A version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown may be coming to the PlayStation Vita, evidence suggests. An entry on the Korean video game ratings board site (via All Games Beta) lists a recently released rating for a game titled XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus for the PlayStation Vita. The game was submitted by Take Two Interactive, the parent company of XCOM: Enemy Unknown publisher 2K Games.
Seen on Korean video game ratings site.
The title of the game hints at a tie-in with Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription service. GameSpot has reached out to publisher 2K Games for comment, and will update with any additional information.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was first released in 2012. An expansion pack, XCOM: Enemy Within, was released in the following year. A sequel titled XCOM 2 is currently being developed and is scheduled for release in November this year.
Role-playing game Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition will be getting an expansion titled Siege of Dragonspear, publisher Beamdog announced on a livestream today. The expansion will introduce seven new chapters and feature 70 new areas for players to explore. Dragonspear will also include a new class, the Shaman class, who can summon ghosts and cast druid spells.
Dragonspear will sport an entirely new user interface, with an improved journal system and combat health bars offered as an option. The game will also have two new difficulty settings; story mode, which was first introduced in the Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and allows players to go through the game’s story without too much challenging combat. The second mode is titled Legacy of Bhaal and is similar to the Heart of Fury mode which was featured in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, which adds what Beamdog described as an “all new level of challenge for veteran players.”
Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition was first released for PC in November 2012. As its name suggests, the game is a remake of 1998’s Baldur’s Gate. Earlier this year, Beamdog first teased that a new game in the Baldur’s Gate series was being worked on.
Siege of Dragonspear does not currently have a release date.
Ahead of Halo 5: Guardians‘ release later this year, Microsoft has released a version of the Halo Channel news and information app for iOS and Android devices. The free app is available now on iTunes and Google Play. A Windows Phone version will launch later this month when Windows 10 arrives.
Halo Channel for mobile devices sounds similar to the Xbox One and Windows 8 PC version that launched last year. The app aims to help Halo fans stay up-to-date with the extended Halo universe, offering news posts, original programming, and details about competitive gaming events.
In addition, Microsoft has announced that everyone who watches a video (just one) in the Halo Channel app will receive a “Promotional REQ Pack” for Halo 5. This includes a “special emblem” for the upcoming game.
People who have already watched Halo Channel videos on Xbox or PC aren’t being left out in the cold, as they will also receive this REQ Pack without any further effort on their part.
The Halo 5 emblem will be delivered to players when the game launches on October 27 for Xbox One. Microsoft did not share any images of the special emblem, so we’ll have to wait to find out what it looks like.
For a closer look at the new Halo Channel app, check out some images in the gallery below.
Harassment and verbal abuse sometimes occur in competitive online games. As a result, developers often try to monitor their games to reduce instances of harassment, to varying levels of success. Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, seems to have created a system that is very effective in significantly lowering the amount of racism, sexism, and homophobia that occurs in the game.
In an article on Recode, designer of social systems Jeffrey Lin described how the introduction of League’s “Tribunal” has greatly impacted the civility of matches in the game. The system works by giving players an open forum to report, view, and discuss instances of harassment in the game.
The Tribunal also allowed Riot to develop the ability to swiftly respond to reports from players about verbal abuse in a match. It can differentiate between sarcasm and malice, as well as respond to passive-aggressive comments. Consequences are tailored to the individual situations Some actions necessitate penalties, and others only trigger incentives to act better. The reporting is done by other players, giving them a voice in the proceedings.
As a result, instances of harassment have plummeted. As Lin explained, “Incidences of homophobia, sexism and racism in League of Legends have fallen to a combined 2 percent of all games. Verbal abuse has dropped by more than 40 percent, and 91.6 percent of negative players change their act and never commit another offense after just one reported penalty.”
This is great news for competitive games, which have often struggled with vitriolic online interactions. Hopefully the lessons learned by Riot’s efforts can be applied to other titles in the future.
Heroes Reborn, the upcoming continuation of NBC’s superhero drama series, has spawned tie-in video games for mobile devices and consoles.
Heroes Reborn: Gemini is a first-person action adventure game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game casts players as Cassandra, a new character that has the ability to manipulate time and use telekinesis, which she must use to overcome enemies and puzzles.
The mobile game, titled Heroes Reborn: Enigma, is developed for iOS and Android using Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, and follows Cassandra’s 14-year old sister Dahlia, who is trapped in a secret government facility known as The Quarry.
Both games are being developed by Phosphor Games, a Chicago-based studio that has previously worked on tie-in games for Man of Steel and World War Z.
The studio also developed WWE Immortals, as well as original titles Horn and The Dark Meadow.
A trailer for both games is expected to be shown on July 12 at NBC’s Heroes panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
Heroes Reborn picks up where the 2006 series left off and will “reconnect with the basic elements of the show’s first season,” which shot to popularity by depicting normal people awakening inner superpowers.
