. Kanye West had previously announced he was working on a game about his mother ascending to heaven based on his single, "Only One," and has revealed the first footage of it as seen above.
Speaking to WWPR-FM of New York, Kanye said, "The idea is, it's my mother going through the gates of heaven, and you have to bring her to the highest gates of heaven by holding her to the light. We've been working on it for like six months."
While we all anticipate the release of what is surely going to be a game-changer for the whole video game industry, I guess we will have to stick to Kanye Quest 3030 for the time being as the closest thing we've got.
This updated version of the role-playing game includes a remodeled 3D overworld and many other new features. What exactly the other new features are is unknown at this time, aside from a few bug fixes and tweaks to boss difficulty and the character select screen.
Creative Assembly is giving us another glimpse at the particulars of Total War: Warhammer. Just like the Greenskins walkthrough before it, this video drops us partway into a campaign, albeit with the Empire. It's seven minutes long, but that feels like no time at all for a game of this scope.
Aside from the Legendary Lords, who are taken directly from lore, you'll have the option to rename all of your characters. You totally should. The more ridiculous, the better.
This is my first time seeing Sadame, a top-down action-RPG from Mebius and Rising Star Games, and I'm on board. The basic premise: a samurai, ninja, monk, and rogue battle demons in Japan's Sengoku period, earning better equipment and skills along the way to face 20+ bosses.
The four characters have branching paths in the story, and upon completing the game, you can continue on a harder difficulty with your existing weapons and armor. Sounds like a good time to me!
Sadame is coming to the 3DS eShop on February 25, 2016 in North America and Europe. As far as I've seen, Rising Star hasn't listed the pricing yet. Check out that concept art.
Plans to follow Destiny up with a full-fledged, proper sequel haven't changed, but they've been pushed back a little bit. Activision says that the Bungie-developed shooter is expected to launch a second game in the series sometime in 2017.
The news comes as a part of Activision's fiscal 2015 fourth quarter report, which was released to investors today. In the "publishing highlights" section, Activision makes mention of the next Destiny.
Bungie and Activision seemingly still have substantial content for 2016, though. The report indicates that there will be a "large, new expansion" sometime later this year. Players can probably expect something akin to last year's Taken King add-on.
Really, there's probably no need to rush a sequel out to market, anyway. Destiny has seen a resurgence as of late in both popularity and popular opinion. Activision backs this notion by stating that the game has over 25 million users who have logged more than three billion hours of playtime.
Ubisoft released its most recent earnings report this morning. As is customary during those sort of things, Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot talked to investors about the company's past and predicted its future. Tom Clancy's The Division will evidently play quite the role in the publisher's future.
In the financial statement, Guillemot said "The Division ... is set to be one of the largest launches of a new brand in the history of the video game industry." Guillemot also confirmed that the closed beta that recently ended "exceeded all of our expectations."
It's unclear by what metric Guillemot anticipates The Division will see that level of success. Units shipped, units sold, pre-orders, and active player base are a few separate ones that, while correlated, mean different things.
Undoubtedly, the one that matters most to Ubisoft is the one that bolsters its bottom line. Between The Division, Far Cry Primal, and the first DLC pack for Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft expects to see almost $670 million in sales. Surely, a good chunk of that will be from The Division. For comparison's sake, Ubisoft had sales of $192.6 million during the same period last year.
Admittedly, Guillemot's statement sounds kind of hyperbolic right now -- a marketing tactic meant to trigger the "me too!" part of our brains. But, there's clearly data to back it up; he said it to investors, after all. Regardless, it seems as if Ubisoft has pegged The Division to be a success before it even launches. Move over, Watch Dogs. There's likely to be a new king soon.
As a follow-up to that recent story trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, Nintendo has put together a video overviewing the new features. There are quite a few additions for this Wii U re-release, including easier item equipping and map usage, gyroscope aiming, off-TV play, stamps for Miiverse (!!!), and amiibo support.
