Review Roundup: Steep scheduleDec 7, 2016 Ubisoft’s EXTREME!!! sports game, Steep, launched last Friday, but with the hustle and bustle of The Game Awards 2016 and PlayStation Experience 2016, we wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t know. Today, reviews for the game started rolling in. Currently, the PS4 version is sitting at a 71 on Metacritic, which isn’t too bad. Here are what reviewers have to say: Destructoid (6/10) It is, however, those adrenaline-filled moments that are the best Steep has to give. When it can display a real sense of speed and danger, Steep can be engrossing. It’s in these times that it feels infinitely replayable, like this reckless catharsis will never grow old. It’s these challenges that you don’t mind trying again and again because skidding down a cliff face of snowless rocks never ceases to entertain. And, these moments are fantastic reminders of how navigating a half-pipe where it’s a struggle to maintain any speed is such a goddamn waste in this game. Xbox Achievements (78/100) The jumping and the tricking aspect of Steep is surprisingly deep when you get used to it. It can be a little daunting at first, as a lot of things come into play really quickly – especially timing that launch off an edge or ramp – but once you’ve got used to the basics, you’ll be Double Cork 1440 Popairing in no time! It’s a case of fairly easy to pick up and play, but a lifetime to master. Well, a few hours at the very least. Digital Spy (3.5/5) The problem with Steep, however, is that, while you may well love it, that love begins to fade with time. Partly, this comes down to niggling irritations. The 3D map, for a start, is hard to navigate, often making it unnecessarily awkward to find your next event. The rest of the UI isn’t much better, turning simple character customisation into a bit of an ordeal. God is a Geek (5.5/10) There is some fun to be had in Steep. The crux of the game, the actual snowboarding and skiing, do feel good and are fun to play and there are a whole lot of varied challenges to do in the frosty Alps. But a whole bucket load of bizarre design decisions distract from that. Ubisoft tried to innovate, but instead just over-complicated. PlayStation Lifestyle (6.5/10) The sheer idea of a gigantic extreme winter sports sandbox is extremely compelling. While the game manages to live up to some of its potential by offering up an expansive, beautifully detailed map and an extensive collection of modes, it falls short on several fundamental elements, critical to the success of a new franchise. Odd storytelling, inconsistent controls, practically non-existent tutorials and imprecise collision detection all combine to derail what should have been a new premier franchise for Ubisoft.
A newbie’s guide to playing Let It Die scheduleDec 7, 2016 Let It Die released a few days ago with a low barrier to entry. Anyone with a PS4 can download and play the game and there’s a lot of fun to be had for people who like action-oriented games where button mashing won’t save you. You may have heard the game described as a “Souls-like” on the internet thanks to its stamina-based combat system, but there’s a lot more here than just an action game. Dark Souls meets Roguelikes The game is best described as an action game meets roguelike, as the levels you’ll be exploring in the Tower of Barbs are randomly generated. You’ll also have one life similar to Dark Souls and most roguelikes and if you happen to die without any Death Metals (more on that later) to resurrect yourself your current self will be spawned as an enemy called a Hater. This gives some extra challenge to the game, since if you manage to die with tons of great gear and fairly high level you could be in for a real challenge when it comes to beating your Hater and reclaiming your fighter. Is the game really free-to-play? Absolutely. The game offers what it bills as “death insurance” should you die in the middle of a level before you can return to the waiting room to deposit all of your collected items and gear. If you have Death Metals, you can pay one to be ressurected right where you fell and continue on your merry way. If you don’t have any Death Metals, you can purchase them or you can forfeit your current fighter in favor of another. If you decide to forfeit your fighter, you’ll have to defeat it when you encounter it again in order to reclaim it and all the items that were on the corpse when you died. This can prove to be a challenging task. I’ve but about 12 hours into Let It Die so far and I haven’t spent any money on purchasing Death Metals with real money. They’re given as rewards for some of the quests in the game, as well as daily login bonuses and gold boxes delivered to you by Uncle Death. There’s also an express pass system, but it’s not currently implemented in the game so we don’t know how much it will cost. What do all these numbers mean? When you first start exploring the Tower of Barbs, you’ll get item drops from enemies in the form of gear and armor. There’s lots of information on this screen that isn’t really explained well. This breakdown will tell you what every number on the charts mean so you can figure out which weapons work best for you. How do I heal myself? The healing items in the game come in two varieties. Sometimes you’ll find mushrooms that offer direct healing, or a Yoga healing effect. Other times, you’ll find critters like frogs and mice roaming around the levels. Hold L3 to sneak near these animals and press X to grab them. From there, you can eat them like they are or put them in your Death Bag to save them for later. You can increase the properties of any mushrooms or critters you pick up by cooking them. When you run across fire in a level, run up to it as closely as you can without burning yourself and press the left side of the trackpad to enter the throwing stance. Then press X to cook the food in your hand. Be sure to cook all your items and not just your food as it increases the effect. Mushroom Stews can also be bought in the waiting room for 50k and they’ll grand you a random but permanent decal that won’t peel off by dying. I found a bunch of blueprints, what now? As you journey up the tower, you’ll open boxes that contain blueprints with ??? descriptions. You won’t know what you’ve unlocked until you return to the waiting room via an elevator and give the blueprints to the shopkeeper there. He’ll show you what they are and then you can buy those items directly from him to better prepare for your journey. Are there bosses in this game? Yes, there are mid-bosses and final bosses on several of the floors. The first one you’ll encounter is Coen and he’s a bit of a push-over. Bosses have resistances and specific patterns they use in their attacks just like Dark Souls, so it pays to watch their moves so you can attack when they’re off balance and weak. Status Effects Some items you pick up can cause status effects to you if you eat them or throw them at the enemy. There are also status effects that can negatively effect you in the world. Snails are a critter you can pick up as food, but they’re surrounded by a deadly poison cloud. If you get poisoned, press X repeatedly to get rid of the poison faster. Likewise, if you move too close to fire while trying to cook your food, press O repeatedly to dodge and put out the fire faster so it does less damage to your health. Help, my gear keeps breaking! Yup, that’s the nature of the game. No item you scavenge from a level will last you forever, which is why you’re collecting blueprints. You can collect research materials like aluminum and wood and bring it back to the waiting room to perform research and development on all the blueprints that you’ve unlocked. This raises the base level of the gear so when it comes time to load up you have a weapon that’s fully charged and ready to go.
