Friday 17 July 2015

Elring Review

Today I got my mitts on a new game called Elring. Elring is a mobile based game made after the classic buzz wire game that many families play at home. Elring attempts to bring that addictive gameplay that many other mobile gaming apps bring to the table but falls short. Elring becomes frustrating very quickly.

Lets focus on the positives of Elring first. Elrings gameplay has plenty of potential to become an addictive mobile app. The levels are challenging, very challenging. Personally I found level 6 to be the hardest of the first 15 levels. Another good aspect is that the music has the right tone for the game but that's about where the positives end for me personally.

Now for the negatives :\. The game's controls are very poor. You'll find yourself twisting your phone nearly 360 degrees because the controls don't seem to respond well to your movement and even then the ring doesn't like to stay straight. Not only that, you can find yourself pushing your phone forwards and backwards to get a better angle which results in not being able to see your screen. With Elring being such a precision game the controls must be the absolutely priority. This is the biggest down fall to Elring right now, and it will hold it back from potentially becoming a really neat fun little app. Other issues I had with the game was that the background setting doesn't change unless you unlock the magic background setting. This setting is so random, it's almost as if it's a, 'I feel sorry for you because you can't pass the level' unlock feature. The game would feel much more fresh if the levels background scene changed each 5 levels as it would feel as if you're making progress. The aesthetics of the start up menu are rather average too. The menu doesn't do the game justice. Last but not least, having an ad on your app that is unproven seems a bit cheeky and it takes up quite a bit of the screen as you'll see in our video review.

The things Elring needs to do to take things to the next step is to continue developing and working on the controls. Elrings controls need to be perfect, it's a precision game. It could also use an inverted control option.Create a neater startup menu because it doesn't do the game justice and feels super amateur. They should choose wisely on the timing when to put an ad in or not. Rome wasn't built in a day, you can't just apply ads if you don't have a fan base in the first place and it will more than likely just drive people away.



Is Elring playable though? Yes it is, I passed multiple levels. That being said I got frustrated quite quickly and upset with the controls of the game. If you can deal with turning your phone on ridiculous angles maybe you'll enjoy this game.

Elring has only just been released so there's plenty of time to develop the game further. I might play Elring the next time I go on a road trip or on a boring train ride.

If you want to check out Elring you can find it here. app store.

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Wednesday 8 July 2015

Does anyone even care about the Assassins Creed story line anymore?

The Assassins Creed series is one of Ubisofts biggest games, so big that a new games is made on a annual basis. The Assassins Creed series first launched on November the 13th 2007, Blowing people away with it's huge open world and massive cities. It captivated a huge audience all over the world that couldn't wait for the next chapter in the series.

Since then we've had a further 21 installments to the Assassins Creed story line on multiple different platforms. Ubisoft is putting out nearly 3 different Assassins Creed games per year. That leads me to my next question, is this series experiencing a huge amount of fatigue from it's fans?



The short answer is no. The latest multi platform release from Ubisoft has managed to sell well over 10 million units and this was even though the game struggle to get a review over 7 and was riddled with major game breaking glitches that took many months to be patched. The long answer though? absolutely, the fans are more than fatigued. While the game is selling like hot cakes, ask those same people if they have any clue where the story line is going or what is happening and I guarantee you they'll have no idea where the game is at. After Assassins Creed 2 the game had so many new installments thrown out there that it was just simply too hard to keep up or show interest in the series anymore. It didn't help that the story didn't make too much sense but the whole story of the Templars being ultimate bad dudes and there was a organization taking the down was very compelling.

This by all means doesn't mean Assassins Creed is a bad game, there's obviously a huge market for going back in to a different time and wrecking havoc on the 17th, 13th, 16th century folk. Not only that, the gameplay from Assassins Creed games is really fun when the games been developed properly and not a glitched mess that's trying to be pushed out as an annual tittle.



That being said after the new installment of Assassins Creed Syndicate it couldn't hurt Ubisoft to sit down, take a break on the Assassins Creed series and start a couple of years worth of development for Assassins Creed 4. Give the writers a chance to get the series story together and the fans a chance to build the hunger for another big Assassins Creed game that isn't released as unplayable buggy game.

Hopefully in the not to distant future we can bring ourselves back to wanting more story from the Assassins Creed game, and hopefully the story will have more direction to a conclusion.

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Monday 6 July 2015

Minecraft Windows 10 edition is coming

Microsoft and Mojang announced at Minecon today that a new version of Minecraft will be coming to windows 10. Microsoft has said that Minecraft Windows 10 version will be able to utilize all the awesome features of Windows 10. Don't worry though Minecraft players, the PC version won't be going anywhere. Minecraft Windows 10 and Minecraft PC will stay two separate versions.



