What the hell is Assassin's Creed Chronicles?!

What the hell is Assassin's Creed Chronicles?! 

Assassin's Creed® Chronicles: China

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China takes place in China, 1526, as the Ming dynasty starts to crumble. You embody Shao Jun, the last remaining Assassin of the Chinese Brotherhood, returning to her homeland with a vendetta. Newly trained by the legendary Ezio Auditore, she is hell-bent on exacting vengeance and restoring her fallen Brotherhood....

Assassin's Creed® Chronicles: India

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India throws you into the tension between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company in 1841. When a Master Templar arrives with a mysterious item that used to belong to the Assassin Order, Arbaaz Mir must discover why he's come, steal back the item, and protect his friends and his lover....

Assassin's Creed® Chronicles: Russia

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia occurs in Russia, 1918. Nikolai Orelov wants to leave with his family, but is required to perform one last mission for the Assassin Order: infiltrate the house where the tsar's family is being held by the Bolsheviks and steal an artifact that has been fought over by Assassins and Templars for centuries. Along the way, he witnesses the massacre of the tsar's children, but manages to save the princess, Anastasia. He must escape the Templars while protecting the artifact and Anastasia.....

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition...Coming to PS4

Greetings to the PlayStation community! Hideaki Itsuno of Capcom here. As you may know, Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition is set to release in the summer of 2015, some seven years after the launch of the original game back in January 2008 to a positive reception from fans of the series. The original Devil May Cry 4 was actually Capcom’s very first title for PS3.

This year Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition will make its way to PlayStation 4 with new modes, gameplay and visual improvements, and the largest roster of playable characters in any Devil May Cry game to date.

One of the biggest new attractions in Special Edition is that you will be able to play as Vergil, who has proven to be an extraordinarily popular character amongst fans. For his appearance in Special Edition, we’ve used his Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening Special Edition rendition as a gameplay foundation, and added in elements of his DmC rendition to create the definitive version of the character.

We’ve also added in a brand new “Concentration” mechanic, which complements Vergil’s signature “iaijutsu” fighting style, making his attacks grow stronger and stronger the more calmly and flawlessly he fights. Additionally, the “Grim Trick” ability, which allows Vergil to teleport using his “Sword Illusions,” makes for an action experience that will feel new and distinctly different from that of Nero or Dante.

We also decided that we wanted to make Lady and Trish playable for the Special Edition. On top of the already playable Nero and Dante from the original game, this makes for a total of five playable characters in the game.

Lady, who is a playable character for the first time in the series, has a fighting style that is conceptually quite different from that of the other DMC4 characters, with a special emphasis on firearms. Lady’s focus on long-range fighting will feel like a completely different way to take on the action.

When playing as Trish, you will see that she does away with weapon switching, and instead makes skillful use of the Sparda sword in a variety of ways that require the use of relatively few buttons. This again makes for a play style that will feel distinctly different from anything you’ve seen in the game until now.

“Legendary Dark Knight Mode,”a feature we were previously unable to include in the PS3 version, will be added to the game. This mode pits players against a tremendous number of enemies. Players will have to adjust their fighting style to adapt, making for a fresh gameplay experience for even long-time fans.

The game will also feature a plethora of new costumes, which are fully compatible with in-game cutscenes, bringing a fresh look to scenes some fans may have seen before.

It’s a great honor to be able to bring Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition to PS4. Stay tuned for more information, and please look forward to a fun game with tons of content this summer, whether you’re a stylish seven-year veteran or a newcomer to the series.

Source PlayStation Blog.

Game of Thrones: Episode 3 - The Sword in the Darkness images

Telltale has released the first batch of screenshots for Game of Thrones: Episode 3 - The Sword in the Darkness.

The screenshots, which you can see below, confirm what we suspected after the teaser image released earlier in the week - Dragons will indeed be part of the episode.

Alongside Drogon, other images show Cersei Lannister in the throne room and Tyrion being arrested, hinting at what's to come. The inclusion of Jon and Gared at the wall, along with a number of the Night's Watch kneeling before a Heart Tree lends credence to the theory we may be spending a lot of time at the wall in this episode, especially given the title. 

