Gaming - Page 1077

The NPD, the organization that tracks retail sales throughout the United States, is reporting that the PlayStation 4 is off to vigorous start for 2016. January saw it outselling the Xbox One by a decent enough margin.

The market research firm showed that while the sales were lower than the 5.7 million units they pushed out during the holiday months (November and December), Sony was still able to take the lead going into the new year with actual year-over-year growth.

"Thanks to our fans and partners for making PlayStation 4 the top-selling platform and software sales leader in January, according to NPD. PS4 also saw impressive year-over-year growth in both hardware and software sales. We appreciate the support and will continue to deliver on our promise to bring the best entertainment experiences to gamers," Sony said in a statement regarding their sales.

Grand Theft Auto Online is celebrating the Hallmark holiday this weekend by adding in a new Adversary Mode called Death do us Part.

The new mode pits four couples on the "ultimate date" they say. But the catch is that each couple only has one life to live between the both of them. That means that if one person dies, the other person in the pair commits the ultimate sacrifice in the name of love, in true Romeo and Juliet style.

To show how much you love the other person, there're five new locations that are the epitome of romanticism in Grand Theft Auto. This mode might just last beyond Valentine's day as well, though they do plan on having a few bonuses and other cool things happening over this weekend to make it worth your while.

Final Fantasy 14 isn't nearly at the end of the road, as some might have thought with the introduction of Heavesward. Despite that particular story coming to its inevitable end, the game is getting more new content than you can shake a stick at.

The story was never over, not completely. This magical world has a lot of life left to breath into it. The Holy See is on the brink of war, once again, as peace finally washes over the land. Inevitable someone isn't quite happy with the the motives behind that peace and they wish to stand up against that change.

The main story is accompanied by even more side quests that delve deeper into Hildibrand Helidor Maximilian Manderville, a sort of Sherlock Holmes it would seem. Yours is to investigate the case of a missing man, and much more. There are also new beast side quests should you be interested. Aside from that, they're adding in a new raid dungeon that looks incredibly challenging. Certainly not for the lower levels here. And of course the obligatory solo, or group, PvE dungeons. New areas that should test your mettle.

Battlefield: Hardline might not be the most popular of the bunch, but that isn't stopping EA from vehemently supporting it with as much new content as possible to entice the dwindling crowd. Visceral Games is introducing a their Betrayal DLC, the last scheduled DLC which is coming out just next month.

The new update has four new maps that should add some much needed variety. The most significant is the almost perfectly modeled rendition of Alcatraz, giving you a desperate close-quarters fight where you'll likely not escape. To help you fight there'll be seven new weapons and two new vehicles. Though I doubt you'll be driving around in Alcatraz with any of them.

And just in case a knife or baton wasn't quite enough of a melee weapon for you, you'll now be able to wield a mighty sword to slay your enemies. Or be cut down to pieces as you scream your war cry trying to rush someone. I can imagine the sword fights breaking out now though. No more calling for "knives only", but instead having an all out duel.

The CFO of Ubisoft, Alain Martinez, doesn't think that For Honor, their upcoming sword-fighting game, is going to be a huge profit maker for them. Instead it's been described as a "core" game, something that's important but will attract far less gamers than something like Assassin's Creed, the next Far Cry or even The Division.

During the earnings earnings call this week, the comment was made in response to a question that an analyst asked regarding what they estimated the games success would be. Martinez said simply that "For Honor is more of a core game, less mass market." Thus they don't expect to ship many units when it releases.

The reasoning could be due to the type of game that it is, a hack and slash with more technical underpinnings. It won't necessarily appeal to a larger audience despite the new IP and potential for new avenues of gameplay that can be introduced to other games in the future. In other words, the difficulty might be somewhat off-putting.

Bungie has finally shed some light on secret-filled future, revealing a tentative roadmap for the game's sequel and expansion, giving Guardians a much-needed boost of hope for the ailing franchise.

In a recent blog post, Bungie exec DeeJ confirmed in his clipped, no-frills tone that a Destiny sequel is planned to release in 2017. For 2016, Bungie will unleash a large expansion (possibly The Taken King-sized) later this year.

"The team is focused on delivering a large expansion later this year, and a full Destiny sequel in 2017," DeeJ wrote. Bungie's update echoes Activision's latest earnings call, which broke the news beforehand: "Activision Publishing, along with its partners at Bungie, expects to bring a large new expansion to Destiny in 2016 and to release a full game sequel in 2017," investors report.

When Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 finally hits the vegetation filled streets, we'll be able to battle it out across twelve different maps right from the start.

