Author: dpugh007

A new update for the Pandora Xbox One app will unlock background music support, giving users yet another option to listen to music while they play games or use other apps.

Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra said the update for the music-streaming service’s app that introduces this functionality will be released “over the next 24 hours.” His message was posted around 7 PM last night.

The Xbox One update that came out in early August unlocked background music support. However, at the start, this was only possible through apps made by other developers, not Microsoft itself or even big-name music-streaming companies. The Xbox One app for Microsoft’s Groove Music service was updated earlier this month to feature background music support.

After Ybarra tweeted about the Pandora update, someone immediately asked if there would be support for Spotify sometime down the road. Ybarra did not reply.

Spotify partnered with Sony to launch PlayStation Music, which replaced Music Unlimited in 2015. PlayStation Music supports background music–and it’s very popular, apparently. It is possible that the Xbox One could get a Spotify app someday, but no plans have been announced.

Like Spotify, you can listen to music for free on Pandora, though there will be ads. You can also pay a monthly fee to zap the ads and get other perks as well. Read more about Pandora at its website.

Do you use the Xbox One’s background music feature? Let us know in the comments below.

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Gran Turismo Sport has been delayed into 2017, developer Polyphony Digital has announced. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, studio founder Kazunori Yamauchi said the team needs “more time to perfect GT Sport.”

“We’ve already dedicated so much effort towards since announcing the title,” he said. “We do not want to compromise the experience in any way. While we cannot confirm a new release date at this time, we are more committed than ever to making GT Sport the best Gran Turismo game to date.”

According to Yamauchi, Gran Turismo Sport is one of Polyphony’s most ambitious undertakings, owing to the use of the “latest technologies, such as physics-based rendering and sound simulations.”

This, along with the Sports mode designed to emphasise the competitive nature of the game, is the studios attempt to “truly reinvent what it means to be a racing game.”

Although GT Sport has been delayed, the game will still be shown at upcoming events. Sony is scheduled to hold a PlayStation Event on September 7, where it is expected to reveal the PlayStation Neo and a PlayStation 4 Slim. Gran Turismo Sport could also be one of the games shown, though this hasn’t been confirmed.

The game will feature a two-year-long championships that players will be able to participate in. This will culminate in a ceremony where winners will celebrate alongside real-world racing champions.

Gran Turismo Sport will be released exclusively on the PlayStation 4 and is being developed to support PlayStation VR.

On May 20, it was announced that the Gran Turismo Sport beta had been cancelled. Delivering a beta requires as much work as completing work on the full game, according to Yamauchi. As a result, Polyphony decided to scrap the beta and focus on launching the full game in 2016. It is unclear if plans for the beta have changed, given the delay.

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Star Citizen continues to grow and evolve.

Developer Cloud Imperium Games announced this week that it launched a “major” new update to the in-development PC game in the form of Alpha 2.5. This update includes “significant changes” to the game’s Crusader persistent universe environment, while it also adds the Grim HEX pirate base and three ships. There are also balance tweaks and bug fixes included with the update.

The Grim HEX outlaw base sounds pretty cool. It’s where those operating outside the law can meet up and purchase weapons and items, among other things.

“There’s plenty to discover at Grim HEX, including a pair of stores: Skutters is a guns and armor shop with a focus on energy weapons, and KC Trending is a new clothing store with unique merchandise, but that’s only the beginning. Grim HEX will continue to expand with future patches with the addition of a bar, criminal missions and outlaw racing area,” Cloud Imperium said in a blog post.

Additionally, the arrival of the Grim HEX pirate base will have an effect on Star Citizen’s faction and reputation system. This is because, with the update applied, players who decide to break the law will now spawn at Grim HEX instead of with everyone else. Additionally, lawbreakers are losing the ability to use Quantum Travel to reach Port Olisar as part of this update.

“Grim HEX is located deep in the Yela asteroid belt, and you’ll need to explore the region yourself to locate it. Or, just ask an outlaw… they’re a trustworthy sort!” the developer said.

Alpha 2.5 also adds Star Citizen’s first version of its ship landing system that aims to offer a “simple and smooth automated landing system AND gives players the ability to land manually.”

In the future, the landing system will be improved and will feature things like docking and the ability to ask and attain landing authorization through in-game communication.

