Category Archives: Video Games

Halo 5: Guardians announced for Xbox One

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The next chapter of Master Chief’s saga will launch autumn 2015

Happy Friday to one and all. It’s a big one for OXM, as it’s Log’s last day in the office before he runs away to Nottingham to run a pub. Sad times, for those left behind by him here in London at least. On a cheerier note though, here’s an extra tasty morsel of news: the next Halo game has officially been announced as Halo 5: Guardians.

“Any time you transition to a new platform, there is the opportunity to look at things with a new perspective,” wrote 343’s GM Bonnie Ross in a post over on Xbox Wire. “For us at 343 Industries, the launch of the Xbox One was an opportunity to think about what stories we wanted to tell, how to tell them, and how best to push the Halo franchise to showcase the platform. And maybe, most importantly, combining our passion for Halo with the vocal and informative input from our fans.

“Halo isn’t simply a perennial game franchise, it’s a part of the Xbox platform itself,” she continued. “In terms of innovation and ideation, it’s sometimes important to people who might not even play Halo. In the past, Halo games have pushed the Xbox forward, showcasing the console and its ecosystem in entertaining and innovative ways. Making a Halo game that runs at 60 frames per second, on dedicated servers, with the scope, features and scale we’ve been dreaming of for more than a decade, is non-trivial. It’s a task that we, at 343 Industries, are taking very seriously to ensure we deliver the Halo game that fans deserve, and a game that is built from the ground up for Xbox One.

“I’m happy to reveal that Halo 5: Guardians, the next installment in the legendary saga of the Master Chief, will launch on Xbox One in fall of 2015. In the tradition of every Halo game since its debut in 2001, it is a massive and exciting project.”

Ross promised to give further details on the game, and the Halo TV series tie-in, at the Xbox E3 Media Briefing next month in LA, but she did say that Halo 5: Guardians was “a bigger effort than Halo 4. That applies to the content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what’s now a brand new and more powerful engine. Certainly there are some core elements carried over from prior games, but we’ve invested a huge effort in retooling our tech to take full advantage of the Xbox One’s hardware and ecosystem to create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen.”

2015 is a bit of a way off though, so to keep us on our toes, 343 also hinted at more, “extra special” Halo news coming at E3 this year. It said that the new Halo franchise endeavors are a “journey,” and that that journey begins in 2014. Intriguing…

343 won’t confirm Halo 5 for 2014 despite surprise video mention

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HaloAdventurer, below you lurks a new Xbox One sizzle video that’s mostly a collection of lingering hardware close-ups. There is, however, one Point of Interest: the magical phrase “Halo 5” is visible during a shot of the console’s UI. Your choices at this point are twofold: you could jump around ecstatically at the idea that Halo 5 is most definitely and certainly A Thing. Or, you could read this enthusiasm-killing clarification from developer 343 Industries.

“The Xbox One dashboard images shown in the recently released Xbox One Design Show video, were placeholder and not indicative of future game content,” it reads. “As previously stated, your next Halo journey will begin in 2014, and we’ll have more detail to share at E3 in June.”

If you’ve read any of recent rumours about the first Halo game on Xbox One, you’ll gloss “your next Halo journey will begin” as “we’re making Halo 2 Anniversary first”. The latter is said to be down for release in November, and will allegedly grant access to a Halo 5 beta. Various sources claim that 343 – which has teased unannounced projects in addition to Halo for Xbox One and the Halo TV series – has enlisted Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary co-developers Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity to help out.

what are your thoughts?

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare achieves a new “level of graphical fidelity”, says Activision

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https://i2.wp.com/cdn.medialib.totalxbox.com/screens/dir_399/image_39958_full.jpg?resize=576%2C327Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare isn’t just the first ever Kevin Spacey film to support online multiplayer. It isn’t just literally the first ever shooter ever in which characters dress up as robots, run on walls and do double jumps. It’s also the first Call of Duty game post-Modern-Warfare to be created in three years, rather than two. Activision announced the switch to a three year cycle in February – here’s how developer Sledgehammer has spent the extra time, in the words of Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg.

“I think the answer is honestly several things,” he told investors during last night’s earnings call. “I’ll just focus on a few of the most prominent. I think, first and foremost, is visual and graphic fidelity and polish.

New STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT Game Making An Appearance At E3

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We now know that a new hope for Star Wars gaming will emerge during this year’s E3, thanks to an EA investors conference call held earlier today. During the call, CEO Andrew Wilson responded to a question about the Star Wars games it has in development and was open to discussing the new Battlefront title.

