Tag Archive: news


New Fire Emblem plot details and trailer released

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April 6, 2015

The first details of the Fire Emblem game for New 3DS were revealed alongside a new trailer that was shown during today’s Nintendo Direct.

To start off, much like the player character in Fire Emblem: Awakening, the hero of this new game will also be customizable. Unlike Awakening, however, the player character here will be the center of all the attention instead of just supporting the narrative lead.

Set in a world where two feuding nations are on the brink of war, the reason your character is so important is because although you were raised by the royal family of one of these nations, Nohr, a land bent on glory through war, you are actually part of the royal bloodline of the other nation, Hoshido, a more peaceful and honorable place. When this revelation comes to light, you will be forced to choose: blood or loyalty.

Not only will your choice affect the narrative, but also the difficulty. The Hoshido choice provides a more traditional Fire Emblem tale, whereas the Nohr choice will be a more harrowing experience.

This first Fire Emblem for the New 3DS will be released sometime in 2016.

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Star Wars Battlefront to debut at Star Wars Celebration in April

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March 22, 2015

Star Wars Battlefront will be taking part in this year’s Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, California, from April 16-19, EA announced this morning.

While rumors have been swirling around for months about Star Wars Battlefront, this should finally shed some light on the game since it was first officially announced last E3.

Traditionally, Celebration is a convention held by Lucasfilm to either celebrate the upcoming release of a new Star Wars movie or the anniversary of an older one. For example, the first Celebration was for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999, but Celebration V in 2010 revolved around the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. This year’s Celebration is the tenth overall, the seventh on American soil, and the first to take place in Anaheim.

Star Wars Battlefront is slated for a holiday 2015 release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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EA DICE hires Batman: Arkham Origins director Eric Holmes

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Batman: Arkham Origins creative director Eric Holmes has left Warner Bros. Montreal and joined EA DICE, he announced over the weekend on Twitter.

Besides his work on Batman: Arkham Origins, Holmes also servied as a designer on Gears of War 3, Prototype, and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. He also helped Epic develop the tech for Unreal 4.

Holmes later mentioned he can’t say what he’s going to be working on at DICE, but with reboots of Star Wars: Battlefront and Mirror’s Edge currently in the works there, and the always present Battlefield series, it’ll be interesting to see what project he ends up on.

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KevinDDR first player outside Japan to reach Grand Master rank in Tetris

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February 10, 2015

Tetris savant KevinDDR is the first American player to reach the rank of Grand Master in Arika’s Tetris: The Grand Master 3.

In order to become recognized as a Grand Master, one must pass the Grand Master Promotional Exam. This consists of players achieving a “GM” quality rank during the majority of their last several playthroughs. GM rank demands players fulfill many difficult requirements and reach the game’s maximum drop speed level by clearing dozens of lines in less than seven minutes.

During the exam, a potential Grand Master must complete the final challenge of playing a minute’s worth of Tetris during a credit scroll where pieces turn invisible when dropped. Yeah, you basically play the game from memory as you build an invisible wall.

There are currently only five other recognized Grand Masters in the world, all of which are from Japan. To see KevinDDR’s historic run, you can check out the replay on his Twitch channel.

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Ubisoft to offer free DLC to Assassin’s Creed Unity owners in apology for early issues

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December 4, 2014

Assassin’s Creed Unity owners will get the Dead Kings DLC for free to help smooth over the game’s dreadful launch, Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto CEO Yannis Mallat announced today.

The Dead Kings DLC is the first major single player expansion for Unity and picks up shortly after the end of the main game. It follows Arno as he explores the catacombs of Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris, as he attempts to unravel a new set of mysteries there and deal with greedy tomb raiders in the process.

Because the game’s season pass or Gold Edition owners would have gotten the DLC as part of that package anyway, Ubisoft will make it up to those early adopters by giving them a free game. Season Pass and Gold Edition owners will be able to choose from The Crew, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Rayman Legends, or Just Dance 2015.

Ubisoft will release details soon on how to claim the free game once they work out a distribution system. When set up, Season Pass and Gold Edition owners will have until March 15, 2015, to claim their free game.

As much as we all took shots at Ubisoft with how they handled the launch of Assassin’s Creed Unity, from the review embargo to the state of the game itself, it’s nice to see they’re at least trying to make things up to their fanbase somehow. Maybe next time they’ll just save everyone the headache and not ship a game that wasn’t ready for store shelves, though. Assassin’s Creed Unity currently sits as the worst reviewed game in the series’ history, and you can find out some of the reasons why from my own review.

The Dead Kings DLC does not currently have a release date, but is expected to come soon.

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New Easter egg found three years after Batman Arkham City’s release

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Three years after the game’s release, players are still finding hidden messages from Calendar Man in Batman: Arkham City.

Julian Gregory Day, a.k.a. Calendar Man, is best known for committing crimes centered on holidays, seasons, and anniversaries. He first appeared in Detective Comics #259 (September 1958) and was long considered a joke villain until he was reimagined by Jeph Loeb in Batman: The Long Halloween. This more sinister take on the character would follow him into Batman: Dark Victory, the 80 Page Giant Batman Special Edition “All the Deadly Days”, and, of course, the Batman: Arkham series.

