NEWS | Week beginning July 20th | Fallout Anthology announced, HOG needs help! & Five Nights at Freddy's out already!

Good evening guys! Tonight I'll be bringing you another weekly news round-up! Let's get into it!

Fallout Anthology announced

First up, Bethesda have announced that a Fallout Anthology is to be released on the 2nd October in Europe. 

Priced at £39.99, the Anthology will include all the Fallout games that ever been developed/published by Bethesda, including Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition and Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition! 

It even comes in a 'Mini-Nuke'
shaped container!

Personally, I find this to be great! As you all should know by now, I am a massive Fallout fan! I am however a fan that was only introduced to the series from Fallout 3 on-wards, meaning I missed the first three games. This anthology is a great way for players like me, who love the Fallout series, to replay their favourites, as-well as give the original games a chance too.

Sounds great right? However, there is a catch. It's only going to be available to PC gamers and there will only be limited stock, much like the Fallout 4: PipBoy Edition. 

Got a PC and you want have all these classics tied up into one nice, neat, little bundle? Keep your eyes out on October 2nd!

HOG needs help!

Next up, London's last dedicated arcade, 'The Heart of Gaming', has suffered over £5000 in losses after a break-in during the week.

Thieves broke into the community-run building on Tuesday night and stole many of the arcades modern consoles and equipment, like TV's and sound systems. Fortunately, none of the classic arcade machines inside the arcade were stolen, broken into or damaged.

The HOG in London

Mark Starkey, the owner of the arcade said to Eurogamer that "They were very specific about what they took - It was all new-generation stuff." He went on to say that "I know what's worth more, but there we go. There were lots of rare game cartridges they could have taken".

Due to the fact that the arcade is community run and driven, Starkey knows that they "can't simply get the bank card out and recover", as stated in the Eurogamer interview. Therefore, Starkey has set up a GoFundMe Campaign to raise the £5000 needed to get the arcade back up to running order. Fortunately, generous donors managed to raise over £3000 in just 24 hours. They have since reached their goal of £5000, but they plan to keep the campaign going to raise extra funds to improve the security of the arcade. So, if any of you guys are feeling generous and want to assist the last dedicated arcade in London, head over to their  GoFundMe Campaign and donate! As a well-known supermarket once said, "Every Little Helps"!

Five Nights at Freddy's out already!

Finally, Five Nights at Freddy's 4 has been released a whole two weeks ahead of it's original release
date of August 8th.

It's out now!

Cawthon, the lone developer of the Five Nights at Freddy's series said on the game's Steam page that "Okay, so many of you already know, I'm bad with release dates. The game is done". The fourth game in the series costs £5.59 in the UK and $7.99 in the US.

As many of you may remember, last week I slated the game for being to similar to the other games in the series. I still do believe that the game is a bit too similar to the other games in the series, after watching a few other YouTubers play the game, I must admit the game does look better than the other 3. Cawthon has introduced a new locale as well a few mini-games in between night.
Go check out the games Steam page if you need a new horror game to play!

That's it for this week guys! Will you be buying the Fallout Anthology? Have you ever visited a classic arcade such as HOG? What do you think about Five Nights at Freddy's? Let me know in the comments down below!
One last thing, I would like to apologize for such a small news round-up this week, news has been slow this week and nothing major has happened unfortunately!

Once again, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning July 13th | Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Passes Away, Five Nights at Freddy's 4 announced & Fallout Shelter makes $$$

Good evening guys,and welcome back to another news round-up! Let's begin!

First up, the President and CEO of Nintendo, Saturo Iwata, has passed away. Iwata passed away on July 11th 2015 due to a Bile duct growth.

Thank you...

Iwata began life in the video game industry creating and developing games. The first game he developed was a Baseball game for HP calculators in the early 80's, which only displayed numbers and figures.
He then joined HAL Laboratory in 1983, creating lesser known games and arcade ports. However, in 1993, HAL promoted Iwata to President of the company. HAL and Nintendo soon become closely linked under the leadership of Iwata and HAL soon started making exclusives for Nintendo consoles, with the most notable release being fighting game 'Super Smash Bros' in 1995. Iwata soon joined Nintendo in 2000 as Head of Corporate Planning. Two years later he became President of Nintendo.