“Battlefront [is] coming along very well,”  he stated before further emphasizing that the Frostbite 3 engine would help to “drive innovation with high quality.” While there’s still “lots of work to go,” EA isn’t hesitating to show the highly anticipated game during E3.

We don’t know if we’ll receive a playable demo or another teaser video as of now, but this is still some of the most refreshing news on the game since it was teased during last year’s EA press conference.

This year, EA’s press conference is scheduled for Monday, June 9, and it can’t come fast enough. I’m excited to see how the game will turn out, especially since all future Star Wars releases, including games, will be considered canon. With that said, I’m even more interested in seeing whether the game will include cameos from the new Star Wars trilogy cast members.

Steven Spielberg’s HALO Series Coming to Showtime!

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The Steven Spielberg-produced live-action series set in the world of Halo is landing at Showtime. The cable network is close to making a deal with Xbox Entertainment Studios.

Xbox has been developing the series with Spielberg and his Amblin TV production company for over a year. Variety reports that “the company is close to a deal with a pair of showrunners to steer the series adaptation of the expansive bible developed by screenwriter Stuart Beattie, but the deal is not envisioned as a straight-to-series pickup.”

Halo is only one of several properties that Xbox hopes to develop for their entertainment service platform. The report explains:

“The deal with Showtime has taken a long time to work out because the sides are charting new territory for a show designed to air on Showtime as well as Xbox, with enhanced interactivity built in for the latter platform. Details are still being hammered out, but sources say the plan is to have episodes bow on Showtime first, followed by the Xbox window.”

Here’s the official description of the series:

“The Halo television series is a groundbreaking original series based on the award-winning “Halo” franchise. Award-winning filmmaker, director and producer Steven Spielberg will executive produce the live-action TV series, created in partnership with 343 Industries and Amblin Television.”

Ridley Scott is also producing a separate Halo project that has been described as a “digital feature.” So there’s a lot of Halo goodness coming our way! This is all very cool and exciting, but I still want to see a movie.

Halo TV series confirmed, as Xbox programming announced!

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Just as Netflix thought they had the whole ‘produce-high-quality-entertainment-and-distribute-it-yourself-online’ market sewn up, Microsoft come in and blow a hole in their plan a giant ringworld wide. The computing giant has announced that not only will we soon be seeing the Steven Spielberg produced Halo TV series, but a whole lot more besides.

The company has just revealed their first lineup of ‘Xbox Originals’ – their answer to the original entertainment programming of Netflix – and revealed that they intend to offer what they call ‘interactive entertainment’, as opposed to the passive, sedentary sort of stuff we’ve been raised on up till now.

The most exciting part of the announcement for most was likely the confirmation a Halo TV adaptation will indeed soon be on its way – the Spielberg produced series has already been rumored to have acquired Neill Blomkamp as a director. We’ll also definitely be seeing that Ridley Scott produced animated adaptation, too, apparently – which is now looking like a feature film rather than a TV series.

There’s other exciting news, though – Jonathan and Simon ‘Searching for Sugar Man‘ Chinn will bring a series of documentaries, Signal to Noise, “about technology’s impact on the world” to the new media platform, including one that will be of particular interest to fans of famously lost Atari cartridges.

Soccer fans will get Every Street United, a reality series focusing on street-soccer players. Music fans will be seeing two live streams of footage from Bonnaroo in June. Robot Chicken fans will have a new series featuring 3D animated characters, named Extraordinary Believers.

There’ll be shows competing more directly with Netflix and the like, too. The Jash project, an as-yet-unnamed comedy show starring Sarah Silverman and Michael Cera is sure to set many hearts a-flutter. Humans, a UK co-produced adaptation of a Swedish series to do with life-like robot servants will be similarly eagerly anticipated, and with comparisons to both The Killing and Downton Abbey easily raised, it’ll be hoping for similar crossover success.

And biggest of all? The creative team have teased that we might yet see franchises like Gears of War, Fable and Forza Motorsport come to the screen.

 

It’s all big, potentially industry re-defining news. There’s no doubt that a major games player like Microsoft entering the television market will be of serious concern to the likes of Netflix, HBO and the already struggling major networks – and if they can lead off successfully with as established and long-awaited a franchise as Halo, who knows what they could go on to do?

It also allows us to begin to ask some big questions about the Halo adaptation itself. Can we expect to see Spielberg (and possibly Blomkamp) heavily involved, or will they take on a more advisory role? Could the ‘interactive entertainment’ Microsoft is pitching allow us to feel as though we’re genuinely part of a television series for the first time – perhaps even integrating a simultaneously launched game? And, of course, who will take on the – presumably largely just a voice part – of Master Chief? Since the hero could well be entirely hidden by armor for much of the series, can we expect to see a major name take on the part?

