Monthly Archives: September 2015

Splatoon’s New Hammerhead Bridge Stage Available Today

Starting at 7pm PT, Splatoon players will have access to an all-new stage on which they can wage ink warfare.

Called Hammerhead Bridge, Nintendo announced via the official Splatoon Tumblr account that the new stage will be added into the regular rotation with other Splatoon maps.

Verticality is a central feature of the map, with the entire stage split into two layers. Attacks can come from above or below, and players are advised to look out for attacks coming from gratings in the floor and ceiling.

A Wii U exclusive, Splatoon is a third-person multiplayer shooter in which players battle and claim turf by spraying ink using a variety of weapons. Read IGN's Splatoon review to learn more about being a kid, then a squid, then a kid, then a squid, and a kid again.

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Lionhead Veterans Found New Studio

New independent UK studio Upstream Arcade has opened its doors with the aim of creating "bombastic" action games.

The studio comprises developers Adam Langridge and Imkan Hayati, who cut their teeth on Lionhead Studios games Black & White 2 and Fable II, as well as Max Payne 3. They have 30 years of experience between the two of them. Additionally, Langridge led development on the recently released stealth heist game The Marvellous Miss Take.

According to Upstream Arcade's website, its goal is to create "bombastic action games that will make players look and feel so good, they will want to share the show with their friends by uploading and streaming their gameplay."

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Witcher 3 Devs Launch New Studio Wickerman Games

Chris Hardwick and Dan Cordell, both formerly of CD Projekt, have launched a new indie studio in the UK - Wickerman Games.

Founded in February this year, the studio aims to make the games that "nobody seems to be making." The two developers are inspired by pen-and-paper RPGs and aim to merge what they love about such games into computer games.

Though the studio has yet to reveal its first project, it plans to maintain a transparent development process via its blog and to offer DRM-free content to gamers post-launch.

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Destiny: The Taken King Makes PlayStation History

Bungie's latest expansion for Destiny released earlier this week to much success, setting day-one sales records for Sony's gaming platform.

According to Activision, Destiny: The Taken King is now the most downloaded game on launch day in PlayStation history, outpacing the main game's original release in September of last year.

"It's safe to say the Destiny franchise continues to gain momentum," Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, said of the expansion's stellar performance thus far. "Along with our talented partners at Bungie, we cannot wait to watch the community continue to grow and tackle the King's Fall Raid kicking off on Friday."

No specific sales figures have been released, and the game's performance across Xbox One and Xbox 360 have yet to be detailed.

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FIFA 16 Is Playable Now With EA Access

EA Access members can play up to 10 hours of FIFA 16 starting today.

Every mode of FIFA 16 is available, according to the EA Access website. The subscription service is exclusive to Xbox One, letting members play games early along with other benefits.

There is also a demo out for FIFA 16 on all consoles, featuring a Kick-Off match, the FIFA Ultimate Team Draft as well as the trainer mode. And EA unveiled the full soundtrack for the sports game last week too.

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Amazon Announces Fire TV Gaming Edition

Amazon has announced its new Fire TV Gaming Edition, a gaming-focused bundle that will cost $140 USD.

The Gaming Edition bundle contains the new Amazon Fire TV, a new game controller, a 32GB micro SD card, and two games: Shovel Knight and Disney's Ducktales.

The new Fire TV has 75% more processing power and twice the GPU performance, making it a step up from the original, which we deemed a "solid first effort" in our review last year. The Fire TV game controller, meanwhile, features an ergonomic design, a headphone jack, and voice search.

According to VP of Amazon Devices Peter Larsen, the Fire TV currently has "more games than any other streaming media player," with over half of those games costing under $1.

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Star Wars Battlefront Beta Will Be Open to Everyone

Electronic Arts and DICE have revealed that the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront beta will be open to everyone.

On the Star Wars Battlefront blog, the game's community manager Mathew Everett stated that anyone with a PC, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One can join the beta. EA previously announced that the beta was set to arrive in early October.

In addition, Everett said the Star Wars Battlefront beta is playable offline, meaning players can check out the Survival Mission mode on Tatooine by themselves or with a buddy thanks to split-screen co-op. The other modes available in the beta include Walker Assault on Hoth and Drop Zone on Sullust.

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App Store Update: September 17

Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.

Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.

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Sundown: Boogie Frights – (Freemium)

"Steal from the living, defend from the dead.

It’s the summer of 1978 and the zombie outbreak is in full swing. Get ready to bomb some zombies to oblivion as you defend the town of Somewhere, New Mexico. Send tough guy, Jimmy, out on rescue missions to find other survivors. Raise your own army of specialized zombies to help Roxy loot nearby towns.

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