5 tips and tricks for surviving the harsh world of Let It Die scheduleDec 6, 2016 Let It Die is a free-to-play action survival game that released on the PlayStation 4 a few days ago and it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The best way to describe it is Dark Souls meets punk aesthetic combined with the random chance you’ll find in roguelike games. If you’re familiar with the Dark Souls franchise you’ll feel right at home playing Let It Die, but if you’ve never ventured into that side of gaming, allow me to hold your hand as we continue. Stop Button Mashing Yourself to Death Let It Die borrows a lot from the Dark Souls formula, including pitting you against enemies that are capable of taking you out in just a few hits. You need to be strategic with your swings because this game has a stamina system, even though it might not be obvious at first. Rather than relying on a fast charging stamina bar, your character’s heart will glow and beat faster as you exert yourself, eventually causing you to stop completely to recover. This can have serious consequences if you’re in the middle of setting up a combo, so remember you’re not button mashing! Each swing takes a toll on your recovery and every weapon feels different. Figure out which weapons you like to swing and swing them strategically to great success. Take advantage of devastating attacks L2 and R2 are the main attack buttons in the game, but you can set up some interesting combos so long as the right conditions are met. Sneaking up on opponents can be done by crouching with L3 and approaching them from behind. Once behind them and undetected, you can perform a powerful suplex move. Once they’re prone, you can walk over to them and press X to perform a stomp attack for extra damage. You can also set up an attack at the end of a run by performing a drop kick. This one is a bit harder to master and will require you to time it just right, but the effect is devastating when you land these blows. Finally, you have a rage meter that you can use to perform rage attacks. Your regular attacks build this up and when you’re ready to unleash your full power, press triangle while attacking. Remember to time it right and make sure you’re going to connect with your enemy because you only get one swing and it can be wasted. Pick Up Everything When you first start the game, you’ll get off the subway train in your skivvies. Whatever clothing and items you find in the world are yours to keep, but you’ll need to fight for them. One key difference between Dark Souls and Let It Die is the weapon degredation. Weapons in Dark Souls can break, but that just means you can’t use them anymore. In Let It Die, the weapon breaks and disappears so you’ll always need to be shifting your strategies. Additionally, there are several types of damage in the game including blunt, piercing, slashing, and elemental damage that you’ll need to be aware of when you attack enemies and bosses. Certain enemies and bosses may be immune to certain types of damage, so you’ll need to pack multiple weapons to overcome those challenges. Watch Your Gear Closely Because item degradation in the game is taken to the extreme, you’ll need to be aware of the state of your gear at all times. It’s very possible you could end up with weapons that are completely destroyed and you’ll have to find a boss with your firsts, which could spell certain death. The game is harsh in the same way that Dark Souls is, but it presents several opportunities for you to diversify your weapon loadout. Don’t get too attached to one weapon and always vary your attacks to make the most of them. You’ll want to manage your gear as closely as you manage your health. Mushrooms serve as health pickups in the game, which you can eat to gain effects. Some of them are positive like giving a heal over time, while others are negative and might reduce your speed or cause you to hallucinate. Know When to Leave One of the punishing aspects of the game is when you die, you’ll lose Kill Coins and SPLithium that you’ve collected since the last visit to the Waiting Room. That’s really no different than losing a pile of souls in Dark Souls, but it can be frustrating when you’ve spent a while exploring an area and have a lot of coins collected. A visit to the Waiting Room will suck up all the Kill Coins and SPLithium your fighter has collected and will deposit it into a bank for safe keeping so you can go out and explore. SPLithium is especially valuable, as it’s the only currency you can use to research and upgrade your gear. Any blueprints you find in the world can be returned to the Chokufunsha shop so you can research them later. If you die beforehand, you’ll drop everything. If all of this sounds like fun to you, then download Let It Die on PS4 and let us know how you’re having fun with the game!
All 33 trailers from PSX 2016 scheduleDec 5, 2016 Saturday was a huge day for PlayStation fans around the world. In addition to being the start of the PlayStation Experience fan expo, it also meant a lot of game announcements and trailers pouring out of Sony’s conference at the event. Since we wouldn’t blame you if you can only remember a few past The Last of Us Part II, we’ve grabbed every trailer from the conference to refresh your memory. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (now available on PS4) Wipeout: Omega Collection Destiny: Rise of Iron – The Dawning Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Resident Evil 7 Ace Combat 7 Street Fighter V The Last Guardian PaRappa The Rapper: 20th Anniversary Edition (PS4 demo now available) Knack 2 Gravity Rush 2 Gran Turismo Sport Ni No Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza Kiwami Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony NieR: Automata Ys Origin Dreadnought Pyre Vane Absolver What Remains of Edith Finch Nex Machina LET IT DIE Lara Croft GO (available today) Windjammers Starblood Arena Nioh MLB The Show 17 Horizon Zero Dawn The Last of Us Part II
Every trailer you missed from The Game Awards 2016 scheduleDec 2, 2016 There was a lot going on last night at The Game Awards 2016. Geoff Keighley got very emotional about Hideo Kojima, Overwatch won Game of the Year, and we saw some weird cross-promotion with Schick because these things don’t pay for themselves. In all the commotion, you might have missed a trailer or two, but that’s ok. As always, we have you covered with a rundown of every trailer you might have missed from last night’s award ceremony. Death Stranding The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Gameplay: Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy – The Telltale Series Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Prey Halo Wars 2 The Walking Dead: A New Frontier Mass Effect: Andromeda
3 ways pre-ordering games actually hurts the game industry scheduleDec 1, 2016 In the early days of gaming, it made sense to walk into GameStop and put down $5 on a game you wanted to purchase. Before digital downloads were a thing, games could actually be hard to find. Today’s internet-enabled landscape has changed that and with the prevalence of digital downloads and rushed development cycles, you’re actually hurting yourself in the long run when you pre-order a game. What used to be a way for publishers and developers to gauge interest has become a guaranteed revenue stream as millions of gamers line up to plunk down their full $60 on a digital title that may or may not be playable at launch. In fact, just about every major game launch this year wasn’t without trouble. Dishonored 2 and Mafia 3 ran horribly on PC. Assassin’s Creed Unity was so bad Ubisoft stopped making the series annually after its sequel was released. Developers on rushed, annualized cycles are working 60 and 80 hours a week to develop these games for publishers that demand more profit. No longer are you being guaranteed a copy of your favorite franchise, but rather you’re buying a lotto ticket for disappointment. Here’s four reasons you should stop pre-ordering games to stop this culture with your wallet. Misrepresented Games During Development Welcome to Don’t Pre-order 101, your primary example is No Man’s Sky. Even though the British Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the procedural nature of the game is a valid defense as to why the game is not an example of misleading advertising, many gamers feel differently. This video highlights just how misleading the game’s lead developer was when talking in interviews about the state of his game at launch. To his credit, Sean Murray is not the only person who has misled gamers about their purchases. The EA vertical slice of Aliens: Colonial Marines was actually found at fault by the ASA as an example of misleading advertising and it had to be pulled as the state of the game at launch was nowhere near what was showcased in that trailer. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of those two. Rushed titles to drive revenue means broken launches Publishers are constantly pushing their developers to stick to a financial schedule that allows them to maximize profits on a quarter by quarter level. That schedule is often at odds with the creative process, which can experience unforeseen delays that can snowball development into lengthy periods beyond what investors want to see. Because your pre-order is a guaranteed sale no matter what, publishers can put more pressure on the developers to push out whatever code they have for the set fiscal launch date and do day-one patches and fixes to get the game into shape. Almost every single game that released in 2016 had a day one patch for this reason. These aren’t your usual couple hunrded megabyte patches, either. Some of these were absolutely massive. Take a look. 2016 Releases Day One Patch Size Gears of War 4 – 11GB Dishonored 2 – 9GB Final Fantasy XV – 8GB CoD: Infinite Warfare – 5.8GB Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – 4GB Mafia 3 – 2.6GB Battlefield 1 – 2.4GB Dark Souls 3 – 1.1 GB No Man’s Sky – 824MB Publishers blacklist sites with unfavorable reviews With games launching in such poor shape, it’s no surprise that some of them have received less than favorable reviews for the state they launched in. With outlets controlling access to games, it’s possible that your trusted review sites are being squeezed to provide high scores to games in order to keep from being blacklisted by publishers. At least one Spanish site has gone on record stating that Koch Media (who handles distribution for Square Enix in Europe) contacted them directly about the state of their Final Fantasy XV review, which they gave a 7.5/10. They stated that the outlet was crossed off the list of media to receive embargoed games because of the disapproval of the score. This practice of blacklisting sites with unfavorable reviews is a publisher strong-arm tactic that would not be acceptable in any other industry. Cars couldn’t be sold before they were properly tested. The same with any other consumer electronic or appliance. But because video games are digital code and entertainment, the experience you get at launch is the one the publisher can get away with. There’s very little the consumer can do to return a game once it’s released and publishers know that.
