E3 2016 - ANNOUNCEMENT AND REVEAL ROUND-UP!

Hello all, how ya doing? Apologies for not posting this past month, I've been buys doing personal stuff! But that doesn't matter, it's that time of year again! Yes, E3, the time of year when we get our fill of video game news! Are ya ready?

I've been following E3 and all the major conferences and showcases, and I have collected all the major news from each conference and put it all here! I hope you have a good read!

Just FYI, I will be putting all the trailers and gameplay videos in the YouTube playlist below. That way there isn't 20 + videos clogging up the post!

E3 2016 YouTube Playlist

EA:  

EA went first this year with their own show, EA Play and boy, did they not disappoint!

• Titanfall 2 was not announced, but a Single Player Campaign was confirmed for this iteration in the series. There was a new action packed trailer, showing off Mech Battles, and other Mech related action. They also announced that there will be a Multiplayer Beta. I'm not too sure what to feel about Titanfall, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the beta!

• Battlefield 1. It was crazy. They not only showed off a gritty gameplay trailer, but three whole matches, pitting celebrities against eachother! The likes of Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, and Emily Ratajkwoski all took part. It looked insane. Not much else was shown off, but all I can say is, I want!

• Next, Mass Effect: Andromeda got a new trailer, as well as some new Story details, like we'll be seeing a female protagonist for the first time in the series. Now I'm not sure if this was announced at EA Play, but Andromeda will release early 2017. Good times!

• Now, Star Wars. Star Wars had a lot to show off. I say that, but we didn't actually see a lot, but we heard a hell of a lot. For example, Star Wars Battlefront will be getting a new DLC pack sometime soon, also, it turns out that are multiple Star Wars games in the works, with multiple developers working on these titles. We don't really know much else, but here is a list of the developers and what they are working on. 

         EA Star Wars Games in Development:

• DICE - Collaborating with Motive on new Star Wars Battlefront game, coming in 2017.
• Criterion - Assisting with development on unspecified Star Wars project
• BioWare - Continued development on Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Capital Games - Continued development on Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes
• Respawn - Third-person action adventure game (no release date)
• Motive - A new Star Wars Battlefront game, in collaboration with DICE.
• Visceral Games - New action game coming in 2018

• Finally, we had some stuff from FIFA 17. Probably one of EA's most successful series, it would make sense to see some stuff  from FIFA. Obviously we had the normal FIFA stuff, new passing mechanics, defending mechanics and all that. The cool stuff this year is 'The Journey'. This new mode allows players to take control of 'Alex Hunter' and take him on his journey to fame. You can play for any of the Premier League clubs, your form on the pitch will affect the scenes you see off the pitch and there are dialogue options like there are in Mass Effect! Seems like we'll have quite a lot to do in this new mode!

Microsoft:

So Microsoft went first with E3, and, well, they announced quite a bit! The major news being that Xbox have plans to release two, yes TWO consoles with within the next two years! 

First up is the Xbox One Slim. The 'launch console' will cost £349 and will release in August, which comes with 4K (only with video, not actual games) and HDR (High Dynamic Range imaging) support, as well as a big 2TB hard drive and front facing USB ports (finally)! It is also 40% smaller and the clunky power brick will now be inside the console. There will also be a 500GB console which will cost £249 and a 1TB console costing £299. Not only that, but the new console will come with a new controller that has twice the range the current controller has, as well as bluetooth support and textured grips and thumbsticks!

Next up is the mysterious 'Project Scorpio'. This new console, which is set to release in September 2017, will apparently be a monster of a console. It has a bunch of techy specs such as featuring 8 cores, 320GB memory bandwith and six teraflops(??) of performance, which could result in uncompressed 4K gaming, unlike the Xbox One S which simply has 4K video support. Apparently the console will be used to power VR games, as well as being able to reach a smooth 60fps. Now to those of you who know your stuff will realise that it will take a lot of hardware to reach those targets. VR games are graphically demanding and take a lot to run, so Microsoft setting these goals suggests they're really going for it!

Now of course, a whole range of other things were announced at their conference too.

• First up, Gears of War 4 wasn't announced, but we did see a whole lot of new stuff for the game, for example, there will be a new horde mode, as well as the inclusion of a co-op campaign. We also saw some gameplay, which looked awesome as well as seeing a special edition Xbox One Elite Controller!

