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April 19, 2014
If the massive recent success of the early alpha game DayZ Standalone is anything to go by, zombie survival games are where all the money is right now in the gaming industry, and it looks like Sony has spotted the great potential.This week, Sony revealed a brand new IP under the moniker H1Z1 - the game is set to be a post apocalyptic survival sandbox game that has an eerie and ominous game play. Whilst details on the game are still on the low, it's starting to sound like H1Z1 plans to be the DayZ for console, and surprisingly, Sony wants the game to go the path of free to play.
The developers behind it plan to go past the basic ideas of survival though, and the future of H1Z1 could hold a huge world that embodies player trading, economies and player-ran urban desolate cities. It sounds very ambitious, and it could be a very long time before we ever see such a game be released.
The developers working on H1Z1 want to give players the freedom that is given to the characters
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April 19, 2014
Despite the game already being in a fully released state, Respawn Entertainment are still hard at work on Titanfall, and they are adding, and have plans to add many new free features for the title in the future.
This week, a large patch was released for Titanfall that brought a few new features to the game, as well as a whole host of balancing tweaks and fixes. One of the biggest included features in the new patch is the inclusion of a private lobby system.
Previously, players had no methods to set up organized matches between one another, making matchmaking the only form of play. However, with the private lobby system, players will be able to invite friends (or foes) and battle it out against each other however they'd like.
The addition of private lobbies opens up the gates for a whole host of opportunities, including private local play, Machinima, and even possible E-sports tournaments, so it was definitely a good call for Respawn to add them to Titanfall.
So
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April 18, 2014
Any news about new titles on either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One at this point is good news, regardless of what titles they might be. This week, Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn will be making it's early access debut on the PlayStation 4, meaning players can jump onto the latest gen console to play the title.
Previously Final Fantasy XIV was released for the PC and the PlayStation 3, but a PlayStation 4 version has always been planned. However, development delays have slowed down the PS4 version release.
If players had already purchased the PlayStation 3 version, there is an option to upgrade to the PlayStation 4 version for no cost, which means players can easily get access to the game on the PS4 in the most convenient way possible.
So far, transfer between PC and console versions is not capable, and once players have switched from PS3 to PS4, there will not be an option to play on the PlayStation 3 beyond the switching point.
For those that didn't know,
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April 17, 2014
A new trailer has been shown off at PAX East by Firaxis Games to showcase a brand new Civilization game, under the title Beyond Earth. Civilization Beyond Earth will be a brand new title in the game series, and as the name suggests, it will take players into ambitious new environments.
Civilization Beyond Earth will give players the opportunity to take their civilizations up into space. The trailer that Firaxis created has stated that, "As part of an expedition sent to find a home beyond Earth, lead your people into a new frontier, explore and colonize an alien planet and create a new civilization in space."
The release date for Civilization Beyond Earth has been set for a release later in this year in 2014, most likely this Fall. The trailer has strangely only suggested that the title will be available on Civilization Beyond Earth, but hopefully it will be adapted for consoles as well.
Firaxis has been well known for it's great strategy franchises, with XCOM Enemy
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April 16, 2014
Being able to play the last generation of games on a brand new console may seem like a bit of a gimmick at first, but it is an incredibly useful feature that could help many gamers that are on a budget.
Being able to trade in your Xbox 360 console to help cut down on the costs of the Xbox One is a great option to have, but after building up years worth of games, it may not be that easy for many gamers to give that all up. This is why Xbox 360 emulation on an Xbox One would be immensely handy. In fact, while they're at it, if Microsoft could make the Xbox One support original Xbox games as well, that'd be incredibly useful.
Whilst Microsoft never revealed any plans to have such a feature on the Xbox One, recently Frank Savage, partner development lead at Xbox, revealed that it's not entirely out of the question. When asked whether there were plans to bring an Xbox 360 emulation system to the Xbox One, Frank replied with "There are, but we're not done thinking them through yet,
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April 15, 2014
With all the recent talk about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One's great hardware capabilities, it's honestly been a little disappointing playing through the current gen's roster of games. Most games don't have much more to offer from the previous gen alternative, and despite the consoles being brand new, they are still having trouble running titles like Call of Duty Ghosts at a high resolution and steady frame rate.
Just like with all console launches though, over time the graphics on the games for both of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will improve, and it's just a matter of time before we really do have next gen graphics in our living room.
So far, PCs are seeming far superior to the PS4 and the Xbox One, but in the future this may change a little. Developers may put more effort into the two new consoles, and this may mean we'll get better content and performance on a console.
A good example of this is the upcoming title Kingdom Under Fire II - The executive producer
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April 14, 2014
As you may already know, Respawn Entertainment recently pushed out a patch to Titanfall that was intended to make finding balanced teams much easier, however since it has been released, more issues with the matchmaking system have been created.
Whilst matchmaking games are now generally a lot more balanced out, the waiting time for finding a well balanced match takes much too long in it's current state, and many players have expressed their frustration with the system.
Respawn are still working on creating a long term fix for the matchmaking system, but for the time being they have "turned down the effect of the new matchmaking to help players find games." This means games will be a little less balanced than this current patch, but games will also be found considerably faster.
The matchmaking system in place is certainly a good system for stopping overbalanced teams from ruining the experience for other players, but at this point all of the waiting needed to find the
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April 13, 2014
InFAMOUS second son has now been out for a couple of weeks, and it has received an incredibly great reception from fans, gamers and critics around the world. In my eyes, Sony exclusive developers always try their best to keep their fans happy, and I definitely think the developers behind InFAMOUS Second Son have done a good job already.
However, they aren't yet done with the game, and they plan to keep updating it and ensuring that players get the best, fine tuned experience out of the game as possible. In fact, one update has already been planned, despite it not being that long ago that the title was released.
Brian Fleming from Sucker Punch Studios wrote a blog post on the PlayStation website to give a bit of insight into his whole experience since the launch, and he then went on to talk about the future of InFAMOUS Second Son.
Fleming mentioned a few new features that many fans have requested since it's launch - one of these is a Time of Day setting that players
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April 12, 2014
A brand new Batman Arkham Origins DLC pack has been announced by Warner Bros. Interactive, and along with it, Warner Bros. have released a screenshot to show Batman donning his brand new XE Suit. This particular outfit will be made available when the new DLC pack is purchased.
The new DLC, which has been named 'Cold Cold Heart' will add a few other things to the game as well, including a whole new chapter to explore in the game, and a bunch of new gear to help fight against Mr. Freeze and his army of goons.
Warner Bros. Games' Vice President of production Ames Kirshen revealed that the new upcoming DLC is "like a mini chapter in the game." He went on to state that, "If you guys played and saw Initiation, it was more like a challenge map that had a little narrative wrapped around it. This is actually in-game mission story content with a brand new story wrapped around Mr. Freeze in the Arkham Origins setting."
We've already heard a little bit about the Cold Cold Heart
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April 11, 2014
Whilst Titanfall has already been out for a while on both PC and Xbox One, Respawn Entertainment did originally plan for the title to have an Xbox 360 version released on the same date, too.
However, delays in the development for the last gen port meant that the original release date had to be pushed back for the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall, but it's finally almost time for the game to release, and despite previous concerns, it's looking like it may run fairly smoothly on the old machine.
Whilst development for the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall was handed down to Bluepoint Games, things should not be very different to the PC or Xbox One versions. Senior producer of the Titanfall 360 port, Daryl Allison, stated that despite the Xbox 360 being inferior in terms of hardware capability, the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall won't have any limitations.
"Titanfall on the Xbox 360 is the true experience: all the maps, modes, pilots, titans, weapons, burn cards, you name it,