5 No Man’s Sky tips to survive in Survival mode scheduleDec 1, 2016 Players are quickly discovering that No Man’s Sky’s new Survival mode is no joke. The mode is punishingly hard because of how little provisions you’re given to work with and how quickly your meters drain compared to the game’s “Normal” mode. That shouldn’t keep you from playing it, though. To help you have a bit more fun while trying to be Bear Grylls in space, we have five handy tips to survive in Survival mode. 5. Scan planets before you land One of the most useful features in No Man’s Sky is the ability to scan a planet from orbit. This allow you to get a peek at what resources you might find on that planet. As you probably should know by this point, resoures are very important, especially in Survival mode. 4. Keep track of your resources We’re going to assume that you played No Man’s Sky’s “normal” mode before rolling the dice with survival mode. If not, then props to you. If you did though, then you should have a basic understanding of what each resource does and how it can help you refill your various meters. Use that knowledge to your advantage. Keep important things like Carbon, Thamium, and Zinc on hand just in case you find yourself in a pinch and need to refill a meter or two quickly. 3. Know your meters Speaking of meters, you should probably take a minute or two to really understand them. They’ll help you out. On the ground, you have your life support, shield, and hazard protection meters. Each of these meters is affected by different conditions. Life support drains as you move around in an environment (we’ll cover this more in a minute). Shield is rather self-explanatory. Anytime you take damage, your shield will absorb those hits until it runs out. At that point, the life bars below your shield will begin to deplete until you die. In the event that you’re able to escape any damage for a few seconds, your shield will begin to regenerate, just like most games today. Hazard protection depletes in hazardous conditions. Really, just being on a planet will cause it to drop, but staying out during a storm, cold night, or hot day will see the gauge tank. In that instance, you’ll want to duck into a nearby cave or building, wait it out in your ship, or (if you have the spare ammo), burrow deep enough into the ground so the weather doesn’t harm you. 2. Don’t be afraid to restart Let’s face it, we all make mistakes; whether that’s forgetting to turn the oven off before you leave for work, or misjudging the distance between you and your ship in No Man’s Sky. Whatever your situation may be, mistakes are a part of life. No Man’s Sky is no different. A large part of Survival mode, even with this guide, is trial and error. You have to crawl before you walk, and in this case, you need to die before you can learn. If you start out on a hellish planet, hit that reset button and try again. Since everything’s procedurally-generated, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have a better planet on the second or third try, but keep going until you’re in an environment that is comfortable. Or you can try your luck in a hellish starter planet. Those can yield a lot of lessons too. 1. Walk, don’t run Those first few moments as you’re trying to survive long enough to make it to your ship are grueling and after a few retries, we wouldn’t blame you if you gave up. However, like we already said, use this as a learning experience. Now that you know your meters, you need to know how basic movement impacts them, namely life support, because that’s pretty important. When running or using your jetpack in No Man’s Sky, your life support drains faster than normal. This is indicated by the arrows right next to the meter. Three arrows are the max, indicating you should probably chill out. Walking is the most cautious way of traversing a planet (outside of using your ship) because it only drains a small portion of your meter at a time. Staying still doesn’t effect it at all, so don’t move when you’re mining something.
No Man’s Sky player finds tons of info on new ATV scheduleNov 30, 2016 Ground transportation has long been a problem in No Man’s Sky. Either you’re taking advantage of a boosting mechanic to get to your destination faster or precariously walking on the ground, waiting for your next opportunity to boost. However, No Man’s Sky’s next update might actually fix that. With the Foundation update added to No Man’s Sky this week, Reddit user “eegandj” has uncovered a wealth of information about an upcoming land vehicle they dub the “Hybrid ATV.” According to eegandj , before you’re able to drive around with the ATV, you’ll have to complete a series of quests which include acquiring a Vehicle Terminal, hiring a mechanic, getting a garage, and fixing the ATV. If you’ve started building your base this week, a lot of that should sound familiar. Here’s a video of the garage: And another of an NPC ATV: Not only does the ATV allow you to drive around on planets, but, according to files within the game, it also has vertical boosting and a weapons system. Both systems can be upgraded just like most other things in the game. The upcoming update will also add new resources to search for to power your ATV, some of which you can see in the photo below. Now how the ATV will use fuel is unknown at this time, but we can expect more information the deeper eegandj digs or as we get closer to this update…whenever that may be. Eegandj also notes that they found information about a 4th race called the “Diplomat” and some new information about freighters. There’s a lot more in their post, so go check it out.
Watch the Game of Thrones trailer recreated with 260 mods in Skyrim scheduleNov 29, 2016 Game of Thrones is ridiculously popular among gamers, but one YouTuber took his love of the show to the extreme. He’s recreated the entire Season 1 trailer for the series entirely in Skyrim. It’s scary just how accurate the scenes are and if you didn’t know better, you’d think this was an entirely new game. Check it out, seriously. You won’t be disappointed. UpIsNotJump says he has plans to continue the recreation of all the season trailers in Skyrim, which means we still have at least 7 more of these to look forward to seeing. Now, if only Telltale Games’ Game of Thrones game looked so good. For comparison’s sake, here’s the original Game of Thrones season 1 trailer below.
