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Category: Gamespot

  • Skyrim PC Update Brings Welcome Mod Improvements

    Skyrim PC Update Brings Welcome Mod Improvements

    The Asteria Dwemer Airship mod

    Bethesda has announced the details of a new update for the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This update is centered around the game’s mod support, and more specifically, addressing some old Steam Workshop quirks.

    The changes are few in number, but Skyrim mod users will be pleased. First, the Creation Kit no longer has a file size limit for Steam Workshop mods. This means you’ll no longer have to venture outside of Steam for mods larger than 100 MB, as has been the case since Skyrim was released in 2011. This could also make installation of those larger mods easier, as Steam Workshop typically handles the entire process.

    Also changed is the way mods are downloaded. You’ll no longer need to open up the Skyrim launcher in order to begin mod downloads; everything will be handled right through Steam. In other words, this should do away with those times you take a few weeks (or months, or years) off from the game, open it up, and find that dozens of mod updates need to be downloaded because the Steam client wasn’t allowed to manage them. It’s an annoyance I know that I’ve dealt with more than once.

    Before this update is released to the masses, it’s being beta tested “this week,” according to the Bethesda blog. You can access the beta updates for yourself by following the steps below.

    • Log into Steam
    • Click on your game Library.
    • Right click on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and select Properties.
    • Click on the Betas tab, and from the drop down select beta – Skyrim Beta
    • Next from Library, access Tools from the drop down.
    • Right click on Creation Kit and select Properties.
    • Click on the Betas tab, and from the drop down select beta – Creation Kit Beta
    • Steam will now restart. After Steam restarts, Skyrim will be updated to the Beta version currently available.

    If you’re new to the world of Skyrim modding, check out GameSpot’s Top 5 Skyrim Mods video series. You can find the latest episode below.

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  • How to Claim Free Xbox One Games With Gold Titles From Xbox 360

    How to Claim Free Xbox One Games With Gold Titles From Xbox 360

    Xbox Live Gold members who don’t yet own an Xbox One can still claim its free Games With Gold titles every month so that they have access to them if they do eventually get their hands on the system. This isn’t new, but Microsoft has now made doing so possible right from an Xbox 360.

    The process for claiming Xbox One games is simple: Go to the Games With Gold section in the Xbox 360’s dashboard, scroll to the left, select the “Free on Xbox One” option, and make the free purchase. It takes only a few seconds, as evidenced by the Major Nelson walkthrough video below.

    Previously, Xbox 360 owners wanting to claim the month’s free Xbox One games had to do so through the Xbox website. It’s a small new option, but an appreciated one nonetheless.

    For the month of March, you can grab both IDARB and Rayman Legends for Xbox One, as well as Tomb Raider for Xbox 360 (and, later this month, BioShock Infinite). The Xbox One games remain yours for as long as you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, while the Xbox 360 games are yours forever.

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  • Here's When the Marth Amiibo Will Be in Stock Again

    Here's When the Marth Amiibo Will Be in Stock Again

    You’ll soon have the opportunity to add Fire Emblem‘s Marth to your Amiibo collection without paying more than Nintendo intended.

    Nintendo of America announced on Twitter today that more Marth figures will be available in stores “in late April.” An exact date wasn’t offered, but that provides us with a much more specific idea of when to expect it than the previous window of “later this year.”

    April remains unfortunately late for those hoping to use Marth with Code Name: STEAM when it releases this month. Several characters from developer Intelligent Systems’ Fire Emblem series–Marth, Ike, Lucina, and Robin–will unlock corresponding characters for use in STEAM. (The Ike figure was released last month, with Robin and Lucina set for launch this spring.)

    Marth was among the first wave Amiibo figures to quickly sell out in North America, making it all but impossible to find without turning to resellers on sites like eBay. Meanwhile, some figures that appeared to be available in much greater quantities have had their prices slashed.

    Nintendo acknowledged in January that Marth figures were difficult to find and promised to restock them at some point in 2015. Since then, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has spoken further about when it will restock figures.

    “It is difficult for us to promise to continuously ship all of the Amiibo figures,” he said last month. “We will, however, consider additional production in cases such as when an Amiibo figure sells out shortly after launch, an Amiibo is indispensable to play a certain game, and when we receive a lot of requests for an Amiibo figure from consumers and retailers.”

