News
13 CommentsTelltale’s Walking Dead season 3 premiere will be the first two episodes
The third season of Telltale Games’ acclaimed Walking Dead series of adventure games looks to be as heart-wrenching as ever, as seen in footage the studio debuted tonight at The Game Awards 2016.
The premiere of A New Frontier, the third season, is called “The Ties that Bind.” Clementine, the hero of the first two seasons, will return alongside a second playable protagonist, a new character named Javier.
A New Frontier takes place four years after the zombie plague began. But part of the episode offers a glimpse of the moment of the outbreak, with a devastating death in the family that gets even worse when Javy’s grandfather, well ... you can figure it out for yourself.
Here’s the synopsis from Telltale:
When family is all you have left... how far will you go to protect it? Four years...
News
65 CommentsPlayStation Plus gave out $1,150 in free games in 2016. Were they any good?
On Wednesday, PlayStation announced the last batch of free games to PlayStation Plus subscribers for December, bringing to 72 the number of titles it offered in 2016. Were they any good? What would they cost otherwise? In short, what do the numbers say about the value of this PlayStation Plus benefit?
We’ll try to answer that question this year as we have before. To that, however, we’ve added a few more questions: How old is the game? and Did Sony also publish it? Did these appear earlier on Xbox Live Games With Gold?
These questions may shed light on where these free games programs are headed are headed, particularly as the previous console generation ages.
What about Xbox Live Games With Gold?
• That analysis is here.
Getting Started
In all, there were 72 games available for free to...
Cover Story
Issue
24
November 4, 2016
Blizzard’s prodigal son returns
How one of Blizzard’s co-founders left the company, why he decided to come back and what it means for the future.
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18 CommentsPlay Red Dead Redemption on PS4 and PC next week, thanks to PS Now
Red Dead Redemption, the beloved open-world Western from Rockstar Games, will join the PlayStation Now lineup on Dec. 6, the company announced today.
Both Red Dead Redemption and its Halloween-themed zombie expansion, Undead Nightmare, will be available to play on Sony’s full-game streaming service. They debuted on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May and October 2010, respectively.
The news makes good on a promise from the week Rockstar announced Red Dead Redemption 2 in late October, when Sony said that the original game would be released “soon” on PlayStation Now. The service is available on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC, which means that Red Dead Redemption will be playable on PC — if only through PS Now. (Rockstar never ported Red Dead Redemption to PC, to the great dismay of the...
News
41 CommentsPlayStation Plus games for December end the year with indies galore
Sony has revealed the final set of free games for PlayStation Plus members this year, capping off 2016 with two underground hits for PlayStation 4 owners. For December, PS Plus subscribers can try out Invisible, Inc. and Stories: The Path of Destinies, among other games.
Invisible, Inc. launched on Steam Early Access last year, receiving cult acclaim for its stealth- and turn-based strategy gameplay; the game hit consoles in the spring. Stories: The Path of Destinies was an even smaller project, but one that action-heavy role-playing game fans who did check it out enjoyed.
On PlayStation 3, there’s Hyper Void and Tiny Troopers Joint Ops; the latter is cross-buy with PS4 and Vita. Vita owners also get the popular platformer VVVVVV, as well as the PS4-compatible Color Guardians.
All six...
Latest PlayStation 3 Forum Activity View all posts
News
12 CommentsVideo game releases for December 2016
Here are some of the big video game releases for the month of December 2016. Be sure to check out the list we put together of our most anticipated games of 2016. Also, check out the free games you get with your Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus subscriptions this month. Additionally, here's what is coming and going on Netflix in December.
What are you looking forward to playing? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.
Note: This is not a comprehensive list of releases and only games with specific dates are listed below. Some games are announced for December but have no firm release date.
Dec. 1:
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Android and iOS) — The fourth entry in the visual novel series was the first not to have Phoenix Wright in the lead role, f...
