Tactical role-playing game The Banner Saga 2 was announced at The Game Awards this weekend. Developed by independent game studio Stoic, it is a sequel to The Banner Saga and takes place after the events of the first game.
No mention of platform or release date was made during the announcement. GameSpot has an exclusive first-look at several screenshots the game, and you can check them out below.
Click the thumbnails to view the full-sized image.
A new game in the God of War series is in development at Sony Santa Monica, the studio’s Creative Director Cory Barlog let slip today at the PlayStation Experience event in Las Vegas.
Barlog confirmed that the game was in development in response to a question from a fan during the God of War retrospective panel. According to a tweet from Santa Monica Studio’s official account, he probably wasn’t supposed to.
According to a report from IGN, Barlog said the game was definitely not going to be a prequel, but it might be a reboot for the series. Barlog also said the game is very early in development, and that he hoped to share more in the next year or two.
During a Bloodborne panel today at the PlayStation Experience, the game’s director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, went even more in-depth than the keynote earlier in the day.
Here’s a quick run-down of a few of Miyazaki’s notes from the panel:
Over 10 maps in the world.
Each map is unique with it’s own “situation.”
The Chalice dungeon is a multi-layered map located in the city’s lower levels
Procedurally generated, but massive, spanning the entire underground area of the city.
Each area in the underground has a holy chalice; finding that allows you to break the seal and access another section.
By multi-layer, that means there are three layers to present different surprises and traps to widen the game’s strategy
After generating your dungeon through the Holy Chalice ritual, it stays fixed. That allows players the opportunity to master each dungeon while still providing “fresh and interesting” experiences.
Assume the difficulty level of the dungeons is high. They won’t be easy to breeze through.
Like Demon’s Souls, the focus on is on the sense of accomplishment and achievement after clearing a dungeon.
Increase the scale of sharing. Players will be able to share generated dungoens and the methods they used to complete them. You can narrow those down to specific communities or just a close group of friends.
The Chalice Dungeon isn’t tied into the main story; it’s optional.
And points from the Q&A:
Character customization will be about on level with Dark Souls II, but there will also be some unique features. As an action-RPG, it’ll have everything “to be expected from an RPG.”
The team is working to keep the game running at the highest frame rate they can, and the final specifications will depend on what works best for the experience.
There is PvP in the game.
There might be something along the lines of the fight in Dark Souls II where you took on the role of a boss and fought against another player.
The concept of dying and Hollowing from Demon’s/Dark Souls will exist in some form in Bloodborne as well.
The dungeon you saw during the keynote was made for the presentation; the actual dungeons will be much larger and more complex.
The boss characters are also part of the randomly generated element.
The PlayStation 4 is getting limited edition faceplates that will let you personalize your console, Sony announced today via the PlayStation Blog.
Codenamed Project SkyLight, the initiative will start with an early preview that includes two limited edition faceplated designs for the PS4, each for $25:
The Order: 1886 – featuring a shot of the Knights from the third-person shooter.
Sony said it plans on adding more options to choose from when the program launches in full in the future, and that it wants to know which designs fans would like to see.
“We hope you’ll enjoy these two custom faceplates. We are planning on launching new faceplate designs in the near future so check back often,” Sony said. “We are also planning a few other fun enhancements to this personalization initiative and will have more to share soon.”
Finally, Sony said that it’s making these faceplates in very small quantities, so if you want one you should probably get it before it’s gone.
[UPDATE] Within minutes of going live, the limited edition PlayStation 4’s seem to have sold out on the site. Attempting to add the time to your cart now returns an error (though the button allowing you to pre-order is currently still active). A note on the order page reads, “We appreciate your interest, but we will have no more inventory. Apologies for the inconvenience.”
Were you able to nab one before they got bought up?
The original story appears below.
You can now buy Sony’s 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 system, which will be limited to only 12,300 units worldwide.
Sony announced that you can preorder the console from its store for $500 following its keynote presentation at the PlayStation Experience event in Las Vegas today. If you really want it, you should probably hurry up because Sony said that there is a very limited quantity.
Those who attended the PlayStation Experience event and were lucky enough to get a gold bracelet had an early chance to preorder the special console.
All 20th Anniversary edition PS4s come with an individually marked manufacturing number, letting you know which of the 12,300 units you received. The store page says that the console should ship out on December 21.
