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 :)

NEWS | Week beginning March 28th | Steam, Call of Duty& Sony

Good Sunday all! How you all doing?

Steam

First up, it looks like Steam had again been breached this week, but instead of things being stolen, it turns out something was added to the Steam Store!

Steam user 'rubiimeow' was aware of a loophole in Steam's coding, which allowed users to upload their own games straight to the Steam Store, skipping the whole Greenlight process! For those of you who are unaware of what Steam Greenlight is, Greenlight is a a system that allows Steam users to pick the independent games that are released on Steam. If you like the look of a game that is in Greenlight, give it a vote and you might find it on Steam!

Anyway, rubiimeow wanted to raise awareness to the weakness, so, he went and created a game and abused the weakness, which allows users to skip the Greenlight process, and upload his AAA game. 'Watch Paint Dry'.

Upon seeing the game on the front of the

A screenshot from the game, definitely a
Game Of The Year contender!

Store page, many Steam users were frustrated and wanted Steam to up their quality control, even though the game had not passed inspection.

User rubiimeow left a detailed description online (you can find it here) showing how he did it, and it involved a lot of fiddling behind the scenes, which included changing values for the game in Steam's database and edit the coding within Steam.

rubiimeow wrote:
"I decided to use the 'untitled app' for an April Fools prank to try and get Valve's attention about the issues. I have been in contact with Valve who have now fixed the vulnerability."

"Something I've definitely learned from doing this is when working with user-generated content that first needs to be approved, do not have 'Review Ready' and 'Reviewed' as two states of existence for the content. Or just don't allow users to set the item to 'Released'."

Watch paint dry has been removed from Steam and the coding error has been resolved.

Definitely a unique way of raising awareness of an issue! Fair play to rubiimeow for not abusing the flaw and getting Valve to fix the issue!

Call of Duty

Next up, there are rumours surrounding the next Call of Duty game in the franchise will be set, and wait for it..... SPPPPACCCEEEE!

Yeah, so apparently, the next Call of Duty game, being developed and produced by Infinity Ward this year, will be set in 'The Final Frontier'.

Space Station LOKI in CoD Ghosts...

First details have been revealed by video game source shinobi602, who claims the game will be set in the 'Very far future' with 'Space combat' and 'Full on sci-fi'. Whether you can trust this source or not, many on the world wide web believe these rumours to be true.

Previous Call of Duty titles have touched upon the future, biggest example being Ghosts, where campaign mission 'Loki' starts in space and allows users to shoot people up, IN SPACE! Whether you liked Ghosts or not, the space mission was pretty cool, and a whole game set in space could also be very cool.

As always, expect to see the next Call of Duty game in November, with it being released on all the major consoles and PC.

Sony

Finally, it appears that Sony's video game branch, 'Sony Computer Entertainment' has finally got their paperwork signed and have officially re-branded to 'Sony Interactive Entertainment'.

 Sony Computer Entertainment, which has been in control of the Playstation franchise since the 90's, is now no more. The re-brand doesn't really mean much honestly. By the looks of things, the re-brand is really just a way for Sony to integrate other Playstation Services, like Vue and Now into the mix. There has also been some behind the scenes boardroom shuffling. Nothing too bad!

President Shawn Lyden wrote on the Playstation Blog:

"Our full integration won't happen overnight, but the work is well underway and I'm delighted to report that we are tracking ahead of schedule."

"I have enormous respect, and limitless devotion, for the creators, artists, and engineers within our

Sony's new logo...

Worldwide Studios, and I'm eager to be back in the business of helping developers realise their dreams," he continued. "And to our faithful and discerning PlayStation community, I thank you for your dedication, your enthusiasm, and your trust as we embark on a new journey as Sony Interactive Entertainment."

This is all happening just in time for Sony, with big Playstation only releases coming out soon, with the likes of Ratchet and Clank and Uncharted 4. Will we see any other major changes come from this re-branding, or is this it? 

And that's it for this week! What did you think of this weeks video game news round-up? Will Steam ever be 100% safe? Is a Call of Duty in space something you'd like to see? Will we see anything else come from Sony after their re-branding? Let me know in the comments down below!

As always, thanks for reading!

Connor :)