• Next up, Dead Rising 4 was announced, again with a pretty cool trailer. It looks like these iteration of the series will be taking place at Christmas time, with main character Frank West making a return!

• For those of you enjoy some racing, Forza Horizon 3 was announced, with both a snazzy trailer and some early gameplay being shown off at the Microsoft event.

• Halo War 2 also got announced, with a release date of February 21st 2017! Oh there is also a beta live right now, so go and check that out, after you've finished reading through all this first!

• State of Decay 2 will be coming out in 2017 sometime, again, there was an announcement trailer!

• Finally, Tekken 7 was also announced for the Xbox and PC, and will be coming out early 2017.

Now that's it for the gaming announcements for Microsoft. They did however mention some other cool stuff, such as a new program that means that when Xbox users buy a game on their Xbox One, they can play it on their PC for free! They also announced Design Lab, a cool service that allows gamers to create their own Xbox One controllers, with over 8 million combinations available! Unfortunately for us in Europe, it is not available to us as of yet!

Ubisoft:

Next up, Ubisoft. Their conference wasn't as big as Microsoft's in terms of announcements, but that doesn't mean some cool stuff wasn't announced either way!

• Tom Clancy's Ghost  Recon: Wildlands was announced. The new game in the Ghost Recon franchise will launch next March, which will feature a co-op campaign. The announcement was revealed with a trailer and a gameplay walkthrough of  'El Pozolero - Takedown Mission'. I must say, it looks very impressive, with a gorgeous environment being shown off as well as the typical Ghost Recon mechanics that makes the series what it is!

• Watch Dogs 2 was also officially announced, again with a trailer and a stage demo, we do not have a release date as of yet though. The stage demo looked very impressive, with the use of of drones to spy on targets, as well as little RC cars. I mean, what else would you expect from Watch Dogs?

• Steep, an Open-World Actions Sports Game was also announced. It seems like its a game very similar to SSX, but includes a wide variety of different extreme sports, including skiing, paragliding and wingsuiting, if that's a thing? Again, it was announced with an action packed trailer.

• South Park: The Fractured But Whole was revealed, with a rather South Park esque trailer to go alongside it. The game will release December 6th, and, this bit is cool, if you pre-order The Fractured But Whole, you'll get the previous game, Stick of Truth free. That is mental, is it not?!

• Finally, For Honor, again, not exactly an announcement, as we saw it for the first time E3 2015, but some new stuff was shown off, such as a Single Player campaign, a new trailer for the campaign and a walkthrough of a Viking campaign mission! So much slashing! So much blood!!

Sony:

Finally, we have Sony. The last major E3 conference that happened on Monday. Again, like Ubisoft, no major hardware announcements, just game announcements, and some pretty big ones at that!

• God of War for PS4 was revealed, again with a gameplay trailer. We don't know much else yet, but a God of War for PS4 is pretty cool!

• Do you all remember Hideo Kojima, the guy that made P.T, that kinda disappeared off of the face of the Earth? Well he's back, with a new game exclusively with PS4, called 'Death Stranding'. The reveal trailer was rather interesting, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it? 

• Sony also revealed a new IP called 'Days Gone'. It's a post-apocalyptic survival game featuring a whole load of zombies! We were treated to both a stage demo and a reveal trailer. Watch the trailer, you'll see what I mean about a whole load of zombies!

• Speaking of P.T, the next Resident Evil game is looking a lot like how P.T felt, creepy. The creators of Resident Evil, Capcom, have claimed that Resident Evil are going back to their roots with Resident Evil 7, yet, after watching the trailer and gameplay, I am feeling creeped out. It seems they have moved on from the zombie stuff to psychological horror, which is defiantly cool with me!

• Next, the new Captain America movie may have influenced this next one, but it looks like we'll be seeing a new Spider-man game soon! Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac shows off a new Spider-Man game, with a very life like looking trailer. Whether a Spider-Man game is your thing or not, it looks cool either way!

• Now probably the most important news of the whole of E3, Crash Bandicoot is being remastered! The Playstation classic is back, or will be back at least! We don't know when, but we do know that Crash Bandicoot 1, 2 & Warped will be remastered for the PS4! It's about time!

Bethesda:

Bethesda had their second ever conference this year. Whether it topped last years conference remains to be seen...