Sony made a ton of announcements during its keynote today. To catch up, head here.
According to an Infoscout study, the Xbox One dominated the rival PlayStation 4 on Black Friday in the United States. According to the study, Xbox One made up 53 percent of all consoles sold in stores on Black Friday while the PlayStation 4 came in second 31 percent. The Xbox 360 came in third with 9 percent (giving Microsoft a total of 62 percent of sales), Nintendo Wii U at 6 percent, and PS3 at 1 percent. Which console did you buy on Black Friday?
Another leak out of French publisher Ubisoft this week. A tipster revealed to Kotaku tons of exciting details about 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Victory. The game is set in Victorian Era London, and is said to feature a new grappling hook which could have a huge impact on gameplay in the annualized series. Ubisoft basically confirmed the leak, releasing a statement saying it is disappointed that the non-final assets leaked.
The Other Stuff (Stories We Like, But Didn’t Cover With a Standalone Post):
Asher Vollmer, creator of mobile hit Threes!, this week announced his next game. It’s called Close Castles, and it’s coming to PlayStation platforms such as PS3, PS4, and PlayStation Vita. It’s a cute-looking RTS that aims to fix all the problems with RTSes for consoles. That’s a big promise! You can read more about the game here.
Peter Molyneux of Fable fame has announced that his new mobile game, Godus, is now available for Android devices. If you need a refresher, Godus is a god game in the vein of Populous (which Molyneux created), that tasks players will wielding absolute power to determine the fate of the world’s inhabitants.
Looks like the rumors were right. Chair Entertainment’s epic mobile game, Infinity Blade, appears to be on its way to the Xbox One, at least in China. The first video footage of the Xbox One version arrived this week, showing off how players can use Kinect to control the action. We’re still awaiting official confirmation, but it looks very, very likely at this point.
Microsoft’s open-ended sandbox hit Minecraft this week added an official Dennis the Menace mod. That was a strange sentence to write. It’s an officially sanctioned mod, approved by publisher DC Thomson, and featuring not only Dennis, but also his dog Gnasher, and of course, Dennis’ nemesis, Walter. To learn more, check out the trailer above or read this story from The Guardian.
Could threatening to kill someone online, as is a frequent occurrence on Twitter and other social media platforms, soon lead to real jail time? That’s one of the questions the United States Supreme Court is tackling this week as part of a case stemming from 2010. You can read all about it here.
Hey Red Faction fans, this one’s for you. New series owner Nordic Games–which purchased the game rights from THQ after it collapsed–this week released Red Faction: Guerrilla on Steam. After a month of beta testing, the game is available today through Valve’s digital distribution platform. Of course, Games for Windows Live is no longer required, but Nordic has also added a number of new features, including Steam Trading Cards, achievements for DLC, various stability improvements, and Russian, Polish, and Czech Localization. Best of all? It’s on sale now for $3.
PC peripheral company Razer announced today that Gideon Yu, former Facebook and YouTube CFO, has joined the company’s board of directors. Yu is also the co-owned and former president of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
Tough times at mid-tier developer Majesco, as the publisher has laid off a number of staff following a troubling earnings report just last month. One affected developer is Casey Lynch, who was behind Midnight City, Majesco’s indie publishing arm. We wish all affected staffers the best of luck moving forward.
The Suicide Squad arrived in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham this week, only it’s not called that in the kid-friendly game. In “The Squad” expansion, as Warner Bros. is calling it, a mysterious figure has made its way into the Belle Reve Penitentiary. It’s up to you–playing as Deadshot, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, and Captain Boomerang–to hunt them down. The DLC Is available for $3 by itself, or through the Lego Batman 3 DLC pass, which sells for $15.
Sony is gunning for a Little Big Planet world record this weekend, and you can help. The publisher is trying to set the official Guinness World Record for most user-generation LittleBigPlanet levels created in a 24 hour period. All you need to do is create a level between December 6 at 3 PM PDT and December 7 at 3 PM PDT to be counted. More information about the world record attempt is available here.