The show’s story begins shortly after a terrorist attack in Texas, which the government is blaming on super-humans. As a result of this, powered people have been exiled and forced to live in hiding. The show focuses on a number of characters as they try to uncover the truth of the attack, or seek revenge for lost loved ones.
Heroes Reborn is scheduled to begin airing on September 24, with returning cast members such as Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura) and Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet) starring.
The publisher previously announced a special edition of the game for all consoles–expect the 3DS–called the Dark Edition. On the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, this special edition includes a dark version of the Spitfire, Hot Streak, and Stealth Elf Skylanders.
The Wii and Wii U, meanwhile, each have their own exclusives. On the Wii U, the edition comes with Spitfire and Hot Streak, as well as the dark version of Turbo Charge Donkey Kong, the Amiibo/Skylander crossover figure. It also comes with a dark version of the Barrel Blaster, Donkey Kong’s Skylanders vehicle.
On Wii, in addition to Spitfire and Hot Streak, you’ll get the dark version of Hammer Slam Bowser and his vehicle, the Clown Cruiser.
These versions are in addition to the regular starter packs, which come with normal colorings of all the figures. As a result, if you really want every Amiibo, you’ll have to get the normal and Dark editions of the game for both Wii and Wii U.
Skylanders: Superchargers Dark Edition will cost you $100, while the normal version costs $75. On 3DS and iPad, the game is priced at $65 and comes with the normal versions of the figures.
The game launches on September 20 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, 3DS, and iPad.
ZombiU, the Wii U-exclusive zombie game from Ubisoft, has been rated on the Taiwanese rating boards for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, once again suggesting the title is set to be re-released.
Twitter user lifelower found the rating and box art of the game on the Taiwanese website. As expected, the rating calls the game “Zombi,” most likely because the “U” in the original title refers to the Wii U.
Giving strength to rumours of its Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release are comments from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemont, who stated in 2013 that the game was not profitable for the company. Plans for a sequel were also reportedly canceled following poor performance on Nintendo’s console.
Considering that ZombiU was received well by critics, it would make sense that Ubisoft would want to make more money on the game on other potentially more lucrative platforms.
Ubisoft has yet to officially announce the game for other platforms. Keep an eye on GameSpot for all news about Zombi as it becomes available.
Lara Croft will have believable-looking hair that is capable of reacting to water and snow in Rise of the Tomb Raider, developer Crystal Dynamics has announced. Thanks to improvements to the game’s use of TressFX technology, which is developed alongside AMD, the studio has been able to make new strides in “hair tech” for the upcoming Xbox One game.
“We definitely believe the hair technology we developed with AMD was a foundation for the way we believe hair will be rendered in the future video game graphics,” game director Brian Horton said on the official Tomb Raider Tumblr. “And, as pioneers of this–there’s not many people to look at for reference other than films–we have been pushing that technology to find ways to make it even better.”
“The hair is now in clusters, so the way hair naturally falls is that hair wants to be next to a adjacent hairs that create shapes. Now, the hair splines can follow these guide hairs and these formerly physics-grown hairs, so it feels a little bit more natural when it moves,” he added.
One specific hair-themed improvement for Rise of the Tomb Raider is a new “zero-gravity” effect for underwater scenes. Horton explains: “When she goes underwater, her hair will float and it’s important- when it comes out of the water–it will feel heavier and feel more clumped and obviously look wet and darker.”
Horton also reveals that, during Rise of the Tomb Raider’s snowy scenes, Lara’s hair will accumulate snow.
The 2013 Tomb Raider reboot did not feature the new TressFX hair technology, but it was later made available for the PC version, along with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Definitive Edition. Below is a comparison, but note that this is for the 2013 game, not Rise of the Tomb Raider.
“We really try to look for landmark people who have been pivotal to gaming culture to open our event, so you can understand why we are thrilled to have her at Prime this year,” organizers said in a statement.
Previous PAX keynote speakers have included Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton, BioShock creator Ken Levine, and Fable designer Peter Molyneux, among others.
“We can’t wait to hear the stories and insight she will share at Prime this year,” PAX said.
Organizers also announced this year’s concert lineup. The following performers and bands will play at PAX Prime, which runs August 28-September 1 in Seattle, Washington.
Sony has “completely redesigned” the PlayStation Now app on PlayStation 4, giving it a major makeover in an overall effort to make it more visually appealing and easier to navigate and discover new games.
PlayStation Now is Sony’s game streaming service that originally launched last year.
The new PlayStation Now UI features sections of games filtered by theme. What’s more, game pages have been beefed up and now feature more in-depth descriptions, along with new images and videos.
There are currently more than 125 PlayStation 3 games on PlayStation Now, and the service is growing further in July. Sony normally adds five new games to the platform per month, but, to mark the UI makeover, the company has added six to the service this month. This month’s “bonus” game is Resistance 3.
Below are PlayStation Now’s six new games for July, which you can rent individually or through the platform’s subscription plan.