Photo mode brings out the beauty in No Man’s Sky scheduleNov 29, 2016 One of the best new additions to games this generation has been photo modes. By giving players free control over a frozen world, developers have been able to allow players to take incredibly creative photos of the worlds they’ve inhabited. No Man’s Sky’s Foundation update finally brings Photo mode to this gorgeous game. Although the process could use some simplifying, accessing Photo mode is as simple navigating to the options menu, turning it on, and accepting the confirmation. From there, No Man’s Sky sheds the UI you’ve probably grown accustomed to, dawning a cleaner look almost as if from an other-worldly Although the process could use some simplifying, accessing Photo mode is as simple navigating to the options menu, turning it on, and accepting the confirmation. From there, No Man’s Sky sheds the UI you’ve probably grown accustomed to, dawning a cleaner look almost as if from an other-worldly postcard. Once enabled, you can take pictures to your heart’s content with a capture card, the PS4’s Share Button, or however you please on your PC. The procedural generation makes almost everything in No Man’s Sky’s various worlds so photogenic that we struggle to figure out why this wasn’t added in the day-one patch. Below, you’ll find pictures of bases people have built and various planets they’ve discovered. And some of these make really good wallpapers!
9 games you can play online without a PlayStation Plus subscription scheduleNov 28, 2016 When Sony released the PlayStation 4 back in 2013, it made one important change to how it operates its network. While the PlayStation 3 featured free online multiplayer no matter the game, Sony decided to put online multiplayer behind the PlayStation Plus paywall similarly to how Microsoft operates with Xbox Live Gold memberships. However, there are a handful of games you can play online without requiring a PlayStation Plus subscription. Most of these are free-to-play games and MMOs that offer a subscription or cash shop items. That means there’s a free version, but you’ll likely have a better experience with the game if you fork over a little cash. Here’s a peek at what’s available without a PS+ subscription. The Elder Scrolls Online The Elder Scrolls Online was a mess when it launched back in 2013, but since then Bethesda has taken special care with the game to shape it up into something that’s actually playable. When the game first debuted it cost $60 on top of a $15 a month subscription, which is part of the reason the game doesn’t require PlayStation Plus to play. Now the game has gone buy-to-play, which means you can buy the base game and play it without having to worry about a subscription either way. The four DLC packs that are available can be bought piecemeal with crowns if you want, or you can subscribe to ESO Plus for $14.99 a month to get access to all that content plus receive additional perks like 10% experience and gold gain. While the base game typically costs $30, you can find it on sale for around $10 regularly which makes this a great game for someone looking to get a lot of content for not a lot of money. Warframe Warframe is another PS4 title that has been available on the console since launch. It’s a free-to-play third-person shooter with plenty of acrobatics and gunplay to keep the game interesting. Starter Warframes that are available are just as competitive as the Warframes available for purchase for cash. The game even features systems that give you premium currency for free, so eventually you can buy those Warframes with in-game money. The only thing that will set you back real cash if you’re not determined to earn money through playing is additional character slots. The developers often have sales on the cash shop currency in the game so if you’re looking for a good shooter to fire up on your new PS4 Pro, try Warframe first. Smite Smite has the unique distinction of being one of the only MOBA games available on a console. Both League of Legends and DOTA 2 dominate the MOBA scene on PC, but neither is available for Xbox One or PlayStation 4 owners who want to get in on the experience. That’s where Smite comes in. Rather than the top-down view that’s based on the real-time strategy games that gave birth to the genre, Smite features a third-person over the shoulder view of the gods you can command. You’ll need to work together with your teammates to overcome the other team and each god has a specific role on the battlefield, so if you’re looking for a game to get immersed in the technical details, Smite is great for that. Hi-Rez follows the League of Legends model in which a certain rotation of gods are available for free each week. This gives you a chance to find a character you really want to master. If you find you really enjoy the game, you can purchase the full Pantheon and receive all current and future gods for $29.99. That package has been on sale for cheap before, so try out the game and if you like it, consider buying your favorite gods to play. War Thunder War Thunder lets you relive the glory of dog fights in WW2 planes with tanks on the side, but if you really want to drive around tanks you should take a look at World of Tanks further down this list. As it stands, War Thunder is a really fun free-to-play game where you can fly WW2 planes from several of the countries that participated in the war. The game is slated to support PlayStation VR and was supposed to be available to play for the PlayStation VR launch, but th Gaijin Games has hit a few snags and so far the game isn’t available in VR just yet. Support for VR is coming soon. For PlayStation VR owners who are looking for new games to try, keep your eyes on War Thunder for the official VR support announcement. DC Universe Online DC Universe Online predates the PS4 by about two years, but that hasn’t stopped the developers from bringing the MMORPG to Sony’s newest console. The game follows a similar model to The Elder Scrolls Online with its subscription fee, as it’s not required to enjoy the game but you will need it to access all the DLC. A monthly subscription is $14.99 a month and brings several features including more inventory slots, the ability to form a league, more character slots, more bank slots, and the ability to trade items and cash between players. Blacklight: Retribution Want to a free-to-play game that’s like Call of Duty? Then look no further than Blacklight: Retribution. Although the original studio that created the game shut down in 2015, it’s been handed off to a new studio that’s full of the same employees to continue development of the title. Blacklight: Retribution is a cyberpunk-themed first-person shooter than can only be played online. There’s no offline campaign, but for people who tend to enjoy Call of Duty style arcade shooters that’s not a problem. Blacklight: Retribution features incredible gun customization and while there is a premium currency for acquiring some items, all weapons, armor, and weapon attachments can be acquired with in-game currency. Loadout For those who prefer zany class-based shooters like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, Loadout should be right up your alley. The game features a unique visual aesthetic that you won’t find anywhere else and it’s actually really fun to play if you like objective-based shooters that involve capturing and defending points on a map. Loadout is pretty fair with how the developers make money off of the game. You can earn everything in the game through playing the game, but you will be putting some hours into it. No doubt the developers are attempting to get players to part with their cash with the extended time it takes to unlock splots in the game, but the competitive multiplayer aspect of the game is so fun that you might not notice. The only downside to Loadout is it only has six maps, which is a far cry from what’s available in Team Fortress 2 or even Overwatch. World of Tanks If flying World War 2 planes doesn’t interest you, perhaps driving tanks from the same era and shooting other players to smithereens will. While War Thunder does feature land vehicles now, World of War Tanks is where it’s at if you want to feel like you’re accurately simulating armored vehicle combat. World of Tanks has several different modes to try out and it functions much the same as War Thunder. The base game is free-to-play, but you’ll have to spend cash if you want to buy more tanks to trash. Paladins All right, so I’m cheating a little by including this one on the list because technically, it’s not available yet. The same studio behind Smite is developing Paladins for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 and you can sign-up for the PS4 Smite closed beta to test the game out when it’s available. Right now the game is in beta on PC and to call it an Overwatch clone would do it a disservice, but there’s plenty that the game borrows. Some of the heroes feel similar to Overwatch characters and the way map progression works is the same as well. Hi-Rez intends to offer Paladins on the same model as Smite, with some heroes available for free on a rotating basis and an all-included pack available at a specific price-point. This game is the closest you’ll find to a free-to-play Overwatch that won’t require PS+ to play, so you’ll want to sign up to see if you get into the beta if you’re a fan of hero shooters like this one.