Granted, if you have been following along with our coverage beat by beat, the footage shown here won't be revelatory, but it's a nice to see this stuff in motion. I forgot how shiny the faces are.
While this is a premium title on iPhone and iPad, the Android version instead has "a variety of opt-in bonuses for players who might need a little extra help, or otherwise want to show their support," according to the studio, who assures the "core gameplay experience" remains the same.
"After playing games such as Crossy Road and Threes! Free we began to understand that free-to-play can be done in a very tasteful and respectful manner," wrote Snowman co-founder Ryan Cash. "We also heard about the crazy levels of piracy on Android (thanks in part to Ustwo Games' incredibly insightful Monument Valley infographic), and wanted to ensure that Alto's Adventure could be as accessible as possible for everyone, while still being good for business."
Sounds reasonable to me. It would be wonderful to see this team continue making games.
Remember Freddy Got Fingered? Damn, that movie was great. "Daddy, would you like some sausage? Daddy, would you like some sausa-ges?" I sing that every time my roommate's cooking breakfast food. Classic.
This film is a goddamn American institution. Or, it should be. Children in school should watch a different scene every morning immediately after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. It should play on the jumbotron at every Major League Baseball game. "Look at me, daddy! I'm a farmer!"
Also, there are four old games you can now play on your Xbox One if you want: Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Lego Batman, Trials HD, and Sam & Max: Beyond Time & Space. That Xbox One can play DVDs too, so...you know.
Rocket League is still the rage in some circles, but it isn't coming to Xbox One until next week. That hasn't stopped the community from crafting their own custom map in Halo 5 of course, which allows people to use Ghosts to play their own version of the game. By default it supports 16-player madness, and it seems like a nice little diversion while you wait for the real thing.
I've never been all that crazy about the game but it's impressive that it's grown this much since launch.
A new survival game is on the way, and this time it will pit eight people against the Alaskan wilderness. It's called The Wild Eight, and will focus on survival first and foremost, purposefully playing down the horror element that's present in some of these titles. Multiplayer is confirmed, as are RPG elements including skill development, puzzles, and "mutated wolves." It'll arrive later this year on PC and Xbox One, and it's being developed by 8 Points.
On paper, this sounds cool. Let's see if they can execute it.
Recently Devolver Digital unveiled Okhlos, an upcoming title that's due for an April release, but I hadn't heard of it until today. After watching the outlandish trailer, though, I had to share it with the world.
Devolver is publishing a lot of really wacky looking games, and Okhlos fits that bill. It looks like a Katamari-like game of sorts, where players accrue a large mob and basically go to town with it. You can customize said mob as you attempt to disrupt Greece's oppressive deity system.
If the action is as fast-paced as say, Half-Minute Hero, I'm in.
I had never heard of Tower Of Samsara until today, but after a few readers pointed me in its direction, I came away impressed. There's just a bit of alpha footage up now on the developer's YouTube channel, but it looks mighty good!
It appears as if the developer is planning on a lengthy campaign, as the planned Kickstarter isn't even going live until May. That's definitely one way to do it -- get people to notice the kick-ass art style and then capitalize on that to ensure your project meets its goal.
Kotaku was right. There won't be a new main entry in the Assassin's Creed series this year. Ubisoft is giving its flagship franchise a short breather, the publisher announced today.
In a post on UbiBlog, Ubisoft confirms the news in time for its most recent investors' report. "There will not be a new Assassin's Creed game in 2016," it reads. "We're taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we're delivering on the promise of Assassin's Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone's playground."
This break marks the first time the series has more than a year-long gap between main installments since the releases of the original Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II in 2007 and 2009, respectively. But, just because there's no large-scale game this year doesn't mean there's no Assassin's Creed.
Ubisoft has already released two Assassin's Creed Chronicles titles this year, there's a mobile game getting a widespread launch later in February, and there's a movie coming in late December. And, there's still the remaining rumor that Ubisoft will release some sort of Assassin's Creed collection in the near future. If there was ever a year in which Ubisoft doesn't need a triple-A game to keep the series' brand recognition up, it's 2016.
