Written By Kom Limpulnam on Kamis, 31 Juli 2014 | 15.06
Best Buy has rolled out a special deal on the Xbox One where, if you buy a $399 system, you will automatically receive a $50 Xbox gift card for free. The deal is only valid for the $399, no-Kinect version. There is no indication as to how long the deal will last, so you may want to act quickly.
You'll need to add the system to your cart to see the free $50 Xbox gift card.
The $499 Xbox One system (with Kinect) comes with a free copy of Forza 5 at Best Buy. And of course, Best Buy--and other retailers--continue to sell the $499 Xbox One Titanfall bundle that comes with a system, Kinect, and a copy of Respawn Entertainment's shooter.
The Xbox One launched in late November 2013 and sold more than 3 million units by the end of the year. Microsoft has not provided a new official sales number since then, though we do know that the number of units shipped is somewhere north of 5 million units. That's well behind Sony's PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 7 million units as of early April.
The $399 Xbox One went on sale on June 9 and immediately flew off the shelves at GameStop. Likely due to the arrival of the new, less expensive Xbox One SKU, Xbox One sales in the United States "more than double[d]" in June, compared to May. However, the PS4 was still the top-selling console for June in the US.
If you're taking advantage of Best Buy's Xbox One deal, what do you plan to spend your $50 on? Let us know in the comments!
Activision today released a teaser trailer for Nemesis, the fourth and final expansion for Infinity Ward's 2013 first-person shooter Call of Duty: Ghosts. The 15-second trailer is a wild montage of images for what appear to be score streaks.
You'll also notice that at the very end, the "g" and the "s" in the word "Ghosts" come into focus last, which makes the word "host" flash on the screen for a brief moment. How or if this is tied to the Nemesis expansion for Call of Duty: Ghosts remains to be seen.
The Nemesis expansion follows previously released add-ons for Call of Duty: Ghosts, including Onslaught, Devastation, and Invasion. All four expansions are included with the $50 Call of Duty: Ghosts season pass or can be purchased separately for $15 each.
Activision has not announced a release date for Nemesis. When it does arrive, however, it will be exclusive to Xbox platforms for a period of 30 days per Activision's longstanding arrangement with Microsoft.
The next Call of Duty game is November's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which developer Sledgehammer Games says is "not the same old Call of Duty." Characters in Advanced Warfare can wear exoskeletons that grant players superabilities. We will get to see how these abilities, like increased dexterity and super-jumping, affect multiplayer when Activision takes the lid off the mode on August 11.
So is GameSpot going to explain the biggest news of the day, which was their firing of 12 employees, including 2 guys who have been here for over 10 years (Ryan and Justin)?
I feel like this community deserves some explanation beyond the impersonal, cold-hearted PR blurb of:
"We did some shifting of internal resources as part of our long-term content and user engagement strategy. A few positions were impacted."
Sony's streaming games service, PlayStation Now, launches into open beta tomorrow, July 31, on PlayStation 4 in the United States and Canada. If you're a PS4 owner in either of those countries, you'll be able to pay to play certain PlayStation 3 games without ever downloading them or putting a physical disc in the system. Even with so many new users about to begin using it in less than a day, there remain numerous questions about Now and how it'll work--questions Sony continues to avoid providing answers to.
GameSpot recently spoke with PlayStation Now senior director Jack Buser and Gaikai senior VP Robert Stevenson about the service, which they are happy to note is the first of its kind on consoles. Sony says more than 50 publishers have signed on to offer their games through Now, although an exact list of games planned for it has not been made available. (More will be added "all the time," according to Buser.) The company still won't give exact numbers for how much data you can expect Now to use--a real issue for those in dorms or with ISPs that have data caps--but Stevenson says, "You can think of it [as] very comparable to movie streaming. It's not exactly the same, but it's similar." We'd previously heard you will need a 5 megabits-per-second connection for a "good experience."
A closed beta that's been running since earlier this year has provided Sony with a lot of data to work with--more than 300,000 hours have been streamed so far--that it's already used to improve Now. "Some areas we've really focused on have been in the [user experience], making sure that users really understand the service as we go into open beta," Stevenson says. The Now beta has been using its own dedicated app, but the PlayStation Store itself will become the home for the service as it enters open beta, which presents new challenges. Sony has changed the messaging it uses and tried to ensure people aren't confused when they go to rent a game.
Stevenson also highlighted the addition of cloud saves partway through the closed beta, which allow users to save their game and then resume it on another device at a later time. There are also plans for a new $1.99 price option for certain rentals that is $1 less than the lowest price we've previously heard about. And Sony will make it clearer when streaming games offer DLC, which is said to be part of the reason why rentals during the closed beta could be more expensive than buying a brand-new physical copy.
These kinds of refinements are to be expected, and are no doubt critical to Now achieving a real degree of success. But just as important are many of the issues gamers have been wondering about since Now was announced in January: How will a subscription option work, and when will see one? Can I get free or discounted access to games that I can verify I already own (reportedly the answer is no)? Who is this for? Unfortunately, neither Buser nor Stevenson were willing to provide us with the kinds of answers we were looking for.
"I think, ultimately, you look to this vision of expanding to a wide number of devices and you can imagine that there is this very rich catalog of PlayStation 3 games available to them." -- Jack Buser
Repeatedly describing the service as being in "early days," the two shied away from answering questions about the particulars of a subscription option. Sony is aware of the interest in such an option, and Stevenson says it's "researching exactly how to deliver that. We've got some really strong ideas, but nothing to disclose today in terms of timeline or pricing or anything of that sort."
Fair enough, but how about the way Now will deal with users who own a supported game and would like to stream it to their PS4? "[We have] nothing to discuss at this time," Buser says. "As I mentioned, we are going into open beta on PS4. It will be a rental offering, you'll see a variety of different durations, and, again, a variety of different price points. You'll see durations as short as four hours for an evening of fun--something where maybe you maybe want to come in and just check out a game--you'll see longer durations, like 30 days, 90 days. And Robert talked a lot about the cloud save feature, where you can try out a game for a short duration, save your game to our cloud servers, decide you want to continue playing, rent for a longer duration, and pick up where you left off.
"You know, this is a beta, we are listening to our customers, and if customers want to see features or functions as part of PlayStation Now, they should feel free to let us know. And we'll be collecting that feedback as part of this open beta process."
You'll notice there was no specific mention of what we asked about, something which happened again when we asked about The Last of Us, which has been shown to be playable using Now but was released this week on PS4 as The Last of Us Remastered. Considering PS4 owners who never owned a PS3 now have a way to play the game, who is Sony targeting with the Now version of a game like this? "We're entering into open beta on PlayStation 4, so this particular period is all about the beta and hearing about people's experiences and how things are going," Buser answers. "I think, ultimately, you look to this vision of expanding to a wide number of devices and you can imagine that there is this very rich catalog of PlayStation 3 games available to them.
"It's all about giving the PlayStation community options on how they want to access content." -- Jack Buser
"We're making this available to the PlayStation 4 community. Many of these titles are going to be brand new to these folks, because they're new to the PlayStation ecosystem, and the PlayStation 4 is maybe their first PlayStation device. And as we expand beyond there, you can imagine an entirely new type of customer who maybe doesn't even have a game console of any sort, who is going to be experiencing this rich catalog for the very first time, and really understand the thing we, in the industry, have known for so long, which is how wonderful these experiences are. The different types of content will fill different kinds of needs depending upon who that target customer is as we move forward."
