Monthly Archives: July 2015
IGN’s UK Daily Deals
We hand-pick the very best gaming deals for you, every day, so you can get more of the things you want without crippling your bank balance. But don't hang around, because these bargain prices won't last forever...
Amazon Prime Day is coming. Keep an eye out on all the great gaming deals on Wednesday 15th July 2015. Sign up now to take advantage of Prime membership.
- Disney Infinity 2.0 Collector's Edition Avengers Starter Pack (PS3) - Currently £93.29 - Prime Price Live at 15/07/2015 - 11:50AM
Kojima’s Name Removed From Metal Gear Solid 5 Box Art
The saga that is the deteriorating relationship between Konami and Hideo Kojima continues as the publisher has decided to remove all references to the Metal Gear Solid creator from the box art for The Phantom Pain.
The latest pack shots were uploaded yesterday, and NeoGAF users spotted a couple of changes appear to have been made. You can see the old box art below on the left, with the new one on the right. In the bottom left of each cover the Kojima Productions logo has been removed, while "A Hideo Kojima Game" is also absent from just below the console masthead.
Earthbound Director Shigesato Itoi Mourns Satoru Iwata
Shigesato Itoi has written a moving post following the tragic death of longtime friend and colleague Satoru Iwata.
Itoi is best known for his work directing the Earthbound series, and Iwata worked with him on the series as a programmer back in the day. They'd remained close ever since so, following yesterday's news, Itoi took to his blog Today's Darling (via Yomuka!) to share his shock and sadness.
The Witcher 3: Ciri Gets a New Outfit in This Week’s Free DLC
The Witcher 3 is getting another round of free DLC this week in the shape of an alternative outfit for Ciri.
The DLC released early last week to some players by accident, but should now be available to all. There wasn't any free DLC planned for release last week as CDPR wanted to release the game's Patch 1.07. It still isn't out yet, sadly, but the developer has said it will update on timings as soon as it can.
God of War 3 Remastered Review
It's one of the most thrilling openings in all of video games. As warrior-turned-deity-killer Kratos, you climb the Titan Gaia, who functions as a colossal, moving level upon which you battle Poseidon, the god of the sea. Gaia herself is one of Kratos' few remaining allies; her cries of pain pierce the air as you swing your chained blades, launching ghoulish soldiers into the air and slicing away at Poseidon and his many-legged steed. It is all sound and fury, almost unparalleled in its sense of scale and its translation of a protagonist's anger into bloody, brutal interactions. When Kratos strikes his final blow, you see it not from his perspective, but from his victim's point of view, in the first person. It's a striking and vicious design choice that sets the tone for the game to follow. You are no longer conquering the Greek gods as an enraged antihero, but as a full-on villain.
The question, then, is this: How could God of War III hope to top this sensational introduction? It doesn't, though it certainly tries, and allows God of War II to retain its position at the peak of this beloved series in the process. That's not to say that the game isn't terrific fun, only that its unimaginative final encounter has nothing on the phenomenal opener. Gaia casts a long shadow over the hours that follow, and even a similar battle upon Cronos' massive body can't escape it, though it, too, remains a technical marvel in this remastered edition.
60 frames per second and 1080p resolution aren't game-changers for Kratos' adventure, though they are certainly nice attributes to have; God of War III Remastered is simply another chance to admire a game that we admired five years ago. At a $40 retail price, however, it doesn't make a strong enough argument for buying a game you've already bought, particularly when the lower-resolution pre-rendered cutscenes stand out all the more next to the in-game visuals. Character skins and arenas released as downloadable content make appearances, as does a new photo mode that allows you to capture sumptuous moments and share them with friends, enemies, and mythical beasts, but where remasters are concerned, this one belongs in the "barebones" column.
Taken on its own merits, however, God of War III maintains the high bar its predecessors set for combat. Kratos is responsive to every input, swinging the blades of Olympus and the claws of Hades with a slickness and strength befitting a protagonist whose muscles have muscles. Using light and heavy attacks, you hack away at a gorgon before flinging her into the air; once she is close to death, a prompt appears, and you perform a series of button presses while Kratos yanks her body towards him with his blades, pulls her head back, and decapitates her. Quick-time finishers cap each violent dance with a gruesome climax, and you then return to the mythical slaughter, all while the game finds new, gorgeous backdrops that remind you how enormous this world is, and how puny you are within it.