Review Roundup: Final Fantasy XV scheduleNov 28, 2016 After 10 years of waiting, Final Fantasy Versus XIII Final Fantasy XV is finally here. Almost. Ok, there’s another day before the official launch, but various outlets have published their reviews. Now the big question on everyone’s mind: Is it good? Well, if you go by Metacritic, then yes! Final Fantasy XV (on PS4) is currently sitting at an 86 from 25 Metacritic-approved outlets. Here’s what some of them had to say about the game. IGN (8.2)/10 When I’m riding chocobos across the beach at dusk with my three friends and hunting iconic Final Fantasy monsters in a huge, picturesque open world, Final Fantasy XV feels like nearly everything I could want from a modern Final Fantasy. But when it funnels me into linear scenarios and drab, constricted spaces that plunge the simplistic combat into chaos, my blood boils a bit. There is so much good here, so much heart – especially in the relationships between Noctis and his sworn brothers. It just comes with some changes and compromises that were, at times, difficult for this long-time Final Fantasy fan to come to grips with. Destructoid (9/10) As I’m typing this up now, I’m seeing a future where people buy Final Fantasy XV due to some of the more positive assessments (like this one), and walk away disappointed. Because if you loathe JRPGs, XV is not going to make you a believer. In a way it’s silly that Square spent 10 years making this, and it feels like a really shiny version of something it would have actually made 10 years ago. While a complete overhaul of the genre would certainly suit someone’s needs, XV suits mine just fine. Videogamer (8/10) Final Fantasy XV is about adventure and excitement. There are oddities, and it’s not the FF you’re used to, but it’s a good time with some good boys, and has an unexpected emotional resonance to it. Sometimes it seems like it shouldn’t work, but it does. USGamer (4/5) I was really skeptical that Final Fantasy XV could ever be successful; but despite some real flaws, it ultimately won me over. I warmed to the characters over the course of many camping trips, found more than I was expecting in the open world, and even enjoyed the bombastic set pieces. I have no doubt that it will be harshly criticized in some circles, but it also has some real merit. Stick with it even if you find yourself rolling your eyes at the opening hours: You may be surprised by how much you end up enjoying yourself. Gamespot (8/10) One of the first things you see when you boot up the game is this claim “A Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers.” It’s a strange statement; fans can’t agree on what makes a good Final Fantasy game, and who knows why newcomers shied away from the series in the past. It’s been a long ten years since Final Fantasy XV was first revealed, and tastes have changed in the meantime. While it’s safe to assume fans and outsiders will find some aspect of Final Fantasy XV disappointing–be it the shallow story or finnicky Astrals–it would be hard for anyone to deny that Final Fantasy XV is a fascinating game after giving it a chance. Where its characters fail to impress, Final Fantasy XV’s beautiful world and exciting challenges save the day. Eurogamer This troubled history is one of the reasons Final Fantasy 15 is so difficult to pin down. For a series universally known and loved for its emphasis on storytelling, can I recommend a Final Fantasy game despite its unsatisfying story? Instinctively I’d say no, but even as someone who prized the narratives of previous games I still found myself going back to 15’s early stages to seek out new challenges after I’d concluded the main campaign. And it’s clear that Final Fantasy 15 benefits from a vision, one that emboldened its developers to try new things and reinvent a series while reclaiming the scale that its most ardent fans are used to. In chasing that scale the bigger picture can sometimes get a little obscured, but importantly Final Fantasy 15 retains that love of smaller stories, the ones that often prove to be so much more memorable. Kotaku I don’t know how Final Fantasy XV will be remembered when held up to the rest of the Final Fantasy pantheon. But I do know that it’s got everything I want from a Final Fantasy game. I know that it’ll be yet another snapshot in a life filled with Final Fantasy. Another grand adventure, another gang of worthy heroes; another tale of crystals and magic and betrayal and love, all beautiful melodies and lush scenery and the finely honed complexity of carefully choreographed combat. Onward to secrets beyond the horizon, and don’t forget the Phoenix Down. If that’s not Final Fantasy, I don’t know what is.
Where to get the best Black Friday deals on console exclusives scheduleNov 23, 2016 Black Friday, one of the largest holiday shopping days of the year, isn’t for another two days but that hasn’t stopped thousands of retailers from putting some or all of their deals up early. So you don’t have to go from store to store, looking for that game that will make your new console-owning friend or relative especially happy, we’ve rounded up a list of where to get the best deals on console-exclusive games this Black Friday. PS4 Console Exclusives Bloodborne — $15 — Best Buy, Target Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD — $8 — Walmart The Last of Us Remastered — $10 — GameStop LittleBigPlanet 3 — $15 — Best Buy MLB The Show 16 — $15 — Best Buy, Walmart, PSN No Man’s Sky — $20 — GameStop Ratchet & Clank — $10 — GameStop Street Fighter V — $15 — Walmart Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection — $15 — Best Buy, Walmart Until Dawn — $15 — Best Buy | Target World of Final Fantasy — $35 — Walmart Xbox One Gears of War 4 — $30 — Target Gears of War Ultimate — $15 — Best Buy Recore — $15 — Target, Walmart Titanfall — $8 | Walmart Wii U Pikmin 3 — $15 — Walmart Pokken Tournament — $35 — Best Buy, Target Splatoon — $35 — Walmart Super Mario Maker — $35 — Target The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD — $25 — Walmart Here are some other ways to save big on Black Friday: Use your credit card If you have a credit card that offers price protection, use that for your Black Friday shopping. Depending on the terms of your specific card, you’ll be able to get the difference between what you paid and the price wherever said item may be cheaper. If you have a Discover card, you could purchase your Black Friday items right now, then call up Discover and price match everything when the deals go live to save you the hassle of fighting with rabid Black Friday goers later this weekend. Gamers Club Unlocked Also worth noting is the fact that if you’re purchasing something from Best Buy and you’re a member of Gamers Club Unlocked, you can get 20% off new games and 10% off used games. This deal gets even better if you price match a game first, then use your discount. Price match And finally: price match. If you’re at Walmart, but Best Buy has a game cheaper, don’t bother going to Best Buy unless you have to. Instead, try price matching. This saves you gas money and time you could be spending with your family or picking up a new set of bed sheets.
You can now play SteamVR games with your PlayStation VR scheduleNov 22, 2016 It’s no secret that both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets are expensive, considerably more than the $399.99 PlayStation VR. however, leading up to the launch of the PlayStation VR, many wondered if it would be possible to use the headset with a capable PC. With the PlayStation Camera requiring a proprietary connector to connect to the PS4, rather than a standard USB, this didn’t seem likely. Until today that is. Reddit user “loxai” has come up with a solution that allows you to use your PlayStation VR with Steam VR games, providing a cost-effective workaround to getting a Vive or Oculus Rift. Although loxai says they haven’t done much testing, it seems that after some quick troubleshooting, various Reddit users are having success with the workaround. Redditor “The-Moncast” says they managed to get the headset working with Sayonara Umiharakawase, although sound wasn’t available. Another Reddit user, “ozzeruk82,” says that they too got it working and that the experience is “near identical to the PSVR version the game.” You can download loxai’s application from the Reddit post here.