News
11 CommentsThat time Castro appeared in Call of Duty, angering Cuba
Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba who was an antagonist to 11 U.S. presidential administrations, died on Friday. He was occasionally a character or figure in American popular culture, nearly always the villain. His last cameo, in 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops, kicked up enough of a fuss as to warrant a state-level response.
For those who don't recall it, Castro was the target of an assassination attempt by the U.S. (as he was many times in real life). In it, the fictitious Alex Mason carries out the mission as intended, only to discover he'd shot a body double. (Mason's then captured and shipped off to a Soviet Gulag.)
It’s the first mission in the game, so it was noticed in the mainstream immediately. The day after the game's launch, Cuba's state-run Cubadebate called it a "perverse"...
Deals
20 CommentsPlayStation Store Black Friday deals are now live
Sony is getting into the Black Friday spirit on the PlayStation Store, with more than 110 gaming deals available for the next week.
There are discounts for games on all three of Sony’s platforms — PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita — although the vast majority of deals are exclusive to PS4. Sony’s Black Friday sale runs from now until 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 29. Let’s take a look at some of the best offers.
[Note: All discounts listed are for PlayStation Plus members. In most cases, prices will be higher for non-subscribers.]
PS4
Overwatch: Origins Edition - $34.79 (regularly $59.99, 42 percent off)
Batman: The Telltale Series Season Pass - $14.99 (reg. $24.99, 40% off)
Batman: Arkham Knight - $9.99 (reg. $19.99, 50% off)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game of...
News
9 CommentsHear Red Dead Redemption’s rejected song from Animal Collective
Anyone who played Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption to completion will remember the game’s very effective use of two songs — Jose Gonzales’ “Far Away,” as John Marston rides into Mexico, and Jamie Lidell’s “Compass,” as he journeys home — to mark major narrative moments. Apparently, the game’s creators had another song at their disposal, one from experimental indie pop band Animal Collective, that went unused.
This week, Animal Collective released the song it recorded, titled “Mountain Game,” for Red Dead Redemption on its YouTube channel. The band didn’t have a whole lot to say about the experience or why it wasn’t used in the final game, however. “Here’s an unreleased track we recorded in 2010 for Red Dead Redemption and it never got used,” the band wrote on YouTube. “Enjoy.”
One...
News
9 CommentsDestiny’s most frequent cheaters are having their consoles banned
Destiny developer Bungie is issuing permanent console bans to the game’s most unrepentant cheaters today, following a crescendo of complaints from players regarding the use of unfair tactics in the game’s high-stakes Trials of Osiris mode.
"Console bans are being issued today for devices with a history of banned or restricted accounts," said Chris "Cozmo23" Shannon, community manager at Bungie, in a tweet. "Cheaters beware."
Must Read
Destiny players are fed up with the state of Trials of Osiris
Bungie responds to unsanctioned Destiny activity in a number of ways, according to the banning policies stated on its support site. The most specific situation is an "activity restriction," in which a player is temporarily prevented from playing a specific...
News
13 CommentsPersona 5 delayed until April
Persona 5 won’t launch until April 4, Atlus announced Wednesday. The publisher revealed the delay during a livestream, which also saw the debut of the first English-language gameplay of the upcoming role-playing game.
Originally set for a Feb. 14, 2017 release, Persona 5 won’t make it onto PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 stateside for another several weeks. That’s in spite of the fact that Japanese fans have had their hands on the game since mid-September.
To compensate for the later release date, Atlus will receive Japanese audio alongside the international release. It will be available as free downloadable content, according to a post on the PlayStation Blog. The English-language version was originally going to launch without Japanese vocal options, so this alteration should appease...
Deals
12 CommentsThe PlayStation Store’s 10th anniversary sale returns for round two of deals
The PlayStation Store launched 10 years ago this month, and PlayStation owners are continuing to reap the benefits with another weeklong sale. Following last week’s set of deals, another round of classic games from the past 10 years and beyond are discounted. Prices are good through Nov. 22 at 8 a.m. PT, with PlayStation Plus members maximizing the savings with up to 70 percent off.