Images thanks to IGN

Sony has announced God of War for PS4!

Sony has announced God of War III Remastered will be hitting PS4 on July 14,



"Celebrate 10 years of God of War as we bring God of War 3 Remastered to PlayStation 4 this July 14, 2015.

One of the most critically acclaimed games of the last generation, God of War III, has been remastered for the PlayStation 4 system, marking the debut of Kratos on PS4. God of War III Remastered brings the epic battles and carnage to life with stunning graphics, 1080p gameplay targeting 60FPS, and an elaborate plot that once again sees Kratos at the center of destruction as he seeks revenge against the Gods who have betrayed him."

Nintendo coming to your iPhone?!

The maker of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, which has long resisted any suggestions that it put its games on smartphones and tablets, said today that it would team with DeNA, one of Japan’s leading mobile game companies, to create games using its popular franchises for mobile devices. The two companies will enter into a capital alliance that will see Nintendo acquire 10 percent of DeNA’s outstanding stock for about 22 billion yen and DeNA acquire 1.24 percent of Nintendo’s stock for approximately the same amount.

“Nintendo has decided to utilize smart devices aggressively,” said Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata in a joint presentation with DeNA earlier today. “Now that smart devices have grown to become the window for so many people to personally connect with society, it would be a waste not to use these devices.”

“We are challenging ourselves to redefine what ‘Nintendo platforms’ mean,” Iwata said.

Iwata did not specify which games or franchises might be headed to smart devices. A Super Mario endless runner? Zelda Crush Saga? Nintendo’s chief didn’t say, but he did rule out a specific category of games: Nintendo will not, as so many publishers have, simply port its existing classic game software to phones.

“There are significant differences in the controls, strengths and weaknesses between the controllers for dedicated game systems and the touchscreens of smart devices,” he said. “We have no intention at all to port existing game titles for dedicated game platforms to smart devices because if we cannot provide our consumers with the best possible play experiences, it would just ruin the value of Nintendo’s IP.”

Although Iwata, in the presentation, pointed out the current weakness of Nintendo’s sales of dedicated game devices like Wii U and 3DS, he said the company remains committed to producing game hardware. To that end, he announced that Nintendo has a “dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename ‘NX'” that it will discuss next year.

Nintendo and DeNA will also partner to create a customer membership program that will span all devices, to replace the company’s Club Nintendo customer loyalty program that it wound down earlier this year.

“I believe teaming up with Nintendo is the best possible strategy to achieve growth in DeNA’s core business of mobile gaming,” said DeNA president and CEO Isao Moriyasu. “I grew up playing Nintendo games, and I’m already excited that I will soon be able to play Nintendo IP games on smart devices.”

Source Wired 

Nintendo and DeNA are now planning the development of an online membership service accessible from smart devices, Windows PC and Nintendo systems. The membership service is slated to hit later this fall.

Joe Montana football 16 coming soon

Joe Montana, the legendary NFL quarterback, is once again lending his name to a football video game. Called Joe Montana Football 16, the game is in development in Unreal Engine 4, announced Montana on Twitter today.

The tweet contains a screenshot bearing the Unreal Engine 4 logo. Along with the image, Montana said, "It just got Unreal," and mentioned the Unreal Engine Twitter account along with the hashtag #joemontanafootball16.

Montana, 58, has been teasing Joe Montana Football 16 since July 2014, when he tweeted artwork of himself in a generic football jersey with the hashtags #joemontanafootball16 and #youvewaitedlongenough. He followed that up in October with a video of himself recording motion capture, along with his in-game model mapped to the motion capture, tagged with #morethanarosterupdate and #montana16. The former hashtag refers to a common derisive refrain among gamers: the idea of annualized sports games as nothing more than "roster updates."