Microsoft also stated that players who own the PC version will receive the Windows 10 version for free, so you don't have to worry about paying for the game again. For the players who don't own Minecraft though it will cost $10 during the beta stages of the game, which is fairly cheap for Minecraft.

Like the original PC version their will be a beta for the Windows 10 version and it will begin on July 29th.

Players who do choose to switch over the the Windows 10 version will be able to play on their PC's as well as their Tablets. Not only that though,  you'll be able to switch between your controller, touch screen and keyboard and mouse.

Players can also expect to be able to play cross gen. If you're playing on Windows 10 you should be able to play with your friends on Xbox One and vice versa which adds a nice touch to the new edition.

Some of the other big things to come out of Minecon this week is

Duel wielding is in. Players have expressed their excitement at Mojang adding the feature, now giving players the ability to hold any two items they wish at a time.

Mojang also announced at Minecon that they're bringing a story mode to Minecraft, adding another dimension to the game that players can dive in to. You can check out the trailer here.



Saturday 4 July 2015

Nintendos NX console may not compete with Xbox one and PS4

A rumor has began to spread and it's about Nintendos new NX console. A guy by the name of Liam Robertson took to Twitter today to announce that the NX will not be competing with the Xbox One or the PS4 on a power level. Now to be fair this could just be a wild out there statement, anyone could make such a prediction, but this person in particular has predicted quite a few things such as PS4's uncharted collection,  Fall Out 4's pip boy edition and he's also predicted Zombi U is coming to Xbox one and PS4 which is very likely at this point. So you can say this guy has some inside information. You can see the tweet here.


To be fair though it's a very broad tweet. So far we've heard that the NX could be a android based system, we've also heard the system could be a hand held or some sort of home console / hybrid hand held device which you'd never expect to compete on a Ps4 Power level. All we really know so far the NX is creating a huge storm within the gaming industry. 

As expected though, Nintendo fans have reacted pretty badly to the tweet, many suggesting that it just sounds like the Wii U mark 2 or claiming that Nintendo is really out of touch with the fans and are going the way of Sega. You can't really blame the fans though when in the past you've had beast consoles such as the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo Game Cube. A lot of Nintendo fans have also claimed they just couldn't handle another gimmick console. 

If Nintendo really are going down the path of a mediocre powered system again one must wonder how they're going to get 3rd party developers that work on the PS4 and Xbox one on board. The thing that has pretty much single handedly killed the Wii U is the lack of 3rd party support. Although if they go down the route of a android based system they'll be able to receive 3rd party support from all the mobile game apps and indie developers that current flood the android market. It would be interesting to see how a android based home system would work. 



The facts are Nintendo can not afford to have another Wii U. They need to bring something to the table that's completely left field, that will blow people away. It needs to be the opposite of what the Nintendo brand has been producing and it definitely needs to take it up to their competitors in Xbox One and PS4 to show they're still a legitimate gaming company in the industry. 

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Friday 3 July 2015

Destiny The Taken King expansion details revealed.

Today Bungie released details on what their new DLC The Taken King will contain. The DLC will include new mission, level cap increase, new raid, side missions. more exotics, co-op strikes and new enemies to fight against. The expansion will also contain and new area for players to explore.

This is the full list of what Bungie have outlined.

  • New story missions and an array of sidequests that conspire to tell the story of our battle to defend our Solar System against Oryx and his Taken army
  • New narrative driven by cinematic cutscenes starring an engaging cast of characters
  • New Exotic Weapons, Exotic Armor, and Exotic Questlines
  • The Dreadnaught, a full new destination, with unique secrets, rituals, and treasures to uncover
  • A new breed of enemy combatants, The Taken, armed with new abilities and weapons
  • An increased Level Cap, and new ways for your Guardian to grow more powerful
  • The most substantial injection of new, unique, and redesigned weapons, armor, and talents to date
  • New subclasses with all new Supers and abilities
  • New cooperative Strikes with unique and dynamic new Boss battles 
  • Redesigned and reimagined Strikes – Dust Palace, Undying Mind, and Cerberus Vae III – are now overrun by the Taken
  • New Crucible multiplayer maps with new Crucible modes, including the previously revealed Rift and Mayhem
  • And, of course, last but not least, our biggest six-player Raid yet


Bungie also said "We’ve learned a lot these last ten months – about the game as well as the people we’re playing it with. If you’ve been adventuring alongside us through The Dark Below and House of Wolves, you know our creative process follows an evolving playbook. The Taken King will present its own unique leap forward, and we’re excited to unpack it for you this summer"

But has Bungie really learned? While the DLC pack seems to have a decent amount of content is it really worth $40? the DLC alone cost more than half the full games original price. Not only that, Bungie also copped a lot of criticism for offering new players who buy the Taken King Legendary Edition special emotes and dances that long time Destiny players couldn't access without buying the $80 + version.