Stevenson reiterated the idea that Now presents PS4 owners who never got to play The Last of Us on PS3 with a way to do so. (He didn't mention that Remastered does this.) We brought up the fact that Sony is, in a way, competing with itself in a case like this; for a PS4 owner who can choose to pick up Remastered--an improved version of the game--what is the appeal of being able to stream the PS3 version? "Well I think, in general, we're just interested in providing options for our gamers, just to give them the freedom to discover and play games in ways never before possible," Buser says. "So I think we look at all these options as existing symbiotically with one another. It's all about giving the PlayStation community options on how they want to access content. And I think PlayStation Now is really a part of that larger vision for the platform itself."
This was similar to what Buser tells us when asked about the possibility of new games being released directly onto PlayStation Now. "I couldn't comment on that concept specifically," he says. "One thing that's exciting about PlayStation Now is that you have a whole bunch of people who are new to PlayStation in general who own a PlayStation 4, and they might have missed out on a lot of these great PlayStation 3 titles. I think that's one of the things that show some of the power of PlayStation Now as a game-streaming service. So both ourselves at PlayStation as well as publishing partners are really exciting about introducing these amazing PlayStation 3 games to customers who own PS4 but are maybe new to PlayStation. I think that's really exciting."
Even with the open beta kicking off on PS4 tomorrow, many issues will remain unanswered for the time being; the beta will only offer rentals and Sony can point to the beta label to explain why it has so few answers about the service.
But at least we'll have options.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Rabu, 30 Juli 2014 | 15.07
Gamespot's Site MashupUltimate General: Gettysburg Early Access ReviewGrab Tomb Raider for $5, Murdered: Soul Suspect for $15 During Humble Store Square Enix WeekGS News - New Call of Duty Story Trailer; "EA Access" Revealed for Xbox OneHand of Fate Early Access ReviewEA Announces $5/Month Xbox One Subscription Program; Gives You Unlimited Access to Games [UPDATE]GameStop Shares Tumble After EA Access AnnouncementLittleBigPlanet 3 Preorder Bonuses Include Dragon Age: Inquisition CostumesGrab FIFA World Cup for $18, Battlefield 4 DLC 33% Off on Xbox 360 During This Week's Deals With GoldFirefall, The Last of Us, Comic-Con Recap - The LobbyCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare Is "Not the Same Old Call of Duty"Following E3 Controversy, New Assassin's Creed Unity Trailer Shows Off Female CharacterQuick Look: HalfwayTop 5 Skyrim Mods of the Week - Skyrim is now CheeseGS News Update: EA Announces a $5 a Month Xbox One Subscription Service$120 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Collector's Edition Gets You All of This
rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 rss_modified:rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 http://www.gamespot.com/mashup/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Wed, 30 Jul 2014 00:53:01 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ultimate-general-gettysburg-early-access-review/1100-6421384/ GameSpot's early access reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available for purchase by the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote money, time, and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication.
The only feature of the Gettysburg landscape I can still summon up from a childhood full of educational...let's call them "vacations," no longer actually exists, as I recently learned. The controversial Gettysburg National Tower, an observation deck that once loomed over the battlefields from a neighboring property, was demolished back in 2000, after the Park Service's domain was able to get a few hundred feet more eminent. I gather they made quite a thing of it: detonating the giant tower along to simulated cannon fire on the anniversary of the battle. You can watch it on YouTube.
"It's the only vantage point to see the entire spectrum of the battlefield," the lawyer for the tower's controlling group had argued at the time. I can appreciate the sense of that, playing Ultimate General: Gettysburg. The strategy game takes in the hilly Pennsylvania scenery at a similar remove, top-down and distant. From this tactician's view, fields and farmlands become striated earth tones, and forests are reduced to tufted copses of green lint. Tin soldier troops cluster together into rectangles not unlike the red and blue pictograms I recall of Ken Burns' The Civil War, crenelating hilltops and cascading downfield like Tetris pieces.
The paucity of menus allows you to focus on the action.
This Gettysburg has the look of a modeler's diorama, which seems more than appropriate, given the way the battlefield's little promontories and valleys have been rendered into fetish objects over the last century and a half, to be turned over and over in the hands and imaginations of historical enthusiasts. Their storied names--Cemetery Ridge, the Peach Orchard, Devil's Den--are raised up in embossed arcs, a loving cartographic detail that extends out to the decorative inlays of the board that frames the game space. To better simulate the strategic importance of these locations, their successful seizure and control accrues "victory points" for your chosen side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Ultimate General: Gettysburg certainly does have the feel of a board game, albeit one whose pieces are perpetually churning in their own independent motions. It has that armchair general appeal, I think, of tilting the board over and clearing the space for some new permutation: What if the Union overextended itself in the northwest ridges this time? What if Pickett never charged? It's a simple enough matter to draft new renditions of the historic battle; simply trace a path across the terrain, and your units will follow it faithfully, trading fire with whatever force you direct them toward. The action imbues the game with a wonderful tactility. It makes me feel like Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, sliding figurines across a map with grim purpose. I want to lecture at Nikolaj Coster-Waldau about the importance of family legacy while skinning a deer.
I muck it up almost immediately, though, the temptation to draw my units into elaborate figures overwhelming comparatively basic strategic needs. I keep forgetting that this is the Civil War, and all the Napoleonic feints and swooping cavalry charges I conjure aren't going to win the day here. Thankfully, there were three days in the whole Gettysburg affair, and Ultimate General uses sundown as a convenient intercession point to step in and clean up whatever mess I've inevitably made of the battlefield. It's here where the importance of position makes itself known: even an early string of conquests can prove ultimately damaging, should they result in you starting the next day on untenable ground, far beyond the reach of reinforcements.
The ability to draw your own maneuvers feels revelatory, but a bit limited by the era.
That's spoken from experience, of course. I'm no ultimate general. I tend to go inattentive to whole swaths of my formation for minutes at a time, if I'm being pressed hard on another front, or there's an especially good episode of House Hunters International on. But the clever artificial intelligence manages well enough on its own, and it's mesmerizing to find my troops drawing back, resolving themselves into a respectable interpretation of a defensive perimeter, and returning fire.
Sometimes though, I'm far too late, and when I finally cast my eyes toward my units, they've turned tail and fled wholesale. They're unclickable when they do so, and remain that way until they've reached some distance from the front lines they feel more personally comfortable with. In one catastrophic instance, a brigade of mine fighting perpendicular to the grain of battle was driven thusly back--straight through the crossfire in the no-man's-land between the two larger armies. It may not surprise you to hear that this had consequences on morale.
Morale, Ultimate General argues, must be maintained above all else. It's fragile: it wavers under artillery fire, and it falters at the sight of an enemy charge. It rebounds slowly, behind the reassuring cover of fences and trees, or under a general's calming stewardship. It's one of the few facets of battle the otherwise minimalistic interface stoops to representing with a hard number, though even that's hardly necessary. You can feel morale shifting behind the battle lines' ebb and flow, sense the hesitation in a decimated unit when you try to usher it back into the line of fire.
Battles hinge on your units' ability to endure.
There are no routs in Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Even in the most lopsided victories the game can muster, tens of thousands lie dead for both Union and Confederacy. Absent options to mitigate all that death, I find myself nursing egos instead: fretting over exposed brigades, marveling at units asked to endure attack after attack, and pitying those who have clearly endured too much. There's a wonderful granularity to that sort of empathy, something that isn't normally legible from this high up, from this long passed.
What's There?
A variable, single-player Gettysburg scenario that spans the battle's three days, changing based on control of the field.
What's To Come?
Multiplayer, along with additional weekly patches that continue to tweak balance and add cosmetic features.
What Does it Cost?
$9.99 during early access, with the price expected to rise at full release.
When Will it Be Finished?
Late summer.
What's the Verdict?
Ultimate General: Gettysburg's early access status shouldn't deter anyone from its balanced, expressive take on warfare. Its stripped-down interface and slightly ponderous pace direct your focus to where it's best served: on terrain, tactics, and morale.