Iwata holding a new 3DS

After joining Nintendo in 2002, Iwata's impact as President started to increase. Nintendo were trying to recoup costs after the disappointing sales of the GameCube, and Iwata thought the Nintendo DS was the thing to get them back on track. At launch, many did not feel that the DS had the power to compete with the likes of Sony and the PSP, with the handheld-console being very chunky and under-powered. However, the DS went on to become the second-best selling console of all time at the time, coming only second to the PS2. Same thing happened again in 2005, when Nintendo released the Wii. Again, many believed it did not have the power nor capability to compete against the Xbox 360 and PS3. Again, the Wii outsold both consoles, becoming the best selling
console of all time.

Iwata affected all of our lives. I'm sure most of you guys owned a DS or Wii at some point, owning games like Nintendogs, Brain Training, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Galaxy, etc, etc. Iwata oversaw possibly Nintendo's most successful period ever. Iwata said in his GDC 2005 keynote:
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer."

He was a true gamer, like all of us.
Thank you, Saturo Iwata.

Next up, Scott Cawthon, developer of the Five Nights at Freddy's series has released a reveal trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's 4.

On Monday, Cawthon released a trailer for the new Five Nights at Freddy's game on his YouTube channel, and to be honest, it looks like every other game, except, you're in a house. You see some lights, a long, dark hallway, some animatronics that are out to kill you and stuff you in a suit. Pretty standard stuff for a Five Nights at Freddy's game. In my opinion, the trailer is poor and unappealing, much like how the series has become.

Spooky stuff?!

The first Five Nights at Freddy's game was only released on the 8th August 2014. It was something different and unique, and probably why it caught the eye of many gamers. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was released November 10th 2014. Just three months after the first game. It didn't really change or add much, but it was a sequel that everybody wanted. Then, March 2nd 2015, Five Nights at Freddy's 3 was released. Again, very similar to the previous two, and now we can expect to see a fourth game in the series. Cawthon has managed to squeeze and push out 4 Five Nights at Freddy's games in just under a year. Now is it just me, or does it seem like Cawthon is trying to squeeze as much money and attention out of this series as possible?

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 is scheduled to release 8th August 2015, a whole year after the first installment was released. Expect a game very similar to the first three...

Here's the trailer if you haven't already seen it:

Finally, Fallout Shelter, the free mobile game that Bethesda released last month, has managed to earn $5.1 million in just two weeks.

Bethesda's Game Director Todd Howard announced that Fallout Shelter would be available to download as soon as Bethesda's E3 conference last month, which turned out to be one of the most viewed gaming livestreams ever, with over 20,000 people tuning into their Twitch stream, which no doubt helped raise a few extra dollars!

Bethesda making $$$!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Fallout universe, Fallout Shelter is a game that allows players to take control of a 'Vault', which is an underground home that shelters inhabitants from the nuclear holocaust that has plagued the world. You take control as an 'Overseer', controlling who lives in your Vault, how the Vault runs, how the Vault functions, etc, etc.

The most impressive thing about these figures is that the game is currently only available on iOS devices, meaning all those millions of dollars have been raised by Apple users only. Fallout Shelter is currently in development for Android and is expected to be released on Android devices in August. Nice work Bethesda!!

Check out my YouTube
channel!

And that's another week of gaming news done and dusted. What did you think of it? How much will the gaming industry miss Satoru Iwata? Are you looking forward to Five Nights at Freddy's 4? Have you played Fallout Shelter yet? Let me know in the comments down below!

Just more quick thing before I sign off, have you checked out my new YouTube channel yet? I released my first video on Thursday evening, so check it out if you have some free time!

https://www.youtube.com/c/ConnorsLetsPlayChannel




Anyway, that's it from me this week! See you guys next week, and as always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning July 6th | BO3 Zombies, Lack of Justice? & No Man's Sky

Good afternoon guys, welcome back to another video-games news round-up! Let's get into it!

First up, Treyarch has announced that Black Ops 3 will be getting a Zombie Mode, called "Shadows of Evil". As per usual, the mode will feature 4 characters, simply named 'The Magician, The Femme-Fatale, The Cop and The Boxer' and will most notably star actors Jeff Goldblum and Ron Pearlman.