Besides all that, what's next for Assassin's Creed? If Kotaku's report is to be believed, the next game will be set in Egypt. Kotaku has an awfully good track record when it comes to getting scoops about Ubisoft, so there's a decent chance that's true. But, Ubisoft will confirm things when it's ready, probably about a year from now if it's sticking to holiday releases.
After almost two years of waiting, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is now available on the Wii U platform. Also on Wii U is Big Brain Academy, Kuru Kuru Kurrin, Polarium Advance, Cutie Clash, Cutie Pets Go Fishing, and Outside the Realm.
The 3DS is taking a backseat this week with a Petit Novel Series: Harvest December demo. I took the liberty of looking this one up by the way, and after inputting info in for an age gate on the Nintendo site, I found that it's a collection of 13 stories in visual novel form set in Japan. It actually has...a few okay reviews?
Frozen Synapse took turn-based strategy and upended it with simultaneous action, and to this day there isn't much else like it (except maybe the American football-esque offshoot Frozen Cortex). There isn't much to the announcement of Frozen Synapse 2; all we have are the screenshot above, a music track by nervous_testpilot, and the vague description that it will be open world.
That's the part I have a little trouble wrapping my head around. The original Frozen Synapse was broken into discrete parts, such that each level was its own shooty puzzle to be solved. In an open world, a lot more can go wrong with the formula. It will be interesting to see how developer Mode 7 Games will tackle it. More information should come out in the next few weeks.
Hideo Kojima, finally free from the clutches of his previous publisher, has started a YouTube show called HideoTube, which I fully expect it to be hidden inside all of his upcoming games. In the first episode he talks about his top 10 movies of 2015, which is basically all I could ever ask for in an inaugural episode. Kojima has always been upfront about where he's gotten his Metal Gear influences from, and hearing him talk about film is a real treat.
I mean, this is a pretty amazing list overall. So many of these were damn good films (I still need to see The Intern, as even Tarantino gave it high praise recently), but I'm really surprised (and happy) that Kojima has Locke in at number four. A highly unconventional film, Locke is a drama that takes place entirely in a car, with Tom Hardy speaking to various people from his life on a speaker phone. That's the movie. Yet it managed to be one of my favorite Hardy flicks in recent memory. It's a tad older for most of us, but it's on his 2015 list as it was released in Japan last year.
Other choices are just as good, like Kingsman (which was far better than the trailers made it seem), Whiplash (probably the biggest surprise of 2014 for me, also just released in Japan last year), and the token Mad Max: Fury Road. Check out the full list below and feel free to disagree, but it's a well-rounded list regardless of your tastes, and helps explain why Kojima is so good at what he does -- he leaves no stone unturned, and has an open mind towards a wide variety of media.
When Need for Speedheads to PC on March 15, 2016, it'll support manual transmission, and the oft-requested feature will also show up in a future update for the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Electronic Arts announced this morning. A sign of things to come for the series? Perhaps.
Ghost Games is calling this port the definitive version given its uncapped frame rate, support for resolutions up to 4K, and compatibility with select wheels from Logitech, Thrustmaster, and Fanatec.
It will launch with the Icons and Legends updates included, the latter of which re-balances the AI drivers to be less of a rubber-banding annoyance. Another content update, Showcase, is expected to surface on PC soon after the game's mid-March release.
Space Ape Games is creating a new Transformers game for mobile devices called Earth Wars, and it's using the old G1 art style that otherwise would be overused if it weren't for the timeless nature of it, and the fact that the Bay-formers have dominated shelf space in the past nine years or so.
As a few readers have pointed out to me yesterday, it's very close to the Clash of Clans style of games that have been dominating the market lately. Clash is fun for a lot of people, but I found it to be too predatory for my tastes, constantly luring you into spending money. Hopefully this will be different.
It'll arrive in spring 2016 on both Android and iOS.