Last week, the Humble Square Enix Bundle went live, allowing you to pay low prices for several Square Enix games like Hitman: Absolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Just Cause 2. Now, Humble Bundle has continued to discount the publisher's catalogue, adding more games to the bundle and putting many more games on sale in the Humble Store.
First, four more games are now available in the Humble Bundle if you pay more than the average price, which is $8.67 at the time of this writing. You'll now receive Hitman: Blood Money, Hitman: Contracts, the original Just Cause, and The Last Remnant in addition to the other games. If you've already purchased the bundle for more than the average, you can log into Humble Bundle and download these games for no additional cost.
Next, the Humble Store has put several more Square Enix games on sale. You can check out some of the highlights below.
You can find the all of the games on sale at the Humble Store here. Both the Humble Bundle and the Humble Store sale end next Tuesday. 10 percent of proceeds from Humble Store sales go to several charities, and Humble Bundle sales support the Make-A-Wish Foundation and GamesAid.
Which games interest you? Let us know in the comments.
Alex Newhouse is an editorial intern at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @alexbnewhouse
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421385Tue, 29 Jul 2014 16:18:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-new-call-of-duty-story-trailer-ea-access-r/2300-6420549/ 2300-6420549Tue, 29 Jul 2014 16:00:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/hand-of-fate-early-access-review/1100-6421383/ GameSpot's early access reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available for purchase by the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote money, time, and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication.
Every step of your journey is determined by the flip of a card in Hand of Fate, a sweet blend of card game and action role-playing game that deals out nerdy pleasures aplenty to match its unpredictable punishment. Not knowing whether your next move will reveal an ambush of skeleton warriors or a secret dungeon filled with loot to aid you in your journey is all part of the fun. Deck building, risk-vs.-reward strategizing, and twitch reflexes collide in this engrossing fantasy game of chance. Hand of Fate is deeply rooted at the intersection of tabletop gaming tradition and Diablo-esque click-brawler action, giving it serious potential to blossom into a major genre itch-scratcher with a little more time under the knife.
Tabletop RPGs--card-based or otherwise--often come with a dizzying set of rules that take time and patience to wrap your brain around. In its current tutorial-less state, Hand of Fate throws you right into the meat of the gameplay without any real guidance, but like any good fantasy card game, its rule system packs necessary depth without being so complex that you can't get a feel for it after a few rounds. Right now, learning as you go poses only a minor speed bump that fades into familiarity once you have a couple of matches behind you.
Hopefully, grammar errors will be repaired in future updates.
You're seated in a dimly lit room across from a mysterious cloaked opponent--who's one part card dealer, one part dungeon master--and each randomly generated adventure you dive into unfolds on the tabletop space between you. Matches begin with the dealer placing cards facedown in different dungeon-like configurations. Every turn you move a small figurine one space across the layouts, stopping to turn over each card you land on and deal with whatever surprise encounters await.
Your overarching mission in every game is to sniff out and defeat the dungeon's boss. Getting to each boss alive with enough strength to survive the encounter is a challenge on its own. Adding another neat wrinkle to the mix, every step you take consumes food, which is a precious resource. Food restores your health a little each move when you have it, but running out causes damage. Ill planning or unfortunate mishaps can lead you to starvation before you even get to the boss. This makes managing your food, and the gold needed to buy it, an important balancing act as you push your way into the unknown.
Unexpected twists and intense battles you stumble into along the way make the journey all the more interesting. The encounters you face run a wide gamut, ranging from traps and combat scenarios to item shops and quests. Most are accompanied by a snippet of narrative and a choice for you to consider. You might be asked to help a stranger in need or decide whether to pursue a treasure-hunting opportunity, for example. Your chances of success in many choice-based encounters rely on picking wisely in three-card-monte-style shuffles. Succeeding can earn you helpful reward cards, though failure forces you to draw pain cards that have negative effects or throw you into combat. The latter is where the game takes a very different turn from its tabletop roots.
Ain't nobody gonna break my stride, except for the Money Bags card.
Engaging in combat drops you into third-person action RPG arena battles against human and monstrous foes alike. Running around these tight but slickly designed map areas, you control a burly warrior who dishes out a clobbering as you click to attack, block, and dodge. It's a great change of pace--both visually and gameplay-wise--that also gives more life to the gameworld you're exploring through the card-based narratives. As far as the fighting goes, it's pretty straightforward stuff. You trade blows, dodge magic and missiles, dish out counterattacks, and flit around the mob trying to take your foes down without getting caught in the melee.
These twitch-heavy brawls are messy, chaotic fun that lasts just long enough to whet your whistle and switch up the tabletop vibe, but they're also one area where Hands of Fate's beta status pokes through at the seams. Combat mechanics are sloppy in spots, and the rigid camera angle offers a sometimes cramped view of the action. If you're not packing more powerful gear when you run into battle, it's also easy to get steamrolled by bosses and larger mobs of enemies. Therefore, the weapons, armor, and buff cards you amass and equip on a given run play a big role in how well you fare when it comes to caving skulls in, and it's the main way to bolster your hero's capabilities as you push toward each boss encounter.
Today is a good day to die.
Modular, ever-evolving gameplay goes a long way to keeping you in the game. Completing quests, defeating bosses, and surviving obstacles unlocks new equipment and encounter cards with every run. You can build out your deck, tweaking the experience each time by selecting the potential range of gear and risky-but-rewarding encounters in any given match. This encourages replay naturally and takes the sting out of getting clobbered in mid-run. I died a lot in my quest to best the realm's boss baddies, and often in horrible ways, but the possibility of a different outcome and my ability to influence it by throwing new cards into the mix spurred me onward.
For the tabletop RGP set, Hand of Fate's appeal is undeniable. This beta is finely tuned to make you want to sit down and test your wits over and over again, even if the game lacks a few finishing touches. Tremendous replay value and skillful execution trump the weaker aspects, and I'm confident that this will be one to watch as it pushes closer to completion.
What's There?
A deep and accessible card-based tabletop game/action RPG hybrid with high replayability.
What's To Come?
The introduction and tutorial are missing in this current beta, though those elements, along with a final boss and updated audio, are planned to be added in for launch. Additional cards and expansions are likely too.
What Does it Cost?
$24.99, available via the Steam store.
When Will it Be Finished?
No specific date yet announced.
What's the Verdict?
Hand of Fate packs all the engagement of a tabletop RPG, but injects some excitement into the mix with action-centric combat sequences and unpredictable encounters. What's here is a blast, even if the game is still missing a few important ingredients.
This story has been updated with additional details about the service.
The first game available in an early trial version will be Madden 15 sometime ahead of its August launch.
The program does not change EA's current plans for demo/beta access to games. An EA representative says, "Traditional demos and betas will still exist."
Digital content (such as DLC and maps) will be sold separately, but at a 10% discount. An EA represnentative clarified, "Once you purchase any DLC, it is yours to own, even if your membership lapses. All of your progression is retained."
Games will be downloaded, not streamed. Your game progress is also saved by the system, so the EA representative says, "Even if you lapse as a member, and then decide to come back, you'd be able to pick up where you left off."
The original story appears below:
Electronic Arts today announced a new subscription program for Xbox One called "EA Access." For $5/month (or $30/year), you get endless access to The Vault, a collection of digital EA games.
EA Access is available today in beta for some users, with a wider launch planned to arrive "soon." The current games included in The Vault are FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2, and Battlefield 4. More titles will be added "soon," EA says, pointing out that you're getting access to more than $100 worth of games for $5/month.
According to EA, you will have "unlimited" access to the four games during the beta. It is unclear if the same "unlimited" nature of the service will apply when the service rolls out in full later on.
"At EA, we are always looking for new ways to make it easier for gamers to play more EA games across all platforms, and we are excited about what EA Access will offer to players on Xbox One," EA said in a statement on its website.