• First up, we got a new Dishonored 2 gameplay demo and trailer, showing off some of the new abilities in the game, as well as gameplay as the new character, Emily. Bethesda also warned that the Collectors Edition of Dishonored 2 will be in limited supply, so if you want it, order now!

• Next, Prey, a game that came out a while ago that everyone thought was dead, isn't dead! It was revealed that the reboot is in the works, with a trailer showing it all off.

• Last year, Bethesda announced Fallout 4, and well, everyone went crazy. This year, they announced three new DLC packs, 'Contraptions Workshop', 'Vault - Tec Workshop' and 'Nuka - World'. Nuka - World looks like it's going to be another large DLC pack, taking place in  a Raider filled Theme Park! It was also announced that Fallout Shelter will be coming to PC, and Fallout will be getting a VR port, as well as DOOM! Exciting times if you own a HTC Vive!

• All aboard the nostalgia train! First a Prey reboot was announced, now fan favourite, Quake, will be making a return! 'Quake: Champions' is a reboot of the PC shooter Quake, and it looks like it could be coming to consoles. All we got from Bethesda though was a trailer, but either way, it looked pretty cool!

• Finally, The Elder Scrolls Series had good time! Firstly,  a Skyrim Remaster was announced for PS4, Xbox One & PC! About time! Also, if you own all of the Skyrim DLC or own the Collectors Edition, you will get the remaster for free! There were also some updates announced for The Elder Scrolls Online and The Elder Scrolls Legends gets a release for Mac, Android and iPad!

And as quickly as it came, it left again, E3 is done for another year. Fortunately, they left us with some wonderful reveals and announcements. For example, the two new Xbox consoles, Crash Bandicoot and Skyrim remasters and all that Battlefield 1 gameplay! It did not disappoint!

What was your favourite piece of news from E3 this year? Let me know in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning May 9th | Project Spark, Overwatch & Modern Warfare

Another week, another news round-up! Let's go!

Project Spark

First up, Microsoft have discontinued the kind-of-popular DIY game creation kit Project Spark. It cannot be downloaded anymore and all services for the game shut down in December. It has also been removed from the Xbox Marketplace and Windows Store.

Support for Project Spark will shut down on the 8th December 2016, meaning no-one will be able to upload their creations to the platform after this date. 

It's never good to see a game/platform shut down, especially as this usually means that the people who worked on the game will lose their jobs! But fear not, all the people who worked on Project
Spark will keep their jobs at Microsoft Studios, and will simply be transferred to other projects within the studio!

Did you ever play Project
Spark?

Community Manager Thomas Gratz spoke on the matter in a blog post late last week:

"This was an extremely difficult decision for our team that we do not take lightly. When Project Spark transitioned away from active development last fall, many of our team members moved to other projects within Microsoft Studios. While this means there have been no layoffs at Microsoft, it also means it's simply no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping Project Spark up and running with meaningful updates and bug fixes, so we have come to this hard decision."

"We can't thank our creators and players enough, It's been an incredible journey to share with you all!"

Since Project Spark launched back in March 2014, the game has received a whopping 46 content packs and 16 updates since it's launch. Those who bought the game will receive credit to their Microsoft account that was used to purchase the game.

R.I.P Project Spark!

Overwatch

Next up, latest Blizzard title Overwatch had an incredible 9.7 MILLION unique players play the Open Beta last weekend! These 9.7 million player helped total around 4.9 BILLION minutes, or 81 million hours of gameplay, with around 37 million matches being played over the weekend!

The world needed heroes, and an incredible 9.7 MILLION of you answered the call. Here's to our next adventure! pic.twitter.com/YIusT0rCUa

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) May 12, 2016

That is an incredible number of players! I was one of those 9.7 million and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! The fact that there was so many different classes and characters to choose from meant that it was very difficult to become bored playing. Even if you were on a bad streak of games, you could simply try playing another character and see if that works for you. It provided hours of entertainment!

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said:

"We're thrilled that such an incredible number of players from around the globe got a chance to check out Overwatch during the Open Beta, our mission was to make sure as many console and PC gamers as possible could experience the full game ahead of its launch—the response was overwhelming, and we hope that everyone had a blast." 