Only time will tell where Destiny will lead and whether it is enough content to justify the price. So far people have been willing to pay for the DLC packs but can Bungie continue the momentum? I guess will find out.



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Saturday 27 June 2015

Swatting has got to stop.

Another day another swatter. This week another gamer has been swatted by a random individual while streaming, The streamer who goes by the name DSP was the target of a swatting attack. not only was he being swatted but the individual was DDOSing him too. Someone really had it out for him.
In case you don't know what swatting is, Swatting is when a individual calls the police to the streamers house claiming things such as a murder has taken place or there's a bomb on the property and it causes the swat to come out drawing guns on the streamer and arresting them until they confirm there is no threat. It is a real dangerous act that is putting a lot of large streamers lives in danger.

In the case of DSP, he notified the police in the area that he was a streamer and that streamers were being targeted by these sorts of acts. Luckily in his case the police just rolled up and asked him to come out the front with his hands up and that is all that happened. He claimed for the next 5 minutes he talked to the cops about it and that the cops already knew that it would of been a fake call but they have to respond to call outs like that. Not all streamers are lucky like that though, some streamers have had the cops come in to their homes have guns drawn on them, told to get on the ground and arrested. Not only that but there family also have guns drawn on them.

For DSP though it didn't end there. With DSP making it public what had happened and how the events went smooth and the swatter didn't win, the swatter got even more personal. The Swatter went after DSP's family, it's been reported that DSP's girlfriends dad was swatted too and to make it even worse her father has a severe heart condition that could of caused him to have a fatal heart attack over such an event.

It really does take a sick individual to pull of one of these pranks, it's not a joke,  it's not funny, they are putting peoples lives at risk pulling that shit. These people do get caught though. in a recent case a swatter was sentenced to 5 years in jail, not only that but he has to pay $79,000 in restitution to his swatting victim. You seriously have to weigh up if it's worth losing 5 years of your life just to get a kick out of putting someone else's life at risk if they're one of these individuals.

For DSP though, weather you like him or not, it doesn't matter. Swatting is a disgusting thing to do to someone that is just trying to broadcast their gameplay to the world. I understand that this article is more that likely just feeding a troll, but I'm sure them trolls won't be laughing when the law catches up with them. I'll leave you with a swatting video so you can see for yourself just how deadly this act is.


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Thursday 25 June 2015

Warner Bros stop sales of Arkham Knight on PC

It's official, Warner Bros have pulled Batman Arkham Knight PC version after hoards of fans flooded their forums with complaints about the game. Since then Warner Bros have been under the pump to do something about the game. Well they have, they've completely pulled it from being sold to consumers until it's fixed. At this point in time there's no estimated time on when the game will be up to standard.

Warner bros did issue a statement to their fans apologizing for all the games issues. You can find the statement here

"Dear Batman: Arkham Knight PC owners,

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

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

The Batman: Arkham fans have continually supported the franchise to its current height of success, and we want to thank you for your patience as we work to deliver an updated version of Batman: Arkham Knight on PC so you can all enjoy the final chapter of the Batman: Arkham series as it was meant to be played."

While it's a shame the game was released so buggy and unfinished we admire Warner Bros for at least listening to their fans and actually doing something about it. In this case they decided to pull the game and even offer refunds to people that are unsatisfied, unlike Halo The Master Chief Collection who tried to deprive fans of refunds, ignoring the games issues and continued to sell the game as if there was nothing wrong with it.

In the meantime though gamers will just have to be patient for their PC version, Warner Bros seem like they're actively wanting to rectify the situation and get their game back out there, especially since it's their biggest I.P. It's also worth mentioning that if you are impatient and you have a Xbox One or a PS4 the games been reported to be running as smooth as a babies bum, although that just makes everything even more mind boggling as to why the PC version has managed to run so bad.