In addition to access to multiple games in The Vault, an EA Access subscription gets you 10% off on purchases of EA digital content for Xbox One games through the Xbox Games Store. This includes full games and memberships like Battlefield 4 Premium. However, EA cautions that, conditions, limitations, and exclusions apply.
Another component of EA Access is that with a subscription, you'll get to play trial versions of new EA titles "up to" five days before their official release date. This begins with upcoming sports games like Madden NFL 15, NHL 15, FIFA 15, and NBA Live 15, as well as Dragon Age: Inquisition.
If you decide to upgrade to the full version of a game, your progress will carry forward, allowing you to pick up right where you left off. EA Access subscriptions will also be sold in physical stores, including GameStop, as well as online retailers like Amazon.
It remains to be seen what kind of fine print there may be for EA Access. You can read more about EA Access as the program's just-launched website.
GameStop shares fell today by more than 5 percent following Electronic Arts' announcement of a special streaming service for Xbox One that could have negative implications for the retailer's business. As you can see in the chart below, GameStop shares began to fall immediately after the announcement of EA Access.
EA Access hurts GameStop, at least in theory, because it incentivizes digital spending. However, GameStop will sell EA Access subscription cards in its stores, and the retailer has already proven that the proliferation of digital gaming is not really the thorn in its side that some make it out to be.
GameStop's share value today.
The stock market is inherently volatile and dramatic fluctuation in share value is no strange thing for GameStop. After Sony announced its own streaming service, PlayStation Now, back in January, GameStop shares tumbled, but later rebounded.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, says in a note to investors today that EA Access isn't likely to disrupt GameStop's business in any meaningful way. "While new subscription programs have the potential to disrupt/disintermediate the retail channel, there is little evidence to date to support that similar programs have taken the retailer's market share," he said.
Meanwhile, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says it's too early to tell if EA Access will be troublesome to GameStop. "In the current form, we don't think it's that disruptive to GameStop," Bhatia said.
We have reached out to a GameStop representative for comment and will update this post with anything we hear back.
EA Access has been immediately compared to Netflix, in that you will pay a fee ($5/month or $30/year) for access to a library of games, which you then have unlimited access to. Also included with your membership are discounts on digital content and the ability to play upcoming games five days before anyone else. A beta for EA Access is available now for select Xbox One owners, while a wider rollout is expected to happen soon. The first four games included with EA Access are Battlefield 4, Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14, and Peggle 2.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog today, Sony officially announced that LittleBigPlanet 3 will launch across PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on November 18. The game was officially announced at E3 last month, where it was given a vague release date of sometime this fall.
Sony also today announced the preorder bonuses for LittleBigPlanet 3. Preorder the game anywhere and you'll receive an adorable Sackboy plush toy. Meanwhile, Target shoppers will get the toy alongside a special hat (for the toy), which is exclusive to the retailer.
In addition, a special Dragon Age: Inquisition costume pack will be included with the Day 1 Edition of LittleBigPlanet 3, which anyone who preorders the game will be automatically upgraded to. This goes for preorders placed at physical retailers and online. On top of that, the LittleBigPlanet 3 Day 1 Edition also includes costumes for popular PlayStation characters like Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Ellie (The Last of Us), Delsin (Infamous: Second Son), and a Helghan soldier (Killzone).
There are also retailer-specific preorder bonuses for LittleBigPlanet 3. GameStop shoppers will receive the Mythical Creatures Costume Pack, Best Buy customers get the Hidden Creatures Costume Pack, and Amazon buyers will receive the PlayStation Favorites Costume Pack. A breakdown of the three bundles is available in the images below.
Finally, all preorders for LittleBigPlanet 3 come with instant access to the LittleBigPlanet 3 t-shirt pack. This means that the moment you preorder the game, you'll receive special in-game t-shirts for previously released games like LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation Vita, and LittleBigPlanet Karting. When LittleBigPlanet 3 is released this November, you'll also be able to have your character wear the shirt in that game.
The preorder bonuses mentioned in this post are for North America only. Sony will share details for European LittleBigPlanet fans in the time ahead.
LittleBigPlanet 3 is the first entry in the core series developed outside of franchise creator Media Molecule. Sumo Digital is developing the game, while Media Molecule is working on an unannounced PS4 game.
The newest set of deals for games and content on Xbox is now live. This week's Deals with Gold features a number of EA Sports games as well as some Battlefield 4 content for heavily reduced prices.
Good news for sports fans: you can pick up FIFA World Cup Brazil for $18 and NHL 14 for $25 this week. Battlefield 4 owners can grab all of the released DLC packs for 33 percent off, as well. Remember, to take advantage of these deals, you must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber.
You can check out the full list of deals below. Games are linked to their download pages on the Xbox website.
This year's Call of Duty game, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, is "not the same old Call of Duty," according to developer Sledgehammer Games. Speaking with VentureBeat, studio co-founder Michael Condrey laid out the reasons why this year's game will be one to remember.
"With three years and a new engine and a new generation of hardware and a new brand, you'll see this is not the same old Call of Duty," Condrey said. "We had the people, the resources, and the time."
Condrey's boasting about the game didn't end there, however. "This has the scale and the scope of the equivalent of four Hollywood movies in it," he said. "It has hundreds of hours of multiplayer gameplay. It has full cooperative mode. It takes an army of industry vets to create this kind of content."
Activision announced in May a new three-year, three-studio production schedule for the Call of Duty brand. The extra year of development will make it so gamers are blown away by every new entry, according to Activision.
"This game had to be done from scratch. This is really a brand new franchise within Call of Duty. It's a new intellectual property" -- Sledgehammer co-founder Glen Schofield
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is such a new Call of Duty experience, Sledgehammer Games says, that it should in fact be thought of as a new intellectual property.
"We really upgraded the characters with a new facial system. We are lighting the game in a new way. All of it is new," Sledgehammer Games co-founder Glen Schofield said. "It's next-generation, and it's 40 years in the future. There is really nothing you can borrow. This game had to be done from scratch. This is really a brand new franchise within Call of Duty. It's a new intellectual property."
Prior to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's official announcement, Activision--which owns Sledgehammer Games--said that the game was "perhaps the best Call of Duty game ever created." That quote came from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare changes up the traditional Call of Duty format by introducing exoskeleton suits, which give players a range of super-abilities like increased dexterity and the ability to climb up walls using magnetic gloves. There is even a new Just Cause-style grappling hook system in Advanced Warfare, which we got a quick look at in today's new trailer.
In other Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare news, Activision today announced the game's three collector's editions, which range in price from $80-$120.
Do you think Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare can live up to the hype? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments!
In Ubisoft's upcoming free-running game Assassin's Creed Unity, you take control of an Assassin named Arno. He fights in the French Revolution against tyranny and, of course, the Templar organization. But the newest Unity trailer published today suggests that Arno's motivations aren't nearly so clear, and that he seems to be involved with a Templar woman.
In the trailer, Arno races through the streets of Paris to a city square where an execution takes place. He's too late to rescue all of the victims, but that seems to not be the point: the Assassin cuts through the French soldiers guarding the guillotine and reaches the last person in line. This person is a woman, who we know is named Elise. She will be featured prominently throughout the story as a main character.
Most notably, however, is that she wears a Templar cross. Arno collaborates with her, fighting against soldiers who encircle them. According to a press release, Elise is "an independent young noblewoman [who] is determined to secure her place in the Templar dynasty amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. Her quest leads her to cross paths with Arno and establish an unlikely bond with him."
This trailer and the announcement of Elise follow several weeks of controversy after an Ubisoft developer stated that making female playable characters would have doubled the workload. Ubisoft later clarified this, explaining that everyone will play as Arno and that there would be strong female characters in Unity.
