EVOLVE, Battlefield: Hardline Delayed to 2015

In what was looking to be a jam-packed 2014 holiday seasons for games, the competing for consumer dollars will be at least a little less intense for game developers/publishers as two high profile releases have been confirmed to be delayed until early 2015.  The first is the well-established Battlefield entry, dubbed Hardline, which pits cops against robbers and is supposed to be a big step up for story quality in the series.  The second is what many billed as the most exciting cooperative game, titled EVOLVE.  EVOLVE runs a 4v1 cooperative/competitive play setup where four players will assume specific classed hunters and try to take down a beast that is controlled by a different human player.  Early demos at gaming conventions have lead EVOLVE to being talked about as much as other heavy hitters like Destiny and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

With EVOLVE and Battlefield out of the 2014 picture the game-scape may be a little less crowded, but there’s still plenty to look forward to, such as:

• Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Assassin’s Creed Unity
• Far Cry 4
• Sunset Overdrive
• Destiny
• Shadow of Mordor
• Forza Horizon 2
• Project Spark
• Madden 15
• The Witcher 3
• Dragon Age: Inquisition

Also included in the mix are current-gen console updates for games like Grand Theft Auto 5, Metro 2033/Last Light (named “Redux” together), A Wolf Among Us, Diablo 3 and more.

Bungie Drops Destiny Beta Trailer

The Destiny beta period is nearly upon us.  Beta play for the game will begin to roll out on July 17.  The beta will hit the PS4, Xbox One and PC all within a couple days of the 17th.  The beta is available to anyone that preorders the game.  If you’re in a state of uncertainty over the kind of game its turning out to be, drop a $5-$10 preorder via Amazon, Microsoft Store, Gamestop, etc and you’ll net yourself a beta access code.  Just ask for a refund if the beta doesn’t wow you.  Having said that, Destiny has received its official beta trailer which teases some of the places and things you’ll encounter.  The beta will only be live for roughly five days per platform, so dig in while you can to get a taste of what we think is going to be game of the year material!

Xbox’s Beta Period For Destiny Confirmed

Bungie has just announced Destiny’s beta access week for the Xbox platforms.  For both Xbox One and 360 owners, registration begins on July 10, where you’ll be able to choose your platform and get your access lined up.  The actual beta for Xbox owners will begin on July 23 and runs until July 27, netting you a grand total of five days of playtime six weeks before the game officially launches.  If you’ve pre-ordered the game already, you should have received a beta access code at some point in the last couple months that can be used to gain access as well.  We’re amped for Destiny and the potential it carries to be a standout shooter experience later this year, get an early taste for what we gamers will be in for come September.

According to the FAQ’s on the website, the beta will include character creation, story missions, cooperative and social activities, plus competitive multiplayer.  We’re not sure what else is in store, but this sounds like a huge chunk of what Bungie was intending to deliver in the final product.  There will likely be a limited number of content to play through and this is more of a stress test than a content feedback session.

The Time Has Come For All To Own An Xbox One

When consoles launch, there are a lot of things left up in the air for consumers, developers, publishers and the console manufacturers themselves.  Will the new product be a hit?  What kind of glitches will be present?  Will there be any good games making the purchase worthwhile?  These questions have to be answered by the non-hardcore gamers before they can justify $400-$500 on a new console, and that’s before games and other accessories are acquired.  While millions have adopted the Xbox One, there’s still a 75 million console gap between it and its predecessor, the Xbox 360.  There has been good reason to hold off,  but that time is quickly coming to an end.  Here’s why you should consider buying an Xbox One in the very near future.

The Kinks Are Pretty Much Ironed Out – At launch, the Xbox One had a sort-of-smooth-sailing venture, but there were some issues found in usability and a few party-related bugs that hindered the experience.  Since launch, Microsoft has resolved nearly every issue that was present at launch and have drastically improved the usability of their UI.  There still is a small learning curve to get through, but coming from an Xbox 360 will be beneficial since much of the look is the same on the One.