3 ways Ubisoft is shaping up to avoid a hostile takeover scheduleNov 22, 2016 Ubisoft is a company that finds itself heading into a new year on uncertain footing. French conglomerate Vivendi has been eying the company for a while now, slowly gobbling up shares so that it holds a 22.8% stake in the company. That’s enough to set current CEO and founder Yves Guillemot on edge, as the company has started buying back shares. While Vivendi said on July 18th that it would not consider a full takeover bid for at least six months, that six months grace period is coming to a close in December. That means the next few releases that Ubisoft brings need to nail it with consumers so its current shareholders are happy and less likely to sell out to Vivendi. Here’s a look at some of the ways Ubisoft is attempting to nail that strategy. No more annual Assassin’s Creed Assassin’s Creed as a series didn’t really hit its stride until Assassin’s Creed II with Ezio, who Ubisoft managed to squeeze three games out of his storyline before letting him go. Ezio games were the start of the annualization of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which saw a story-rich game reduced to a series of gimmicks for each new year, similar to how Call of Duty operates. Black Flag was a part of this annualization effort, but it’s widely considered a pearl on an otherwise heap of shit of games that came after the last in the Ezio trilogy. Largely, that’s true. Assassin’s Creed III was a buggy mess in terms of production values and the armageddon aliens stuff it introduced in the modern setting did nothing to make the modern corporate battle between Assassins and Templars any more interesting. The release state of Unity pretty much sealed the game’s fate on the chopping block for a few years, but Syndicate was still in the pipeline so it was released before the series ground to a halt. Now a company that once famously said customers “will tell us” if they’re sick of annualized Assassin’s Creed is saying it doesn’t see the need to return the series so quickly to the root of what killed it in the first place. Why? Ubisoft has to get Assassin’s Creed right when it comes back. Even long-time fans of the series who enjoyed the historical setting were tired of it by the time Syndicate came out and sales showed it. Miss-steps with the modern story made it unappealing to most, despite the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie featuring Michael Fassbender that will feature that angle prominently. Ubisoft can’t afford for its shareholders to lack confidence in the company, so whatever the next Assassin’s Creed game happens to be, it will need to capture gamers’ imaginations and hearts similarly to the way Assassin’s Creed II did when it was released. No more compulsory DLC Ubisoft learned a quick lesson from the way it has been handling online updates for Rainbow Six Siege. The game underperformed when it released, yet Ubisoft has been careful about releasing map packs and expansions that might further fragment an already small community. Instead, map packs are released for free, while extra customization items and guns are what you pay for. The practice of fragmenting a community as large as Call of Duty works in Activision’s favor, since it’s a way to require people to purchase DLC to stay up to date as the developers move through creating content for their game. It guarantees a revenue stream with each new release and is in general, a better business model for the company making the content than for those consuming it. By bucking those trends and making sure that all the maps are available to the player pool regardless of what they’ve purchased, it means everyone stays on level playing ground. It keeps customers happy and lets Ubisoft focus on creating content that can support their revenue stream without dividing the player base. Watch Dogs 2 is an amazing sequel One of the major criticisms about the original Watch Dogs is how little effort Ubisoft put in re-creating the world of Chicago for players to run around in. The driving felt uninspired, Aiden Pierce himself was an unlikeable character, and the story the game told just wasn’t that compelling. It was enough for me to write off Watch Dogs entirely. Thankfully, Ubisoft didn’t. They went back to the drawing board and came back with a sequel that is the same quality jump we saw in Assassin’s Creed to Assassins’ Creed II. Marcus Holloway is an all around more likeable character than Aiden Pierce and Ubisoft has given him a pretty accurate rendition of San Francisco to hack. There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor in Watch Dogs 2 and the driving is noticeably improved over what we saw in the first game, which shows Ubisoft is working on getting better with time. Watch Dogs 2 is the sort of game that we should have gotten when the first game debuted.
FreezeME is the closest you’ll get to a non-Nintendo Mario game scheduleNov 21, 2016 3D platformers are a dime in a dozen these days. For whatever reason, that genre seems to have nearly died. That’s why I was so excited to see FreezeME pop up last Tuesday while I was browsing the PlayStation Store. 3D platformers are a genre I grew up with and loved. And if the level design and general aesthetic of FreezeME is anything to go by, it seems like the developers feel the same way. Familiarity The first thing you’ll notice while playing FreezeME is how familiar it all feels. You wouldn’t be wrong to think that FreezeME is a copy of Super Mario 64 with elements of Super Mario Galaxy mixed in for good measure. The moderately-sized levels, gravity sections, and 2D segments help further this claim, yet there are certain elements that push the game more toward homage than copy. FreezeME, like other 3D platformers, is light on story. There’s a short introduction sequence to pull you into the world and set up the events of the game, but otherwise, there doesn’t really seem to be much thought put into the overall narrative. Although the events of the intro set up protagonist R’s objective, there isn’t a reason to remember any of that once you’re in the game. Instead of limiting players with a linearly-structured mission pool, you’re given free reign on how to tackle each of FreezeME’s three or four worlds. Once you hop in, you select a mission and are transported into the chosen world. However, this mission select is simply a vehicle to drop you into the world and give you an objective to go by, if you so choose. You might have to race a rabbit for the default mission, but there’s nothing stopping you from searching high and low for 150 red coins. An homage to the past If this is beginning to sound familiar, it should. This heavily resembles the structure of Super Mario 64. Even the first level with its bright colors, races against NPCs, and giant, easy boss will make Mario fans feel at home. And like in Super Mario 64, there are bright and shiny objects waiting for you at the end of each mission. In Mario, they’re stars, in FreezeME they’re golden cubes. Get enough golden cubes and you’ll unlock the next world. Where FreezeME begins to differ from its predecessors are the freezing mechanics. By using R’s camera, you can freeze enemies and platforms in their place. This adds a unique element to platforming segments as you try to freeze them before they leave you behind, or so you can continue jumping toward your destination. After some fiddling around, I’ve grown pretty comfortable with the camera controls, but not enough so that I can use them with little effort. There are still moments when I wrestle with the laser pointer of the camera because it starts above R rather than in front of her. Not all sunshine and rainbows As much as I’m enjoying my time with FreezeME, the game is far from perfect. I haven’t encountered any game-breaking glitches, but playing FreezeME for about four hours has opened my mind to the central problem of 3D platformers, something that this game can’t shake: time management. Getting around in FreezeME takes a while. Because the worlds and hub are large, getting from point A to point B can be tedious at times, especially when you fail a mission. Remember in Super Mario 64 when Mario would get thrown out of the level and land just outside the painting portal? That was fine. What FreezeME does isn’t. FreezeME decides to throw you to the center of the hub world. This means you have to walk all the way back to the portal leading to each world if you fail a mission. You probably won’t fail often, in fact, the only way to fail is by dying which isn’t very easy, but that’s not the point. The point is that the easier solution would be to throw you just outside the portal, allowing for immediate access and encouraging something we’ve all learned as children: try, try again.
