Culture
117 CommentsIt's been 10 years since Half-Life 2: Episode 3 was announced. Here's Gabe Newell not talking about it.
No, numerologists of the Interwebs, this is not confirmation of Half-Life 2: Episode 3. It's a compilation of interviews given and questions taken by Valve boss Gabe Newell in the decade since the infamous finale to the Half-Life trilogy was first announced.
That happened May 24, 2006. Valve and Newell were, for a time, very happy to discuss plans for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Ten years ago, Valve was even happy to give the game a launch window — "by Christmas 2007." Perhaps not coincidentally, 2008 is when Newell starts clamming up about it.
The posture changes from "we're still working on it, of course," to a very strict "we have nothing to say about Half-Life." At least in this video's chronology, the last time Newell was on camera saying the game was even still in development was...
News
16 CommentsBungie postpones Destiny's Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner until it can fix a bug
Destiny's competitive multiplayer events are on hold for now while Bungie investigates a nasty, fun-killing ammunition bug in the Crucible, the studio announced today.
At issue is a recently discovered exploit involving a combination of two specific weapon perks, Cocoon and Clown Cartridge. Players who cycle between a gun from the King's Fall raid — all of which have Cocoon — and a special weapon or heavy weapon with Clown Cartridge have a chance of generating unlimited rounds for the latter firearm. This leads to comical situations like a rocket launcher containing 50 rockets.
"When we learned that some Guardians had discovered a way to earn unlimited rockets, we knew it was time for a bug hunt," said Bungie community manager David "DeeJ" Dague. "Rather than punish players for...
Cover Story
Issue
19
May 25, 2016
Designing Mirror’s Edge: The making of a franchise
Go behind the scenes with DICE on the creation of Mirror’s Edge and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.
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25 CommentsGrand Theft Auto 5 tops 65 million copies shipped
Rockstar Games has shipped more than 65 million units of Grand Theft Auto 5 worldwide, announced Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick today.
The news came during an investor call for Take-Two's 2016 fiscal year. Grand Theft Auto 5 shipments had topped the 60 million mark by early February, which means that Rockstar shipped approximately 5 million units of the game in the past three months or so. At this same point one year ago, shipments of Grand Theft Auto 5 totaled just under 52 million units. So in the past year, Rockstar has shipped 13 million copies of the game.
Grand Theft Auto 5 was originally released in September 2013 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Rockstar brought the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2014, and ported it to Windows PC in April 2015.
News
25 CommentsNearly 1M Xbox Live Gamertags will be up for grabs this week
Almost one million unused Gamertags will be made available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers this Wednesday, according to a press release. Gold members who have been active on the service for at least a year will be able to sift through the abandoned Gamertags starting at 11 a.m. PT on May 18.
Among the IDs to choose from are proper names, pop culture references and "some of the greatest inventions of all time," the team at Xbox Live said. Gold members worldwide can switch their personal Gamertags to one of these instead. They'll roll out over a 24-hour period, meaning the full list won't be available from the get-go.
In a press release, the team at Xbox explained that these Gamertags belonged to accounts made after the first Xbox launched. They have been inactive since before the Xbox...
Latest Xbox 360 Forum Activity View all posts
News
14 CommentsGet your Overwatch copy a day early at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop
Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch will be available at certain retailers on May 23 — one day before the game's public release date of May 24, as a NeoGAF user noticed. Amazon, Best Buy and GameStop all have the launch date listed as May 23 now.
You may be wondering why that matters, since Overwatch is an online-only game and the servers won't go live until May 24. Here's the significance: It puts retail pre-order customers in the same position as those who pre-order digital copies.
Anyone who pre-purchases Overwatch digitally from Battle.net, the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Games Store will be able to download and install the game ahead of time. Preloading the game allows people to start playing as soon as Blizzard flips the switch on the Overwatch servers. If this were to become...
News
45 CommentsXbox One now supports backward compatibility with multi-disc 360 games (update)
Xbox One now offers backward compatibility support for multi-disc Xbox 360 games, Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, Xbox Live's director of programming confirmed. In a post on reddit, the Microsoft employee said that work has been done to make these types of games available on the company's current hardware.
"I can confirm that the [backward compatibility] team has done work to support multi[-]disc scenarios," he wrote. "Be sure to thank the BC engineers."
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut is the first multi-disc 360 release to run on Xbox One. That game joined the backward compatible games library earlier this week.
The standard version of Human Revolution became backward compatible on Xbox One in December. At that time, the franchise's official Twitter account said that Microsoft...
News
16 CommentsBest Buy listing dates Modern Warfare Trilogy collection for 360 and PS3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next week, according to new listings on Best Buy's website. The $29.99 collection will launch on May 17, the store page says, and will include all three Modern Warfare games plus an extra map pack.
Best Buy's listing mentions that the case houses three discs, one for each game. Modern Warfare 2's Stimulus Package downloadable content, which comes with five bonus maps, is also contained in the set.
First spotted by Twitter user Wario64, the tweet below seems to confirm that the package could already be in some stores.