There Are Good Games Available Today, Tomorrow – On the Xbox One, you can play games like Forza 5, Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, and a growing library of indies (some exclusive) that cannot be found on the Xbox 360.  These games impress in different ways, but the fact that you cannot get them on a 360 is a good reason for gamers to look at what can be had with a new generation of titles.  More importantly, fall of 2014 is lined up to be a killer season for games.  A new Assassin’s Creed, Destiny, Battlefield, Call of Duty are all lined up to take full advantage of the new power the Xbox One received with the June update, but there’s the growing buzz over Sunset Drive on its way and the sure-thing that is Halo: The Master Chief Collection that will take the greatest franchise exclusive on any platform and bundle its four core games together (along with their multiplayer modes) and offer some cool additions (Halo 5 beta invite, Halo: Nightfall digital series) to sweeten the pot.  Sometime in 2015 there’s the likelihood of Gears of War, Quantum Break on top of others that are also being teed up for maybe a first-half launch, with Halo 5: Guardians dropping that fall.  Plus, Minecraft for Xbox One will be out in August and the already-available Project Spark is quite incredible for creators and players alike.

The games scene is going to bust wide open on next gen consoles and the older 360 will no longer see consistent parity with releases (if any).  The 360 will quickly become a reasonable console with a large back-catalog of games with streaming capabilities.   Not a bad thing, but it’s not way to get in touch with what’s new.

One Console To Rule Them All – The Xbox One was named and touted for its capability to take over your living room in a way that no other console can.  That still remains the case (mostly), but it’s the coming applications and the new application development path that Microsoft are taking between its Xbox, Windows and Windows Phone OS’ that will catapult it into the lead for set-top-boxes.  There are already a ton of apps coming over this summer & fall to add to the Xbox One app library, but with the ability for app developers to port their apps to the Xbox One (assuming they are relevant to the system in some way) we will see a greater explosion of cool apps on our consoles, effectively making it a Windows 8-like PC that is dedicated to entertainment.  Having a pretty robust Internet Explorer 11 on-board doesn’t hurt either.

Price Changes – The no-brainer is the recent decoupling of the Kinect and Xbox One, in terms of core bundling.  You can buy an Xbox One for $399 without a Kinect, which will push way more of these units off of shelves and into living rooms across the world.  Speaking of across the world…

Worldwide Expansion Coming September 2014 – Microsoft missed their worldwide launch intentions and scaled back from their initial 20+ launch markets to a slimmer 13.  Since then there has been no action in terms of new territories available to purchase an Xbox One locally.  The Xbox One isn’t as regionally-locked as previous consoles, so it’s easier to jump onto eBay and buy one even if it isn’t natively sold (yet).  In September of 2014 we will see a huge jump in market availability.  Countries like China, Japan and Russia will be able to buy the Xbox One, on top of dozens more, which will spur sales greatly and get the console closer to parity as far as availability in other countries with moderate-to-large populations.  The Xbox One could quickly close the gap for sales between it and the rival PlayStation 4.  With more console adoption comes more attention to the console.  Developers won’t so easily pass on optimizing their software for the Xbox One hardware, meaning better support.  It also means there will be more people to play with worldwide, so matchmaking could drastically improve if you’re outside one of the core countries currently supporting the Xbox One.

If you don’t have the money to buy one, start saving.  Sunset Overdrive is looking great, a bundled Halo is guaranteed to bring a slew of gamers back to old school Halo for at least a little while, plus games like Quantum Break are truly ambitious and fresh looking, something that the Xbox platform as a whole hasn’t been so good about in the past.  The console will challenge Sony for exclusive quality in the future as well.  Halo 5: Guardians is getting so much quality attention and financial backing that it’s likely going to wompa-stomp Battlefield and Call of Duty.  We don’t want to get our hopes up too high, but everything that we’ve heard so far has been very reassuring.  So, what are you waiting for?  Pick up an Xbox One and tell your friends to do the same, because the truly next generation of games are coming and your 360 won’t be the vessel of choice anymore.

Destiny Beta Coming “Late July” on Xbox One/360

Sony got first dibs because of the deal between and Destiny developer Bungie, but now Bungie has confirmed that the Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles will see a beta of the game shortly after it goes live on the PS4/PS3.  Slated for “late July”, those that preorder the Destiny video game on either Xbox console will be eligible to partake in an early look of the near-finished product.  Destiny very recently was brought out of alpha-build and is now confirmed to be in its beta-build.  Alpha refers to early-development where everything is basically fluid/flexible and things can be taken in/out of the game as the developer sees fit.  With a beta stage, most of the content is set and the developer is just looking to find the bugs and stress test servers (if the game contains online capabilities).  Whether the Xbox One beta will tap the 1080p goal Bungie is aiming for by the end of July or not is still to-be-seen, but it’s great to know that a somewhat dry season for consoles will be spiced up with a glimpse at the highly-anticipated MMOFPS.