We certainly did Mike! Hopefully all the feedback collected from everyone will mean the game will play as smooth as it did in the open beta when it fully releases on 24th May!

Happy hunting!

Modern Warfare

Finally, it looks like we will be getting a Modern Warfare Trilogy sometime in the next week or two! Great news! Well not so much. The trilogy is only being made available to previous-gen users. Boo!

According to a BestBuy listing that emerged last week, The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy will hit PS3 and Xbox 360 on Tuesday next week in the US (17th May), with the Trilogy including all three of the Modern Warfare games that have been released.

The rumoured cover art for the
Trilogy.

The listing for the Trilogy indicates that only one of the two DLC packages that were released for Modern Warfare 2, the Stimulus Package, will be included in the bundle, which will cost $29.99 (around £20). The Stimulus Package contained the maps; Bailout, Salvage & Storm, with Crash & Overgrown being reintroduced from the first Modern Warfare.

To me this all seems a bit pointless. The likelihood is that most previous-gen users already own the three Modern Warfare games, and probably already have the DLC for all of the games (I know I do!) This might be a ploy by Infinity Ward to get people back on the Call of Duty hype train, ready for Infinite Warfare? Maybe we could be seeing this Triolgy being released on current-gen soon? Who knows?

Aaaand that's it for this week! What did you think of this weeks video game news round-up? Will you Project Spark? Did you get a chance to play Overwatch? Will you be buying the Modern Warfare Trilogy?

Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning May 2nd | Battlefield 1, Infinite Warfare & Fallout 4

Good evening everyone! How are you all doing today? Are you ready for another video game news round-up? Let's get right into it!

Battlefield 1

To start it off, it looks like the next Battlefield game will be 'Battlefield 1', and it will be set during World War One!

It will be released on the 21st October, two weeks before it's potential competitor, Infinite Warfare, however, if you pre-order the Early Enlister Edition you will be able to play on the 18th, and if you have an EA Access account, you'll be able to play it 5 days early on the 16th!

Now this looks super
cool!

So far, we'll be able to play in the Arabian Desert, Western Front and the Italian Alps, but I'm sure the list of places we'll be able to visit will increase as it gets closer to the release date.

Now much like Battlefield 4, there will be pre-created classes that you will have the opportunity to edit and customise yourself. There will be 4 Infantry classes, which are 'Assault, Medic, Scout & Support' as well as two vehicle classes for tank driver and fighter pilots.

Now from what I've gathered from the trailer, it looks like we will be going all over the place, fighting in all types scenarios and locations, much like the previous instalments of the game. Also, very much like the other games, there will definitely be 64 player multiplayer, which is very much Battlefield-esque!

And for weapons, they are also relevant to the time era they're going for. From rifles to flamethrowers to swords! It will be interesting to see what else they add to the game and what else they announce closer to the release date!


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

Infinite Warfare

Next up, it appears that Call of Duty fans are somewhat upset about the setting of the next CoD, Infinite Warfare.

The reveal trailer for Infinite Warfare dropped on Monday, revealing some teasers about the game, for example, the setting of the next instalment in the series. It will be in space, and by the looks of it, there will be space battles, robots and all other things futuristic.

Apparently the CoD fanbase aren't happy about this, and they have taken to mass downvoting the teaser trailer on YouTube to express their anger. Currently the trailer has just under 10.5 million views with over 620,000 dislikes, compared to a mere 217,000 likes. Yeah, so it's easy to see people aren't happy. Not only that, but fan favourite 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' or 'CoD 4' will be made available as a pre-order bonus, only if you pre-order the Legacy or Legacy Pro Edition of the game, which is about £20-£40 more expensive than the standard edition of the game. 

The same as always, or something different?

Call of Duty trailers do usually get a high amount of views, especially if they are reveal trailers to the next game, but the fact that the trailer for Infinite Warfare got over 400,000 more dislikes than likes
shows the masses are not happy! 

Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg has addressed the basklash by saying it was nothing new. His full response:

"We know there are people in our community who are nostalgic for the boots on the ground-style gameplay, and that's why we made Modern Warfare Remastered. But we also have millions of people in our community who want to have new innovative experiences in the game each year and Infinite Warfare is going to deliver that.