God of War III's greatness relies not just on its combat, however, but on the way it strings battles, puzzles, and traversal into an ever-varied chain of enjoyment. Sequences that might have felt like filler in a lesser game (see: Dante's Inferno) retain their sense of fun because you aren't just faced with another onslaught of warriors, minotaurs, and scorpions, but because clever level design, smart camera angles, and visual centerpieces hold monotony at bay. Pressing a stick forward to climb a lengthy chain is not, in and of itself, reason for celebration. But when the camera pulls back and a miniscule Kratos patiently scales upwards as you watch through an opening in the nearby cliffs, you feel awe. Each thrust upwards fills the cavern with metallic echoes; you both see and hear the chasm's enormity.
Even the seemingly straightforward combat benefits from playful presentation and mechanical diversity. Cauldrons filled with flammable bramble explode when you fire flaming arrows at them, much to the dismay of nearby foes. Snarling dogs attack as an elevator rises, making it hard--but not impossible--to appreciate the beauty of the temple in which you fight. Then there are the puzzles, best represented by an extensive one in which shifting perspectives enables you to climb staircases and cross walkways that would not seem connected. It's the most thoughtful section of a game that requires more intuition than it does intellect, notable not just in its wit, but in the way it requires you to use the limp body of Kratos' high-profile victim as a weight.
This isn't the first time you use a corpse in such a way in the God of War series, but it's more striking in God of War III because Kratos has no shred of mercy remaining within him--not at this stage. Previous games allowed Kratos his humanity, Chains of Olympus' Elysium Fields sequence being an excellent example. While Kratos has never been a hero in the usual sense of the term, we have seen the source of his torment, and watched Athena refuse to set him free from his nightmares. Here, Kratos is a one-note killing machine, and we are left only with what we know from previous games to provide context. The smidgen of mercy Kratos shows towards a daughter figure in the final hours, and the accompanying message of hope, is not earned given how little development the character shows in God of War III up to that point--and reminds us that for Kratos, women are whores, wives, daughters, or paperweights. Full-on cruelty was always in the cards, but it makes Kratos difficult to root for, particularly if this is your first God of War experience.
Then again, this is not a series known for its sophisticated storytelling. Kratos is the vessel for an instinctive kind of gameplay that is rarely this successful. Your rewards for following God of War III's linear trail are genre-defining combat, excellent pacing, and the innate joy of watching enemies spew forth clusters of glowing red orbs when they fall. It's the ever-compelling quest for shinies, accomplished by slamming your cestus into the ground, then gutting a centaur and watching its viscera spill onto the floor. Your reward is more power, which you use to earn more shinies and to see more entrails. That the game finds so many ways to stay consistently fresh within this traditional structure is a feat worthy of the gods.
Prototype Biohazard Bundle Available Now for Xbox One
Activision’s open world adventure series Prototype has received a stealthy re-release for Xbox One.
Prototype Biohazard Bundle is available now on the Xbox One Digital Store for $50 USD and includes the first and second games, along with DLC for both games.
Both games originally released on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
Prototype earned a 7.5 rating in IGN’s review, while Prototype 2 scored slightly lower at 7.0 in its review.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 Release Date Pushed Forward
The release date of Five Nights at Freddy’s 4: The Final Chapter has been pushed forward to August 8 for the one year anniversary of the original Five Nights at Freddy’s.
The last installment of developer Scott Cawthon’s point-and-click survival horror series was teased in April with a Halloween release date of October 31. In an email to streamer Dawkos Games posted on Redddit, Cawthon outlined that he will release a free update with extra content on Halloween.
Bran Stark Confirmed to Return to Game of Thrones Season 6
Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 4 ahead.
Speaking to The Irish Examiner, actor Isaac Hempstead Wright confirmed he'll be returning as Bran Stark in the show next year.
“I can’t say a lot but I am back this season, and it’s going to get particularly interesting with Bran. He has some interesting visions,” the actor said.
Isaac Hempstead-Wright | Photo by: Cherie Roberts
Star Wars: Battlefront Doesn’t Support Splitcreen Co-Op on PC
Star Wars: Battlefront won’t support splitscreen cooperative gameplay on PC, Electronic Arts confirmed on the the game's community blog.
The game’s non-competitive Missions mode supports offline and online co-op, and only supports local splitscreen co-op on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One .
Battlefront community manager Mathew Everett revealed in the FAQ post that in the Walker Assault mode players can spawn inside a vehicle after collecting vehicle power ups scattered around the map. These vehicle power ups must be used within a certain amount of time. While playing Missions does not award multiplayer career experience, it does provide players with credit rewards for unlocks.
What Type of Zombies Would You Rather Face?
Comic-Con is over, but the reveal of the new zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 got us thinking about our zombie apocalypse plan, and one thing led to another... so we turned to you to figure out what type of zombies are the best to encounter if things go wrong. We asked: Which kind of zombies would you rather face? Fast and dumb, smart and slow, or something else?
You gave us some good arguments for each.