Destiny launches September 9.

Kinect Power Scalable – Destiny Aims for 1080p/30FPS on Xbox One

On the E3 floor Bungie representatives were talking with Microsoft folks about the June update to Xbox One removing the requirement to keep the Kinect active while plugged in.  In an open forum, when asked about the recent removal of the Kinect from the Xbox One and what effect it would have with Destiny, we were told that an upgrade in resolution was to be expected, though no word was official in terms of what kind of resolution we would be exposed to.  Now we know what Bungie’s aim will be prior to the September 6 launch of Destiny: 1080p with a set framerate of 30FPS.  This news is good for Xbox One owners which have undoubtedly been at least mildly worried that their new console may not be up to the task of consistent 1080p showings.  Destiny, if it does achieve 1080p/30FPS prior to the launch of the game, will be a big deal for the Xbox console as Destiny is open and can show numerous players in the same area which translates to a pretty heavy workout for any console or PC system.

The 30 frames per second (FPS) number may be a little underwhelming to some, but rest assured that you’re typically gaming at 30FPS, especially with games from the previous generation on consoles.  When you try to double the framerate to a silky-smooth 60 frames per second you effectively double the workload on a GPU.  Since there will be so much to display with Destiny it would be beneficial to lock the game at 30 frames instead of trying to stretch out to 60 frames and fail some of the time or all of the time.  The Kinect had allocated 10% of the GPUs power in the past but now Microsoft will let developers scale the power back either somewhat or entirely, something that wasn’t explained in great detail previously.  This means that if developers wish to keep voice recognition active on the Kinect then the development studio can keep the 2% power draw for voice capture and free up 8% of the GPU by disabling gesture control.  This is very crucial for the Xbox One’s power in the long run so that core gamers can get the best looking and performing games possible.  After all, Kinect-driven games tend to run simpler graphics which won’t typically tax the GPU and CPU to their max so that 10% draw on those games won’t be missed in most cases.  Maybe next time Microsoft will offer an even more powerful Kinect sensor that doesn’t tax the system hardware so much, or Microsoft could consider just running a more powerful system from day one to combat the power draw on an accessory like Kinect.

Destiny Is Nearing, But Can Bungie Nail The Landing?

Bungie’s new entry into the FPS genre, Destiny, is creating quite a stir in the gaming world.  We haven’t seen a true MMOFPS title on the consoles yet, even PC gamers haven’t really gotten a true taste of it (Planetside 2 tries but has limited success).  Thus, Destiny will be our first true experience with this new genre taking form.  The game is in a closed alpha stage right now and will be moving to a beta stage in the coming weeks.  At that point all of those people that preordered the game will get their access code to the beta and will get up to a couple months lead time to get a feel for the game before they buy it.  While nearly everything about this game looks incredible there are some interesting things to note.

First, the Xbox One will see a noticeable graphical improvement as disclosed at E3.  Bungie and Microsoft reps commented on the state of the game graphically and have confirmed that, because of the most recent update to the Xbox One, the game will see a greater resolution on the platform.  As expected, the flexible power draw on the Kinect will likely be taken advantage of fully, netting an additional 10% power with the Kinect disabled.  Originally it was expected that Destiny would be run at either 720p or 792p, but with the extra GPU power it’s more likely that Destiny can make the jump to 900p without sacrificing frame rate performance.  This is great news for Xbox One owners, but what about the actual game you’re going to play?

Impressions from some prospective fans at E3 are leaning toward the game possibly being a bit too simplistic within combat scenarios.  Specifically, little strategy is required to take down foes and instead feels a bit more level-based when assessments of difficulty are made.  That means that when you approach a computer-controlled enemy (or NPC as some might call them) they will attack you but likely won’t utilize cover mechanics or dodge your attacks very well, if at all.  This is different from Bungie’s original endeavors with Halo, where Elites and Brutes were a bit more challenging to take down in situations where cover was an option.  So basically your success seems to be more geared toward your level and skill set.  The game is in its alpha build, but it’s late in the alpha build where most of the game should be pretty well built as beta is meant more for stress testing and last-minute touch ups before going to release.