Below are some of our highlights, with PlayStation Plus prices listed.
Gravity Rush ($14.99, 50 percent off)
Sony Interactive Entertainment
The PlayStation 4 revamp of this unique, gravity-defying action title goes cheap this week. Now’s a good time to check it out, since there’s a sequel due in January. (The Vita version is also on sale for half-off; it’s $6.74 this week.)
God of War...
Deals
18 CommentsPlayStation Store’s 10th anniversary sale cuts prices on GTA, Fez and more
The PlayStation 3’s 10th anniversary is fast approaching, and Sony is running a two-week sale on the PlayStation Store to mark the occasion, with deals on a wide variety of games and movies.
The PS3 debuted in Japan, where it launched Nov. 11, 2006 — a decade ago this Friday. Sony brought the console to North America six days later.
The 10th Anniversary Sale features discounts of up to 60 percent (and as high as 70 percent for PlayStation Plus subscribers). Along with the deals, Sony is offering free PS3 and PlayStation 4 themes for the occasion. And there’s a bonus for early adopters: Anyone who has a PlayStation Network account that was created within six months of the PS3’s launch — in other words, an account that’s at least nine and a half years old — will receive an exclusive PS4...
News
29 CommentsPlayStation Vue dropping Comedy Central, MTV and other Viacom-owned channels
Sony’s television streaming service, PlayStation Vue, is losing more than 20 channels — all of them owned by media conglomerate Viacom — this Friday, according to a post on the PlayStation Blog. That means channels like MTV, Comedy Central, Spike and Nickelodeon will no longer be available to PlayStation Vue subscribers.
Dwayne Benefield, head of PlayStation Vue, announced the channel lineup change today, saying, “As part of our ongoing evaluation of the PlayStation Vue offering, we have determined that removing the bundle of channels from Viacom is the best way for us to continue to offer the most compelling value to our fans.”
The change, which goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Nov. 11, affects all BET channels, Centric, CMT channels, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV channels, Nickelodeon...
News
18 CommentsThe original Diablo is being recreated in Diablo 3
Blizzard Entertainment is marking the 20th anniversary of the original Diablo by recreating it inside Diablo 3, the studio announced today during the BlizzCon 2016 opening ceremony.
Diablo will arrive in an upcoming content update for Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls called The Darkening of Tristram that will "send you back into the depths of the Cathedral," said Frank Pearce, Blizzard's chief development officer. Darkening of Tristram will offer a dungeon 16 levels deep in which you will face off against the four main bosses from Diablo.
Blizzard is putting an appropriately old-school presentation on Diablo in Diablo 3. The game will come with visual filters to make it look pixelated and grainy — "we call it 'glorious retrovision,'" said Pearce. In addition, the character movement will be...
Culture
4 CommentsRemember when the Cubs’ World Series win was just a video game dream?
Every year, a champion is crowned in the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB, leaving 29 or 31 fan bases to wait until next year. It is a time-honored tradition for fans of those losing clubs to make their championship dreams come true in a video game.
Until last night, the Chicago Cubs had not won the World Series since 1908 — a time long before television was a thing, much less video games. So for the entire existence of the video game medium, which was born in the 1970s, the only place where the Cubs were the champions was in baseball video games. (Well, there and in Back to the Future Part II’s vision of 2015.)
Today, the entire city of Chicago — or at least, the north side — is celebrating the Cubs’ first World Series win in 108 years. The scenes of jubilation last night from Wrigleyville and...
News
17 CommentsAfter complaints of Destiny cheaters, Bungie reiterates its security strategy
In an effort to restore faith in the sanctity of Destiny’s competitive multiplayer combat, developer Bungie today affirmed its commitment to keeping the experience free of cheaters, and asked the community for its continued assistance in doing so.
"Recently, there has been some concern about cheating in the Crucible, most specifically DDoSing in Trials of Osiris," said Chris "Cozmo" Shannon, a community manager at Bungie, in a blog post today. "This is a subject we take very seriously."