These are just a sampling of the changes for Star Citizen with the Alpha 2.5 update. Be sure to read this in-depth blog post and the full patch notes to get up to speed with everything the update introduces.

For more on Star Citizen, check out GameSpot’s interview with creator Chris Roberts about the upcoming 3.0 update. This piece is called, “How Star Citizen Plans to Do Much of What No Man’s Sky Doesn’t.”

Star Citizen is the most successful crowdfunded project of any kind in history. The latest numbers show that people have pitched in more than $122 million to help make the game a reality.

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Fallout 4‘s Nuka-World expansion, the last add-on for the celebrated RPG, launches today, August 30. The content, which is set in a post-nuclear amusement park called Nuka-World, sells for $20 on its own. It is also included with the $50 DLC pass, which gets you all the other expansions.

You might also be wondering how to access Nuka-World’s new content and quests. Thankfully, Bethesda has posted instructions in its forums. The first thing you should do is ensure your version of Fallout 4 is updated to 1.7 and that you have the content installed. You’ll also want to be level 30 or higher.

Here are the rest of the instructions, as written by Bethesda:

1. From the main title screen, confirm that you have Nuka-World added and INSTALLED.
2. Load up a saved game.
3. If you are a Level 30 character or higher, you should receive the “All Aboard” questline automatically. This questline requires you to listen to Nuka-Cola Family Radio for further instructions.”
4. If you are not Level 30 or higher, you can explore on your own to find the “Nuka-World Transit Center” and start the content. This location is far to the west on the map, outside of the original playable area… it can be located by following the more northerly of the two highways leading off of the west edge of the map. Some nearby Map Markers from the original game are “Lonely Chapel,” and “Federal Ration Stockpile,” these locations are just a bit to the east of the new “Nuka-World Transit Center” location.

Fallout 4’s other expansions included Automatron (March 2016), Wasteland Workshop (April 2016), Far Harbor (May 2016), Contraptions Workshop (June 2016), and Vault-Tec Workshop (July 2016). All of that, as well as Nuka-World, is included with the $50 Fallout 4 DLC Pass.

Fallout 3 received a Game of the Year edition that included the base game and all DLC. It remains to be seen if Bethesda will release something similar for Fallout 4, but it seems likely.

Are you going to jump back into Fallout 4 this week to play Nuka-World? Let us know in the comments below!

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11 Bit Studios, the team behind survival game This War of Mine, has revealed its next title: Frostpunk. Like This War of Mine, it will test the morality of players by placing them in extreme circumstances and manipulating their need to survive.

“In a completely frozen world, people develop steam-powered technology to oppose the overwhelming cold. Society in its current form becomes ineffective and it has to change in order to survive,” the official website states.

“What does this change mean? What is culture when morality stands in the way of existence? Think about how survival may, in the end, leave us different beings. Whether worse, better, stronger, weaker or, last but not least, more or less humane–that is debatable.”

Check out the trailer below.

According to the website, more info about Frostpunk will be revealed “soon.” The game is scheduled for launch in 2017.

In GameSpot’s This War of Mine review, Justin Clark awarded it an 8/10, saying it is “a longform exercise in empathy, a sobering piece of work that fills in the blanks left when all we see of war are the headshots.”

He continued: “It’s a much-needed course correct in the current shoot-first-ask-questions-never gaming landscape that supposes war is won because one supreme badguy caught a bullet through his brainstem. No: It’s won when the people who lived under his boot get to go home.”

11 Bit Studios has released a console version called This War of Mine: The Little Ones for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes the top spot on the UK sales chart for the week ending August 30. However, as noted by sales monitor Chart-Track, the previous game in the series, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, had a “much stronger” debut.

Chart-Track continues to say Human Revolution launched “to a market with close to double the current installed base” the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have. This likely contributes significantly to the difference in sales numbers.

Further down the chart Madden NFL 17 makes its debut at No.5, while racing title Assetto Corsa arrives at No.8. Attack on Titan Wings of Freedom, developed by Dynasty Warriors studio Omega Force and published by Koei, lands at No.10 in its first week on sale.

You can see the full top 10 in the list below. This table does not include digital sales data, and thus should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.

1. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
2. F1 2016
3. No Man’s Sky
4. Overwatch
5. Madden NFL 17
6. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
7. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
8. Assetto Corsa
9. Grand Theft Auto V
10. Attack on Titan Wings of Freedom

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