Hideo Kojima, who has spearheaded the Metal Gear franchise at Konami for nearly thirty years, is expected to leave the company in December, following the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. The publisher has not commented on this matter specifically, but has issued a statement assuring that it will continue to work on the franchise.
“Konami will continue to develop and distribute top-quality content in the Metal Gear series following Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. We greatly anticipate and deeply appreciate your ongoing support for Metal Gear.”
It added: “As the next step in the series, Konami has already resolved to develop a new Metal Gear title. We will be conducting auditions for main staff to lead the development. Interested parties are encouraged to contact us to via the recruitment page of the Konami official website.”
A countdown timer tied to Halo 5: Guardians has gone live on Tumblr. Shared by Xbox senior public relations manager Rob Semsey on Twitter, the timer is set to expire on March 21, 6pm Pacific Time (March 22 at 1am UK, 12pm AU). The page features the image of a bullet embossed with the word “TRAITOR”, the hashtag “#HUNTtheTRUTH” and the Halo 5: Guardians logo.
The main menu theme for celebrated Xbox game Ori and the Blind Forest is now available as a free download by way of composer Gareth Coker’s official SoundCloud page. A streaming version of the track is embedded at the bottom of this post.
The full, 32-song soundtrack, meanwhile, is available to buy on iTunes and Amazon for $10.
“Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support of this beautiful game,” Coker wrote.
Ori and the Blind Forest was released March 10 for Xbox One. Xbox 360 and PC versions will follow.
The game received near-universal praise from critics upon release, with GameSpot’s Kevin VanOrd calling it a “rapturous platformer that is as fun as it is beautiful.”
2K Games and Turtle Rock Studios on Thursday announced that a host of new content is coming to monster-hunting game Evolve on March 31, including more playable characters, additional maps, the Observer mode, and more. A breakdown of what’s coming is below.
Available March 31:
Fourth playable Monster: Behemoth. Free for everyone who pre-ordered Evolve. Otherwise, players can buy the monster for $15 through the Monster Expansion Pack.
Four new playable Hunters: Included with the $25 Hunting Season Pass or $7.50 each.
Torvald — A Cyborg Assault character with a mortar cannon for an arm
Crow — A Trapper with a pet Batray for tracking Monsters
Slim — A genetically modified combat Medic
Sunny — A Support character equipped with a mini-nuke grenade launcher
Two free maps: The Broken Hill Mine and Broken Hill Foundry. These will launch first on Xbox One before they arrive on PC and PlayStation 4 on April 30.
Players who do not buy Behemoth or the new Hunters are still able to play against or alongside the new characters. 2K says this will add “depth and replayability for the entire Evolve community without dividing players based on what additional content they own.”
The digital download codes have been listed at a whole range of prices–from $1 starting bids, to $40 instant purchases–although the validity of some of the listings cannot be guaranteed. GameSpot has seen one such demo, from a vendor with high feedback ratings, sell for $35.
In December, Square-Enix explained that the only way to play the Final Fantasy XV demo is to purchase Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Even in this instance, the availability is limited to the first run of copies released.
The final Fantasy XV demo is set in the Duscae region, and offers at least one dungeon to explore. In the video above, GameSpot offers an hour-long demonstration, showcasing some of the foes and locations on offer. Players will also be given the opportunity to drive around the region, and as much as four hours of gameplay is said to be on offer.
Battlefield Hardline’s online multiplayer problems appear to have spread to the PlayStation 4 version, with a growing number of players reporting that they are unable to reach the game’s servers, and others stating that connections are unstable.
Yet one day later, reports have emerged on Reddit [1,2] and Twitter [1,2] suggesting that both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions are now struggling to connect online.
EA and developer Visceral have asked for patience and assure that its teams are looking into the matter. The official Battlefield Twitter account says an announcement will be made as soon as the problems are fixed.
We are aware of the ongoing #BFHardline connectivity issues. We’ve got our best on it and hope to resolve soon. Thanks for your patience.
EA’s previous message on Twitter, claiming that the server problems were caused by a DDoS attack, has been removed.
Battlefield Hardline shipped on Tuesday on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The response from critics has been mixed, with GameSpot’s Battlefield Hardline review highlighting many issues with the game’s AI, narrative, and challenge.
Giants Software has built the console version of Farming Simulator 15 on a new graphics and physics engine. Check out the first console edition screenshots in the gallery below.
Farming Simulator 15 tasks players with managing and developing their own farm. This includes harvesting resources and taking care of animals such as cows, chicken, and sheep. You’ll also need to sell your products and invest in more and better vehicles and power tools.
The game also includes a new activity: woodcutting, along with vehicles and tools dedicated to the craft. In all, Farming Simulator includes more than 140 vehicles and farming tools, including some that are exclusive to the console editions. Popular farming brands including New Holland, Ponsse, Case IH, Deutz-Fahr, MAN, and Liebherr are represented in the game.
Test your knowledge by playing our GameSpot Trivia Quiz below. The faster you answer the questions, the more points you will accumulate. Play against yourself, your friends or even a random opponent.
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Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell and business development lead Erik Johnson have revealed an insight into why the company decided to venture into the hardware space. Speaking on the GameSlice Podcast with Geoff Keighley, the duo’s discussion included topics such as Valve’s current state, Source 2, virtual reality, and the future of the company.
Newell described how Valve’s approach to branching out the experience of PC gaming led to the company looking to hardware.
“When you go back to the original Half-Life, we were all playing first-person action games… and it seemed like people were being kind of disrespectful toward gamers, that the attitude was that you could kind of trivialise what gamers would want in terms of how many barrels you put on a shotgun,” he said. “And we were like, well, that is fun, but it kind of misses the opportunity to think about the broader kinds of experiences that people could have. So we were gamers, we wanted more, the story, the narrative, and having the sense of it being part of the world. That’s what we were thinking about at the beginning of the company.”
The desire to create more for gamers led to the creation of digital distribution service Steam, Newell explained. “When we started working on Steam, it was kind of the same thing. Are there opportunities for us to provide, in that case services more than experiences, but can’t we be doing more that’s really trying to address what customers want,” he said. “We thought there were ways we could make the experience of being a PC gamer better by tackling those problems.”
“So in a sense, what we’re doing now with hardware really to us feels like an extension of that. Pick the problems that are of greatest significance to our customers in terms of continuing to improve that overall experience. We’d be happy to still be focused more narrowly just because it is a lot easier to continue to do the things you’ve done well, but we just reached a point where we thought we need to tackle some of these issues on the hardware side if we’re going to be able to continue to keep the PC gaming experience moving forward.”
A targeted DDoS attack on Xbox Live’s server infrastructure on Tuesday evening has disrupted Battlefield Hardline’s first day of release, with players reporting intermittent problems connecting to the game.
Publisher Electronic Arts says that the issue is, for now, limited to the Xbox One edition. At 8pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, the company wrote on Twitter that it was “aware of Battlefield Hardline connectivity issues” and hoped the matter would be resolved quickly.
Two hours later, however, it announced that the connection problems were the result of a targeted online attack and had not been resolved. It wrote: “We’ve identified the connectivity issues on Xbox One are due to DDoS attack and working to resolve. Apologies for the inconvenience.”
We’ve identified the connectivity issues on Xbox One are due to DDoS attack and working to resolve. Apologies for the inconvenience.
No further statements were made. While some users are still reporting connection problems, it appears this issue is not widespread.
Battlefield Hardline shipped on Tuesday on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The response from critics has been mixed, with GameSpot’s Battlefield Hardline review highlighting many issues with the game’s AI, narrative, and challenge.