A new video from EA shows off all 12 of the multiplayer maps, which are all very unique, helping to keep you on your toes in each match. The different, and distinct visual styles are all pretty fantastic to look at, and the different layouts are sure to get you to try different tactics in each game.

You'll get to enjoy the mighty Great White North and even try to fend off the horde on two separate lunar levels. Garden Warfare 2 is coming out at the end of the month on the 23rd of February for PC, Xbox One and of course the PlayStation 4. The full list of maps is below.

We're beginning to hear more and more about the Hitman reboot, where we now know that AMD pushing out a press release that teases that Hitman is part of their Gaming Evolved program.

This means that AMD Radeon owners with Windows 10 installed will be able to enjoy luscious DX12 features, with the press release saying: "Hitman will leverage unique DX12 hardware found in only AMD Radeon GPUs-called asynchronous compute engines-to handle heavier workloads and better image quality without compromising performance. PC gamers may have heard of asynchronous compute already, and Hitman demonstrates the best implementation of this exciting technology yet. By unlocking performance in GPUs and processors that couldn't be touched in DirectX 11, gamers can get new performance out of the hardware they already own".

Hitman will also feature support for AMD's multi-monitor technology, Eyefinity, as well as support for Ultrawide monitors with 21:9 aspect ratio resolutions of 2560x1080 and 3440x1440.

While Kayne West is preparing the release of his forthcoming album, the husband of Kim Kardashian has released a trailer to his new video game... yeah, Yeezy has a new video game on its way.

West's new album is called The Life of Pablo, while his new clothing line is on the way, and then the video game. Yeezy has been busy, it seems. The game is called Only One, and it's about the passing of his late mother. Kanye explains: "I worked on a video game and I wanted to show y'all. The idea of the game is, my mom traveling through the gates of heaven".

Kanye is proud of his game, but he wasn't happy with how people received the trailer, as it was meant to commemorate his late mother. Kanye said: "That's not easy to do, man! Ya'll just be acting like that sh*t is regular". He added: "No, you don't understand. I go out and meet with everybody in San Fran, and they'll diss the f*** out of me. And I'll be like, 'I wanna make a game,' and they'll be like, 'F*** YOU.' That was hard to do, bro!".

Ubisoft is banking pretty big on The Division's success and even goes so far to say that it'll be one of the most popular new IPs in video game history.

According to earning projections, The Division will play a substantial role in the company's 2016 earnings. "The Division - whose recent closed beta exceeded all of our expectations - is set to be one of the largest launches of a new brand in the history of the video game industry," said Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot.

Ubisoft's 2016 earnings forecast is focusing on "player engagement", a new strategy it says has paid off well with AC: Syndicate and Rainbow Six: Siege--and will hit a peak thanks to The Division and Far Cry Primal.

Bethesda has delivered a few delicious teases on the future of Fallout 4, getting Commonwealth survivors all excited about DLC and in-game tweaks.

The studio has teased that DLC news will be arriving quite soon, along with a few dramatic changes to Fallout 4's hardest difficulty. That's right, we're talking about Survivor Mode. Bethsoft is going to "completely overhaul" Survivor Mode to make it much more challenging, adding in the need to eat food and drink water, sleep, and treat infectious diseases. This will add a fresh new take on the end-game experience, and add in a whole new wave of immersion to boot.

"We know you're ready to learn what's coming for Fallout 4 DLC. We're not far off, and we think you'll be excited," reads the first Tweet. "We're also doing a complete overhaul of Fallout 4 Survival mode. Food, sleep, diseases, danger and more. Stay tuned," reads the second.

When patch 2.0 hit, it seemed to break the game in more ways than was intended. Ubisoft was quick on the draw and dolled out fixes for a majority of the most serious of issues. Patch 2.1 fixes the remainder of the bugs that showed up and adds some much needed variety into the mix.

One of the bets new features is the ability to setup a 10-player custom game that can be hosted on a dedicated server. This means it'll be much harder to cheat and the game will be much more stable as well. There are some small issues still surrounding the use of dedicated custom servers, but those will be addressed in the future. Right now if the match creator quits, then the server will shut down.

In the patch note they've listed the most severe bugs and have noted their having been squashed in this update. It isn't everything that was encountered, but it encompasses the majority of the game-breaking issues that cropped up. Check out what it fixed below. And don't be afraid to tell them of any other bugs you encounter. The patch is out now on PC and will come to consoles on the 16th.

If you want to get into the upcoming singleplayer Hitman beta test, then you'll want to avoid pre-ordering physical copies unless you shell out for the collector's edition.

Square Enix has revealed that only digital pre-orders will unlock access to the Hitman beta test set to kick off next Friday.