7 easter eggs hidden inside the world of Watch Dogs 2 scheduleNov 21, 2016 Watch Dogs 2 has only been out for about a week now, but already we’ve spotted several easter eggs littered around San Francisco for you to find. It goes without saying that this list is full of spoilers, so if you want to have fun discovering them on your own, read with caution. Zombi2 Zombi U is an ill-fated Ubisoft game that started life as a Wii U exclusive. After the Wii U didn’t go over so well and Ubisoft didn’t achieve the sales numbers it expected with that game, it dropped the U and released Zombi across multiple platforms including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. One of the viruses that you come into contact with in a side mission called Infected Bytes is called Zombi2, which could be a clever reference to a sequel game that Ubisoft may or may not have in the works. Jurassic Park At a location just to the right of Lakeside Park on the map, there’s an area you can hack that will grant you access to a unique ride in the world of Watch Dogs 2. It’s a jeep that looks suspiciously like those you’d see in Jurassic Park. Just in case the glaringly similar paint job doesn’t remind you of the jeep used to escape the T-Rex, when you honk the horn you’ll get a gigantic T-Rex roar. Pretty cool. Video Game Leaks Unity, Syndicate, Osiris Before Ubisoft decided to take a break with the Assassin’s Creed series in order to refocus on delivering games that don’t bore players to death with their shoddily told stories, they were the subject of some pretty big leaks that told players where the next games would be set before they were released. Ubisoft references these leaks directly in Watch Dogs 2, where you can listen to a guy discussing video game leaks with a colleague. She specifically mentions Unity and Syndicate, both of which are Assassin’s Creed games that have been released and were set during the French Revolution and the beginning of London’s Industrial Revolution. The final game mentioned is codenamed Osiris and that’s the true easter egg, as it was rumored the next Assassin’s Creed game is to be set in Ancient Egypt. We don’t know if that’s true or not and thanks to this easter egg, Ubisoft has made the waters just a little bit more muddy. Pac-Man Ghosts One of the side missions you can undertake in the game involves testing a zero-day exploit of a futuristic house that’s guarded by a series of robots. Your job is to sneak into the house and disable the robots. The fun part here is there are four different robots patrolling the house and each of them is named after one of the ghosts found in Pac-Man. Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are all here. Garden Gnomes Hidden around San Francisco are several garden gnomes for players to find, the reward for which is an absolutely silly gnome costume. They’re quite well hidden, but one of the first gnomes you can find is sitting in front of a laptop computer with locations of all the other gnomes marked on it. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon This one is relatively easy to spot. When you get introduced to DedSec’s hackerspace, you can spot a Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon arcade machine within the area. It seems to be broken as it doesn’t work, but this isn’t the first time the arcade machine appeared in Watch Dogs. In the first game, players can take on a mission as Aiden Pierce to infiltrate a gang’s hideout by hacking their security cameras. During this mission, you can see people playing Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon arcade machines. There’s nothing like an homage to its own games and Ubisoft has two for one wrapped up in this one. Rainbow Six Siege During a side mission called Bad Publicity, you can hack into a gamer’s camera while he’s live streaming to get revenge on him for swatting other people on the internet in the grandest fashion. The irony here is that the gamer is playing Rainbow Six Siege, a game based on SWAT missions. The mission wraps up with the gamer getting swatted himself and you get to watch the whole thing unfold. Pretty sweet justice.
7 tips to get started in FreezeMe scheduleNov 18, 2016 FreezeME, a 3D platformer in the vein of Super Mario 64, launched this week on the PS4. While the Wii U and Steam versions have been out for a little while now, there aren’t too many guides to help get started. So, we’ve decided to fix that. Below, you’ll find some helpful tips to maximize your efforts while you enjoy the beautiful worlds of FreezeME. 7. Dive, dive, dive! R’s movement is somewhat slow, especially if you’re in a hurry. The first world throws three, time-based missions at you, so speed is something you need in this game. Since there isn’t a faster way to run, the next best thing is to jump and dive. While this may seem like it would take longer than walking, it’s much faster and lets you close the gap between you and the next platform with ease. 6. Forget the objective Don’t let the game make you feel like you have to stay on the objective. Just because you see that cinematic pan toward the next golden cube doesn’t mean you can’t do something completely different. In fact, we highly encourage you to do the exact opposite: just forget it for a while. Most of the golden cubes we acquired were found either on the way to our objective or while we got lost trying to get to the objective. This helped quite a bit as we were able to tackle some of the harder challenges early on, making later playthroughs in each world less time consuming. 5. Explore the worlds FreezeME has some very large worlds, as you probably saw in the gif above. Because of this, one of the first things you should do whenever you unlock a new world is explore. It might seem tedious, but you’ll thank yourself later on. Exploring each world first allows you to familiarize yourself with the layout, take note of the red coin gears, and find any green coins for later. 4. Freeze objects below you Sometimes getting the timing right with your freezing camera can be a bit tricky. To help make that a lot easier, we suggest freezing a platform while you’re standing on it. This still takes some quick reflexes (and practice), but mastering this technique early on makes later platforming segments a lot easier. 3. Kick for a soft landing You’re going to fall from some pretty high altitudes in this game; that’s just the nature of a 3D platformer. Since R starts out with a measly three hearts, it’s far too easy to mess up and die. To prevent yourself from losing a heart, kick in the air, either just before hitting the ground or sometime while you’re falling. This will negate any damage you would normally take from a freefall. 2. Look for hearts Speaking of hearts, you’ll probably want to get more. As we said earlier, exploring the worlds will pay off later in the game and this is exactly what we were talking about. Hidden in each world is a heart that’s just waiting to be found. Grab that heart and you’ll increase your life gauge by one. That might not seem like much, but that could be the difference between life and death. 1. Don’t let the red coins scare you We’re going to go ahead and assume that most of you people reading this will tackle the “150 red coins” mission last. This mission can take a while — our first time was 22 minutes — but no worries, because it’s super easy. Unlike in Super Mario 64, red coins in FreezeME are anything but scarce. You’ll stumble upon gears that, when ran around, drop multiple coins. Every time you kill a non-exploding enemy, they’ll drop coins. There are even platforms that drop multiple coins after you step in a sequence. So, don’t sweat it. This mission is incredibly simple. The only other advice you’ll need is to keep an eye on that golden cube. Once it pops up, don’t forget where it is or you’ll be wandering around (like we were) trying to find it.