Recently, Ubisoft said that Unity will be the "best entry point since Assassin's Creed 1." A previous trailer also showed off the revolution and Arno's motivations for joining the rebels. The game launches on October 28 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
What do you think about this friendship between a Templar and an Assassin? Let us know in the comments.
Alex Newhouse is an editorial intern at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @alexbnewhouse
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
Gamers looking to go big with this fall's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare are in luck, as the collector's editions for the game were announced today and they come with premium price tags.
The $120 "Atlas Pro Edition," which is described as the "ultimate package," features the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare season pass, a collectible steelbook, the Welcome to Atlas: Advanced Soldier Manual, and a collection of digital content including weapons, a multiplayer map (the Gorge), and the game's soundtrack .
Meanwhile, the $80 "Atlas Limited Edition" does not include the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare season pass, but it does come with the Gorge multiplayer map, as well the Soldier Manual, steelbook case, and various in-game digital content like a special exoskeleton and helmet.
The full contents of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Atlas Pro Edition and Atlas Limited Edition are available on the game's website.
A special Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Digital Pro Edition is also available for preorder. The $100 bundle includes the game's season pass, as as well as the bonus Gorge multiplayer map, and various in-game items like weapons and a player card. As its name suggest, this is a digital-only bundle.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare launches November 4 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. Earlier today, Activision released an all-new story trailer for the game, which sets up the campaign and even offers a brief tease of the multiplayer mode.
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Gamespot's Site MashupUltimate General: Gettysburg Early Access ReviewGrab Tomb Raider for $5, Murdered: Soul Suspect for $15 During Humble Store Square Enix WeekGS News - New Call of Duty Story Trailer; "EA Access" Revealed for Xbox OneHand of Fate Early Access ReviewEA Announces $5/Month Xbox One Subscription Program; Gives You Unlimited Access to Games [UPDATE]GameStop Shares Tumble After EA Access AnnouncementLittleBigPlanet 3 Preorder Bonuses Include Dragon Age: Inquisition CostumesGrab FIFA World Cup for $18, Battlefield 4 DLC 33% Off on Xbox 360 During This Week's Deals With GoldFirefall, The Last of Us, Comic-Con Recap - The LobbyCall of Duty: Advanced Warfare Is "Not the Same Old Call of Duty"Following E3 Controversy, New Assassin's Creed Unity Trailer Shows Off Female CharacterQuick Look: HalfwayTop 5 Skyrim Mods of the Week - Skyrim is now CheeseGS News Update: EA Announces a $5 a Month Xbox One Subscription Service$120 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Collector's Edition Gets You All of This
rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 rss_modified:rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 http://www.gamespot.com/mashup/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Wed, 30 Jul 2014 00:53:01 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ultimate-general-gettysburg-early-access-review/1100-6421384/ GameSpot's early access reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available for purchase by the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote money, time, and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication.
The only feature of the Gettysburg landscape I can still summon up from a childhood full of educational...let's call them "vacations," no longer actually exists, as I recently learned. The controversial Gettysburg National Tower, an observation deck that once loomed over the battlefields from a neighboring property, was demolished back in 2000, after the Park Service's domain was able to get a few hundred feet more eminent. I gather they made quite a thing of it: detonating the giant tower along to simulated cannon fire on the anniversary of the battle. You can watch it on YouTube.
"It's the only vantage point to see the entire spectrum of the battlefield," the lawyer for the tower's controlling group had argued at the time. I can appreciate the sense of that, playing Ultimate General: Gettysburg. The strategy game takes in the hilly Pennsylvania scenery at a similar remove, top-down and distant. From this tactician's view, fields and farmlands become striated earth tones, and forests are reduced to tufted copses of green lint. Tin soldier troops cluster together into rectangles not unlike the red and blue pictograms I recall of Ken Burns' The Civil War, crenelating hilltops and cascading downfield like Tetris pieces.
The paucity of menus allows you to focus on the action.
This Gettysburg has the look of a modeler's diorama, which seems more than appropriate, given the way the battlefield's little promontories and valleys have been rendered into fetish objects over the last century and a half, to be turned over and over in the hands and imaginations of historical enthusiasts. Their storied names--Cemetery Ridge, the Peach Orchard, Devil's Den--are raised up in embossed arcs, a loving cartographic detail that extends out to the decorative inlays of the board that frames the game space. To better simulate the strategic importance of these locations, their successful seizure and control accrues "victory points" for your chosen side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Ultimate General: Gettysburg certainly does have the feel of a board game, albeit one whose pieces are perpetually churning in their own independent motions. It has that armchair general appeal, I think, of tilting the board over and clearing the space for some new permutation: What if the Union overextended itself in the northwest ridges this time? What if Pickett never charged? It's a simple enough matter to draft new renditions of the historic battle; simply trace a path across the terrain, and your units will follow it faithfully, trading fire with whatever force you direct them toward. The action imbues the game with a wonderful tactility. It makes me feel like Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, sliding figurines across a map with grim purpose. I want to lecture at Nikolaj Coster-Waldau about the importance of family legacy while skinning a deer.
I muck it up almost immediately, though, the temptation to draw my units into elaborate figures overwhelming comparatively basic strategic needs. I keep forgetting that this is the Civil War, and all the Napoleonic feints and swooping cavalry charges I conjure aren't going to win the day here. Thankfully, there were three days in the whole Gettysburg affair, and Ultimate General uses sundown as a convenient intercession point to step in and clean up whatever mess I've inevitably made of the battlefield. It's here where the importance of position makes itself known: even an early string of conquests can prove ultimately damaging, should they result in you starting the next day on untenable ground, far beyond the reach of reinforcements.
The ability to draw your own maneuvers feels revelatory, but a bit limited by the era.
That's spoken from experience, of course. I'm no ultimate general. I tend to go inattentive to whole swaths of my formation for minutes at a time, if I'm being pressed hard on another front, or there's an especially good episode of House Hunters International on. But the clever artificial intelligence manages well enough on its own, and it's mesmerizing to find my troops drawing back, resolving themselves into a respectable interpretation of a defensive perimeter, and returning fire.
Sometimes though, I'm far too late, and when I finally cast my eyes toward my units, they've turned tail and fled wholesale. They're unclickable when they do so, and remain that way until they've reached some distance from the front lines they feel more personally comfortable with. In one catastrophic instance, a brigade of mine fighting perpendicular to the grain of battle was driven thusly back--straight through the crossfire in the no-man's-land between the two larger armies. It may not surprise you to hear that this had consequences on morale.
Morale, Ultimate General argues, must be maintained above all else. It's fragile: it wavers under artillery fire, and it falters at the sight of an enemy charge. It rebounds slowly, behind the reassuring cover of fences and trees, or under a general's calming stewardship. It's one of the few facets of battle the otherwise minimalistic interface stoops to representing with a hard number, though even that's hardly necessary. You can feel morale shifting behind the battle lines' ebb and flow, sense the hesitation in a decimated unit when you try to usher it back into the line of fire.
Battles hinge on your units' ability to endure.
There are no routs in Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Even in the most lopsided victories the game can muster, tens of thousands lie dead for both Union and Confederacy. Absent options to mitigate all that death, I find myself nursing egos instead: fretting over exposed brigades, marveling at units asked to endure attack after attack, and pitying those who have clearly endured too much. There's a wonderful granularity to that sort of empathy, something that isn't normally legible from this high up, from this long passed.
What's There?
A variable, single-player Gettysburg scenario that spans the battle's three days, changing based on control of the field.
What's To Come?
Multiplayer, along with additional weekly patches that continue to tweak balance and add cosmetic features.
What Does it Cost?
$9.99 during early access, with the price expected to rise at full release.
When Will it Be Finished?
Late summer.
What's the Verdict?