Ever since it was announced, I’ve always been majorly jealous of Xbox One owners for having Quantum Break all to themselves. I adored Alan Wake, so having to miss out on Remedy’s next game has been a bit of a bummer. Well not anymore, because Remedy and Microsoft have announced that Quantum Break is getting a simultaneous release for Windows 10 and Xbox One on April 5.
What’s especially interesting is that those who pre-order Quantum Break on Xbox One (either digitally or the physical special edition) will also get a free copy of the game on PC. It’s kind of like Sony’s cross-buy, but with Xbox One and Windows 10.
Remedy has come out all guns blazing on this one, and has already confirmed the minimum and recommended specs you’ll be needing for Quantum Break:
Minimum:
Windows 10 64-bit
DirectX 12
Intel Core i5-4460 2.70GHz or AMD FX-6300 processor
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon R7 260x
2GB of VRAM
8GB of RAM
55GB of available space
Recommended:
Windows 10 64-bit
DirectX 12
Intel Core i7 4790k or AMD equivalent
NVIDIA GeForce 980 Ti or AMD Radeon R9 Fury X
6GB VRAM
16 GB of RAM
55 GB of available space
My god those are high requirements. To play Quantum Break, you’ll be needing some of the best hardware out there right now just for the recommended specs. Whether this is simply overestimating to play it safe or more indicative of a poor porting job is anybody’s guess right now, but for what it’s worth, Alan Wake’s PC port was great.
Speaking of Alan Wake, it was also announced that itand kinda-sorta sequel American Nightmare are both getting Xbox One re-releases. People who buy Quantum Break on Xbox One will be getting Alan Wake thrown in for free, while those who pre-order will get both Alan Wake and American Nightmare.
So you’ll not only get two copies of Quantum Break, you’ll also get two of the finest games of the previous generation thrown in for free. That’s pretty damn generous no matter how you look at it.
Microsoft seems confident that Quantum Break will be a hit, so I really hope the game manages to deliver when it launches on April 5.
[Update: Here's the new roadmap for Street Fighter V's content drops. Alex in March, characters in April, May, July, August, and September, and the cinematic story in June. Said other fighters include Ibuki, Balrog, Juri, Urien, and Guile. Capcom is also making the following claim: "At launch, playing through most of the single player content (in fact, just the Character Stories) will give you enough Fight Money to get Alex for free!"]
Now that Street Fighter V is mere days away, Capcom is spilling the beans on a lot of well-kept secrets. We now know that legacy fightsticks are supported, for instance, and the first DLC character has been confirmed as Alex, who will arrive sometime in March.
To be clear, Capcom has a new system in place that allows people to earn "Fight Coins" as credit of sorts for playing, to buy DLC with -- very similar to IP in League of Legends. There's also a premium currency called "Zenny" (ha, classic Capcom) that you can use to purchase characters outright. In a sense, this is how the series has always been, but hardcore players will be able to earn people for free, in theory.
I haven't been able to confirm the final rate of accrual yet for Fight Coins personally, as Capcom hasn't enabled that element of the game yet in the live version. Characters, including Alex, will be 100,000 Fight Coins. Expect more info when it goes live next week.
All of the DLC has been released, the polls are over, and Sakurai has noted that there will be no more balance patches. It's time for the team to move onto Smash 5, or for Sakurai to finally rest (I'm putting more money on the former, especially with rumors of an NX version, which I think will be a "GOTY" of sorts to kick off the platform).
As a proper goodbye of sorts, in this newest trailer from Nintendo UK, you can get a look at all of the DLC that's been included in the game, which is a lot...and I mean...a lot of good DLC, from characters to levels to costumes.
Just thinking about all the content drops, it's crazy how high quality basically all of the add-ons were. Every character adds something to the game, and the addition of Bayonetta recently is like a dream come true for fans. From its debut back in 1999 with only first-party characters, I don't think anyone could have dreamed that the series would one day be this crazy.