A short blurb covering the plot of the mode suggests that these 4 characters are investigating "The Shadow Man" who is behind the awakening of the undead horde.
Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia said that "Treyarch has crafted a totally unique and face-melting gameplay experience for our loyal Zombies community, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3: Zombies - Shadows of Evil. The development team has packed Shadows of Evil with more gameplay and fun than any other experience before it, and has an appropriately twisted and deep narrative, performed by fantastic acting talent, that will keep our fans spinning."

A Collectors Edition for any
die-hard Call of Duty Fan!

Activision also launched a charity campaign which will give players a chance to have their likeness turned into a zombie in Shadows of Evil. To be entered into this competition, players have to donate $10 or more to the "Call of Duty Endowment Fund", which aids war veterans in finding work after their time in service. Along with that, Activision also announced the 'Juggernog Collectors Edition', which comes with concept art, gun skins and a functioning mini-fridge! It does however cost quite a bit of money, around £180! Better get saving!

Moving onto the trailer, I think it looks very cool! For this rendition of the much loved Zombies Mode, Treyarch have gone for a 50's Noir style, and it looks to be good match. You see the scenery and locale early on, as well as seeing the characters for the first time. Then, it's pretty much what we expect to see from Zombies, killing! The trailer introduces some new weapons, such as a Samurai Sword and a shield with rocket jets? Oh, and you can turn into a tentacle monster!
You know what, i'm going to stop ruining the trailer for you guys and you can go and watch it for yourselves! Enjoy!



Next up, the Lizard Squad Hacker that took down PSN for several days during the Festive period has avoided jail. Do you Playstation users remember these few dark days, when we couldn't connect to PSN, and we couldn't play our new games? I certainly do!

Hacker Julius "zeekill" Kivimaki, was tracked down by Finnish authorities after it was believed that he was responsible for over 50,000 computer crimes. He has been convicted of around 50,700 charges related to computer crimes, yet he avoided jail, and has received a two-year suspended jail sentence instead, and as a result, his online activities will be monitored by Finnish authorities for the foreseeable future.

The 2011 attack is still considered as
one of the biggest hacks ever...

Around the time of the hackings, he gave an interview to Sky News, stating that he only attacked PSN to 'raise awareness' of the 'low state of computer security' on PSN.

In a way, I understand his reasoning for doing so. In April 2011, Playstation Network has hacked, and around 24.7 million Sony Online Entertainment accounts had been accessed, with credit card details, passwords, emails, etc all being stolen. This hack and the month downtime on PSN cost Sony around $171 million dollars. This breach is still considered as the biggest internet security break-in ever. The fact that some random hacker managed to take down PSN by himself for days highlights the fact that PSN may still be vulnerable to attacks. Of course, hacking services and causing misery to millions of Playstation users is not good, and illegal, but it does show that Sony need to step up their game and make sure that all of their PSN users are protected!

Finally, have any of you guys heard of No Man's Sky? If not, then No Man's Sky is a "game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated galaxy" - (www.no-mans-sky.com).

So simply, it's a really really big game with a whole lot of exploring to do, that never ends.

On Monday, IGN released an 18 minute video of No Man's Sky gameplay with commentary from developer Sean Murray. 

After watching the gameplay, I must say that the game looks amazing. Breathtaking at times.

One of the many trading posts in
No Man's Sky...

The gameplay covers various topics in the game, such as how the game works, the different ways in which you can play the game, how expansive the No Man's Sky universe is, etc.
From the gameplay, it is easy to tell how expansive the No Man's Sky universe will be. Each planet is 'planet sized' and even Murray said that "I can walk in any direction for days and days, weeks and weeks...", meaning that you could potentially spend your whole time on one planet if you wanted too! It wouldn't be much fun, but it goes to show how the big the game is!

Unfortunately, not much else has been revealed about No Man's Sky, and the game does not not have a release date yet, but when it does, I know I'll be looking to getting myself a copy of the game!
Here's the gameplay footage from IGN if you haven't already seen it:

So what are your guys' opinions on this weeks news? Will you be pre-ordering the Juggernog Edition of Black Ops 3? Do you think that the PSN hacker should have got jail time? Does No Man's Sky look appealing to you? Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning June 29th | Is P.T. back?, The Last of Us 2 confirmed? & Minecraft: Story Mode

Good evening guys, and welcome back to another news round-up for this week! Oh, and happy 4th July to all my American readers! Have a good day!
Now, let's get started!