The strategic implementation is fairly crucial in a FPS, though, and omissions like these could make the game tail off too quickly and leave the combat something of a “lowlight” rather than a highlight.  Bungie haven’t really made anything like an MMO before and it’s unclear how much talent they brought on board to help shape the game when Destiny was birthed, but our hopes are high for this game being one of the best things about 2014.  Failing to reach anywhere near our expectations could be somewhat troublesome for Bungie since the game has such a huge amount of money being invested into the game.  They need to recoup their dollars, which means they’re going to need to sell something in the neighborhood of 100,000-110,000 copies to get their development and marketing costs back (the game is estimated to cost at least $500M to make and likely more when taking advertising and DLC content into consideration).  The 100,000 mark won’t be difficult to hit with so many consoles out there already, but if the game ended up taking an uninspiring metascore of 70 it would likely be a huge blow as those gamers on the fence about buying this might decide to wait for it to go on sale or find a used copy.  Many people look at both fan and critic reviews to gauge the quality of a game and whether they buy it or not.

We’re planning to pick it up as we think Destiny ending up being nothing special is quite unlikely, but we’ve been wrong in our assumptions before.  Just look at Watch Dogs – a good game that underwhelmed given all the boasting that occurred months prior to its launch.  It nabbed a metascore of 82 between the PS4 and XB1 versions and is enjoying successful sales, but the games market is meager right now compared to what it will be like when the next-gen consoles experience a Niagra Falls effect in video game releases this fall.

Sledgehammer Announces Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

Last years biggest hyped franchise extension fell pretty flat.  Call of Duty: Ghosts showed an opportunity for the FPS franchise which overtook Halo for popularity globally.  Once we got our hands on it we felt a bit cheated.  Ghosts was more of the same from previous CoD games, making it feel extremely recycled.  Ghosts had a few bright spots but nothing to write home about.  This miss made us feel like Call of Duty would probably be left in the dust with new promising titles in first-time IPs like Titanfall, Destiny, or The Division and the probable return to glory of Master Chief in Halo 5.  Today, Activision announced the next step in their series, and it’s called Advanced Warfare.

Developed by Sledgehammer, who are no strangers to the Call of Duty franchise (having done some work on previous titles and DLC content), are taking the reigns to bring forth a new experience in the CoD series.  Advanced Warfare has to be incredible and full of series firsts, and the studio’s first announcement trailer definitely gives us the impression that there is something worth looking out for in Advanced Warfare.  This iteration of CoD will be set years in the future, not all that different from Ghosts, but with slightly more advanced tech which suggests a bit more advancement in time.  Things like soldier-fitted exoskeletons, partial mech units, wall climbing, and even hoverbikes are all teased in the trailer.  But just as important as new, cool gadgets to play with will be in the next installment, there needs to be an incredible reboot in the story mode.  To ensure that there’s reason to every rhyme, Sledgehammer enlisted the services of the mighty popular Kevin Spacey who is currently enjoying the fruits of a stellar Netflix original TV show called House of Cards (you’ve more than likely heard of it).  It’s hard to be certain, but by the trailer and the tone in which Spacey talks in through a well-scripted monologue, he is the bad guy who skews logic, morality, and politics to make sense of what we expect will be crimes against humanity.

The game is said to release on 11.4.2014.  We’ll hold on to any additional words on CoD as we have been more willing to bash CoD for its staleness lately, and instead hold onto new hope presented in the game trailer below.  Enjoy!

New Gameplay Footage From Bungie’s Upcoming “Destiny”

Halo put Bungie on the map.  Now, years after the torch was passed onto 343 Industries and deciding to head into new frontiers, “Destiny” is  on the cusp of birth and is set to do a number on the FPS genre much like the recent Titanfall has.  Destiny is a massively multiplayer online first person shooter, or MMOFPS as we like to call it.  The game borrows heavily from Bungie’s roots in shooters and will operate much like the sci-fi shooter with protagonist Master Chief kicking ass and taking names.  But Destiny also borrows from major franchises that have prevailed on the PC platforms, chiefly Guild Wars and World of Warcraft.  Destiny is futuristic yet somewhat rustic, like the TV series “Firefly” or Bethesda’s “Fallout” adventure shooter.  The game will dig on character customization and open worlds that allow you to come and go as you please, with or without friends.  There’s a lot we still don’t know about the game, but check out Bungie’s latest Dragon’s Lair vid to get your taste buds wet for what September 2014 holds.