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Wednesday 24 June 2015

Fallout Shelter Review

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform: Android and iOS
Release date: 14th  June
Price: free (may include micro-transactions in game)



The game that dethroned Candy Crush (for 2 days at least), Bethesda released Fallout Shelter in the middle of the E3/Fallout 4 storm of hype which was perfect and fans have been loving it since. My experience of the game began after a few loading screens and a brief introduction of the story which is pretty straightforward, a nuclear war has erupted and you are tasked with looking after and sheltering the survivors in the fallout of the event (pun completely intended). The tutorial got you up to speed with how the basics of the shelter ran and after a few minutes I thought I had a clue what I was doing, sadly I was mistaken.
 My residences were hard to please and soon become unhappy, then resources began to run low. In order to gain resources you have to place shelter occupants into working rooms and connect them via elevators. The resources in question are earned in two ways, either wait for the resources to be produced or force the workers to rush (between gaining these resources I felt there really wasn’t much to do and found myself yawning waiting for the countdown to reach zero), this is of course a risk/reward system, you could get the resources faster if successful or if you fail the room can light on fire or come under attack from mutant pests. Of course my rush failed which resulted in a room on fire and residents becoming even more unhappy, at this point I was contemplating restarting in a new game, however I stuck to it and took advantage of the rewards you can get midgame by completing certain challenges (you can however buy these using real money). A few hours later and things were starting to turn in my favour, I noticed certain dwellers worked more efficiently in specific rooms and took advantage of this.

As upgrades and extension of the underground rooms began I started sending dwellers out into the wilderness to search for materials/weapons etc this is yet another risk/reward system, I found this to be one of the more exciting parts of the game. In the meantime my vault was attacked by raiders and I faced a few other in fault challenges such as dweller births and buying new rooms. The more I played the more I noticed it was becoming slightly addictive, a pretty simple control scheme and a great overview of the fault, I did however sometimes find it annoying as you would sometimes be trying to find a specific room or drag a character across only to fall in wrong room or be interrupted. I also did experience a few crashes when the screen was particularly ‘busy’, however these were far in-between and didn’t deter from the experience to much.
 
The music and scenery really hit the Fallout vibe, which I was most worried about, everything from the weapons to the little characters were accurate. Overall I found the game to be fun and well detailed with a few bugs and questionable design choices, but the game has and is serving its purpose: a hype ramp into Fallout 4, which is just what the fans wanted and needed.


7/10

Batman Arkham Knight flops on PC.

Today PC gamer have began to take their frustration out on Warner Bros PC version of Batman Arkham Knight. It's reported that Batman Arkham Knight has just about every problem under the sun at this point, from performance issues to actual graphical issues. Gamers have even pointed out the discrepancies between the PC and the PS4, Funnily enough the PS4 version has more detail and the PC version is missing quite a bit of detail as you can see her -


To add insult to injury though, The Arkham Knight forum mods released a "PC owners" thread to help PC gamers with their woes stating "we wanted to provide recommended, in-game graphical settings for those with minimum and recommend specs hardware" which solved absolutely nothing for helpless gamers.

They've at least noted that the game has problems and they're actively looking in to it saying "We are aware that there are performance issues for some users playing Batman: Arkham Knight on PC.  WB Games is working diligently with our development teams, NVIDIA and AMD, to identify and fix the issues as quickly as possible" So it's not all doom and gloom for gamers.

In the meantime though friends it might be worth holding off on Batman Arkham Knight PC version while the developers work on a fix for the game it's clear there are some serious issue. On that note, I'll leave you with some other screen shots of the game that have popped up over the interwebs.



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Monday 22 June 2015

Is Nintendo beginning to give up on the Wii U?

Since E3 Speculation has ramped up about Nintendo's next big project, codename Nintendo NX. Nintendo NX is speculated to be Nintendo's next console, but how can Nintendo even be considering a new console this early in to the lifespan of the Wii U? The Wii U hasn't even been out for 3 years, so why are Nintendo really trying to get away from the disappointing Wii U that quickly?
To be fair on Nintendo, by the time the speculated NX is to come out the Wii U's lifespan you would think would be around the 5 year mark but that's still well and truly short for a console cycle, so what has exactly has forced Nintendo's hand here to start working on the next console so soon?

When the Wii U released it received a lot of bad publicity, the console was well and truly underpowered. The console released at the end of the life cycles of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 and was only approximately 4 - 5 x the power of both them current gen systems. Not only that but a poor showing at E3 2012 left a lot of consumers underwhelmed with what the system had to offer. By the time the system released on the 30th of Novemeber 2012 it had little hype about it and next to no momentum and sales flopped.

Since November 30th 2012 many of the 3rd party developers that were making multi platform games for Nintendo have stopped. Due to the lack of consumer demand 3rd party developers haven't been able to make money on the Nintendo system and now it's left for the first party Nintendo developers to carry the system. That's not to say it's all been bad,  Nintendo has some really talented first party developers but they definitely haven't been able to carry the system alone.

