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Tag: Xbox One

  • Here’s A Better Look At Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

    At VGX 2013, it was revealed that Square Enix would be bringing 2013’s Tomb Raider to PS4 and Xbox One in a definitive edition that exponentially improves the visuals. At the time, all we knew was that this version of the game would run at 60FPS in 1080p and feature upgraded textures and TressFX.

    While we all now know about Tomb Raider’s next gen debut, some may want to know how the team did it. That’s where the latest video from Square Enix comes in as it explores the new technologies used to upgrade Tomb Raider from its PS3/Xbox 360 debut to the PS4 and Xbox One.

    The cynics out there are saying this is just an excuse for Square Enix to sell more copies of Tomb Raider. While that’s certainly true, it looks like the development team did have another goal in mind with the next gen version. They say that gamers can look at Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition as their first stab at making a next-gen version of Lara Croft. It goes without saying that next Tomb Raider title built specifically for next-gen consoles will look even better.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition will be available on January 28 for the PS4 and Xbox One.

    Image via PlayStation/YouTube

  • New ‘Dead Rising 3’ DLC Previewed

    Dead Rising 3 was one of the best-reviewed exclusive launch titles for the Xbox One, and is currently the third highest-selling game for Microsoft’s new console. Now Capcom is expanding the game with new DLC content. The game’s Operation Broken Eagle DLC launches tomorrow, and Capcom today provided a new preview of what Xbox One owners can expect.

    Broken Eagle will be the first in a series of episodic DLC content gathered under the heading of “Untold Stories of Los Perdidos.” Players will take on the role of a “Spec Ops” commander as he tries to locate the President of the United States.

    In addition to the new story missions, Broken Eagle will also contain five new weapons, a new combo weapon, a new vehicle, a new character outfit, and new achievements. Much of this is previewed in a new trailer for the DLC:

    Broken Eagle will be coming as part of today’s huge title update for Dead Rising 3, meaning players will have the content on their consoles even if they don’t purchase it. The update also includes various stability improvements and glitch fixes for the game.

  • Tetris is Coming to PS4, Xbox One

    Tetris is Coming to PS4, Xbox One

    Since its debut in 1984, Tetris has become one of the most well-known and iconic franchises in gaming history. Tetris games have appeared on almost every major video game platform in the past three decades. Today The Tetris Company confirmed that the classic game will continue to have a place in gaming’s future.

    The Tetris Company has officially announced that a Tetris game will be coming for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. The new Tetris game will be released as a digital download for these next-gen platforms.

    What exactly this new Tetris game is hasn’t yet been detailed. However, the game will be published by Ubisoft, the publisher of games such as the Assassin’s Creed series.

    “We’re very excited to start working with this world-renowned brand, and can’t wait to combine Ubisoft’s expertise and all the capacities of next-gen consoles to create an exciting new Tetris experience for fans,” said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft.

    As part of the announcement, The Tetris Company pointed out that 2014 will see the 30 anniversary of the classic game. According to the company, Tetris games have sold “hundreds of millions” of copies in 185 countries around the world in that time. Tetris has appeared on more than 50 different platforms an in more than 50 different languages since its debut.

    “We welcome Ubisoft to the Tetris family,” said Henk Rogers, managing director of The Tetris Company. “I am 100% sure they will develop one of the best versions of the Tetris game ever.”

  • Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare Co-Op Detailed In Latest Trailer

    At E3 last year, EA surprised us all with the announcement of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. The class-based shooter takes the gameplay found in games like Team Fortress 2 and combines it with the now classic humor found in Plants vs. Zombies.

    In the latest trailer for the game, Popcap shows off the new game mode – four player co-op. Like Horde mode in Gears of War, the co-op mode challenges four players to protect their garden from waves of increasingly difficult zombie hordes. This game mode plays more like the original tower defense game as players will be able to set up defenses while they take the fight directly to the zombies.

    The gameplay footage below is taken from the Xbox One version of the game. It’s obvious that Popcap is sparing no expense on the visuals as the game is one of the better looking next-gen games coming in 2014.

    Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will be out on February 18 for Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

    Image via Official EA UK/YouTube

  • Titanfall-Branded Xbox One Controller Unveiled

    Microsoft has locked-up EA’s Titanfall as an exclusive for Xbox consoles (and PC), and it certainly intends to go all the way with its marketing efforts in the lead-up to the game’s March 11 launch. Whether or not Titanfall actually end up being the next big console multiplayer shooter, Microsoft has made sure that the brand will be synonymous with Xbox consoles for some time to come.

    Microsoft today revealed the first game-branded controller for its Xbox One console. The controller will take on the style of Titanfall and will be available sometime before the game’s launch on Xbox consoles.