    Marth would appear to tick all of those boxes, so even without the earlier promise of a restock, today’s announcement isn’t much of a surprise.

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  • Wii U Exclusive Stealth Inc 2 Coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC

    Stealth Inc 2, the puzzle-platform game that released in late October as a Wii U exclusive, is set to release soon on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PS3, PS Vita, and PC.

    The shift to other consoles is due by April, suggesting that the exclusivity agreement with Nintendo lasted about six months. Curve Digital, the game’s London based developer, turned heads in May when it announced it was backing the Wii U as the rest of the industry was turning away from the system.

    “The good thing about releasing on Nintendo is, you’re not competing with a lot of other people,” Curve Studios’ Marketing Manager Rob Clarke told Gamespot at the time.

    “Even as an indie publisher we always fight with AAA for space on the storefront. With Nintendo, we know they’re gonna support us. We also know that we’re not having to compete with, say, Watch Dogs for example.”

    The original Stealth Inc impressed most critics, with GameSpot’s review declaring it “a tightly crafted and incredibly rewarding adventure through a dark dystopia.” The sequel, meanwhile, has also garnered a positive response.

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  • Watch the First Trailer for Trine 3

    Developer Frozenbyte has announced Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power.

    Like the previous games in the series, Trine 3 will let you solve physics-based puzzles with friends or alone by switching between a number of characters, each with its own unique ability. As you can see in the trailer above, the game will see the return of its three main characters, the thief, knight, and wizard.

    Unlike the other previous Trine games, which had beautiful 3D graphics but we’re played on a 2D plane, Trine 3 looks like it will feature fully 3D segments, allowing you to move into the level’s foreground and background.

    A third installment in the series makes sense when you consider that, to date, Frozenbyte has sold 7 million copies of the Trine games.

    Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is coming in 2015. Frozenbyte didn’t announce platforms, but previous Trine games were released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

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  • Sonic Dev Isn't Done With Consoles, Despite Sega's Shift

    Sega’s longstanding mascot Sonic still has a place on consoles, one key developer of the franchise has said, following previous statements from the publisher which suggest it will be redirecting its focus to PC and mobile.

    Takashi Iizuka, the head of the Tokyo based studio Sonic Team, made the assurance in an interview with 4Gamer amid suggestions that Sega was ready to abandon consoles altogether.

    “Please rest assured, I personally have no plans to stop making Sonic games for home consoles,” Iizuka told 4Gamer.

    Iizuka was, however, speaking personally about his own ambitions. It is still not certain whether Sega would green-light new Sonic projects for consoles.

    In January, Sega revealed that it is reducing headcount, relocating its San Francisco office, and focusing on mobile and PC games in a bid to “drastically improve profitability.”

    It was implied here, but not explicitly confirmed, that Sega was more-or-less finished with the console games business. In February, financial documents revealed that Sega’s major push on console games had fallen short of expectations.

    The struggling publisher, which formed in the 1940s and shifted its business into video games by the late ’80s, told investors that it would reposition its business around “smartphone and PC online gaming.”

    Sega’s statement came amid the release of Sonic Runners, the first smartphone game in the series developed by Sonic Team. For now, the iOS and Android autorunner is only available in Canada as part of a test launch.

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  • UK Games Chart: Dying Light Overcomes Delay With First-Place Debut

    First-person zombie survival title Dying Light has debuted at the top of the all-format UK games charts, despite a month-long delay to its physical release.

    The game first released in the US on January 27, and was scheduled to ship across Europe on the same week. However, a major distribution error meant the game’s physical release across the continent was delayed to February 27. The digital edition for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC was not affected by the delay.

    Despite the digital edition’s month on the market (sales of which are not counted), Dying Light nevertheless managed to outsell all competition and land at first in the all-format top ten.

    This marks the third new number one in as many weeks, with The Order: 1886 and Evolve both debuting at first. It’s also another success for the independent Poland studio Techland, perhaps best known for its 2011 zombie title Dead Island.

    Elsewhere in the charts, Sony’s The Order: 1886 drops to forth amid a vacuum of post-release buzz. Meanwhile, the cross-platform action game Dragon Ball XenoVerse managed to jump to third place.

    One other new entrant, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, enters at 21.