The newest Smash is easily the best in the series for me at this point, and I'm really glad that the team listened to Brawl's shortcomings to surpass our expectations.
Koei Tecmo might be bad at doing quality PC ports, but it has a good grasp on console development, and generally does a great job of supporting its games over time. That's also the case for Attack on Titan, which is getting a massive four player co-op multiplayer update on March 24.
Other paid add-ons are also going to be released over the next few months, as well as a number of enhancements, like costumes weapons, and more episodes. You can probably expect most of this to also see a release in the western version, which is due sometime this year.
It’s been a few weeks since Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen was launched for the PC, and it's apparently doing very, very well.
In an interview with MCV, Capcom said that Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is its fastest-selling PC game, despite it originally being launched for PS3 and Xbox 360 way back in 2013, and not yet going on any significant discount on PC:
We are extremely pleased with the performance of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. It is our fastest-selling PC title to date, thanks to an audience eagerly waiting for it, and us delivering to the level of quality gamers were expecting
Just goes to show that people will happily support a game if it has a great port. Hopefully Capcom understands this, so we can get more like Dragon’s Dogma and less like Dead Rising 3 from now on.
This is great news for fans of the game, as Capcom previously said that it would consider a sequel if the PC release did well. Now that it has, maybe Capcom will be willing to greenlight a Dragon's Dogma 2.
Oh, and how about Dragon's Dogma Online while we're at it, Capcom?
It’s been a few weeks since Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen was launched for the PC, and Capcom are incredibly happy with how it’s doing.
In an interview with MCV, Capcom said that Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is their fastest-selling PC game, despite it originally being launched for PS3 and Xbox 360 back in 2013:
We are extremely pleased with the performance of Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. It is our fastest-selling PC title to date, thanks to an audience eagerly waiting for it, and us delivering to the level of quality gamers were expecting
Just goes to show that people will buy a fun game with a great port. Hopefully Capcom understands this, so we can get more ports like Dragon’s Dogma and less like Dead Rising 3.
Developer Campo Santo is working "actually, literally, around the clock" to fix the frame rate drops experienced by PS4 players of Firewatch. "Couple'a updates," Vanaman stated on reddit. "One is that we're in pipe with SCEA to get a patch into the game but it's like 99% strange content fixes we've found as lots of people play the game on PC. So that's coming but we're at the mercy of the console patch process.
"Secondly, we're currently talking with both Sony and Unity (the creators of the engine the game is built in) to continue to optimize performance of the game on console. Unfortunately, it's a process that requires all three parties to be involved unlike a typical bug that we can quickly fix on our own (we're pretty good at that). We'll definitely be patching all platforms with every little content and performance fix we can find so folks can rest assured we're doing everything we can (and WILL for a long time. We want the game that's on Steam/PS4/anywhere to be the best possible version even after we're out of the excitement of the launch window)."
When asked how the problem wasn’t picked up during testing, Vanaman replied: "I've played the game for hundreds and hundreds of hours on PS4, and maybe because it's on test-kits and some retail boxes are different I personally didn't experience these things. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but I want to unequivocally say it wasn't like we sat in a room, saw this stuff and went ‘eh, screw it, sell it anyway.’ We're super fucking bummed that this is happening for some people and we're working actually, literally, around-the-clock on it."
In our Firewatch review, we said it was a “tight, taut human tale well worth the trek” and gave it an 8.
In Path of Exile: Ascendancy, you’ll be able to choose one of nineteen Ascendancy classes to specialise your character in. When a Templar character ascends, one of their three options is the Guardian – a holy leader who protects and empowers his allies.
Here are some of the skills available to an Guardian:
Radiant Faith gives the Guardian and his allies Energy Shield when he reserves mana, and Armour when he reserves life. The more he reserves, the larger the bonus. It’s especially powerful on characters that can sacrifice the majority of their mana.
Unwavering Faith adds extra effects to all of the Guardian’s Auras. Each of his auras will also grant Life Regeneration and protection from Physical Damage.