Nintendo's strategy with the Wii U was similar to the Wii's. They attempted to recreate the phenomenon that was the Wii that got people playing games differently compared to the regular way. it definitely paid off with the Wii but by the end of it's life cycle a lot of people had shelved their Wii. The Wii's lack of online support and HD gaming caused the system of suffer during it's last years in it's cycle. Since the Wii U's release it has sold close to 10 million consoles. Over the 7 year life cycle the original Wii had sold through more than 100 million consoles. I'm sure you can put that in to perspective.

With Nintendo's latest E3 showing with the "Digital conference" and the lack of quality games they showed, it left a lot of their fans disappointed. It comes across as a company that has given up on it's current console and is moving on with the future. Not only that but the developers of Metroid Prime have admitted their next installment is going to be on Nintendos next system. It's not a good look at all for the company.

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Sunday 21 June 2015

How Microsoft won E3 2015 with two words.

Recently Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony put forward there best up and coming tittles, but what won E3 wasn't a game tittle, It wasn't even any new hardware. It is generally what every fan asks when a new console is announced, Backwards compatibility. Microsoft has absolutely stunned the competition confirming the Xbox One will now support backwards compatibility. Even Sony themselves said they didn't see this coming, They were also quick to confirm they won't be following in Microsofts footsteps with the Playstation 4.

While Microsoft has said that not every game is ready yet, Microsoft intends to make all the xbox 360 games backwards compatible so the player can play any of their favourite Xbox 360 game. Microsoft released a list of games recently listing all the games you can play right now, You can find this list here

Microsoft really did catch everyone off guard with there announcement, not even the biggest insiders in the industry knew that the announcement was coming. This just adds to all the consumer friendly things Microsoft has been doing ever since the Xbox ones announcement at E3 2013 and the DRM blunder Micrsoft made that turned many consumers off the new console. Since then Microsoft has made many strides to win back there consumers and backwards compatibility is a massive step forward.

So how has Microsoft manage this impressive feature? Micrsoft has admitted it was no walk in the park for their engineers but they had some super talented people working on the project. Microsoft essentially managed to create an emulator within the console that could run the Xbox 360 games. The emulator still manages to keep all the Xbox One features so you will be able to stream, record gameplay and communicate with your friends while you play your Xbox 360 game.

Digital Foundry recently released a comparison that showed Mass Effect running on both the Xbox One and the Xbox 360. The comparison showed that the Xbox 360 was running the game much more efficiently, as expected. The Xbox one had dips as low as 13 frames per second, while that does seem bad on the surface Microsoft is still working on their Xbox 360 emulator and you would expect the performance to be much better when it's finished.

Just remember it's just our opinion that Micrsoft won E3, we must admit though that Sony had a super impressive E3 conference too.

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Saturday 20 June 2015

Fans demand Metroid Prime Federation Force to stop existing.

During the week at E3 Nintendo showcased their new 3DS game Metroid Prime Federation Force during their digital press conference. Since that moment Nintendo have been smashed with backlash from their most dedicated Metroid fans. Nintendo has officially gone in to damage control after their E3 digital press conference, not only has Metroid Prime received a huge backlash but also their whole E3 conference has too.

Since the release of the Metroid Prime Federation Force E3 trailer the trailer has been viewed 800,000 times and has a whopping 61000 dislikes to it's small 6000 likes. Fans have even gone as far as to starting a petition to stop the game being developed and it's not far off reaching it's goal of 25000 people. That's a large amount of people that have absolute pure hatred for a game. So why all this backlash?

Metroid Prime fans feel like they've been neglected by Nintendo over the years since the Wii U's release. The fan base has received no new I.P and the developers of Metroid Prime games themselves have confirmed their will be no new Metroid Prime game on the Wii U due to Nintendo announcing they have a new console on the way that will be showcased at next years E3. The Metroid Prime developers have said that the next likely chapter in the series will be on the new Nintendo console. Metroid Prime Federation Force in the meantime was meant to be something for the fans to tide them over till then and obviously they're not thrilled with it.

Nintendo could just simply change the name of this game. The game itself doesn't look great by all means but it doesn't look super terrible either for a 3DS game, Nintendo could easily just change the name and the backlash would probably die down to a certain extent. Over the years though we've seen that Nintendo are a stubborn company and they seem to be deaf to their fans so don't expect anything special.