    The controller has been designed by the art department at Respawn Entertainment, the development studio behind Titanfall. The design of the controller mimics that of a specific gun in Titanfall, the C-101 carbine. According to Microsoft, that gun is one commonly used by the game’s “elite IMC Titan pilots.”

    “In a collaborative effort with the Xbox design team and the Respawn art department, our goal was to create a controller that feels as if it is a piece of military spec hardware transported from the universe of Titanfall and into players hands,” said Joel Emslie, lead artist at Respawn.

    Since last year’s E3, Titanfall has been touted as a new leap for first-person-shooters on consoles. The game is multiplayer-only and features quick-paced multiplayer battles that include controllable mechs called Titans.

    This new controller is almost certainly one of many Titanfall-branded peripherals that will be announced in the weeks leading up to the game’s announcement. Though Microsoft has not been able to sell as many Xbox One consoles as Sony has PlayStation 4 consoles, Titanfall appears to be Microsoft’s first real attempt to capture Call of Duty fans with an exclusive multiplayer shooter and entice them into buying Xbox One consoles.

  • R.B.I. Baseball 14 Will Attempt To Fill The Gap Left By MLB 2K’s Death

    Earlier this month, 2K Sports killed the only multi-platform baseball simulation game with the announcement that it would not renew its license with the MLB. Following the announcement, baseball fans who owned Xbox consoles were dismayed to learn that they would not be getting a baseball game in 2014 while PS3 and PS4 owners were getting Sony’s MLB 14 The Show. Well, fret not anymore Xbox fans, you’re getting a baseball game in 2014 as well.

    The MLB announced this morning that it’s reviving the classic R.B.I. Baseball franchise this year with R.B.I. Baseball 14. The franchise has not been seen in nearly 20 years, but the MLB apparently felt it was time to bring it back now that MLB 2K is out of the picture.

    Unfortunately, we don’t know a lot about R.B.I. Baseball 14 just yet. The announcement only says that MLBAM (Major League Baseball Advanced Media) is in charge of development and that it will be out on consoles and mobile this year. With MLBAM behind the title, it’s safe to say that it will be more of a casual title instead of the simulation game that defines MLB The Show.

    While it may be disappointing for baseball fans on Xbox, R.B.I. Baseball 14 will be the only baseball game they get this year. It looks like EA Sports is not interested in reviving its MVP Baseball franchise and nobody else has the money or development staff to try their hand at a baseball game.

    So for now, Xbox fans can only wait to see if R.B.I. Baseball 14 gives them the baseball fix they need, or they can just go ahead and buy a PS3/PS4 for MLB 14 The Show.

    Image via MLB

  • GameStop Reports $3.15 Billion In Sales Over The Holidays

    In November, Sony and Microsoft launched their next generation games consoles – the PS4 and Xbox One. Both consoles have now gone on to sell more than 7 million units combined and that’s definitely helping the bottom line of those in the business of selling games. The increase in hardware sales was readily apparent at GameStop during the holidays.

    GameStop announced today that it had made $3.15 billion during the nine week holiday period that ended on January 4. The retailer notes that it saw a 9.3 percent increase in revenue compared to last year’s holiday sales period. One of the reasons for this increase was the emergence of next-gen hardware.

    “I am pleased to report that the extensive planning by our entire team over the past year to prepare for the new console launches paid off,” said Paul Raines, GameStop CEO. “Our outstanding execution during the holidays resulted in GameStop securing the number one market share position in the U.S. and in most of the countries in which we operate today. GameStop also had the highest software and accessory attach ratio of any retailer for both new consoles. Building off this momentum, we are in an excellent position to drive the global adoption of the next generation of new video game products in 2014.”

    Of course, not everything was rosy for GameStop during the holiday season. The retailer saw a decline in Xbox 360 and PS3 software sales thanks in part to strong sales of next-gen software. Sales of new current-gen software saw a decrease of 22.5 percent while used software grew by 7 percent.

    As for GameStop’s other businesses, there was growth across the board. It’s digital business brought in $207.3 million, an increase of 14.9 percent over the previous holiday season. It’s mobile business brought in a respectable $94.8 million, an increase of 23.8 percent.

    “Clearly, same store sales were driven by very strong growth in new hardware,” said Rob Lloyd, GameStop CFO. “The higher percentage of sales in the hardware category resulted in better than expected comps, but lower gross margin dollars during the holiday selling period. In addition, new software sales came in below our expectations. Based on these results, GameStop now expects its fourth quarter and full year 2013 same store sales to be at the high end of the current guidance range and fourth quarter earnings per share to be in a range of $1.85 to $1.95 and full year earnings per share to be in a range of $2.96 to $3.06.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Xbox One Games Are Apparently Too Real

    Xbox One Games Are Apparently Too Real

    With this latest generation of games, Microsoft and Sony are promising games that look and feel more real than ever before. Microsoft took this line of thinking to the extreme with a new trailer that’s a little creepy.