Ultimate General: Gettysburg's early access status shouldn't deter anyone from its balanced, expressive take on warfare. Its stripped-down interface and slightly ponderous pace direct your focus to where it's best served: on terrain, tactics, and morale.
Last week, the Humble Square Enix Bundle went live, allowing you to pay low prices for several Square Enix games like Hitman: Absolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Just Cause 2. Now, Humble Bundle has continued to discount the publisher's catalogue, adding more games to the bundle and putting many more games on sale in the Humble Store.
First, four more games are now available in the Humble Bundle if you pay more than the average price, which is $8.67 at the time of this writing. You'll now receive Hitman: Blood Money, Hitman: Contracts, the original Just Cause, and The Last Remnant in addition to the other games. If you've already purchased the bundle for more than the average, you can log into Humble Bundle and download these games for no additional cost.
Next, the Humble Store has put several more Square Enix games on sale. You can check out some of the highlights below.
You can find the all of the games on sale at the Humble Store here. Both the Humble Bundle and the Humble Store sale end next Tuesday. 10 percent of proceeds from Humble Store sales go to several charities, and Humble Bundle sales support the Make-A-Wish Foundation and GamesAid.
Which games interest you? Let us know in the comments.
Alex Newhouse is an editorial intern at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @alexbnewhouse
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421385Tue, 29 Jul 2014 16:18:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-new-call-of-duty-story-trailer-ea-access-r/2300-6420549/ 2300-6420549Tue, 29 Jul 2014 16:00:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/hand-of-fate-early-access-review/1100-6421383/ GameSpot's early access reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available for purchase by the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote money, time, and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication.
Every step of your journey is determined by the flip of a card in Hand of Fate, a sweet blend of card game and action role-playing game that deals out nerdy pleasures aplenty to match its unpredictable punishment. Not knowing whether your next move will reveal an ambush of skeleton warriors or a secret dungeon filled with loot to aid you in your journey is all part of the fun. Deck building, risk-vs.-reward strategizing, and twitch reflexes collide in this engrossing fantasy game of chance. Hand of Fate is deeply rooted at the intersection of tabletop gaming tradition and Diablo-esque click-brawler action, giving it serious potential to blossom into a major genre itch-scratcher with a little more time under the knife.
Tabletop RPGs--card-based or otherwise--often come with a dizzying set of rules that take time and patience to wrap your brain around. In its current tutorial-less state, Hand of Fate throws you right into the meat of the gameplay without any real guidance, but like any good fantasy card game, its rule system packs necessary depth without being so complex that you can't get a feel for it after a few rounds. Right now, learning as you go poses only a minor speed bump that fades into familiarity once you have a couple of matches behind you.
Hopefully, grammar errors will be repaired in future updates.
You're seated in a dimly lit room across from a mysterious cloaked opponent--who's one part card dealer, one part dungeon master--and each randomly generated adventure you dive into unfolds on the tabletop space between you. Matches begin with the dealer placing cards facedown in different dungeon-like configurations. Every turn you move a small figurine one space across the layouts, stopping to turn over each card you land on and deal with whatever surprise encounters await.
Your overarching mission in every game is to sniff out and defeat the dungeon's boss. Getting to each boss alive with enough strength to survive the encounter is a challenge on its own. Adding another neat wrinkle to the mix, every step you take consumes food, which is a precious resource. Food restores your health a little each move when you have it, but running out causes damage. Ill planning or unfortunate mishaps can lead you to starvation before you even get to the boss. This makes managing your food, and the gold needed to buy it, an important balancing act as you push your way into the unknown.
Unexpected twists and intense battles you stumble into along the way make the journey all the more interesting. The encounters you face run a wide gamut, ranging from traps and combat scenarios to item shops and quests. Most are accompanied by a snippet of narrative and a choice for you to consider. You might be asked to help a stranger in need or decide whether to pursue a treasure-hunting opportunity, for example. Your chances of success in many choice-based encounters rely on picking wisely in three-card-monte-style shuffles. Succeeding can earn you helpful reward cards, though failure forces you to draw pain cards that have negative effects or throw you into combat. The latter is where the game takes a very different turn from its tabletop roots.
Ain't nobody gonna break my stride, except for the Money Bags card.
Engaging in combat drops you into third-person action RPG arena battles against human and monstrous foes alike. Running around these tight but slickly designed map areas, you control a burly warrior who dishes out a clobbering as you click to attack, block, and dodge. It's a great change of pace--both visually and gameplay-wise--that also gives more life to the gameworld you're exploring through the card-based narratives. As far as the fighting goes, it's pretty straightforward stuff. You trade blows, dodge magic and missiles, dish out counterattacks, and flit around the mob trying to take your foes down without getting caught in the melee.
These twitch-heavy brawls are messy, chaotic fun that lasts just long enough to whet your whistle and switch up the tabletop vibe, but they're also one area where Hands of Fate's beta status pokes through at the seams. Combat mechanics are sloppy in spots, and the rigid camera angle offers a sometimes cramped view of the action. If you're not packing more powerful gear when you run into battle, it's also easy to get steamrolled by bosses and larger mobs of enemies. Therefore, the weapons, armor, and buff cards you amass and equip on a given run play a big role in how well you fare when it comes to caving skulls in, and it's the main way to bolster your hero's capabilities as you push toward each boss encounter.
Today is a good day to die.
Modular, ever-evolving gameplay goes a long way to keeping you in the game. Completing quests, defeating bosses, and surviving obstacles unlocks new equipment and encounter cards with every run. You can build out your deck, tweaking the experience each time by selecting the potential range of gear and risky-but-rewarding encounters in any given match. This encourages replay naturally and takes the sting out of getting clobbered in mid-run. I died a lot in my quest to best the realm's boss baddies, and often in horrible ways, but the possibility of a different outcome and my ability to influence it by throwing new cards into the mix spurred me onward.
For the tabletop RGP set, Hand of Fate's appeal is undeniable. This beta is finely tuned to make you want to sit down and test your wits over and over again, even if the game lacks a few finishing touches. Tremendous replay value and skillful execution trump the weaker aspects, and I'm confident that this will be one to watch as it pushes closer to completion.
What's There?
A deep and accessible card-based tabletop game/action RPG hybrid with high replayability.
What's To Come?
The introduction and tutorial are missing in this current beta, though those elements, along with a final boss and updated audio, are planned to be added in for launch. Additional cards and expansions are likely too.
What Does it Cost?
$24.99, available via the Steam store.
When Will it Be Finished?
No specific date yet announced.
What's the Verdict?
Hand of Fate packs all the engagement of a tabletop RPG, but injects some excitement into the mix with action-centric combat sequences and unpredictable encounters. What's here is a blast, even if the game is still missing a few important ingredients.
This story has been updated with additional details about the service.
The first game available in an early trial version will be Madden 15 sometime ahead of its August launch.
The program does not change EA's current plans for demo/beta access to games. An EA representative says, "Traditional demos and betas will still exist."
Digital content (such as DLC and maps) will be sold separately, but at a 10% discount. An EA represnentative clarified, "Once you purchase any DLC, it is yours to own, even if your membership lapses. All of your progression is retained."
Games will be downloaded, not streamed. Your game progress is also saved by the system, so the EA representative says, "Even if you lapse as a member, and then decide to come back, you'd be able to pick up where you left off."
The original story appears below:
Electronic Arts today announced a new subscription program for Xbox One called "EA Access." For $5/month (or $30/year), you get endless access to The Vault, a collection of digital EA games.
EA Access is available today in beta for some users, with a wider launch planned to arrive "soon." The current games included in The Vault are FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2, and Battlefield 4. More titles will be added "soon," EA says, pointing out that you're getting access to more than $100 worth of games for $5/month.
According to EA, you will have "unlimited" access to the four games during the beta. It is unclear if the same "unlimited" nature of the service will apply when the service rolls out in full later on.
