Author: dpugh007

(Some Of) The Big Stuff:

On Tuesday, Rockstar Games confirmed earlier rumors and officially announced that Grand Theft Auto V is getting a first-person mode. The mode, which will be available at the press of a button, will be available only on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC versions of the game. My oh my does it look impressive (see the screenshot above), and I cannot wait to try it out come November 18.

Just two months after Destiny’s release in September, publisher Activision announced on Tuesday that Bungie has already begun work on the “next full game” in the series. Unfortunately, no further details were shared, but a sequel is not much of a surprise, given the fact that Activision and Bungie’s contract spans an entire decade. Don’t expect the new game anytime soon, however, as Bungie hasn’t even released either of Destiny’s two DLC packs yet.

The Other Stuff (Stories We Like, But Didn’t Cover With a Standalone Post):

Think you’re good at Battlefield developer DICE’s 2008 free-running game Mirror’s Edge? You might be, but you’re probably not better than Twitch user Requiem720, who this week posted what is believed to be a new world record speed run. Requiem720 finished the game in 36:41, or 34:11 without loading screens. It’s darn impressive to watch–see the whole thing here.

1993’s Super Mario Bros. movie was universally panned, and now we might know why. Nintendo Life did a fascinating, in-depth interview with co-director Rocky Morton about the movie this week, and among other news nuggets revealed in it, is the fact that the movie underwent a last-minute re-write. “It got rewritten about two or three weeks before principal production, so by the time the script came in we were ready to shoot,” he explained in the fascinating interview. Read the full interview here.

Switching gears, here’s a story that will likely make you uber-jealous. Chinese gamer Wei “CaoMei” Han-Dong recently announced his retirement from professional League of Legends competition to stream games full-time. He’s now making an annual salary of over $800,000. Smart move, I’d say! The move is a welcome change for Han-Dong, who, as a pro League of Legends player, often only got around four hours of sleep per night, he says.

It sounds like PlayStation 4 racing game Driveclub is getting new tracks set in Japan. That’s according to a recent presentation for the game, where Evolution Studios–maybe accidentally–revealed Japan as one of the locations for future DLC. Whoops! In other Driveclub news, the game’s widespread and significant server issues are showing no signs of ending, with the free PlayStation Plus version of the game now officially on-hold indefinitely.

More video game industry executive shuffling this week, as social gaming giant Kabam announced on Monday that it has hired former Electronic Arts veteran Nick Earl to become its president of Global Studios. Earl will manage development of all of Kabam’s games, including those developed internally and through partnerships with Hollywood studios. Earl, a 20-year video game industry veteran, previously worked at EA as president of EA Mobile.

The PlayStation 4 is now the fastest-selling console in Australia of all-time, according to data released this week by the NPD Group (via IGN). As you might expect, the research group’s data also showed that the PS4 holds the title of the top-selling current-generation console in country, outperforming the Xbox One and Wii U.

The Xbox One is getting another high-profile app, as RealNetworks announced this week that its cloud-powered service RealPlayer Cloud will be available “soon” for Xbox One. Once it arrives, you’ll be able to watch your own personal videos on your TV. You’ll also be able to upload videos captured on Xbox One to your RealPlayer Cloud account.

The 88th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade later this month will feature not only a Pikachu balloon, but also one for Activision’s Skylanders series. Tune in Thanksgiving morning and you’ll see the character Eruptor flying high above New York City streets and avenues. To create Eruptor’s fire-like physique, artists used more than 40 gallons of fluorescent paint and five barrels of glitter, Activision said in a statement.

DRM-free digital distribution platform GOG announced this week that it has launched a French version of the website. It’s all part of a “long-term plan to make its services more accessible to non-English speaking customers all over the world. As part of the announcement, GOG is discounting 30+ French games as part of the weekend-long “Vive la France!” promotion–check out all the deals here.

Sony on Tuesday announced that it will serve as a partner for NBA Cares Hoops for Troops, a project led by the NBA, its teams, and players to support active members of the US Armed Forces and their families. As part of the campaign, the NBA and PlayStation (in association with the USO) will host Hoops for Troops service projects throughout the NBA season at military bases around the country. They will provide PS4 systems to soliders and install basketball hoops at the bases. Right on!