"The good news is this year we found a way to deliver both in one package while keeping our community together. While of course we see the passionate opinions online, we also look at other measurements and the fact is that while it's very early pre-orders are off to a very strong start. Views of the reveal trailer that you referred to are up. And in fact, the number of likes per view on the Infinite Warfare trailer are the highest we've ever seen.

"We've seen this in the franchise before. The reveal trailer for Black Ops 2, which took the franchise into the future for the first time, had the most dislikes of any reveal trailer we had ever made at that time. And that of course went on to become our most successful game, ever.

"Right now, the franchise has never been stronger. We have more people playing Black Ops 3, a game that takes place in the future, with boost jumps and fictitious weapons and all the rest, than any game in our history. What we know for sure is that if we always just did what worked in the past and never took any creative risks, we wouldn't have a franchise. The day to worry is the day we stop trying new things."

To be honest, I think Call of Duty have fully milked all of this future stuff, and I definitely think it's time for a change. If Call of Duty does do well this year, it will probably because if the CoD 4 remaster. I know it's still early days yet, but I think Battlefield 1 will win the shooter awards this year!

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

Fallout 4

Finally, those of us who are console gamers are finally able to get our hands on Fallout 4's Survival Mode.

After PC users have had access to the Survival Mode update for over a month, console users were finally given access to the update on Friday. 

Survival Mode changes the game and how you play it in a number of difficult, grueling and challenging ways. For example, fast travel is disabled, you can only save when you sleep, all weapon damages are increased significantly, there are diseases, ammo and stimpacks have weights, etc. 

PC players also have access to the Creation Kit and Mods at the moment, which are currently in beta. Now that's what I want to get my hands on!

Will you be unravelling the secrets
of  Far Harbor?!

The patch also adds a range of other things, which mainly include patches and bug fixes.

Oh, don't forget that the final planned piece of DLC, Far Harbor, is set to be released on the 19th May, so look forward to that! Apparently it's the biggest DLC to ever be released by Bethesda! Exciting times!

Soo that's it for this week. What did you think of this week's video game news round-up? Do you like the fact that Battlefield is going back to the past? Do you dislike the fact that Call of Duty will remain in the future? Are you looking forward to playing Survival Mode in Fallout? Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning April 25th | PSN vs Nintendo, Call of Duty & Lionhead Studios

Hello all, how are you doing today? I hope you're all ready for some video game related news!

PSN vs Nintendo

First up, it looks like Playstation's Online service is doing better than the whole of Nintendo. Period.

Twitter user @ZhugeEX pointed this out in a Tweet earlier in the week:

Sony's PlayStation Network sales hit 529,000m yen which means that PSN generated more revenue than the whole of Nintendo (504,000m yen).

— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) April 28, 2016

So. according to ZhugeEX, Playstation made a total of 529.1 billion yen's worth of sales (That's around £3.3 billion), where as in the same financial year, Nintendo as a whole made a total of 504.4

Looks like Nintendo needs
to up their game!

billion yen (which is around £3.2 billion).

Now in terms of profit or income (take your pick!) Nintendo made roughly 38.2 billion yen (which is around £207 million) and Playstation made 88.7 billion yen (roughly £538 million).

These numbers are definitely not surprising, at least for me anyway. Playstation's income is fuelled by a whole number of things, including games, consoles and Playstation Network, which has around 40 million users!
Nintendo on the other hand is a different story. Their most recent console, the Wii U, has in total sold around 12.8 million units, and compared to PSN, well, Nintendo doesn't have an online subscription service like Playstation, therefore, it's no surprise Nintendo is being left behind in terms of yearly income.

Does this mean that Nintendo as a company is dying, or will their new console, codenamed 'NX', boost their sales astronomically? Only time will tell!

Call of Duty

Next up, it looks like we could be seeing previous-gen Call of Duty game Modern Warafare on our next/current-gen consoles real soon!

So, let's start from the beginning. On Wednesday, the official Infinity Ward Twitter account tweeted a very dubious tweet reading:

Stay frosty.

— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) April 27, 2016

OMGGGG

Now this tweet wasn't in reply to another tweet or related to anything happening currently for Infinity Ward, so as us gamers like to do, we all board the hype train and get to guessing what the tweet could mean. It wasn't long before people started putting two and two together. 'Stay Frosty' is Infinity Ward's catchphrase, so, it could point to anything Call of Duty related.