Harmony of Purpose prevents the Guardian’s enemies from gaining charges. Also, all charges created by the Guardian’s allies are shared with his party.
Prayer of Glory makes the Guardian’s warcries instantaneous. When he uses a Warcry, he and his allies become faster. The guardian can use this with Rallying Cry to provide a massive boost to his group.
Time of Need periodically gives the Guardian a burst of life recovery and removes ailments and curses from him. Timed well, this can save the Guardian in tough situations.
Bastion of Hope improves the Guardian’s chance to block and prevents him or his allies being stunned if he blocks. This is perfect for the Guardian who is on the front line protecting his allies.
You’ll be able to play your own Guardian in Path of Exile: Ascendancy, which launches on March 4th, 2016
With any new season comes new and big changes to the MOBA, League of Legends. One of the biggest is the update to the game client! The new and improved Draft Mode is mind blowing, and while I don't "always" get the role I want, it allows players a new and [hopefully] less toxic experience. You can queue for ranked with as many people as you want, and each player grabs a primary role and secondary role. I love this, and I love the look of it. Instead of only one person being in charge of the bans, Riot took a cue from other games such as SMITE, and the bottom three players each pick a ban. This can either create more trolling than ever before, or people will communicate, make sensible bans, and the fact that everyone can pick something they want, Dynamic Queue as it's called, is a fantastic addition; something we probably needed as players for a very long time.
The new system of picking champions is amazing, but still heavily sticks fill and support in their respective role 90% of the time.
The nature of social media is also changing with League of Legends! Clubs and party features are well on the way, not now but in the near future. The club system lets you organize a group of friends that you are going to play with regularly, and potentially be rewarded for gameplay. The chat system may be available out of game also [say on a mobile app], or chat with these people at the same time when they're on. You won't be limited to one club, thankfully, and I like the idea of certain groups of my friends being set together so we can play easily. I have friends that only like to do ranked, and friends that only play more casual modes, so being able to group up nice and easy no matter what I want to do is pretty awesome. I also really like being able to represent your club, and change that whenever you want. If you're proud to be in that club [as I would be], you could show off your allegiance.
Segregating your cool friends from your embarrassing friends has never been easier, or done in a cleaner UI.
Then there's the "Hextech Crafting System" on the features coming soon list! It's a method of unlocking cool cosmetics (skins) or actual champions themselves if you do not have them. It's a really cool idea on paper, and the idea of being able to unlock skins by playing the game instead of dumping half my paycheck into the game really appeals to me. The idea seems to be that it will promote people playing the game everyday as they grow closer and closer to an unlock. If you or a party member you are grouped with gets an "S" rank in a match, you will receive a chest. Now, each champion per month can only attain "X" amount of chests, so it's not like you can just queue and stack this super easy. By requiring it to be an "S" rank game or better, it's going to make players want to work harder, and ultimately have to put more games in to claim their max chests on the regular.
It is a really interesting way to promote better gameplay which I'm all about. The chests can have bits of a skin, a champion, some kind of ward or icon; it's all random too. You may not be working towards things you want at all. Though it also appears that you will be able to buy the chests [there we go, there's the money-making part]. You can earn keys to unlock these chests through any queue mode, so no matter what mode you play [except your Dominion players. Looks like that mode is retiring] you can get keys! There's also apparently a rare rare chance to get a full skin or champion! There are so many cool things you can unlock this way, and I won't lie: I really love this. Sure, it might take forever to get exactly what you want, but there will be a way to disenchant loot. You can blow up progress towards skins for champs you don't want to play with the gamble you will get something that interests you instead. Kudos to League of Legends for changing up how the MOBA game works. It's a bold move to try and make things more fun for all levels and styles of play. Now, what we're really here for. . .
True innovation arrives in bot lane.