Have a Skylanders fan on your Christmas list? You’re in luck. Video game retailer GameStop has announced a special promotional effort focused around Activision’s popular toys-to-life series Skylanders. On Saturday, December 6 (that’s today!) you can visit any GameStop store in the US to score the following deals:
Skylanders Trap Team starter pack for $49.99 ($25 off) –Even more savings on the Trap Team Starter Pack for Tablets at $39.99 ($35 off)
Receive a free Skylanders Giants 3-pack when you purchase a Skylanders Swap Force or older starter pack
Receive a Trap character for 99 cents with the purchase of any new Trap Master character
Access to the GameStop-exclusive Eon’s Elite Whirlwind character. This limited edition character is three times more powerful than other characters, and features one-of-a-kind metallic armor.
Purchase the extremely limited Winterfest Lobstar Character
Skylanders Mini Comic Fun Packs are just $2 each (regularly $2.99)
Texas-based developer Robot Entertainment has announced a new partnership with Chinese giant Tencent Games to bring Orcs Must Die! Unchained to China. As part of the deal, Tencent will publish the upcoming PC game, which Robot is called a Tower Defense Online Battle Arena title, or a TOBA. Yes, TOBA.
Just in time for the release of the next Hobbit movie later this month, social game studio Kabam announced this week that is has updated its popular, free-to-play strategy game The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth. The update includes the Lake-town Expansion pack, and a Middle-earth Magazine interactive companion app that comes with tips and tricks for the game, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the game’s development, and more. The Lake-town Expansion Pack is inspired by Peter Jackson’s movie, and includes new heroes such as Bard and the Lake-town settlement itself. The game’s executive producer, Weiwei Geng, said Kabam “worked very closely” with Warner Bros. to ensure that the game’s depiction of Lake-town accurately resembles what movie-goers will see.
Impressive trailer alert! Sega this week launched a new CGI trailer for upcoming strategy game Total War: Atilla. The impressively produced trailer is called “Red Horse,” but we won’t spoil the reason why. Check out the full trailer above.
Fox and developer Pocket Gems this week announced plans to release a new Night at the Museum game alongside the new movie, Secret Tomb, which arrives the week before Christmas. The officially licensed game is called Night at the Museum: Hidden Treasures, and it’s scheduled to launch this holiday for iOS and Android devices. You play as Larry Daley, security guard, who must search for hidden relics, seek out clues, and team up with legendary personalities such as Theodore Roosevelt, Jedediah Smith, and even Rexy the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Just in time for the holidays, Nintendo and electronics giant Philips announced this week that they have resolved their patent dispute. Financial terms of the agreement were not announced, but as part of the announcement, Nintendo and Philips have agreed to a worldwide patent licensing deal. Philips initially claimed that Nintendo copied its patents, seeking damages, a trial, and the removal of the Wii U from sale.
Here is a video showing people in their 50s and 60s player Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I don’t know what else to write here, so I guess you should just go watch the video. Have a great weekend!
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma revealed new footage of The Legend of Zelda Wii U at the The Game Awards 2014 tonight.
The video, which you can watch above, started with Link standing on top a high cliff, one of many in the game that let you look over the vast game world. Aonuma sets a marker on a tower far in the distance, which also shows up on the Game Pad’s screen, and then starts heading in its direction by riding Link’s horse, Epona. Aonuma said it would take a long time to walk across the game’s map.
On his way there, traveling through a large forest, Aonuma showed how Epona will mostly be able to ride without too much input from the player, freeing him up to swing his sword and fire arrows. We also got to see Link jump off the horse, slow down time, and fire arrows at enemies before he hit the ground.
Aonuma said the team is working very hard on the game, and that he’s confident that The Legend of Zelda for Wii U will be out next year.
Nintendo has not yet announced a release date for Zelda for Wii U, though producer Eiji Aonuma said today that he’s confident the game won’t slip to 2016.
“The way it uses the GamePad is really starting to feel good,” Miyamoto said about the new Star Fox.
A prototype of the untitled Star Fox game first unveiled at E3 in Los Angeles in June, and at the time Miyamoto said he was considering partnering with an external development studio to help support the project.
The Wii U Star Fox game will mark the first original game in the series to be published since 2006, when the company released Star Fox Command on the Nintendo DS.
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The Game Awards 2014 are now over. BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition won overall Game of the Year, while Shovel Knight took home a trophy for best independent game. All winners, broken down by category, are listed below. Did voters get it right? Let us know in the comments below!