Now this is where it starts to get interesting. Twitter user ‎@ngusvanderslott tweeted something along the lines of he'd be very happy to see a remaster of a Call of Duty great, way back in December. The official Call of Duty Twitter account then replied, on Wednesday, with another big tease...

@ngusvanderslott 💩👖

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) April 27, 2016

This guy is probably going to have to change his trousers! Too top it all off, a leaked image from CharlieIntel.com shows the possible box art for the next Call of Duty game, 'Infinite Warfare' along with a message reading that Modern Warfare will be included.

You'll probably have to pre-order a special edition to get Modern Warfare remastered, but it's definitely cool to see that probably one of the best Call of Duty games ever is getting a remastering!

Lionhead Studios

Finally, we say a sad farewell to Lionhead Studios, who closed their doors for the final time late last Friday.

Last month, Microsoft had announced the cancellation of Fable Legends, the next game to feature in the series, along with an annoucnment that they were discussing plans to close the UK based studio, which Peter Molyneux, Fez developer, founded in 1996.

Thanks for everything....

Now as the consultation period has ended and no buyers were found to buy the studio has officially closed their doors for the last time.

Eurogamer was sent a statement from Microsoft:

"We can confirm that after much consideration over the six week consultation period with Lionhead employees, we have reached the decision to close Lionhead Studios. We have nothing but heart-felt thanks for the team at Lionhead for their significant contributions to Xbox and the games industry."

I wish all those affected the best.

And that's it for this week. What did you think of this week's news round-up? Will Nintendo ever recover and get back on top? Are you looking forward to the next Call of Duty? Will you miss Lionhead Studios?

Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning April 18th | Goodbye Xbox, Stolen Goods! & Borderlands 3

Hello all! Welcome back for another video games news run-down! Let's get into it!

Goodbye Xbox

First up, after just over a decade of production, Microsoft have decided to end production of the Xbox 360.

Current Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote in a blog post earlier in the week saying that the 360 would only be available to buy while current stocks last. This means that if you want to buy a 360 new, you'd better do it soon!

Spencer wrote in the post; 

End of an era...

"Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft ,and while we've had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us.

Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. We will continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country."

Although production of the 360 is stopping, Microsoft will continue to support the 360, with the likes of Games With Gold, Xbox Live and the Store will all continue to be supported. 

The Xbox 360 was definitely the console to beat at the time. The 360 cemented Xbox Live as the best online service console, while seeing the likes of Gears Of War, Halo & Mass Effect making their debuts on the system. 

I do think that it makes sense though. Microsoft have been slowly releasing 360 titles for the One and the price of the Xbox One has been decreasing ever so slowly too. If people haven't already upgraded to the One, they will do soon. 

So it's the end of an era. Thanks for the memories, Xbox 360!

Stolen Goods!

Next up, it looks like Nintendo have again been the victims of another UK heist!

Thousands of pounds worth of Nintendo merchandise and games were stolen from a lorry parked at the A14's Thrapston service station.

As of yet no-one knows which games were stolen, leaving Star Fox fans concerned that they may not get their copy of Star Fox Zero, a Wii U exclusive which released Friday. The stock was stolen overnight on the 13th April, whilst the driver was asleep in the truck itself. The thieves simply sliced the material on the side of the lorry and plucked the games from within.

A quick snatch & grab...

Northampton Police revealed the crime as they are looking for further information related to the crime.

"Anyone with information can contact Northamptonshire police on 101, alternatively, they can call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111."

It hasn't been a good few months for Nintendo. This comes 12 months after UK stock of Splatoon was stolen from a truck, again a few days before release. No stock was every recovered from the incident.

Let's hope Nintendo sort themselves out and find the stock soon!

Borderlands 3

Finally, it looks like we will eventually be seeing a new Borderlands game!

Gearbox Software, the guys who made Borderlands 1 & 2 have said that once production on Battleborn (their new FPS which is being released May 3rd) and all the DLC has been wrapped up, they will start work on a new Borderlands game! How exciting!

Speaking at a PAX East panel attended by Eurogamer during the week, studio CEO Randy Pitchford said it's no secret there's "going to be another Borderlands".

'Mind-blowing' stuff! Get it? 

“We don’t even know if we’re going to call it [Borderlands 3]”, said Picthford. “We could call it Borderlands 4 for all we know.”