Khada Jhin Comes to Prepare His Magnum Opus
Jhin, the Psychotic Assassin is a truly unique Marksman among the others littering the Rift. As a former prisoner turned mercenary/assassin, the man known as Khada Jhin uses his love of the arts and music to paint carnage and violence across any field of combat he's on. He's considerably different from any other Marksman I've ever played, and definitely in a good way. He requires patience, consideration and planning: Sure, you can play Graves and dive in, Q+R and kill two to four people without any effort, or you can play Miss Fortune and simply tag players with Q until they're dead without really trying. But Jhin requires patience. Every four shots, he has to reload, and cannot scale his attack speed even if you build for it. Building Attack Speed items or using Attack Speed runes instead nets a minor conversion of Attack Speed into Damage, but it's not truly worth it. Though I do still build two items that have AS on them as the utility offered is too much to pass up.
You can even play Jhin mid lane, and I've heard talks of people taking him into the jungle; after all, Graves can do it. Casters can do it. And Jhin's got the damage to go that route. His range and kit offers him a pretty safe mid lane, since he can snare from afar with his W, and pin the enemy down with relative ease. But his primary spot on the team will no doubt be as the Marksman/ADC. However, he suffers from being poked down too hard; lifesteal will definitely complement any rune choices. The 7% lifesteal you can start with on runes/Doran's Blade will be the difference maker in early laning, coupled with how patient you can play. As far as runes, I tend to run 3x Lifesteal Quints [though the argument can be made for 3xDamage Quints if you are good at him], 9x Red Damage, 9x Yellow Armor, and 9x Blue Magic Resist, pretty standard for a Marksman these days. My Mastery is Warlord's Bloodlust, giving me even more life back, but Thunderlord's is also incredibly viable [as it is on EVERYONE. Seriously.] Heal/Flash should be a given for his summoner spells. I can't imagine anything else being really useful other than occasionally cleanse.
Masteries to put maximum pow late game early game sustain.
Jhin's kit might seem kind of confusing at first and after playing him that's certainly true. There's a bit of math that goes into his AD, and I've seen Jhin players leave a game with 600+ AD without too much trouble. This comes from his passive, Whisper. Attack Speed and Crit gives him a multiplayer for his Attack Damage, and he CANNOT gain Attack Speed any other way than leveling. Instead, Attack Speed gives his crits a bit of a move speed boost, which can be the difference between getting out of a bad spot or getting yet another kill. His Crit is 25% lower, [except his Ultimate], but Crit Runes or items like Infinity Edge can assist with this detriment. If you really wanted, you could get, in the most ideal of situations, 999 ad with: Two Essence Reavers, Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, Mercurial Scimitar, and Phantom Dancer. Should you? Probably not. But it's absolutely feasible.
Runes to survive the brutal early game build up.
In addition, his Passive reveals that his auto attacks use Ammunition. He gets four shots then a reload, but his last hit always crits, and does 15/20/25% of the target's missing health as physical damage (1/6/11 levels respectively). It all sounds complicated, but it's not really that bad. It just takes a little experimentation to find the item builds that work for you. His most easy to understand ability is his Q, Dancing Grenade. It works similar to Katarina's Bouncing Blades. He lobs a grenade that bounces up to three times. If it kills a unit, it does 35% more damage on the next bounce. So if it kills three minions and lands on an enemy, it's going to do serious harm. This is his wave clear and a big part of his poke game.
Deadly Flourish is his W, and it has a seriously long range [longest non-ult range in the game!] as well as a decent charge. It fires a single bullet, and has the utility of comboing neatly with his E. Its passive states that enemies hit with Jhin's auto attack or other allied damage are marked for 4 seconds. If they are struck with the Deadly Flourish, they're rooted in place, which lets you drop the "Captive Audience" on them. Captive Audience is one of my favorite abilities in the game. When Jhin scores a kill, it automatically spawns a Lotus Trap right under that person… that detonates; the possibilities for free damage and bonus kills are insane! The ability drops an invisible Lotus Trap, that nothing can detect, but it takes a moment to become invisible. It lasts for two minutes, and people caught in the explosion are slowed, and marked with the Deadly Flourish passive for another root if cooldowns are up. I love this because it can really punish wombo combos, by dropping traps where they're going to be/are, and deal huge damage to make them think about diving. It's a great way to defend objectives, or simply kill people that have the nerve to be in your path.