Locked away beneath Arkham City’s courthouse, Calendar Man would taunt Batman even though he was trapped inside a cell for the entire game. If you approached him on various holidays throughout the year in Arkham City, his dialogue would change as he recounted some past crimes. If you did this once a month for 12 months on specific holidays, you’d unlock an achievement in the game.

Fans of the game, however, have not stopped grilling the cryptic criminal, even three years since its release. After a mysterious YouTube channel—which many fans think is actually a dummy account for series developer Rocksteady—uploaded a clip titled “Arkham City Secret?” where Calendar Man was seen spouting never before heard dialogue before it faded to black halfway through, fans sprung into action to unlock the riddle of how to trigger it themselves.

Several days later, it seems the Batman Arkham Videos channel on YouTube has solved the mystery. By setting your console or PC’s calendar to December 13, 2004, and then visiting Calendar Man, the dialogue starts. The significance of this date is that is when Rocksteady was founded.

To hear the new dialogue, you can check out the video below, but it once again features cryptic messages talking about the beginning and the end of things. Could it tie into Batman: Arkham Knight somehow? We’ll have to wait until June 2, 2015, to find out.

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Disney Infinity helps Disney Interactive finally turn a profit

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For the first time since they merged their gaming and Internet divisions back in 2009, the Interactive division of Disney finally turned an annual profit, the company announced this morning.

Attributing a large amount of the success to last August’s release of Disney Infinity, the company’s financial year, ended September 27, 2014, saw a $116 million dollar profit, with three million starter packs of the near-field communication game having been sold by April 2014.

Disney Infinity can’t take all the credit for this financial turnaround, though. Back in March 2014, Disney cut its overhead by nearly a quarter when it laid off 700 employees. Some of the fiscal success also comes from new mobile efforts for the company, like Frozen Free Fall.

“We are very pleased with the results of the first installment of [Disney Infinity] and we feel good about the launch of the second installment thus far,” said Disney Interactive President James Pitaro during an investors conference call this week. “But we will have a better sense of overall performance as we enter the holiday season.”

It was also noted in the financial statement that Disney Infinity 2.0’s shorter window ahead of the fiscal year’s end helped offset that quarter’s profits, although their Q4 was still $18 million in the black for Disney, which is $2 million more year over year for the company.

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Ubisoft reports Q2 fiscal earnings, beats expectations

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November 6, 2014

Ubisoft reports that their Q2 fiscal sales exceeded their projections by 46 percent this year.

Ubisoft’s second fiscal quarter, which lasts from July 1-September 30, netted the company 124.1 million euros ($156.6 million dollars). While this marks a decline year over year by 43 percent, it exceeded their original 85 million euro predictions.

Ubisoft’s total year over year earnings up this point are up by 65 percent at this point, attributed by the company to strong continued sales of Watch_Dogs, which launched in their fiscal Q1. There has also been a 90.4 percent increase in digital revenue in the first half of this year compared to last year.

“The very strong momentum we saw at the beginning of the fiscal year carried on into the second quarter and enabled us to once again exceed our performance expectations,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said. “Ubisoft continued to capitalize on the popularity of new consoles, the successful launch of Watch Dogs, the quality of its back catalog and the considerable growth of the digital segment. Consequently, our operating income and cash flows improved significantly during the period.”

Reported sales by platform indicate that 21 percent of Ubisoft’s quarterly revenue came on PS4, 19 percent on PS3, 17 percent on PC, 16 percent on Xbox 360, and Xbox One brings up the rear with nine percent.

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MLG announces first Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare tournament for end of November

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The very first open tournament for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be held November 28-30 in Columbus, Ohio, Major League Gaming announced today.

Featuring 140 of the best Call of Duty eSports teams in the world, the tournament will be streamed live from MLG.tv and will officially kick off the first season of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare MLG Pro League.

“Call of Duty eSports has become a mainstream phenomenon–there’s nothing else like it,” said MLG CEO Sundance DiGiovanni in a press statement. “With the introduction of Advanced Warfare, we are positioned for continued growth showcasing the best players in the world on MLG’s premier platform for a global audience of passionate eSports fans. This is just the beginning.”

The winning team will be awarded $25,000, 25,000 MLG Pro Points, and the last four spots in Season One of the Pro League.

If you happen to be in the Columbus area, VIP and spectator passes for the tournament are available for purchase if streaming it just isn’t enough for you.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be available for public consumption on Windows PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 November 4.

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Assassin’s Creed’s Americas Collection announced for last-gen consoles

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September 30, 2014

A new Assassin’s Creed, which bundles the last three console titles in the series together, was announced by Ubisoft this morning.

Officially titled Assassin’s Creed: Birth of a New World – The American Saga, the three games in the bundle are Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD, and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

The collection has a release date of October 28, which means that with Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Rogue coming out on November 11, that there will be three Assassin’s Creed games coming out within a three-week period.

Assassin’s Creed: Birth of a New World – The American Saga will be available on Xbox 360 and PS3.

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