At this point Metroid Prime fans are kinda left out in the cold, they're getting a game that they didn't want and the next proper sequel is probably a good 3 years away. While we wouldn't recommend it, if you are a frustrated Metroid Prime fans and would like to sign the petition this is the Link


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Sunday 14 June 2015

The calm before E3

Over the past week gaming news has gone a bit quiet, almost too quiet...no, definitely too quiet. Developers aren't giving much away at all which is leaving our news sites a bit high and dry. Apart from the occasional rehearsal slip up leak or a dev that accidentally leaked something over a stream there really hasn't been much.

This very silence is leading us to believe that there is going to be fire works this year, especially since we haven't really had a game on the new generation consoles that's really smacked it out of the ball park. is it possible that the 2015 E3 event could be the best E3 since the expo started? it's definitely possible when you have games like The Division, Halo, Call Of Duty and Star Wars Battlefront sitting on the sidelines.

So what should you expect from E3 2015? well we have a list here of confirmed and likely games.


Square Enix
Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, Xbox One)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Just Cause 3 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Hitman (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Final Fantasy XV (PS4, Xbox One)

2K Games
WWE 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One)
Borderlands 3 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Battleborn (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Mad Max (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Activision
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Guitar Hero Live (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360)
Skylanders 2015 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, Android, Fire OS, iOS)

Sony

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)
Until Dawn (PS4)
The Last Guardian (PS4)
Gran Turismo 7 (PS4)
God of War III Remastered (PS4)
Uncharted Trilogy (PS4)
Bloodborne Expansion (PS4)

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 4 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
DOOM (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

CI Games
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Deep Silver
Homefront: The Revolution (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Dead Island 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Electronic Arts
Star Wars Battlefront (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Untitled Plants vs. Zombies game (TBA)
Titanfall 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Battlefield 5 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Need For Speed Reboot (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Mass Effect 4 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Mirror’s Edge (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Focus Home Interactive
Untitled Deck13 Interactive game (TBA)
Untitled Larian Studios game (TBA)
Vampyr (TBA)

Hello Games
No Man’s Sky (PC, PS4)

Konami
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Capcom

Street Fighter V (PC, PS4)
Devil May Cry (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Resident Evil (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Nintendo
Star Fox (Wii U)
Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)
Yoshi’s Wooly World (Wii U)
Mario Maker (Wii U)

Telltale Games
Minecraft: Story Mode (PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, Android, iOS)

Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Watch Dogs 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Tom Clancy’s The Division (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Microsoft
Quantum Break (Xbox One)
Forza Motorsport 6 (Xbox One)
Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One)
Gears of War 4 (Xbox One)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Scalebound (Xbox One)


This list has exciting written all over it. If majority of these games are announced to be coming over 2015 - 2016 we're all going to be short of change in the old wallet. We can't forget that there's a lot more than just games at E3 though, all the latest hardware will be there such as Oculus Rift and the new Steam console. Will also possibly see what Microsoft has been up to with the Hololens. We know Sony has also been working on their own Virtual reality head set too.

This definitely going to be one exciting E3 and we definitely can't wait at Collective Gamer.

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Friday 12 June 2015

Youtube Gaming the next dominant game streaming service?

Recently Youtube announced that they'll be running a game streaming division of Youtube so gamers will be able to stream all their content. We don't know too many details on what Youtube plans to do but we know it will have all the same features that Twitch does currently. With Youtube being one of the biggest websites on the Internet, you can almost guarantee this will be a hit. So where does this leave Twitch?

For a long long time Twitch has held the monopoly over the game streaming services. It's features haven't been matched and it's also is one of the biggest website on the Internet which means it attracts a lot of viewers. Lately though a lot of people have become disenchanted with Twitch, bringing in features to curb people playing copyrighted music on their service which has driven some Twitch users away to Hit Box and other streaming services. Not only that, Twitch has got to a point where small streamers can't get any viewers, small timers pretty much have to get down on there knees and beg for viewers, Twitch only promotes the top viewers since they make financial gains from that.

Which leads me to believe that a lot of small time consistent streamers will actually move over to Youtube Gaming. They'll have a fresh start and a much better chance at getting people to actually watch their streams. Youtube Gaming will also draw a lot of viewers, it's inevitable since it's Youtube, so Twitch definitely has a lot of worry about.

All that being said though, Twitch will obviously survive and continue to hold the monopoly over the streaming world for the medium term. Twitch has way too many developed streamers that command massive amounts of viewers. Youtube Gaming will have to invest and focus on their small time streamers and grow them to really start commanding the amount of viewers that Twitch does. Long term though? all bets are off....well, I'd bet on Youtube Gaming to be on top. Kinda like the transition from Myspace to Facebook, if you know what I mean.