Remember that game Doodle Jump? The one you devoted way too much of your life to a few years ago? It’s still around, and this week, developer Lima Sky announced a partnership with Warner Bros. and DC to create Doodle Jump DC Super Heroes. It’s described as a “whimsical mashup” of Doodle Jump and DC, featuring the classic “jump ’em up” gameplay infused with Batman and other classic, well-known super heroes including Superman and Wonder Woman, as well as their nemeses. It’s out now for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Prepare yourself for even more Destiny products. Insight Editions announced this week that it had reached an agreement with developer Bungie to launch a new product line based on the shooter franchise, which we recently learned is getting a sequel. The new product line, which will start hitting shelves this month, will include things like a poster collection ($25/November 4); Hardcover blank journal ($18.95/November 18); and The Art of Destiny book ($45/November 25).

The latest creation from the epic folks at MAN AT ARMS is the Iron Helmet from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I don’t even know what else to say here–the amazing video you see above speaks for itself. Man, that’s awesome.

Ahead of the game’s release on November 13, Konami this week announced the artists who will appear on the soundtrack for professional soccer game Pro Evolution Soccer 2015. The soundtrack features songs from chart-topping artists such as Bastille, Avicii, Calvin Harris, Cold War Kids, American Authors, Imagine Dragons, Linkin Park, and Wilkinson. Nice!

Sega is remastering a bunch of games for 3DS, the company announced this week. The releases kick off in early 2015 with After Burner II, with more games to follow on a monthly basis. Other games being remastered for 3DS include 3D Fantasty Zone, 3D OutRun, 3D Fantasy Zone II, and 3D Thunder Blade. All games will sell for $5.99/€4.99/£4.49 and will be available to download from the eShop for 3DS.

Japanese game developer gumi, Inc. announced this week that it has opened a new office in Canada–which it is calling gumi Canada. The studio will focus on creating mobile games tailor-made for the North American market. The company also has announced that it has brought on former Capcom senior producer Chris Rowe to work as the company’s executive producer.

It’s not Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but a new guitar game is now available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in the form of Rocksmith 2014, which was released on Tuesday. In case you’re new to the Rocksmith series, unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero, in this game you can plug in a real guitar to use. The game comes with 50 songs right out of the gate, while Ubisoft also this week announced plans for a Jimi Hendrix pack in December that includes some of his biggest hits–Purple Haze, Foxey Lady, and The Wind Cries Mary are all there, don’t worry.

Here’s some good news for people who use Valve’s Source Engine modding applications such as Source Filmmaker and Garry’s Mod. 3D character creation and animation company Mixamo this week announced the release of a new download feature that will allow anyone creating a 3D character using the Fuse software and animating it using Animations to import their characters directly into Source Filmmaker and Garry’s Mod. “As far we know, we’re the first-ever 3D modeling and animation service to do so,” Mixamo CEO Stefano Corazza said.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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Overwatch was the surprise, team-based shooter announced at this year’s Blizzcon. But coming so soon on the heels of official word that the rumored MMO project Titan was cancelled, it’s only natural to assume that some portions of that game live on within Blizzard’s new title.

Earlier today, during the game’s reveal, Blizzard senior vice president of story and franchise development Chris Metzen had said that Overwatch shares a “spiritual continuity,” but that they are “pretty different.” He also described Titan as “kooky and ambitious.”

During a press conference for Overwatch later that same day, Metzen elaborated on those comments further. After answering a question about the connection between Titan and Overwatch, Metzen replied, “I’m not going to get into what [Titan] was going to be or what we wanted it to be. I can tell you what it was, in a way, it was frustrating. It was a big, giant idea; it was almost like six video games in one. It was the most ambitious game ever. It was fun to try to tackle it, and boy did we tackle it. We wrestled with it for a long time. And it sucked; we couldn’t figure it out. It makes you just [clenches his fist], we couldn’t crack it.

