Given the impending release of the latest entry in
Bethesda’s venerated Elder Scrolls series, the gaming community has been
inundated with previews, interviews, and other media touting the new features
Skyrim will introduce to the land of Tamriel.
Devoted fans of the series, seething with anticipation, have dissected
and reassembled everything we know thus far about this frigid northern region
and its prophesied hero, the Dragonborn.
It appears that the Silent Hill HD Collection and Silent Hill: Downpour have finally been giving at least semi-official release dates. This comes after the controversy with the original voice actors for Silent Hill 2 and 3 (The games included in the HD Collection) being replaced but in the end being brought back to re-record the dialogue for the remakes.
Hot on the heels of the ‘Horde Command Pack’ for Gears of War 3, which was delayed yesterday and released onto the Xbox Live Marketplace today, Epic has announced another piece of downloadable goodness for the game in the form of the ‘Versus Booster Map Pack’. The add-on, available for free download on the 24th of November, contains five new maps available in public matchmaking playlists – two favorite maps from Gears of War (Swamp and Clocktower), as well as Azura,Rustlung and Blood Drive from the ‘Horde Command Pack’.
Battlefield has always offered a different twist on what everyone has come to expect from the modern shooter market. Some of the renditions have been reminiscent of an anime or cartoon. Others offer a small, niche free-to-play experience. Yet others have full scale warfare of epic proportions on a battlefield that feel very much like a war-zone. Many who choose Battlefield as their shooter do so because, rather than a small skirmish, you get the feeling that you are in an actual war. Battlefield 3 does not disappoint in this aspect and goes above and beyond the others to deliver the best multi-player in the franchise and raises the bar for what should be expected from a modern shooter.
Battlefield 3 is extremely focused on multi-player, but that is not to say that single player is completely non-existent. The campaign is rather short, but offers a wide variety of action throughout and is certainly enjoyable. You spend the majority of the game moving through cut scenes that are taken from the present and spend the majority of your game replaying the small snippets they discuss as the story progressing, until it comes to the ending that can be seen coming from some way away. The campaign, as it seems with many of the campaigns of modern shooters, is forgettable, but it is not the focus of Battlefield 3, so for what it’s worth the campaign is a solid addition to this immaculate title.
It has been four years since Rockstar revealed Grand Theft Auto 4 to the world with a trailer that took the Internet by surprise. To this date GTA 4 has sold close to 22 million copies across all platforms, and naturally everyone held their breath today as Rockstar posted their trailer for the newly announced numbered sequel.
The 84 second-long trailer offered little information regarding platforms, release dates or protagonist(s), but it confirms a location: Los Santos, the fictional version of Los Angeles seen in the previous Grand Theft Auto game San Andreas from 2004. A quick glimpse of a trio hiking in the mountains teases a big feature from the old San Andreas game, where you had the freedom to drive around the countryside between the three major cities of Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas.
The first chunk of DLC for Epic’s Gears of War 3 has been delayed at the last minute, according to a post on Epic’s forums. The Horde Command Pack was set to bring 3 new maps, 4 new fortifications, 3 new characters, and 2 new weapon skins to Gears of War 3’s multiplayer. It was set to go live today for 800 Microsoft points. Epic’s excuse for the delay is a technical issue, as you’ll see in the statement below.
“The scheduled Horde Command Pack release for Gears of War 3 is temporarily delayed due to a technical issue. We apologize to those of you who are anxiously awaiting to play. We know this is disappointing news as we’ve seen a lot of posts today showing excitement for this content. We have folks working around the clock to resolve this issue ASAP so you can all play and enjoy the Command Pack.”
The Canadian studio Silicon Knights, responsible most recently for X-men: Destiny, has reportedly laid off nearly 75% of its staff, leaving the reeling studio with just 25 core employees. Back in July of this year, the studio received a grant from the Canadian government to hire as many as 80 new employees, yet instead they are doing the opposite.
According to reports, sources “close to the company” have confirmed the layoffs, including that the entirety of the human resources departed has been axed. Silicon Knights has only released 4 games since 2000, including Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and Too Human. The first two games I just mentioned were both strong titles, but most critics agree that the studio dropped the ball with Too Human and X-men: Destiny.