A Look Ahead For Games on Xbox One

So you’ve got Titanfall, Battlefield, Need For Speed, Ryse, etc. for your Xbox One console and have played much of what those games have to offer.  The content on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been little more than meager in their first five months at retail.  So what do Xbox One owners/would-be owners have to look forward to?  Here’s a brief look at what’s coming over the next few months.

April

• Battlefield 4: Naval Strike – Battlefield 4 still runs strong even though it had a catastrophic launch.  Naval Strike, the next set of DLC for BF4, shows great promise for more diversity in maps and play style as a lot of water combat and siege-like settings await those that wish to take up arms.  Naval Strike is due out April 25.
• Trials Fusion – Trials has become the much more beautiful version of old school physics-based racers like “Line Rider” or that old SNES game “Uni Racer”.  Trials Fusion builds upon the game’s already successful heritage and is nearing release.  You can pick Trials up on April 15.
• Child of Light – A 2D side-scrolling indie-like game from Studio Ghibli.  Child of Light is very artistically driven and focuses on an energy source presented in the form of a light orb that acts as the hero of the game’s essential helper (Navi from Ocarina of Time, anyone?).  The game will probably cost roughly $15 but could be an excellent pick up for those of you looking for something a little different.

May

• Wolfenstein: The New Order – MachineGames are back with the newest Wolfenstein entry – an FPS that needs little introduction and will be a great addition to both Xbox One and PS4 shooter libraries.  The game looks very promising from what we’ve seen so far, but what’s interesting is MachineGames having created parity with PS4, XB1, and PC platforms.  Perhaps certain resolutions will be available on PC that aren’t on XB1 or PS4, but MachineGames promised that both the XB1 and PS4 are running @ 1080p and 60 FPS, proving that good looking games can run just the same on the XB1 as they do on the PS4 if you have the right minds behind it learning the XB1 hardware and how it’s meant to be programmed for.
• Watch Dogs – Originally slated to be a launch title or near-launch title, Watch Dogs suffered set backs to make sure that console and PC variants all performed optimally and that all in-game content was properly constructed and fleshed out before releasing the product.  We’ve seen a bit of this with other titles like Destiny and the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall.  It seems publishers are becoming a hindrance on the quality and completion statuses of games but Watch Dogs has been one of the lucky few to delay since Ubisoft both develop and publish games with their multiple studios.  This technologically slick grand theft auto-inspired action game will have you combing over Chicago as a hacker vigilante and will probably be the best thing to hit consoles for the summer.

June

• The Elder Scrolls Online – Those with deep love for the world of Tamriel and previous Elder Scrolls games will be very interested to play ESO.  It blends the worlds of Morrowind, Skyrim and Oblivion into one giant map to explore and pushes the game into online territory with as MMORPG.  After playing the beta for PC it’s hard to get too excited about the game’s new ventures into multiplayer since the combat system is pretty weak compared to the precise systems of other MMOs (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, The Old Republic, Tera, etc.) but if you’re more into the story side of things and don’t care whether you’re with or without fellow adventurers, ESO may be an excellent find for you.  Perhaps some of the misses that have been found in the already-released PC version are attributed to the fact that Bethesda Soft, the series’ creator, didn’t make this game.
• E3 / Electronics Entertainment Expo – The Los Angeles, California trade show hosted annually is the biggest stage of them all when it comes to new games tech and games properties being shown off.  This year is going to be big for Microsoft as Phil Spencer, recently appointed head of Xbox (former Microsoft Studios head), has made it clear Microsoft intend to show off a lot of games to generate more excitement over the console.  There are a few yet-to-be-released games that were teased at last years E3 (Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5 to name a couple), but we fully expect to not only see more on those titles but a slew of new unannounced titles that are exclusive to Xbox One.  Several of these announcements could play into the fall/winter 2014-2015 season where other high-profile games are set to launch as well.

As it would seem, there isn’t a wealth of game choices coming out way.  There are a few other titles that will float onto the Xbox One, both indie-developed and movie adaptations (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), but to be honest the real fun will pick up again starting in September when Bungie’s highly anticipated Destiny finally launches.