"At EA, we are always looking for new ways to make it easier for gamers to play more EA games across all platforms, and we are excited about what EA Access will offer to players on Xbox One," EA said in a statement on its website.
In addition to access to multiple games in The Vault, an EA Access subscription gets you 10% off on purchases of EA digital content for Xbox One games through the Xbox Games Store. This includes full games and memberships like Battlefield 4 Premium. However, EA cautions that, conditions, limitations, and exclusions apply.
Another component of EA Access is that with a subscription, you'll get to play trial versions of new EA titles "up to" five days before their official release date. This begins with upcoming sports games like Madden NFL 15, NHL 15, FIFA 15, and NBA Live 15, as well as Dragon Age: Inquisition.
If you decide to upgrade to the full version of a game, your progress will carry forward, allowing you to pick up right where you left off. EA Access subscriptions will also be sold in physical stores, including GameStop, as well as online retailers like Amazon.
It remains to be seen what kind of fine print there may be for EA Access. You can read more about EA Access as the program's just-launched website.
GameStop shares fell today by more than 5 percent following Electronic Arts' announcement of a special streaming service for Xbox One that could have negative implications for the retailer's business. As you can see in the chart below, GameStop shares began to fall immediately after the announcement of EA Access.
EA Access hurts GameStop, at least in theory, because it incentivizes digital spending. However, GameStop will sell EA Access subscription cards in its stores, and the retailer has already proven that the proliferation of digital gaming is not really the thorn in its side that some make it out to be.
GameStop's share value today.
The stock market is inherently volatile and dramatic fluctuation in share value is no strange thing for GameStop. After Sony announced its own streaming service, PlayStation Now, back in January, GameStop shares tumbled, but later rebounded.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, says in a note to investors today that EA Access isn't likely to disrupt GameStop's business in any meaningful way. "While new subscription programs have the potential to disrupt/disintermediate the retail channel, there is little evidence to date to support that similar programs have taken the retailer's market share," he said.
Meanwhile, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says it's too early to tell if EA Access will be troublesome to GameStop. "In the current form, we don't think it's that disruptive to GameStop," Bhatia said.
We have reached out to a GameStop representative for comment and will update this post with anything we hear back.
EA Access has been immediately compared to Netflix, in that you will pay a fee ($5/month or $30/year) for access to a library of games, which you then have unlimited access to. Also included with your membership are discounts on digital content and the ability to play upcoming games five days before anyone else. A beta for EA Access is available now for select Xbox One owners, while a wider rollout is expected to happen soon. The first four games included with EA Access are Battlefield 4, Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14, and Peggle 2.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog today, Sony officially announced that LittleBigPlanet 3 will launch across PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on November 18. The game was officially announced at E3 last month, where it was given a vague release date of sometime this fall.
Sony also today announced the preorder bonuses for LittleBigPlanet 3. Preorder the game anywhere and you'll receive an adorable Sackboy plush toy. Meanwhile, Target shoppers will get the toy alongside a special hat (for the toy), which is exclusive to the retailer.
In addition, a special Dragon Age: Inquisition costume pack will be included with the Day 1 Edition of LittleBigPlanet 3, which anyone who preorders the game will be automatically upgraded to. This goes for preorders placed at physical retailers and online. On top of that, the LittleBigPlanet 3 Day 1 Edition also includes costumes for popular PlayStation characters like Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Ellie (The Last of Us), Delsin (Infamous: Second Son), and a Helghan soldier (Killzone).
There are also retailer-specific preorder bonuses for LittleBigPlanet 3. GameStop shoppers will receive the Mythical Creatures Costume Pack, Best Buy customers get the Hidden Creatures Costume Pack, and Amazon buyers will receive the PlayStation Favorites Costume Pack. A breakdown of the three bundles is available in the images below.
Finally, all preorders for LittleBigPlanet 3 come with instant access to the LittleBigPlanet 3 t-shirt pack. This means that the moment you preorder the game, you'll receive special in-game t-shirts for previously released games like LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation Vita, and LittleBigPlanet Karting. When LittleBigPlanet 3 is released this November, you'll also be able to have your character wear the shirt in that game.
The preorder bonuses mentioned in this post are for North America only. Sony will share details for European LittleBigPlanet fans in the time ahead.
LittleBigPlanet 3 is the first entry in the core series developed outside of franchise creator Media Molecule. Sumo Digital is developing the game, while Media Molecule is working on an unannounced PS4 game.
The newest set of deals for games and content on Xbox is now live. This week's Deals with Gold features a number of EA Sports games as well as some Battlefield 4 content for heavily reduced prices.
Good news for sports fans: you can pick up FIFA World Cup Brazil for $18 and NHL 14 for $25 this week. Battlefield 4 owners can grab all of the released DLC packs for 33 percent off, as well. Remember, to take advantage of these deals, you must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber.
You can check out the full list of deals below. Games are linked to their download pages on the Xbox website.
This year's Call of Duty game, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, is "not the same old Call of Duty," according to developer Sledgehammer Games. Speaking with VentureBeat, studio co-founder Michael Condrey laid out the reasons why this year's game will be one to remember.
"With three years and a new engine and a new generation of hardware and a new brand, you'll see this is not the same old Call of Duty," Condrey said. "We had the people, the resources, and the time."
Condrey's boasting about the game didn't end there, however. "This has the scale and the scope of the equivalent of four Hollywood movies in it," he said. "It has hundreds of hours of multiplayer gameplay. It has full cooperative mode. It takes an army of industry vets to create this kind of content."
Activision announced in May a new three-year, three-studio production schedule for the Call of Duty brand. The extra year of development will make it so gamers are blown away by every new entry, according to Activision.
"This game had to be done from scratch. This is really a brand new franchise within Call of Duty. It's a new intellectual property" -- Sledgehammer co-founder Glen Schofield
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is such a new Call of Duty experience, Sledgehammer Games says, that it should in fact be thought of as a new intellectual property.
"We really upgraded the characters with a new facial system. We are lighting the game in a new way. All of it is new," Sledgehammer Games co-founder Glen Schofield said. "It's next-generation, and it's 40 years in the future. There is really nothing you can borrow. This game had to be done from scratch. This is really a brand new franchise within Call of Duty. It's a new intellectual property."
Prior to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's official announcement, Activision--which owns Sledgehammer Games--said that the game was "perhaps the best Call of Duty game ever created." That quote came from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare changes up the traditional Call of Duty format by introducing exoskeleton suits, which give players a range of super-abilities like increased dexterity and the ability to climb up walls using magnetic gloves. There is even a new Just Cause-style grappling hook system in Advanced Warfare, which we got a quick look at in today's new trailer.
In other Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare news, Activision today announced the game's three collector's editions, which range in price from $80-$120.
Do you think Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare can live up to the hype? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments!
In Ubisoft's upcoming free-running game Assassin's Creed Unity, you take control of an Assassin named Arno. He fights in the French Revolution against tyranny and, of course, the Templar organization. But the newest Unity trailer published today suggests that Arno's motivations aren't nearly so clear, and that he seems to be involved with a Templar woman.
In the trailer, Arno races through the streets of Paris to a city square where an execution takes place. He's too late to rescue all of the victims, but that seems to not be the point: the Assassin cuts through the French soldiers guarding the guillotine and reaches the last person in line. This person is a woman, who we know is named Elise. She will be featured prominently throughout the story as a main character.
Most notably, however, is that she wears a Templar cross. Arno collaborates with her, fighting against soldiers who encircle them. According to a press release, Elise is "an independent young noblewoman [who] is determined to secure her place in the Templar dynasty amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. Her quest leads her to cross paths with Arno and establish an unlikely bond with him."