Shannon passed along further details from Bungie’s security response team. "We have several team members whose full-time jobs are to ensure the security of your Destiny experience," he said. The team implored players to report cheaters if they run into them, with Shannon noting that Destiny’s in-game...
News
71 CommentsDestiny players are fed up with the state of Trials of Osiris
Players of Destiny’s most competitive mode, Trials of Osiris, are becoming increasingly frustrated with what they describe as a growing lack of competitive balance. In threads and comments on the Destiny subreddit, die-hard players paint a picture of an experience in which bad actors are sapping the fun out of the mode, playing dirty with tactics such as blocking opponents’ in-game radar or even sending DDoS attacks their way.
"I am just worn out," wrote Reddit user OdysseyWolf on Monday. "So much lag and being purposely DDOS’d made me walk away and work on the yard with the wife."
Yes, you read that correctly: Some conniving Trials of Osiris players are allegedly cheating their way to victory by initiating distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against their opponents,...
News
31 CommentsThese are PlayStation Plus’ November giveaways
PlayStation Plus’ monthly giveaways continue on as 2016 winds down, and next month’s lineup is a similarly low-key affair. Leading the set of free games for November are Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture on PlayStation 4 and Costume Quest 2 on PlayStation 3, alongside four other games across both consoles and the PlayStation Vita.
The full list is below:
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (PS4)
Deadly Tower of Monsters (PS4)
Dirt 3 (PS3)
Costume Quest 2 (PS3)
Letter Quest Remastered (Vita, cross-buy with PS4)
Pumped BMX+ (Vita, cross-buy with PS3 and PS4)
Indie narrative adventure Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture launched to mixed reviews last summer, with some criticizing its length and slow pace. Costume Quest 2 is the 2014 follow-up to the Halloween role-playing game Costume Quest,...
Video
5 CommentsBatman is besieged on all sides in Telltale’s episode 3 trailer
Bruce Wayne and Batman — along with, of course, the city they love — are under continued attack in "New World Order," the third episode of Batman: The Telltale Series.
The launch trailer for the episode, which you can watch above, shows a Gotham City that’s just starting to recover from the Penguin’s devastating attack in "Children of Arkham." Here’s the full synopsis from Telltale:
In Episode 3, Penguin's brutal attack broadcast on live TV has left Gotham City reeling. As Bruce and Batman, you'll dig deeper into the web of intrigue surrounding the newly revealed Children of Arkham. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, the mysterious Selina Kyle reveals more of herself to Bruce. And in the aftermath of the attack, Bruce's friend and Gotham's new mayor, Harvey Dent, is a deeply changed...
News
0 CommentsDestiny’s Halloween event kicks off Oct. 25
Destiny’s Festival of the Lost, a Halloween-inspired event replete with masks to collect, candy to consume and new quests to accept, officially kicks off Oct. 25, Bungie announced today.
According to a trailer released by Bungie today, Destiny’s Festival of the Lost event will reward players with new wearable paper masks, including some based on the recently released Destiny: Rise of Iron expansion; new emotes, shaders and emblems; weapon ornaments; new Ghost shells; a new Sparrow and more. Bungie promises "multiple" quest lines as part of the event, one of which is exclusive to Rise of Iron’s new social space, the Iron Temple. Just like last year, The Tower and Destiny's other social spaces will be decorated with paper engram lanterns, candles and other spooktacular ornaments.
This...
News
23 CommentsMassive DDoS attack affecting PSN, some Xbox Live apps (update)
A major distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that has been causing issues across the internet since this morning is affecting gaming services such as the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, according to their status pages.
Sony is having serious trouble operating the PlayStation Network right now — its status page shows red lights for every service, meaning that they’re all “experiencing issues.” The problems are affecting every platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, the web and “other.” Companies like Bungie (Destiny), Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto Online), Blizzard Entertainment (Overwatch) and Electronic Arts (Battlefield 1, which launched today) are acknowledging that their players on PS3 and PS4 are having trouble logging in and playing.
The overarching X...
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