"The only way to guarantee your access to the HITMAN Beta is to pre-order the game digitally on PlayStation 4 via PSN or PC via Steam," reads a FAQ post. "Alternatively, you can pre-order the Collector's Edition. Access to the HITMAN Beta is available for the pre-orders of the Full Experience, Intro Pack and Collector's Edition."

Ubisoft's latest financial results have just confirmed that there is indeed going to be a sequel to Watch Dogs, and that it's slated to be released sometime in 2017.

In those results a release date for the new game is expected by the end of the next financial year, which means we could theoretically see more information about this next Watch Dogs by April 30th 2017. Of course there are no details in the press release, except the following statement.

A new trailer for Total War: Warhammer has shown up that shows off yet another aspect of the large campaign. This time they're giving us a peak into the strategic underpinnings of the mighty Empire, much like the video showcasing the Greenskins they revealed in December.

It gives a good glimpse into how they've put together the entire package, going over the different elements of the UI and the Empire specific elements. The walkthrough is a great tutorial of how to play and how to best make use of your resources to ensure victory over your neighbors. Remeber to use cattle to make those settlements happy and to put your Legendary Lords to good use.

At the moment Creative assembly is looking at an April release date and it looks like everything is on track. Of course this is a game that can only be properly enjoyed on the PC given the demanding requirements, due to potential resource size in any given game, and the amount of control you'll have over the different aspects.

Ubisoft has broken the annual plan for one of its primary IP's and confirms that 2016 will be the first year without a major Assassin's Creed game. That's right, we won't be getting a new AC game this year.

The devs broke the news in a blog post, citing that the problems with AC: Unity prompted the team to "re-examine" the franchise's game plan.

"This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin's Creed franchise. As a result, we've decided that there will not be a new Assassin's Creed game in 2016," the Assassin's Creed team wrote in the post.

The 2015 version of Need for Speed was delayed time and again for the PC, citing the need to ensure that the game is developed to its fullest potential. Namely to make sure that PC players could have the options they desire for the best looking game ever. A release date has finally been set for March 17th.

And it's coming fast too. That is, the framerate will definitely be unlocked and you'll be able to adjust the graphics just like you would on any Frostbite powered game. But aside from ensuring the graphics are up to snuff, Ghost Games has been hard at work putting in a new manual transmission mode, something you'll be able to use with your favorite wheel.

The Icons and Legends updates will be included when it releases and the Showcase update is scheduled to arrive on the PC version a little after it releases. Ghost Games has been dedicating a portion of their team on perfecting the PC experience, so it'll be natural to have higher expectations when it arrives. But of course we'll check it out when it gets here.

It's been 15 years since Square Enix first launched their own online store. It seems like only yesterday they came online, peddling their physical discs and merchandise directly. But after having been open for longer than a lot of gamers have been alive, they're celebrating with up to 50% off of some of their best games.

Over 100 games on all platforms feasible are discounted and available. A lot of great classics from their canonical JRPG years as well as some modern titles you're likely to love. The entire Hitman collection and Deus Ex Human Revolution are there, of course. If you're a rewards member you'll get an extra 50 points if you spend over $20. Any physical merchandise (or disc) orders over $20 also land you a Final Fantasy lanyard for free.

Some of the best deals you'll find there are below. And there's quite a few good looking ones too.

Rocket League is an obvious choice of game to compete with. It's a blend of some of the two best things in the world, so it's a no-brainer to bake competition right into the framework. Season two has now begun, and there are a lot of changes, with new maps in the future too.

The new season means a new patch with a few changes for a fresh perspective on competitive play. Overall they've de-emphasized individual performance and have shifted the focus to be more about improving your game. Sure, winning is great, but improving your skill counts for something too.

The ranking system is completely new and you'll have to play ten matches to determine what skill division you'll be placed into. If you played in the first season, that data about how great you are will remain, so you'll be placed in an appropriate level. So you won't have to worry about starting completely over.

Quantum Break was originally touted as an Xbox One exclusive when it was announced in 2014, but that's changed as it's now been announced to be coming to the PC on April 5th.

Microsoft and Remedy Entertainment are wanting to "empower gamers" to enjoy whatever platform they want, within reason of course, so the extreme time manipulating game will be coming to Windows 10 as well, and if you pre-order on the Xbox One, you'll get the PC version for free. Any version of the game will net you a digital download token that you can use at the Windows Store.

They've also just announced the Quantum Break special bundle, that includes a snow white 500GB Xbox One with the game and the extra free Alan Wake games. Why 500GB when 1TB could easily be included? That's a good question, especially considering the increasing size of games.