6 Dishonored 2 tips & tricks to make you a stealthy killing machine scheduleNov 18, 2016 One of the unique aspects of the Dishonored series is that it can be approached from just about any method you want. If you want to go in guns blazing and murdering everyone in your path with your supernatural powers, you can definitely do that. However, there’s more joy and challenge to be had trying to complete the game completely stealthy. To quote God from Futurama, “when you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” And that’s exactly what you can achieve in Dishonored 2 with these tips and tricks. Read on to find out how to best the powers that control the city of Dunwall as Emily and Corvo. Patience is truly a virtue The world of Dishonored 2 is set up to make approaching the game from a stealth perspective very challenging. Unlike “stealth” games like Splinter Cell where you have marked executions to make tackling multiple guards a breeze as you run through the game, you’ll need to rely on your wits and knowledge of guard movements to get through the game without being spotted. If your goal is to complete a ghost run, that can be tricky without patience. All of the guards in areas follow a routine and if you find a spot to observe this routine, you can work out patterns and flaws in their patrols. This can help you take down stragglers who stray too far into an alley, but you should be aware that other guards will notice their absence and go looking for them. When you’re ready to strike, make sure you have a plan for every guard you see. Look for hidden entrances While storming the main gate is a perfectly fine tactic if you’re not going for a stealth run, it’s not the best approach for those wanting to move about in the shadows. However, just like in the first game, there’s more than one way to traverse a map. Height is always your friend in Dishonored, so get up to those high places so you can watch guard patrols. You might also find a cracked window or a vent you can shuffle into to get inside with no one being any wiser. Blink/Far Reach are really good at getting you to places you need to be quickly and Shadow Walk comes in handy as well. If you’re having trouble spotting a way forward that isn’t through a throng of guards, perhaps you should be climbing. Listen & Learn One of the great things that can be said about the world Arkane Studios’ has built in Dishonored is that the citizens and guards in Dunwall feel alive. They’ll have conversations with one another that you can eavesdrop on as you sneak around the roofs and they may even tip you off to a location that you wouldn’t have found on your own. When you hear the guards talking in conversation, stop to listen to see what they’re saying. While it’s an important thing to do for story immersion, it also offers a practical purpose. They’re giving you information you can use against them, so why not take advantage of that fact? Moving about undetected Enemies in Dishonored 2 are a lot more vigilant than those in the first game. You could effectively hide in the shadows as Corvo then, but in the sequel some changes have been made. Enemy perception is focused on what they can see, which means hiding in plain sight just because you’re in a shadow is no longer a thing. Instead, you’ll need to approach your enemies from behind or make smart use of cover to obstruct their view of your movements in the environment. Once again, this is really where Blink and Far Reach shine. There’s also an ability that will let you temporarily see an enemies’ cone of vision, so you can chart your movements through the levels. Use the environment to create distractions If you absolutely can’t find a way through an area that’s littered with guards, a distraction might be in order. There are objects in the game you can interact with that will create noise, which the guards will investigate. You can set an alarm clock or throw a bottle to distract them from the area you need to pass through long enough to give you enough time to Blink through. Don’t be afraid of save scumming Even the most carefully laid plans can go awry if you miss spotting a guard or you’re not careful with your timing. That’s disastrous if you’re trying to perform a stealth run, so you should make frequent use of saving the game and reloading should you get caught. Make note of the thing that threw you off so you can account for it in your next go. Some people consider this cheating, but there’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a mission and getting spotted by a guard you didn’t realize was there, which ruins your ghost achievement. Save frequently and often so you have to repeat less just in case your carefully laid plans end up with you getting caught.
5 of the biggest gaming controversies scheduleNov 17, 2016 Video games are no stranger to controversy. It seems like with each new entry in the Grand Theft Auto, someone, somewhere finds something to say about it. Violence in video games and how it impacts youths is still a hotly-debated topic among media outlets and parents around the globe. Today, we’re having fun with those controversial issues by bringing you the five biggest controversial events in gaming. 5. Microsoft’s original plans for the Xbox One From no used games to requiring users to sign into the system once every 24 hours, Microsoft’s original vision for the Xbox One was less than stellar. The unveiling was met with ire from the gaming community due to its focus on apps and less so on video games. Former Microsoft President Don Mattrick didn’t make things any easier for the company when he insulted members of the armed forces stating that if you didn’t have an internet connection, you could always get an Xbox 360. After reversing some of the system’s policies, dropping the price from $500 to $300 and introducing the Xbox One S, it’s safe to say that Microsoft is in a much better position than they were in 2013. 4. Kojima vs. Konami In March 2015, rumors began circulating that Hideo Kojima, father of the Metal Gear Solid series, had left Konami. These rumors began to make a lot more sense throughout the year as Konami first removed any Kojima branding from marketing materials and Metal Gears Solid games, then put them back, followed by removing Silent Hills from the PlayStation Store, and so on. Although Hideo Kojima was awarded the Although Hideo Kojima was awarded the Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards 2016, Konami barred Kojima from accepting the reward at the event, leading to host Geoff Keighley’s rather blunt statement on the whole affair. Things came to a close earlier this year when Kojima began touring the world for inspiration for the upcoming project Death Stranding. 3. PSN hack of 2011 In 2011, there were about 77 million accounts registered on the PlaySation Network. Between April 17 and 19th, those accounts were compromised in a network-wide hack that Sony didn’t acknowledge until April 21st. In the meantime, on April 20th, Sony shut down the PSN, resulting in millions of users who couldn’t go online and play with their friends for reasons they weren’t aware of at the time. It wasn’t until April 26th that Sony announced that users’ sensitive information (birthdays, addresses, emails, passwords, etc) had been obtained by the hackers. Credit card details were encrypted and safe. The PlayStation Network was brought back online in waves starting on May 14th with a “Welcome Back” package of PSN games given to users. All in all, the hack cost them about $170 million. 2. GTA “Hot Coffee” mod Mods can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at them. They can either expand the scope of a game, creating things the developers might never thought possible, or reveal things that they never intended you to see. The legendary “hot coffee” mod is the latter. In 2005, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released on the PC. As we’ve come to know, PC releases are oftentimes quickly cracked open as the modding community gets to work. A group of modders, in this case, were able to revive a minigame that Rockstar Games had left out of the final release on PC and consoles. That mini-game is activated when C.J.’s chosen girlfriend asks the protagonist if he wants to join her for some “hot coffee.” Of course, now we know this as a euphemism for sex. With the mod enabled, you got front-row seats to the whole shebang, as CJ and his lady had clothed intercourse. And because it was a minigame, you also got to play along, controlling the sweaty actions of both characters. The files for the minigame were also re-enabled in the console versions of the game thanks to various hacking tools. Understandably, news outlets pounced on this story like vultures, leading to the game’s re-release as an Adults Only (AO) rated game in the US, banning it in Australia, and a patch disabling the mod for the PC version. 1. Mortal Kombat leading to the ESRB The year was 1993, the game: Mortal Kombat on Nintendo’s SNES. The game turned heads during its arcade debut in 1992 for being a video game with lots of blood, gore, and “realistic” character models. Since video games were mostly seen as children’s toys, this title in particular stood out like a sore thumb. After seeing the content in Mortal Kombat, on December 1, 1993, Senator Joe Lieberman called together a group of people to discuss the controversy. Five months later, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was founded, forever changing the gaming landscape.