Modern Warfare Trilogy is a thing but not what you asked for pic.twitter.com/e3VoNa6E8E
— Wario64 (@Wario64) May 12, 2016
Both sets will be shipping soon, Best Buy's website says;...
News
42 CommentsBungie is finally trying to help Destiny players find partners
Bungie is redoubling its efforts to bring Destiny players together, linking the game's existing Recruitment forum with its mobile companion app in a way that could actually be useful, the studio announced yesterday.
Destiny is at its best when played with other people, but many of its popular and high-level activities don't support matchmaking — and that's by design, Bungie has reiterated time and again. In the absence of in-game matchmaking features or any kind of worthwhile service provided by Bungie, a cottage industry of LFG ("looking for group") websites sprang up within weeks of Destiny's launch in September 2014.
"The #Recruitment forum is always there for you to solicit allies, but it's traditionally been a chaotic wall of potential Fireteams,"...
News
7 CommentsRob Gronkowski confirmed as Madden NFL 17 cover athlete (update)
Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots will appear on the cover of Madden NFL 17, ESPN announced today on SportsCenter.
The announcement confirms an overnight leak from the Xbox Games Store, in which artwork of Gronkowski appeared in product listings for Madden 17. Gronkowski's pose on the final cover is different from the one in the leaked artwork, but he's still spiking a football.
Gronkowski, 26, has played six years in the NFL so far, all of them with the Patriots, and is already one of the best tight ends in the history of the league. He is a four-time Pro Bowl honoree and has racked up 65 regular-season touchdowns, the third-most in any NFL player's first six seasons. Gronkowski is the first tight end to grace the cover of a Madden game.
"It's a dream come true," Gronkowski...
News
11 CommentsMadden NFL 17 leak suggests Rob Gronkowski is cover athlete (update)
Madden NFL 17's cover athlete may be New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, according to leaked product listings on the Xbox Games Store.
A page popped up last night for a Standard Edition of Madden 17 with two screenshots, one of Gronkowski and the other of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown stiff-arming Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller. (You can see those images below.) That page has since been taken down, along with the Madden 17 landing page. Listings for a $79.99 Deluxe Edition and a $99.99 Super Deluxe Edition of the game were also available until a short time ago — here's a screencap of a search on the Xbox website:
The product information on those pages offers the first details on Madden 17's feature set and gameplay focus:
T...
Opinion
15 CommentsDisney Infinity was a triumph
Today I read that Cracker Jack boxes now include a QR code that links to mobile games, instead of a physical toy.
"The Cracker Jack Prize Inside has been as much a part of the nostalgia and love for the brand as the unforgettable combination of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts," Haston Lewis, the senior director of marketing at Cracker Jack parent company Frito-Lay, said in a press release. "The new Prize Inside allows families to enjoy their favorite baseball moments through a new one-of-a-kind mobile experience, leveraging digital technology to bring the iconic Prize Inside to life."
I was recently at a museum with my children and saw a variety of antique Cracker Jack toys under glass, and marveled at what you used to get inside the box. I have memories of what used to come with...
News
34 CommentsThe best version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is now playable on Xbox One
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut is now backward compatible on Xbox One, Microsoft announced. Square Enix first released the game on Xbox 360 back in 2013, two years after the original version's launch.
Director's Cut is a revised, improved edition of Human Revolution, adding a New Game+ mode and additional tweaks. It also includes the downloadable add-on The Missing Link and a bonus mission.
The biggest change from the older game is revamped boss fights. Although Human Revolution received positive reviews in its initial release, critics complained of the boss fights and how they deviated from the stealth-driven action players got used to throughout the rest of the game. These parts of the games were outsourced to GRIP Entertainment, not developed by Eidos Montreal like the...
News
15 CommentsMadden NFL 17 announced, launching Aug. 23
Madden NFL 17 is the 2016 installment in EA Sports' long-running Madden NFL franchise, and it will be released Aug. 23 — the series' usual fourth-Tuesday-in-August slot, publisher Electronic Arts announced today.
Developed by EA Tiburon, Madden 17 will be available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The game will be playable early on Xbox One for EA Access subscribers.
EA also announced today that it will debut a gameplay trailer for Madden 17 and reveal the game's cover athlete during the 6 p.m. ET edition of ESPN's SportsCenter on Thursday, May 12. EA had held a fan vote for the Madden box art annually for six years; this will be the first time since 2009's Madden NFL 10 that the publisher, not the fans, will choose the cover athlete.
For more on the Madden...
News
20 CommentsSonic & Knuckles, Phantasy Star 2 and more now backward compatible on Xbox One
Several Xbox 360 games have been made backward compatible on Xbox One today, according to Microsoft. The most notable of the additions are truly old-school: Phantasy Star 2 and Sonic & Knuckles, both Xbox Live Arcade games now playable on Xbox One.
Sega originally released both games on Sega Genesis; Phantasy Star 2 came stateside in 1990, while Sonic & Knuckles launched worldwide in 1994, months after Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The original Sonic & Knuckles cartridge could be directly locked onto its predecessor's to access the older game's data.