Then we come to his ultimate: Curtain Call. It has an absolutely absurd range, and when activated it plays some really ominous music as he queues up four bullets. He channels for ten seconds, and each time he hits R, wherever he was mousing over, a bullet fires the duration of his ult, stopping at the first champion it hits. So yes, you can body block for someone who is low. Curtain Call's damage is increased by 2% for every 1% the opponent is missing, and the final shot crits for 200% damage! Good lord. Anything marked by Deadly Flourish in the range of the ult are also revealed for about four seconds, making it easier to shoot them. Bear in mind that it takes 1 sec to fire again, and you can stop the ult early, which lowers the cd by 10% per shot unfired. It's so powerful and far reaching. It goes through walls too, so you can't just flash over a wall and be safe. Jhin's all about precision and plotting which is why he's the ADC for me. His abilities all combo and synergize with each other so well, and having a support that will either 1. Peel nonstop and let you play passive, or 2. Lock an enemy down so you can obliterate them will be to your advantage. Jhin is unique even among new and unique champions, offering true power to anyone who can take his patient, calculating style into their hands.
In a new update for Fable Legends, the action based co-op RPG by Lionhead Studios, price and loot changes have been made. All available heroes are now cheaper to purchase and there’s more relevant chest loot for players to collect.
The dev team has been collecting all sorts of feedback and reduced prices for other items available including Villian Creatures.
Creative Assembly have today unveiled further gameplay footage and details for the Grand Campaign in Total War: WARHAMMER with the release The Empire Campaign Gameplay Walkthrough.
Following the Greenskins Campaign Gameplay Video released last year, this new video provides a brief, work in progress snapshot of a campaign played as The Empire and an early look at some key gameplay mechanics such as character skill trees, The Empire 'Offices' panel, building & technology trees, character customization and a look at the forested hills of Reikland.
Starting today, Techland together with GAME UK are offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for everyone who has ever dreamed of landing their own role in a full feature film, without having to go through the hard work of things such castings and auditions. By purchasing The Spotlight Edition of Dying Light: The Following – Enhanced Edition, one person can become an integral part of Dying Light's move to the big screen.
This one-of-a-kind edition includes a supporting role in Dying Light: The Movie, acting classes, and a number of other film-related rewards. The full list can be found in the image below or at Game.co.uk.
Charlotte Knight, UK Retail MD at GAME says: "Dying Light is one of the most exciting survival games around and what's more – it's Oscar season so what better time than now to head to the Hollywood hills! We know our community like to get in character and will have no doubt been inspired by the leading actors on the big screen – so this is a really exciting opportunity for any gamer wanting to hit the silver screen in style!
After their brilliant Zombie Home Edition last year, we're pleased to partner with Techland again and offer our community yet another, only at GAME experience."
All of this comes with a very reasonable price tag of $10,000,000 USD.
Developers Allods Team and Obsidian Entertainment, along with global publisher My.com, present Skyforge's March of Knowledge update, marking the start of the Valentine's Day themed Mysteries of Love festivities. Players take the role of fledgling cupids to help people fall in love and can show their affection through in-game Valentines. Admire the beautifully decorated seasonal areas of the game or dress up in unique Valentine's Day costumes that are included in the limited time Love packs, which also give access to Skyforge's Monk and Kinetic classes.
The Skyforge March of Knowledge update contains:
Photomode: Allowing players to immortalize their adventures
Legendary Ancient Rings: These powerful artifacts have unique statistical bonuses that standout among Skyforge's current rings.
The Laboratory: A brand-new system simplifying the resistance development process, making it accessible to all players.
Astral Journey: The start of a player driven campaign to fight back the Alien Invasions against the game world of Aelion, once and for all.