    The full top ten follows:

    1. Dying Light
    2. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
    3. Dragon Ball XenoVerse
    4. The Order: 1886
    5. Grand Theft Auto 5
    6. FIFA 15
    7. Far Cry 4
    8. Evolve
    9. Minecraft Xbox Edition
    10. Minecraft PlayStation Edition

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  • Skylanders And Disney Infinity Helped Make Amiibo Successful in The West, Says Nintendo

    Skylanders And Disney Infinity Helped Make Amiibo Successful in The West, Says Nintendo

    Nintendo has attributed the success of its Amiibo figures in the West partly to Activision’s Skylanders and Disney’s Disney Infinity toys-to-life franchises, according to president Satoru Iwata. Speaking during Nintendo’s end of 2015 fiscal year earnings call, Iwata answered questions about the regional disparity for Amiibo sales and their attach rates to compatible games.

    “When it comes to the figure and video game entertainment category, there are two existing franchises: Activision released Skylanders four years ago, and Disney released Disney Infinity two years ago… However, before we actually launched Amiibo, the number of consumers who were aware of the overall concept of this product category, namely, toy figures are lined up on a store shelf in the video game section and when you buy and use it with a game, something very fun would happen, differed greatly in Japan from the rest of the world,” Iwata said.

    According to the Nintendo president, the United States in particular had already established a large toys-to-life market, whereas the category had “yet to show results in [Japan].” Iwata also revealed that Japanese distributors had initially dismissed Amiibo toys as being “a little too big in size” and too costly for a figure in the Japanese market. Despite this, Nintendo decided to go ahead and launch the Amiibo we see today, saying it was “most appropriate for the global market.”

    Iwata also revealed that Nintendo has been “testing various forms of Amiibo other than plastic figures” in addition to the card-format Amiibo products which were first announced in October last year during an earnings call.

    Over 5.7 million Amiibo figures have been sold since the toys were launched last year. Nintendo recently lowered the suggested retail price for select Amiibo figures, down to $9.99 from $12.99. A new wave of Amiibo is expected to be released this month and includes Charizard, Pac-Man, Lucina, and more.

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  • If You Like Descent, Watch This Trailer for 6DoF Shooter Sublevel Zero

    If you miss Descent’s aerial first-person gameplay, you’ll want to keep an eye out for Sublevel Zero, a new six-degree-of-freedom shooter.

    If you haven’t played Descent before, it’s a lot like other straightforward first-person shooters from the ’90s, only you’re in a spaceship, so you’re able to fly around the level, stop on a dime, turn in any direction, and change course very quickly.

    Developer Sigtrap describes the game as a roguelike shooter set in a universe where reality is falling apart. You’ll take control over a gunship and travel through a procedurally-generated labyrinth, solving puzzles, collecting artifacts, and fighting enemies. The developer added that the game is focused on survival, with little ammunition that will make you carefully approach every enemy encounter.

    “Sublevel Zero has been inspired by our favorite games of our formative years like Descent, Forsaken and modern shooters like Teleglitch,” Sigtrap designer Luke Thompson said.

    Sublevel Zero will launch summer 2015 for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux.

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  • Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena Mixes Twin Stick Shooters and MOBAs

    Games Workshop and developer Whitebox Interactive have announced Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena, a new multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

    Whitebox Interactive describes the game as a blend of the twin stick shooter and MOBA genres. Players will go into battles in teams of four, choosing “Veteran warriors” from the Space Marine, Ork, and Tay factions. Players will also be able to customize their characters with different wargrear and special abilities. Eldar, Dark Eldar, Chaos Space Marines and other factions you’ll recognize from the original tabletop game or many of its video game adaptations will be added to Dark Nexus Arena in the future.

    Whitebox Interactive says that it’s been working on the game since 2012, even before it officially partnered with Games Workshop, which owns the right to Warhammer 40,000.

    “We are thrilled to be working with Games Workshop to launch the first MOBA in the Warhammer 40,000 universe,” CEO of Whitebox Interactive Jonathan Falkowski said. “We are hard-core MOBA players with a shared passion for the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property here at Whitebox. Our aim is to deliver a highly-polished experience that a player of any skill level can step into and find success and enjoyment.”

    Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus is set to launch on PC in 2016.

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