This trailer and the announcement of Elise follow several weeks of controversy after an Ubisoft developer stated that making female playable characters would have doubled the workload. Ubisoft later clarified this, explaining that everyone will play as Arno and that there would be strong female characters in Unity.
Recently, Ubisoft said that Unity will be the "best entry point since Assassin's Creed 1." A previous trailer also showed off the revolution and Arno's motivations for joining the rebels. The game launches on October 28 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
What do you think about this friendship between a Templar and an Assassin? Let us know in the comments.
Alex Newhouse is an editorial intern at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @alexbnewhouse
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Gamers looking to go big with this fall's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare are in luck, as the collector's editions for the game were announced today and they come with premium price tags.
The $120 "Atlas Pro Edition," which is described as the "ultimate package," features the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare season pass, a collectible steelbook, the Welcome to Atlas: Advanced Soldier Manual, and a collection of digital content including weapons, a multiplayer map (the Gorge), and the game's soundtrack .
Meanwhile, the $80 "Atlas Limited Edition" does not include the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare season pass, but it does come with the Gorge multiplayer map, as well the Soldier Manual, steelbook case, and various in-game digital content like a special exoskeleton and helmet.
The full contents of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Atlas Pro Edition and Atlas Limited Edition are available on the game's website.
A special Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Digital Pro Edition is also available for preorder. The $100 bundle includes the game's season pass, as as well as the bonus Gorge multiplayer map, and various in-game items like weapons and a player card. As its name suggest, this is a digital-only bundle.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare launches November 4 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. Earlier today, Activision released an all-new story trailer for the game, which sets up the campaign and even offers a brief tease of the multiplayer mode.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Selasa, 29 Juli 2014 | 15.06
I have a system from each manufacturer. Xbox, 3DS, and vita. It is a great combo, getting exclusives from each. Down the road, I am going to get a Wii U for Zelda. And apparently, there is going to be a ps3 price drop to $130. I was told this by a Sony rep, but not sure how true it is. He also told me the vita slim cases will come out in a month, month and a half, and that was in may
The first time Only If induced rage was when I returned to its single major choice--a point at which you must choose one chess piece over another. No matter which piece I chose, the game surged forward in the same manner, leaving me to wonder if it were passing judgment on the illusion of player agency in video games. Given the way the dialogue often focuses on the player character's lack of control, it was easy to presume that the Italian-American caricature that guides you through the game was playing a role similar to the narrator in The Stanley Parable, pointing out the limitations of the medium through humor and self-aware gameplay. As it happens, I was giving Only If too much credit: the game had simply broken, and returning to the title menu was not a proper fix. Only after closing the game and restarting it did it function properly, shattering not the illusion of player control, but the assumption that I was playing a working product.
The second time Only If induced rage was when the player character called the apparent mafioso taunting him a "pedophilic faggot," a homophobic outburst that may have worked had the character using the phrase been a full-fledged human being rather than a randy adolescent with no empathetic characteristics. Only If had already toyed with homophobia with a bit of throwaway dialogue about "giving the kid the D," but that conversation lingered because of how it informed the plot, not because of its blatant offensiveness. The sputtered "faggot" accusation came later, after I had come to suspect that the game was not in fact a clever mystery but instead a perverted display of bro-dude self-expression. My suspicion was confirmed when Only If concluded with a story "twist" that M. Night Shyamalan might have concocted if he were a drug-addled, sexually frustrated high school senior.
Welcome to the parlor. Pay no attention to the jittery mouselook.
Only If's ending marked the third time the game induced rage, and it was a rage that dogged me as I played the game a second and then a third time, hoping to find signs of a message with greater meaning than the disgusting finale let on, but if such a message exists, it is either too subtle to notice or too unnecessary to care about. Perhaps Only If means to parody games like Proteus or Gone Home, experiences that use simple forms of player interaction to reveal greater truths and subvert expectations, but I don't believe this game has such noble ambitions.
If my thought process is all over the place, it's because Only If itself brings with it no apparent logic, jumping between gameplay styles faster than Mario leaps between platforms. Games have successfully played with player perception of genre and game logic, of course--Thirty Flights of Loving is one great example of this kind of thematic skewing--but Only If's gameplay is frequently busted and typically uncomfortable. It all begins after you've awakened after an apparent night of intoxicated debauchery and sexual romping, with an angry voice taunting you via old-fashioned radio.
In this level, references to "crack" and "pot" are what pass for clever dialogue.
Soon after, the voice leads you to an opulent room in which a chessboard rests on a table and landscapes adorn the walls. Only If then presents a choice that's meant to be uncomfortable, but most discomfort comes from the game's own screen tearing and jittery behavior in these early minutes. At this stage, you might suppose Only If is a puzzle game, but if it is, it's a terrible one, providing the exact steps to the task at hand both here and elsewhere, and never allowing your imagination to blossom. In any case, the choice leads to one of the game's two branches, one of which leads back to this same parlor and forces you to make the other decision anyway. So much for facing the consequences of your own selfishness, which the foul-mouthed narrator intimates is the purpose of the 45 minutes of gameplay that follow.
Those 45 minutes are indeed a punishment, but for you the player, as opposed to the manchild you control from a first-person view. A few vignettes are sewn together, each providing an arbitrary rule for you to follow, such as running toward an orb before the walls of the surrounding limbo close on you, determining whether the button prompts wish you to press the assigned key or quickly mash it, or navigating a marsh without colliding with a patch of floating darkness or inadvertently wandering out of the level. This is trial and error gone wrong, with Only If chastising you not for failing to overcome an obvious challenge, but rather for not being able to read the creator's mind. After these random scenes of weirdness, you must escape a house where more capricious rules govern your direction, and where puzzles are so tedious that even the main character himself complains about them.
Hopelessness. Despair. Unclear rules.
In spite of the clumsy gameplay and abysmal storytelling, a few ideas glimmer just brightly enough to grab your attention. On specific occasions you hear the voices of armed pursuers and see the beams of their flashlights, and while these unseen stalkers can catch you, you never see their bodies or faces. Such moments provide a twinge of intensity, forcing you to run away or find the prescribed hiding place so that you can catch your breath. The other story branch brings with it a new set of environments and metaphysical exploration, and there, too, you notice beacons of hope: puzzles in which you type out commands on your keyboard, attractive pastoral music that matches the beauty of the vibrant flowers and blooming trees that surround you, and enough enigmatic visual and audio cues to make you wonder about the nature of this world and your place within it.
Any goodwill Only If earns only fuels further disappointment, however, dwindling away during a tragic platforming sequence that highlights the game's unresponsive controls and incessant glitches. Eventually, the bite-size levels lose any sense of continuity, with every new pseudo-clever mechanic seemingly pulled from an ever-rotating bingo ball cage, and each sequence glitched or bugged in some manner or another. The insulting finale may be devoid of creative worth, but it at least signals the end of an experiment that was best left unperformed.
What does it all mean? Nothing. Well, it's the straight-up answer to a puzzle. But nothing beyond that.
Given the appropriation of elements associated with narrative-driven exploration games like The Stanley Parable, you'd suppose that Only If were trying to communicate something meaningful. After all, buggy behavior and clunky locomotion make it a mechanical failure, leaving the story and themes to make good where gameplay could not. Alas, irredeemable characters and loathsome dialogue aren't appropriate pillars upon which to erect a substantial tale. The collapse was inevitable; Only If's wretched ending only ensures that the construct's remnants are reduced to unrecognizable rubble.
04.jpg)
Welcome to the parlor. Pay no attention to the jittery mouselook. 33.jpg)
In this level, references to "crack" and "pot" are what pass for clever dialogue. 28.jpg)
Hopelessness. Despair. Unclear rules. 25.jpg)
What does it all mean? Nothing. Well, it's the straight-up answer to a puzzle. But nothing beyond that. 