Battleborn's current art director Scott Kester said he will be provide art direction for the next Borderlands, and creative director Mikey Neumann will be writing the story. Does this mean we could be losing the signature art style that the Borderlands series is so well-known for? Hopefully not!

Now we don't know much else, but I'm sure we may see some more stuff during E3!

Annnd that's it for this week! What did you think of this weeks video game news round-up?

Will you miss the Xbox 360? Do you think Nintendo will ever find those stolen goods? Are you excited for Borderlands 3?

Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)

NEWS | Week beginning April 4th | Video Game BAFTA's, Playstation Remote Play & Congressman's Steam Derp

Hello everyone! How are you doing this fine Sunday evening? Ready for a video game news round-up? Well you'd better be!

Video Game BAFTA's 

Congratulations to Fallout 4!

First up, the Video Game BAFTA's happened earlier this week. Much like the movie BAFTA's, the best game in each of the categories wins an award. From Best Game to Music, people within the video game industry vote for their favourite game in each category. Unsurprisingly, Fallout 4 won Best Game. I'll leave the list of the categories, nominees and games which won each award below!

Best Game

• Fallout 4 - Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Game Studios
• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Life Is Strange - Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
• Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Development Team – Kojima Productions/Konami
• Rocket League - Psyonix
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projeckt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Story

• Life Is Strange - Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Her Story - Sam Barlow
• Undertale– tobyfox/tobyfox
• Until Dawn Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Debut Game 

• Her Story -  Sam Barlow
• Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes - Ben Kane, Brian Fetter, Allen Pestaluky – Steel Crate Games/Steel Crate Games
• Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime -  Matt Hammill, Jamie Tucker, Adam Winkels – Asteroid Base/Asteroid Base
• Mini Metro -  Dinosaur Polo Club/AGM Playism
• Ori And The Blind Forest - Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios 
• Prune - Joel McDonald, Kyle Preston/Joel McDonald

Multiplayer

• Rocket League - Psyonix/Psyonix
• Destiny: The Taken – Bungie/Activision
• Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime - Asteroid Base/Asteroid Base
• Splatoon - Nintendo/Nintendo
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Ubisoft
• World Of Warships - Wargaming.net

British Game

• Batman: Arkham Knight - Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Her Story Sam Barlow - Sam Barlow/ Sam Barlow
• Prison Architect - Introversion Software/Introversion Software
• Tearaway Unfolded - Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Until Dawn - Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Audio Achievement

• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture -  The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Ubisoft
• Batman Arkham Knight - Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
• Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - Kojima Productions/Konami
• Star Wars Battlefront - EA Dice/Electronic Arts
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Artistic Achievement

• Ori And The Blind Forest  - Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
• Batman Arkham Knight - Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain -  Kojima Productions/Konami
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Game Design 

• Bloodborne - FromSoftware/Sony Computer Entertainment EuropeGrow Home - Ubisoft/Ubisoft
• Her Story - Sam Barlow
• Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime - Asteroid Base/Asteroid Base
• Rocket League - Psyonix/Psyonix
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projeckt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Game Innovation

• Her Story - Sam Barlow
• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Life Is Strange - Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
• Metal Gear Solid 5 - The Phantom Pain - Kojima Productions/Konami
• Splatoon - Nintendo/Nintendo
• Until Dawn - Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Family

• Rocket League - Psyonix/Psyonix
• Disney Infinity: Play Without Limits  - Avalanche Studios, Disney Interactive Studios/Disney Interactive Studios
• FIFA 16 – EA Canada/EA Sports
• Guitar Hero: Live - Freestyle Games/Activision
• Lego Dimensions -  TT Games/WB Games
• Super Mario Maker - Nintendo/Nintendo

Mobile & Handheld

• Her Story - Sam Barlow
• Alphabear - Spry Fox/Spry Fox
• Fallout Shelter - Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
• Lara Croft GO - Square Enix Montreal/Square Enix
• Prune - Joel McDonald, Kyle Preston/Joel McDonald
• The Room Three - Fireproof Games/Fireproof Games

Music

• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - Jessica Curry - The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Ubisoft
• Batman: Arkham Knight - Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
• Fallout 4 - Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softoworks 
• Halo 5: Guardians - 343 Industries/Microsoft Studios
• Ori And The Blind Forest - Gareth Coker – Moon Studios/ Microsoft Studios