Other 360 games now playable on Xbox One include Dig Dug, Runner 2 and Samurai Shodown 2. With the exception of Runner 2, today's update is certainly a throwback: The majority of these releases are over 20 years old.
News
20 CommentsStar Wars: The Force Unleashed games are now backward compatible on Xbox
Both Star Wars: The Force Unleashed games for Xbox 360 are now backward compatible with Xbox One, according to Microsoft. Owners of The Force Unleashed and The Force Unleashed 2 can now spend their Star Wars Day replaying the action games, which bridge the gap between the first two Star Wars trilogies.
Xbox backward compatible titles have been arriving in waves since the year began. Recent notable additions to the list include Dead Space, Saints Row 4 and Left 4 Dead 2.
News
13 CommentsEA giving away expansions for Battlefield 4 and Hardline (update)
Electronic Arts is about to announce the next Battlefield game, and the publisher is marking the occasion by offering free downloads of expansions, starting today, for Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline.
The Battlefield 4 add-on Dragon's Teeth is free for the next week, from today to May 10, on all platforms that the game is available on: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The infantry-focused expansion offers four maps set in the Asia-Pacific region, and it was originally released in July 2014. Dragon's Teeth also includes the Chain Link game mode, and gadgets such as the R.A.W.R., an unmanned ground vehicle.
Battlefield 4 developer EA DICE is also running new community missions that, if completed, unlock special rewards for players. The current one,...
Deals
10 CommentsHalo, Gears, Forza and more discounted in Microsoft Studios sale
Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners can score some downloadable games on the cheap(er) this week, thanks to the Microsoft Studios publishing sale. That means Microsoft-published games — Halo, Forza, Gears of War and more — are discounted up to 57 percent off, with the better deals available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers.
More than 50 Microsoft-published titles and downloadable add-ons are marked down during the sale, which runs until May 9. The full list, which includes Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, as well as Xbox 360 games that are backward compatible on Xbox One, is available at Xbox.com.
Here are a few highlights from the sale (with Gold-specific discounts in parentheses).
Xbox One
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die - $6.00 ($4.95)
Gears of War Ultimate Edition - $27.99 ($23.99)
Forza...
News
26 CommentsMighty No. 9 finally launches on June 21, creator says
Mighty No. 9 has a new launch date: June 21.
The "spiritual successor" to Mega Man has "gone gold," creator Keiji Inafune said, putting Mighty No. 9 on course to launch for Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on that date in North America and Asia. It will launch worldwide on those platforms on June 24. Deep Silver is publishing the game on consoles.
The versions for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita will follow at a later date, Inafune said.
Inafune acknowledged it has been nearly three years since the project was initially and enthusiastically crowdfunded by thousands of Mega Man fans and apologized for the repeated delays to Mighty No. 9's launch.
"This is a project where everyone's passions were combined in order to create something very...
Video
22 CommentsSee gameplay from 1666: Amsterdam, by the director of the first two Assassin's Creeds
Footage of 1666: Amsterdam, which was to have been the next big console game from the creative director ofthe first two Assassin's Creeds, has surfaced from a presentation in Europe. It's a video-of-a-video, but you can watch it above.
The journalist Brandon Sheffield captured the video, which shows the game's title sequence and initial gameplay, in which the player appears to be a mysterious cloaked figure who can control animals and cause terrifying hallucinations. Sheffield said the game's premise was "be worse than the devil," which is why the player controls rats, crows, black cats and other animals linked to black magic.
1666: Amsterdam was in development at THQ Montreal when Ubisoft bought the studio and the project and fired creator Patrice Desilets. Desilets was the creative...
News
11 CommentsXbox Games With Gold for May include Peggle and lots of sequels
Xbox Live Gold members will be treated to four free games in May, and Microsoft has revealed the offerings. Two Xbox One and two Xbox 360 games will be available to download throughout May — and three of them are sequels.
Defense Grid 2 on Xbox One and Grid 2 on Xbox 360 will be up for download starting May 1. Defense Grid 2 will be offered all monthlong, while Grid 2 is only available to Gold subscribers through May 15.
Later in the month, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can grab Costume Quest 2 on Xbox One. That game, the sequel to 2010's Costume Quest, is available May 16 through June 15. Peggle for Xbox Arcade is a free download from May 16 until May 31. Both Peggle and Grid 2 are available as backward compatible titles on Xbox One.
An Xbox Live Gold subscription costs $59.99...
News
4 CommentsYou won't be able to buy The Beatles: Rock Band's DLC songs after May 5
The Beatles: Rock Band's downloadable songs will no longer be available for purchase as of May 5, developer Harmonix Music Systems announced today.
Harmonix regularly informs Rock Band players about DLC tracks that will disappear from the Rock Band Music Store because the studio's licenses to sell those songs are about to expire. This time, all of the post-release tunes from The Beatles: Rock Band are on the chopping block. Music from that game — both the on-disc tracks and DLC songs — is unique in the Rock Band catalog in that it cannot be exported for play in any other Rock Band title.
Harmonix released three full Beatles albums as The Beatles: Rock Band DLC — one each in the three months after the game debuted in September 2009 on PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. Abbey Road was...
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