News, Reviews, Other Stuff Probably

[Video version of this post: https://bit.ly/2t3MoZT ] Day two of E3 2018’s major conferences has come and gone, and with it, our second conference. The first of the big three to have their show this year is Xbox, and the Xbox conference was full of big first-party reveals, indies, and more utterances of the words ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Premiere’ than you can shake a stick at. 50 games were shown over the course of the show, in what was a much faster-paced display than EA’s conference. Let’s get into details. Halo Infinite First off, was a biggun. As is typical for this franchise, the first trailer shown at the conference was a whole lot of “what could this be?” until finally, “oh sweet, it’s Halo”. Yep, the next Halo game is Halo Infinite, and while not much in the way of info was shared during the show, Halo Infinite appears to be essentially Halo 6. Though, note that the footage shown here was confirmed after the show to be simply engine footage showing off the new Slipspace ...

[Video version of this post: https://bit.ly/2HBM7Ss ] Welcome to what I plan and hope to be the first in a number of posts summarising the major game conferences of E3 2018.  Yes, E3 has arrived once again and in turn so have all the publishers out of the shadows, looking to excite you into giving them your money. It is my intent with these posts to show you everything that went down at these conferences, including all the game trailers, demos, and all of the…other stuff, but in a bit more of a quick and timely fashion, in the case that you want to know everything that went down, but watching them in full isn’t your cup of tea.  Naturally, we’ll be starting with the first conference: EA Play, (yes, not technically part of E3, but as close as you can get). Battlefield V EA started their conference with one of their biggest hitters, Battlefield V , and just in case the 30 minutes of talking about it event they held a couple weeks ago wasn’t enough, here the...

Today saw 2017's edition of The Game Awards take place, starting at the convenient time of 1:30am over here in the UK. If you were busy during the proceedings, want a refresher, or just like to sleep at night, then here's a run-down of everything that happened, and when. Also included are URLs to all the relevant trailers (and other highlights), should anything pique your interest. The Pre-Show 01:38 - Let the games begin! The show starts off with The Game Award's creator and lead organiser, Geoff Keighley, being interviewed about stuff including what's to come, what The Game Awards is all about, and how the soon-to-be winners are chosen. Pre-filmed promo stuff, basically. 01:45 - The actual live ceremony begins, live from The Microsoft Theatre in LA. Keighley's introducing the show, talking about all of the platforms the show is being hosted on. 01:47 - The first announcement, and world premiere, of the night is a World War Z game , developed by Saber. ...

Another year, another COD, another COD live-action trailer. You know the deal. Typically explosive, celebrity-riddled affairs, this year's instalments dial it back down a bit. Notice I said 'instalments'? That's because today, three similar, yet different trailers for this year's title were released. There's one for the  US , one for the  UK , and one for  France . They're all good fun, give them a watch. As with the Black Ops 'Replacer' ads, the focus here is on dropping whatever's going on in your 'real life' to play some good ol' Call of Duty. But with less Peter Stormare. Call of Duty: WWII launches November 3rd.

Microtransactions, and more specifically loot boxes, have caused quite a stir in recent months. This is largely because it's starting to seem like every other game has them, whether it's a multiplayer fashion show of death like Overwatch or even a singleplayer-only affair like Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no denying how popular loot boxes have become with AAA publishers like Blizzard and WB, and how topical they are in the industry at the moment. The ESRB's recently declared that it doesn't see them as gambling , after calls for them to label games that feature them as such. While many may dislike loot boxes, few might attempt to combat them using the British Parliament. Regardless, someone has done just that.  Reddit user 'Artfunkel' shared on /r/Games that after a productive talk on the issue, the Labour MP for Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, has reached out to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, ...

In a stream today, Bungie detailed much of the new content coming in Destiny's final major update, 'Age of Triumph', including revamped versions of all of the raids, now confirmed to arrive on March 28th. All four of Destiny's Raids (Vault of Glass, Crota's End, King's Fall, and Wrath of the Machine) will have new 390 Light variants, with new challenge modes and rewards coming across them all. From March 28th, a 390 Light 'Weekly Featured Raid' will be available, well, weekly, for players to attempt too. Each one of these will have all challenge modes active, as opposed to just one each week as we've seen prior. So, expect a hard-fought victory. As with previous Live Events, progress in Age of Triumph will be tracked by a Record Book, which will also be the largest Destiny has had to date, with 13 pages of rewards and objectives covering all of Destiny's content since its release; Raids, Strikes, Crucible, Story missions, and more. The eve...

The original Variety DLC for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is set to come to its remaster this month, Activision has announced. All four of the maps from the original will be fully remastered and sold for the remade game that released with last year's Infinite Warfare. It will cost $14.99 (around £12 this side of the Atlantic), and arrives first on PS4 on March 21. Dates for other platforms are yet to be announced, but expect them around the same time next month. Alongside the maps, players who purchase the DLC will gain access to 10 Rare Supply Drops; the random item boxes players can grind their way up to unlocking or pay for as microtransactions. These boxes, in business speak, represent "a $20 bonus value (based on Rare Supply Drop suggested retail prices, actual value may vary)". What a deal. The original Variety DLC released in April 2008 (for consoles), and was the first and only paid DLC for 2007's Modern Warfare. Whether further original DLC cont...

After teasing such an update in their regular weekly update yesterday, Bungie today revealed Destiny's next content update, 'Age of Triumph', releasing at the "end of March", plus some details about Destiny 2. The largest piece of news concerning the latter is (finally), the confirmation that all players' characters from Destiny 1 will have their stats and equipment reset for the sequel. Though players who've reached Level 20, and finished the main story of the game's campaign, will be able to carry over their character's appearance. No DLC for the original is required to do these, so most dedicated players should have this option. Plus, accounts with these accomplishments will be awarded "honors that reflect your Destiny 1 accomplishments". No specifics on what these rewards will be as of yet. Going back to plain ol' Destiny 1, Bungie's social manager DeeJ, describing the impending Age of Triumph update, said: "We i...