First up, Is P.T. back? Well no, it isn't. However, a game very similar to P.T. is making the rounds though, and by the looks of things, it looks pretty good.

As reported back in April, if you so remember, Konami had completely cancelled Silent Hills and had removed the playable teaser for the game, P.T, from the Playstation Store. It now looks like some fans of P.T. have made a spiritual successor to P.T, named 'Allison Road'.

A snippet from the games' Steam Greenlight page states that:

Look familiar?

"You will take on the role of the unnamed protagonist who wakes up one day without any recollection of prior events.
Over the course of five nights It is your objective to uncover the whereabouts of your family, unravel the mysteries of the house, and face off against Lily and other dark entities that are nested deep within the house, while the clock is relentlessly ticking towards 3:00am."

The 14 minute game play demo shows the unnamed protagonist waking up in a house with no prior knowledge of how he got there. Then of course, things go from slightly creepy to VERY BAD, very quickly. Screaming occurs, darkness occurs, blood occurs. Everything you should expect from a typical horror game. However, it also appears that the environment is interactive, unlike P.T. The game play showed that the player could pick up and inspect objects, as well as equip and use them. It looks really cool, and maybe, just maybe, even better than P.T.
Oh, and it will also have VR support. That's just what you want when attempting to play a P.T-esque horror game...

Here's the 14 minute game play if you haven't already seen it:



Next up, someone may have accidentally confirmed The Last of Us 2. Nolan North, a Naughty Dog collaborator, has confirmed that The Last of Us 2 is being made. North, the voice actor for Drake, in the Uncharted series and villain David in The Last of Us, stated at a Metrocon 2015 panel that "The Last of Us 2 is being made". After being questioned during the panel, he may have leaked that a new Last of Us game is being made, as well as a new Star Wars game that isn't Battlefront.

Will we be seeing more of Joel
and Ellie?

This is exciting news for The Last of Us fans. For those of you who have played the first game, who'll know how great the game is. The narrative, graphics, characters, etc all made the game a real experience, and now that one of the collaborators from Naughty Dog has confirmed (?) that the game is in the works, how can you not get excited?!

However, the main actor from The Last of Us, Troy Baker, has added a little twist to the story. He stated that he knows nothing about a sequel to the game, and trusts "everyone at Naughty Dog to tell a story that needs to be told".

So what does this mean? Has North accidentally spilled the beans on a new Last of Us and Naughty Dog have sent out Baker to cover up, or is North making stuff up? Only time will tell.


Finally, Minecraft: Story Mode has been officially revealed today! (4th July).
Minecraft: Story Mode is to be developed by Telltale, who has made similar episodic content such as
The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, and more recently, Tales from the Borderlands.

CRREEPPPPaaaawww

The game will create new lore for Minecraft, introducing new characters into the Minecraft universe. Telltale said on their blog that:

"You'll control protagonist Jesse throughout the season, as portrayed by actor Patton Oswalt. Jesse and his group of friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone; four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon. The Order are the very best at what they do: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect. While at EnderCon, Jesse and his friends discover that something is wrong... something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and they must set out on a journey to find The Order of the Stone if they are to save their world from oblivion."

So it sounds like there will be four different playable characters that each have a unique set of skills, that, in some way, will help you progress on the journey to find the 'Order of the Stone'. It'll be an episodic series, meaning we could see a different character per episode or something along those lines.
All I am going to say at this point is that this is something new. Nothing has really every been added to Minecraft at all since it's release from Beta in 2011 (not including patches and updates). Therefore, it could be a hit, or it could be a miss.
Although no official release date has been revealed, we can probably expect the first episode to be released this year sometime.

Here is the official trailer if you haven't already seen it:

And that's it for this week folks! What did you think of this week's news? Does Allison Road look as good as P.T to you? Are you excited for The Last of Us 2, if it is in-fact real
? Will you be playing Minecraft: Story Mode when it's released? Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)