Today's screenshot makes Joe Montana Football 16 look like a game that lacks official licensing from the NFL and the NFL Players Association — in other words, it does not appear to contain real NFL teams or current NFL players. There's no word yet on developers, publishers or platforms for Montana 16, but being an unlicensed product would open up the game to being released on consoles, like 2010's Backbreaker.

Electronic Arts maintains licensing agreements with the NFL and NFLPA, exclusive contracts that prevent any other publishers from making console games with real NFL teams or players. An unlicensed game could feature Montana because the NFLPA deal only covers active NFL players; licensing for retired athletes is handled separately. In that manner, Montana appeared with nearly 240 former NFL athletes in 2007's All-Pro Football 2K8, the first (and to date, only) football game from 2K Sports after EA secured its original exclusive contracts in 2004 for the Madden NFL series.

Montana, who played for the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs over a 16-year career from 1979 to 1994, previously starred in a series of football video games published by Sega in the early 1990s. The franchise began with 1990's Joe Montana Football on the Sega Master System, Genesis and MS-DOS, and concluded in 1994 with NFL '95.

SOURCE
Joe Montana on Twitter

What the heck is the Nintendo "The NX"?!

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed today the company is developing a new next-generation hardware concept known for now as "The NX."

Iwata revealed the news of the upcoming "dedicated game system" during a media event today, which also saw the announcement of a partnership with Japanese mobile games company DeNA.

"Nintendo, together with DeNA, will jointly develop a new membership service which encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, the new hardware system with a brand-new concept, NX, and smart devices and PCs, and Nintendo will be the primary party to operate this new membership service," Iwata said through official translation.

"As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename 'NX,'" he added. "It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year."

The Gamers Talk Episode 43 Friday 13th again?!

banjo kazooie spiritual successor kickstarter

The self-described "Rare breed" of developers behind the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie will be taking their project to Kickstarter.

Playtonic Games, a studio made up of game industry veterans from Rare Ltd., made the announcement that their upcoming game, currently called Project Ukulele, is planned to hit the crowdfunding service in May.

Playtonic's Gavin Price told Eurogamer that the company could make the game "with a few hundred thousand pounds," and added that if the Kickstarter is able to go beyond that goal, "we will scale up the game and add features as fans want from us."

On its Facebook page, Playtonic posted screenshots of Project Ukulele that show lush, colorful environments, begging to be explored. The team showed off the screenshots during a talk at EGX Rezzed 2015. One thing shown in the screen shot during the talk missing from the screens posted to its website is a peak at what seems to be a tease of one of the game's new characters.

In the bottom left of the screen shown during the presentation, a face can be seen in and amongst the foliage. Is this a glimpse of the game's protagonist? Playtonic hasn't revealed any character details, telling Eurogamer that to do so would reveal too much about the gameplay.

News of the Banjo-Kazooie successor first appeared last month, when Playtonic promised it was working on a "real, proper, actual game." In 2012, word first began to spread that a Banjo-Kazooie-type game was in the works

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour?!

EA Sports' golf franchise returns this June as Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, handing the franchise's mantle to the reigning No. 1-ranked golfer after a 16-year run with Tiger Woods, publisher Electronic Arts announced today.

The game will launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. EA Sports announced few other details about the game — no specific release date, number of courses or other real-life golfers licensed to appear in the game. A news release touted the usefulness of the Frostbite engine, which drives titles such as the Battlefield series, to rendering the scenic environment of a golf course on new-generation consoles for the first time.

Frostbite's presence also means there will be no loading times between holes, a major inconvenience of the series on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. That's because the entire course can now be rendered all at once, instead of hole-by-hole.

The hole-by-hole limitations of past games also meant tighter restrictions on out-of-bounds shots than at their courses in real life. On the Xbox 360 and PS3, shanking a drive into a theoretically playable area outside of what the game had rendered would still be treated as an out-of-bounds shot (with the one-stroke penalty). Now you'll be allowed to make a recovery shot, at least.

The old Tiger Woods PGA Tour series spanned 1998-2013. In 2013, EA Sports parted ways with the 39-year-old star and put the series on a one-year hiatus. Significantly, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is not numbered, which de-commits it to publishing annually.