Youtube Gaming is releasing this summer for UK and US gamers.  It will be a restricted release while Youtube get feed back on their service. Once the service is finished being optimized gamers around the world will be invited to take part in Youtube Gaming.

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Tuesday 9 June 2015

GTA Vice City is making a comeback.

Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, Grand theft Auto Vice City is making a comeback but it's not Rockstar who is bringing it back. The Grand Theft Auto modder community has clearly had enough of waiting for Rockstar to hopefully go back to the Miami shores and have taken it upon themselves to revive the game.

A Youtube user who goes by the name of taltigolt has recently released a video showcasing the remastered Vice City world, While the mod is clearly not finished you can definitely see this is going to be a incredible mod when it's released. taltigolt also makes note that the mod is far from finished. Though that doesn't stop taltigolt from taking us on a 12 minute journey through Vice city.

taltigolt doesn't go on to say how far off the mod is but he does mention that modding for GTA has com a long way since GTA 4,  so you can expect this mod will be out before the end of 2015 which is really exciting. While we don't want to put a damper on you console owners, we kind of have to. This mod will only be available on PC.

Considering Rockstar kind of skipped going back to Vice City, and with a mod such as this on the way, one would think Grand Theft Auto 6 could be heading back to Miami. It's been no secret how popular Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was but Vice City was always considered a big fan favorite too. I'd even go as far to say I actually preferred Vice City over San Andreas just due to the awesome vibe the game had and the style it projected. If taltigolt can even come close to the vibe the original game had the Vice City remaster will be definitely on point and will keep Rockstar on their toes.

If you'd like to watch the video check out it out below.

                                      



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Monday 8 June 2015

Gears of wars is back with a new development studio dedicated to it.

Looks like Gear Of War is officially getting the Halo Treatment with Microsofts dedicated studio Black Tusks changing their name to The Coalition. The Coalition is now a dedicated Gears Of War studio much the same as 343 Industries is a dedicated Halo studio. The announcement emphasises how important the Gears Of War franchise is going forward for Microsoft.

The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson said The Coalition is both a reference to "who we are as a team and what we're working on." By that he means Gears of War, referencing the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) that's part of the series' fiction.
"When people hear 343 Industries, they associate it with Halo; when they hear Turn 10 Studios, they know that's who makes Forza," Fergusson said in a post on Xbox.com. "Moving forward, when you hear The Coalition, we want you to think of Gears of War."

The Studio also released a new fancy logo with their change of name to really bring on the change to becoming a dedicated Gears Of War studio."Rest in peace, Black Tusk Studios ... and long live The Coalition," Fergusson said.

Last month it was also announced that Gears Of War 1 was being remastered through leaked videos and screenshots, Black Tusks, now known as The Coalition has been behind the games remastered version.
Fergusson also says that we can expect more on what gears of war project The Coalition are working on at E3 when Microsoft hold their press conference on June the 15th.

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Saturday 6 June 2015

Top 10 games of 2014



Last year in terms of gaming was pretty huge. It was the first year that the new gen consoles really got a push in terms of potential. New and old IPs emerged and did battle for the consumer dollar, but as we know only a few manage to take root and prosper in the gaming world. So with all that in mind we decided to make a list of top 10 games of 2014:



10.  Infamous Second Son – releasing on March 21, 2014 on the Playstation 4, Infamous Second Son looked to launch the new console into higher places. With superpowers, an open world, in game moral choices and parkour what isn’t a selling point for this game? You take control of Delsin Rowe who is a Conduit (a manipulator of objects) as you travel to Seattle in search of other powers in order to heal a tribe you are apart of. Well the game met with pretty positive reception and was acclaimed for its impressive graphics; unfortunately the in game moral choices weren’t given enough depth as hoped and left people wanting more. All in all this was a great game for the new Playstation and sold over 1 million copies post launch, its taken out number 10 on our list next up....




 8. Mario Kart 8 – How many friendships have been left in ruins by that horrible blue shell? Obviously not enough as we all keep coming back for more Mario Kart. Releasing May 30, 2014 exclusively on the WiiU this instalment saw the core Mario Kart experience enhanced and refined with some new tricks up its sleeve, the real winner however was the graphics which simply looked amazing, the WiiU really prevailed here. Meeting with positive reviews and selling well at 1.2 million copies sold worldwide, it seems Nintendo truly succeeded with Mario Kart 8, thus making it to number 8 on our list, hang on a second I see an annual title on our list.. 


9. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Is it Cod? Is it Titanfall? Halo? Or a bit of everything? Releasing on November 4, 2014 on all consoles (except WiiU, this annual instalment of CoD saw it shift away from the modern warfare area in favour of the future. The difference between previous instalments? Well you are now in a exo suit and can move around a lot more readily, making for some fun and frantic multiplayer the franchise is famous for, along with zombies this game was a hit seeing it to the highest selling game on this list and of 2014. Story you ask? You don’t need a story this is the future with exos damn you (but seriously like previously instalments don’t expect much in way of single player), which leads us to....





7. Destiny – the hype behind this game was unreal, Bungie had a well known legacy and Destiny was to be their new 10 year project with enough money behind it to buy a country. You take control of a Guardian on the last city on earth as many alien races plan humanities ultimate demise, the plan is simply to shot them until they disappear into dust (don’t expect much else information, we don’t even have time to explain why we don’t have time to explain) Releasing on September 9 on X1 and PS4, Destiny was immediately met with criticism, many asking where the rest of the game was hiding and with good reason. Fortunately Destiny did have lasting power and after a few DLCs and updates it is actually forming up to be a real power house and by selling a shipment worth of $500 million worldwide it is indeed just that. Next up...


6. Titanfall – Yet another game with a hype factor to the moon and back was Titanfall. Releasing on March 11, 2014 on Xbox 360 and the X1, it had the advantage of releasing earlier in the year compared to some of the more well known franchises. This proved to be beneficial as this was the first landmark game for the X1. You take control of your own pilot who takes control of a huge robot know as a titan, set in a grim future where civil war for rights and resources runs abroad. Titanfall met with largely positive reception, the multiplayer was fun and different, throw in a robot death match and you’ve got a sure buy. Unfortunately Titanfall had no lasting power, with online numbers steadily declining since release, this may be due to the nonexistent single player, but it still made 6 on our list. Now for...


5. Shadow of Mordor – I’m sure everyone has been waiting for a Lord of the Rings game to ‘just get it right’ for years now and Shadow of Mordor did just that. With a darker take on Tolkien’s universe, open world and a interesting combat system, Shadow of Mordor was a massive hit, talks are already in place for a sequel. Releasing on September 30 on all major consoles, SoM still had a rather big impact in the game world despite coming out in a heavily congested time of the year; it even got nominated for a BAFTA award. Next up might be a surprise to some..   


4 South Park: The Stick of Truth – Okay this game was announced with some excitement, but nobody really expected it to be a heavy hitter. That all changed on 4 of March, this game was remarkable, it was true to its origins yet innovative, the combat wasn’t revolutionary but was interactive and still felt fresh. The thing I loved most was that the world felt alive, it was as if i was in the town of South Park playing an episode if the series with my very own character. It sits on Metacritic with a 4/5 stars and rightfully so, continuing on...


3. Dark Souls 2 – Theres a second game? People managed to finish the first one? Releasing on March 11, Dark Souls 2 prepared our characters to die.. again. This time around some new mechanics were introduced, graphics were polished but the intense atmosphere remained. Although a storyline is buried under this gritty action role player it was hard to find. But that doesn’t take much away from the game, after all it’s widely known that this game is meant to sheerly test ones ability, patience and knowledge and that’s what makes it great. The game has sold 2.5 million copies as of April 2015 and an announcement for the third instalment is expected sometime this year. Number 2 is...


2. Dragon Age: Inquisition – This fantasy epic was an amazing addition to 2014s already stellar lineup, a massive immersive world with something to do at every corner, engrossing storyline and impressive game mechanics made it one of the year’s most successful games. The sheer size of the game kept us coming back for more, the developers sense of community and input is also appreciated and a nice addition. The game has a Metacritic of 4/5 stars and was the most successful launch of Bioware’s history. I’m sure this series will see more instalments in the coming years. Well here it is #1..

1 Grand Theft Auto 5 –You probably saw this coming, but with good reason. This game is simply astounding, some would call it perfect, and although that’s questionable it was certainly the game that stole 2014. What would you like to do? The real question is what cant you do. Racing cars? Sure, riding around in a submarine? Go ahead, blowing the world up one bullet at a time? Just don’t let the cops take you down. To add to the games already colossal amount of content was a rather interesting storyline with characters that were relatable at times and at others downright insane (see Trevor), but you wouldn’t expect anything else from Rockstar. Online was also another great feature, after all what’s better than doing what you want in a realistic world? With your friends of course, also the modding community have been doing some crazy work with the game lately, creating another world and community within itself. The game was a critical and commercial success earning a Metacritic of 97 and selling nearly 52 million copies on all platforms it released on (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and later PC). The possibilities with this game is endless and thats why we keep coming back and why its our number 1 game of last year.

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