Are you excited about this news? Are you a fan we want to hear from you!

Trailer for Bungie’s DESTINY features 7-Minutes of Cool Gameplay

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Bungie released a new PS4 trailer for their epic looking new first-person shooter Destiny, and it features 7-minutes of really gameplay footage. I’ve been hearing from a lot of sites that the game is boring, but I think it looks like it will be fun to play. I enjoy playing these types of games so I won’t let the bad press sway my excitement for it.

Destiny is set seven hundred years into the future in a post-apocalyptic setting following a prosperous period of exploration, peace and technological advancement known as the Golden Age. In a universe where humans have spread out and colonized planets in the Solar System, an event known as “the Collapse” saw the mysterious dissolution of these colonies, the end of the Golden Age, and mankind teetering on the brink of extinction. The only known survivors of the Collapse are those living on Earth, who were saved by “the Traveler”, a white, spherical celestial body whose appearance centuries before had enabled humans to reach the stars. The Traveler now hovers above the last remaining human city, and its presence allows the “Guardians of the City”—the last defenders of the human race—the ability to wield an unknown power.

Upon mankind’s first attempt to repopulate and reconstruct after the Collapse, it is discovered that hostile alien races have occupied mankind’s former colonies and civilizations and are now encroaching upon the City. The player takes on the role of a Guardian of the City, and is tasked with investigating and destroying these threats before humanity is completely wiped out.

Destiny will hit shelves on September 9th for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
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ASSASSIN’S CREED Movie Moves Forward with a Director

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New Regency has slowly been moving forward with Ubisoft’s big screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed that is set to star Michael Fassbender. They are currently in talks with Justin Kurzel to direct the film. Kurzel recently directed an adaptation of Macbeth, which starred Fassbender. The actor obviously enjoyed working with him, and I’m sure he’s using his producing power to help him get the gig.

I have no idea how good of a director Kurzel is, He hasn’t done much, and I’m not familiar with anything that he has made. The last thing we heard about the project was that writers Bill Collage and Adam Cooper (Accepted) were brought on to write a script that would weave together the tale for the freerunning assassin.

Even though the film has a director, it’s been said that Ubisoft will maintain control of key elements of the movie’s creative direction. I’m sure the studio will want to stay close to the story of the video game, which centers on a bartender who is captured by a secret corporation with ties to the Knights Templar, and learns his ancestors were trained assassins. He’s then sent back in time to kick some ass and retrieve historical artifacts.

Other directors that were up for the job included Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) and Garreth Evans (The Raid). Oh, how I wish Evans would have been the one to direct this movie. It’s really sad that it won’t happen, he could have done amazing things with Assassin’s Creed. Hopefully Kurzel has what it takes to make this movie awesome.

What are your thoughts are you a fan?

Mad max video game trailer

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http://static.squarespace.com/static/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/t/535a7a44e4b0c3b74630bfb3/1398438470073/mad-max-video-game-has-2-new-trailers?format=500wTwo new trailers have been released for the new Mad Max video game, to remind you that it’s on the way. The game is being developed by Sony and developer Avalanche Studios, and I think it could be a lot of fun. Of course, that’s coming from a huge fan of the Mad Max film franchise. The first trailer focuses on the vehicle that Max will be causing destruction in while you’re playing him in the game. The car is called the Magnum Opus. The other trailer focuses on the gameplay, and it’s called Soul of a Man.

This is going to be an open world, third-person action title in which gamers will play as Mad Max, “a lone warrior who must embark on a perilous journey after his Interceptor is stolen by a deadly gang of marauders. A reluctant hero with an instinct for survival, Max wants nothing more than to leave the madness behind and find solace in the storied ‘Plains of Silence.'”

Mad Max is scheduled to be released later this year on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.
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EVOLVE – New Trailer

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When you watch the first part of this trailer, from Goliath’s perspective, you get a sense of the raw power he possesses, and the constant cat and mouse game that is played throughout a match. After viewing Goliath’s point of view initially, it was easy to forget how tense a match can be when playing as one of the various soldiers tasked with taking him down. In the interactive trailer you can switch between all 4 of the various classes to get a taste of what a match feels like, but just watch the poor trapper’s cam to see just how quickly a hunter can become prey in the world of Evolve.

 
Within 2 seconds the monster pounces, pummeling him to near death. That kind of intensity seems to permeate the entire match, and is one of the many reasons that Evolve is one of my most anticipated multiplayer games of the season. You can catch some additional screens below from Turtle Rock Studio’s upcoming title, and make sure to watch the entire trailer when you get a chance. It’s great stuff, and the commentary seals the deal.

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