 McIlroy, 25, won both the British Open and the PGA Championship in 2014 (with wins at the U.S. Open in 2011 and the PGA in 2012).

This year's game was announced as EA Sports PGA Tour back at E3 2014, in a stage presentation that showed outlandish fantasy courses in addition to true-to-life gameplay.

No mention was made of courses that will be present in Rory McIlroy, though EA Sports did include two screenshots of TPC Sawgrass, which has long been in the game's lineup. A news release also broadly promised "the most realistic representations of (gamers') favorite locales."

Notably, that means no mention yet of Augusta National, whose Masters Tournament tees off April 9. Augusta National's inclusion starting in 2011 re-energized the series and focused its appeal more to the world's most famous golf courses and less on its famous golfers. The last edition included 44 courses, 20 in the main edition and the others available as downloadable content.

The June release window also returns the series to a more familiar release date; it had launched in March in 2011, 2012 and 2013 to capture interest in The Masters. Previous editions had launched in late spring or early summer.

Update: It appears that Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo, of The Golf Channel, will replace Jim Nantz and David Feherty as the series' commentary team. Augusta National more or less required that Nantz, the longtime voice of The Masters, be made the series' announcer (replacing Scott Van Pelt of ESPN) when it signed on in 2011.

With Nantz gone from the series, and the title releasing more than a month after The Masters, it now raises an uncomfortable question whether North America's most famous golf course will return to the game.

Source POLYGON 

Titanfall 2 coming to PS4 and Xbox One

Respawn founder and CEO Vince Zampella has confirmed Titanfall 2 is in development and will be released on multiple platforms PS4 and Xbox One. 

Speaking to IGN ahead of tonight's BAFTA Game Awards, Zampella, whose title is nominated in three categories, acknowledged the game's existence for the first time.

"I guess EA announced a sequel, so I could play coy and pretend I don't know anything about it, or… yeah. So we're working on a sequel. No official name yet, but we're working on that. That's the main focus but we're starting up a second team and doing some smaller stuff too. Small, exploratory, taking it slow! It'll be multiplatform."

It seems the decision the broaden the game's horizons in terms of platform was never in doubt. When asked whether or not the team wishes they could change anything about the original product, Respawn COO Dusty Welch said, "Platform for me comes to mind right away." Though Zampella then explained, "Well, we needed that, though. We couldn't do the game," Dusty clarified the exclusivity was always a business decision rather than anything else.

"If we could do it though?" he said. "It would have been prohibitive to do that - we definitely made the right choices for the right reasons - but if you're saying what would we have liked to have done? The opportunity to be multiplatform could have made it even more significant for us.

When it came to what we should expect from the next game in the series, the duo's lips were sealed, but they did promise to expand the lore. As for whether we should expect to see a single-player component, it's still not clear.

"I wouldn't have done it differently," Zampella said when reflecting upon the original's multiplayer-only approach. "We set out to do it and it was one of our goals. I mean it obviously prohibits a certain group of people playing the game, and as content creators you want to get into as many peoples's hands as possible. We put some single-player elements in there though, and tried to mix it up. Maybe we could have mixed things up a bit better because some people blew right by it and didn't even see it because there was so much action happening around it. It's tough, because if you hit people over the head with it it becomes intrusive, and there are people who don't want or care about it. Where does the needle fall? I think it takes a while to figure that out and we haven't figured it out yet."

One thing Zampella was keen to think about changing was the DLC model for the future, citing Evolve's commitment to keeping the community united via free maps for all as the ideal way forward.

"I think that's a fantastic way to do it," he said. "I think having the maps like that in packs, it does split the community and it makes it harder for matchmaking, it's messy. Yeah. I don't know we won't do it again, I can't say that for sure, but the idea would be to do something different."

Konami has revealed The release date for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and collector's edition

Konami has revealed the release date for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

If you plan to play on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, or PS3, you can get your hands on the next MGS game on September 1. The game will be released for PC on Steam a few weeks later on September 15.