Original Property

• Until Dawn -  Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Her Story - Sam Barlow
• Life Is Strange - Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
• Ori And The Blind Forest - Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios
• Splatoon - Nintendo/Nintendo

Performer

• Merle Dandridge as Kate Collins in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Ashly Burch as Chloe Price in Life is Strange
• Doug Cockle as Geralt of Rivia, Witcher in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Oliver Dimsdale as Stephen Appleton in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Mark Hamill as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight
• Masasa Moyo as Vella in Broken Age: Act 2

Persistent Game

• Prison Architect - Introversion Software/Introversion Software
• Destiny: The Taken King - Bungie/Activision
• Final Fantasy Online Square Enix/Square Enix
• Guitar Hero: Live - Freestyle Games/Activision
• Lego Dimensions – TT Games/WB Games
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  - CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment

Playstation Remote Play

Next up, Sony have finally caught up with the rest of the crowd with the whole remote play thing, allowing Playstation 4 owners to play their favourite PS4 games on their PC.

The remote feature has always existed within the PS4, however, you needed to own either a Vita or a Playstation TV. Neither of the two are very popular, so it's unlikely that the feature is used often. I personally own a Vita, and the couple of times I've tried using Remote Play, it wasn't exactly the most smooth experience. You need  to make sure you have an excellent internet connection, which some are not blessed with. Also, the controls can become VERY confusing. As the Vita doesn't have all the buttons that the PS4 controller has. some controls are set to the rear touch pad, meaning playing games, especially shooters, can become taxing and confusing. Not ideal!

Have you tried Remote Play yet?

However, with the new PC support with Remote Play, streaming and playing your favourite games should be a lot easier!
All you have to do is update your PS4, ensuring you have installed Sony's 3.50 firmware update. Next, go and install the Remote Play Desktop App for either your Windows PC or Mac, depending on what you have. Then log in within the app, plug in a PS4 controller, connect to your PS4 and game on! Simple as!

The new functionality requires the following for Windows:

• Windows 8.1 (32-bit or 64-bit) or Windows 10 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Intel Core i5-560M Processor 2.67 GHz or faster
• 100MB or more of available storage
• 2GB or more of RAM
• 1024x768 or higher display resolution
• Sound card
• USB port

And for Macs:

• OS X Yosemite (10.10) or OS X El Capitan (10.11)
• Intel Core i5-520M Processor 2.40 GHz or faster
• 40MB or more of available storage
• 2GB or more of RAM
• USB port

As someone who owns both a PS4 and a PC, I thought it was only right to give the feature a go, and I must say, it works very well! I tried playing a game or two on the family Mac, as well as playing a session of Fallout 4 on my laptop. I played Black Ops 3 on the Mac, and it went well. There was minimal lag, but slight latency issues. Fallout 4 ran a lot smoother, with the odd lag here and there. The only recommendation I have is too ensure minimal devices are connected to your router when using Remote Play. This will help eliminate lag and should make your gaming session run as smoothly as possible!

 If you're unsure, of how to set it up for your PC, check the link above and scroll down, there are instructions on how to do the initial set-up. Have fun!

Congressman's Steam Derp

Finally, it looks like one US congressman has accidentally spent a bit too much money on his Steam account...

California Congressman Duncan Hunter managed to spend  around $1,302 on Steam. Unfortunately, these weren't his own funds that he was spending, they were funds from his Political Campaign!

Hunter claimed that his teenage son used his campaign's credit card to buy a game on Steam. Then instead of removing card from the account, (like you should always do!) he left the card on the account, and claims several unauthorised charges were made to the card.

The Congressman said he is trying to get the charges reversed, if the charges are not reversed, then

Why so glum Duncan?

he'll have to re-pay the whole $1,302 to the Campaign himself. Now this may seem unfair, but the charges were listed as 'personal expenses to be paid back'. What else was he expecting really?

It is believed that the 68 charges were a result of the Steam account being hacked, but unfortunately, we may never know.

Poor Duncan Hunter... This should teach him to remove his cards after using them online!

Annnnnnd that's it for this week! What did you think of this week's gaming news? Does Fallout 4 deserve the Best Game award? Have you tried using the new PS4 Remote Play feature? Have you ever derped as hard as that US Congressman? Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)