“Imagine this amazing team just frustrated. ‘Why can’t we do this?’ It’s trying to fret a chord and write the song. ‘We can’t write the song, why can’t it just sound awesome?’ Can’t find the harmony, whatever. And when we decided to go another way, like Jeff was saying, we’ve got this hook, ‘Why aren’t we doing that? We love that.’ And we decided to do it and, suddenly, ‘Boom!’ The music just exploded. And we started looking at [Overwatch] for what it was, and it unleashed this tidal wave of passion and certainty and distilled, clear ideas. And this world idea. It was just this monstrous thing of energy.

“It’s been the funnest year, getting our feet back under us, getting our surety back. That magnetic north thing, we found it again, and it feels good. It was part of that emotionality on the stage this morning. To some degree, we needed to get it back, and we found it. And I hope the people look at Overwatch as a very clever game. But I’ll tell you, under the hood, we needed this, just as developers to feel that lightning coursing through it again.”

Whatever Titan was, it’s clear that Overwatch took any potential, remnant ideas from that project in a new direction. And from what we’ve played so far Blizzard may be on to something with their first foray into the shooter genre. We took a deeper dive into the gameplay and offered up our initial impressions earlier today.

What do you think of Overwatch so far? Is this the kind of project you were hoping/expecting to see from Blizzard? Let us know in the comments.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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With November dominated by the likes of Call Of Duty and Assassin’s Creed, it falls to October to give us some lesser known–or at least less commercially colossal–gaming gems. Sure enough, this October was thick with new releases, including the likes of Lords of the Fallen, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, and the excellent NBA 2K15. The Xbox One in particular, seemingly shy of worthwhile exclusives, was gifted not one, not two, but three great games.

Forza Horizon 2 continued the series’ run of shiny 60fps visuals married to a compelling collection of meticulously modelled cars and tracks; Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved reminded us that yes, there are some great uses for Kinect outside of system voice commands; and Sunset Overdrive surprised everyone by being so gosh darn fun.

But October also saw the release of a game that will long be remembered as an absolute classic, the kind of the game that’s worth splurging on a new system for. Platinum Games’ Bayonetta 2 took everything that was great about its predecessor, gave it a colourful lick of paint, and then upped the crazy to wonderful new heights. Few games are as madcap from the outset as Bayonetta 2. Within moments of hitting start you’re hurtling towards the earth atop a crumbling slab of building fighting glittering golden angels, and then minutes later you’re on a jet fighter firing guns from your feet and laying bloody waste to horse-riding jousters with wings.

The action rarely lets up, each boss battle and set piece escalating towards a climax of epic proportions, all backed by a control system and feel that sets the benchmark for action-game combat. Finish Bayonetta 2 and you’ll want to play through it again, increasing the difficulty to master each of every one of Bayonetta’s gruesome, yet elegant combos, and to unlock some of the wonderful Nintendo easter eggs.

Bayonetta 2 is a game that must be experienced, and even if you have to beg, steal, or borrow to get a Wii U to play it on, trust me: it’s more than worth it.

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I know what you’re thinking: “Sure, I’m an average guy/gal that’s excited for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii, but I’m far too old and mature to be cluttering up my pristine pad with plastic frivolities.” This would be the wrong way to think about Nintendo’s NFC-enabled Amiibo toys for Super Smash Bros. When you first lay your eyes on Pikchu’s rose-cheeked face, and admire his perfectly zig-zagged tail, your heart will melt, your wallet will open, and you’ll wonder why you ever doubted the power of a two-inch-tall Nintendo toy.

But don’t take my word for it; all 12 of Nintendo’s Amiibo characters–which can be used to store a character’s progress, and have it instantly appear in a Smash Bros. match when placed on the gamepad–have landed in the GameSpot office, and have been unboxed and photographed for your personal perusal. So click on the photos below and join me in wondering what’s up with Samus’ gangster lean, why Animal Crossing Villager is a thing, and just what on earth Yoshi is supposed to be looking at. Oh, and if you’re wondering what the new Gamecube controller and Wii U adaptor looks like, we’ve got you covered there too.

Amiibos cost $12.99 each, and are set to launch alongside Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii on November 21. The new Gamecube controller costs $29.99, while the adaptor runs for $19.99.

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Today during the opening ceremony of Blizzcon 2014, Blizzard Entertainment announced that a new expansion for free-to-play card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will be released next month. Here’s a sneak peak at 30 new cards from the upcoming set of 120.

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