If you don't pick up the collector's edition, you can still grab the "Day One Edition." It includes a physical map, as well as the following DLC items:
A Map
Adam-Ska Special Weapon
Personal Ballistic Shield (Silver)
Cardboard Box (Wetland)
Fatigues (Blue Urban Snake Costume)
Metal Gear Online XP Boost

The Steam version will include the above DLC content at launch.

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The MGSV collector's edition comes with tons of extra physical and digital content. The tangible goods are listed below.

1.Half-scale Replica of Snake's Bionic Arm

2.Collectible SteelBook

3.Behind-the-Scenes Documentary and Trailers Blu-Ray Disc
4.A Map
5.Exclusive Packaging

The collector's edition's digital goods include weapon skins, different cardboard boxes, point boosters, and more. Here's the full list:

Weapon and Shield Pack (Windurger S333 Comba Special Weapon, Adam-ska Special Weapon, Maschinen aktische Pistole 5 Weiss Special Weapon, Rasp Short-Barreled Shotgun Gold Special Weapon, and a Personal Ballistic Shield in Olive Drab, Silver, White, and Gold)

Cardboard Box (Rocky Terrain, All-Purpose Dryland, and Wetland)

Snake Costume (Fatigues in Black Ocelot, Gray Urban, Blue Urban, and All-Purpose Dryland)

"Venom Snake" Emblem

Metal Gear Online XP Boost

MGO Items (Metal Gear Rex Helmet, Golden AM MRS-4, and Golden WU S.PISTOL)

The Phantom Pain's competitive multiplayer mode, Metal Gear Online, will go live on the launch date as well.

Hideo Kojima says The Phantom Pain will be the final game in the "Metal Gear Saga."

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima says The Phantom Pain will be the final game in the "Metal Gear Saga."

Kojima has made claims like this before, but in a video interview with IGN, he tackles that reputation head on.

"I always say 'this will be my last Metal Gear,'" Kojima said, "but the games in the series that I've personally designed and produced -- Metal Gear on MSX, MG2, MGS1, 2, 3, 4, Peace Walker, and now MGSV -- are what constitute a single 'Metal Gear Saga.' With MGSV, I'm finally closing the loop on that saga."

"In that sense, this will be the final 'Metal Gear Solid,'" Kojima continued. "Even if the 'Metal Gear' franchise continues, this is the last 'Metal Gear.'"

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

Bethesda has today unveiled Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, a standalone prequel to 2014’s well-received alternate history shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood will be available digitally on May 5, 2015 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One for USD $20

The new Nvidia Shield is the 'world's first 4K Android TV console' for $199

Nvidia just announced an Android gaming console. The latest Shield (previous entries include a gaming tablet and before that an all-in-one game controller plus screen) is the "world's first 4K Android TV console." The device itself is thin and sports the familiar sharp design aesthetic (with green glow). It supports decoded 4K video at 60Hz. The Shield will launch in May for $199, game controller included, alongside the company's new Grid game-streaming service.

The non-gaming bluetooth remote ("Shield remote") looks is fairly minimal and features a "one click, one touch voice search" (à la Amazon's Fire TV remote) and a headset jack for listening quietly (à la Roku remotes).

Nvidia's home console is powered by its Tegra X1, its new mobile "superchip" announced in January. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is touting just how much more powerful this Shield is compared to current set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV — but it's also about twice the performance of the Xbox 360 at half the power output.

And of course, it plays games. Nvidia Shield will have its own store, and at the time of launch there'll be over 50 games curated, according to Huang.

From the on-stage demo, we see Portal, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Half-Life 2: Episode 1. Multiple developers have taken the stage to show support and live demos, including Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchfork (for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, running at 30fps), id's Tim 

Willits (Doom 3 BFG edition), and Crytek's Cevat Yerli (Crysis 3 at 30fps — "yes, it can run Crysis," Huang keeps reminding us).

and it will play the witcher 3 in 4k