    In a new trailer for Ryse: Son of Rome, Microsoft creates an almost horror film-like atmosphere of where the events of the game have an effect on a person. When the player character is cut across the chest, the player finds that he himself now has a deep chest wound. When cut across the forehead, he finds a wound on his forehead. Not gonna lie – that’s a little creepy.

    Despite setting up what could be an excellent B-horror flick, Microsoft is just trying to say that games are only going to get more realistic from here on out. With support for Unreal Engine 4 baked into both the PS4 and Xbox One, hyperrealistic games could certainly be a possibility if recent tech demos are to be believed.

    The above trailer wasn’t the only video released today as Microsoft felt it needed to pat itself on the back for selling over 3 million consoles since launch. It’s certainly a major achievement and should be congratulated. It just feels a little hollow when the company is tooting its own horn, but hey, accolade trailers are always like that.

    Image via xbox/YouTube

  • Rayman Legends For PS4, Xbox One Coming Out A Week Early

    In mid-December, Ubisoft announced – with the help of Snoop Lion – that Rayman Legends would be coming to the PS4 and Xbox One in early 2014. It was originally announced that the game would launch on February 25, but Ubisoft has decided to push forward the release date by a week.

    Ubisoft announced via its blog today that Rayman Legends for PS4 and Xbox One is now coming out on February 18 in North America and February 20 in Europe. With the updated launch announcement, Ubisoft decided to also address some of the new additions being made to both version of the game.

    As you might expect, both versions of the game will be getting exclusive characters. On Xbox One, players will get characters inspired by Far Cry 3 and Splinter Cell. For PS4, players will get a character inspired by Edward Kenway from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Ubisoft is also making a character called Champion Ray available to those who rank highly in the online challenges.

    As for version specific additions, the Xbox One adds time-limited achievements on top of the achievements already available in the Xbox 360 version of the game. These achievements will “require you to perform specific actions during a limited amount of time (one week).”

    The PS4 version gets some actual gameplay additions thanks to its new hardware. The first is called Camera Mode and it allows players to pause the game by touching the touchpad on the DualShock 4. From there, you can pinch and zoom to view the scene in detail. The touchpad will also be used to scratch off lucky tickets. Of course, the game will also support Remote Play with PS Vita.

    Seeing as Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer, it wasn’t exactly taxing on last-gen hardware. The game ran at 60FPS in 1080p so some might be wondering what the extra horsepower of next-gen systems brings to the game. Ubisoft says it allows them to do two things – the first is that textures are no longer compressed so players will be able to experience the visuals as they were intended. The second is that load times have been abolished so players are instantly dropped into the levels upon entering a painting.

    If you never got the chance to play Rayman Legends in 2013, you really should consider changing that this year. While it’s a great experience on any platform, it looks like the PS4 and Xbox One versions will be the definitive experience (outside of the Wii U version).

    Image via Ubiblog

  • Twitch: Xbox One Streaming Still A Few Months Away

    In 2013, Microsoft and Sony both announced that players would be able to stream their gameplay to Twitch through their consoles. As we approached November, we learned that only the PS4 would have this functionality at launch. Microsoft said the feature would be delayed, but we didn’t know for how much longer. Well, now we know… kind of.

    Twitch announced via its official Twitch Support Twitter account that there’s still no ETA for Xbox One streaming. They say to expect a few more months for the feature to roll out, but there’s no telling how long it will actually take. Twitch says it will update if it knows anything, but it’s actually not up to them. A Twitch representative told Polygon that “It’s up to Microsoft to share any details related to the timing and functionality of their Twitch integration.”

    So, what about Microsoft? The company told Polygon that Twitch integration is “a major focus on [their] roadmap as [they] work to ensure it is seamlessly implemented into [the] Xbox One experience over the coming months.”

    The big question then is whether or not we’ll see Twitch streaming hit the Xbox One before E3 2014. While Microsoft isn’t making any promises, Xbox chief product office Marc Whitten told Engadget that he announced game streaming via Twitch at last year’s E3 with the expectation that it would be out before this year’s E3. As for the next major Xbox One update, game streaming won’t be part of it. Whitten says it will focus on the social features on the Xbox One to make them easier to find.

    Image via Twitch/YouTube

  • Call Of Duty Championship To Take Place On March 28

    Call of Duty is an incredibly competitive game, but it hasn’t really made much progress in the eSports scene. Activision tried to change that last year by hosting the very first Call of Duty Championship, and it must have gone over well as the publisher is doing it again.

    Activision announced this morning that the Call of Duty Championship will be back for 2014 on March 28. The best 32 Call of Duty teams from around the world will meet in Los Angeles to compete in the latest game in the franchise – Call of Duty: Ghosts.

    “Last year’s championship came down to the final minute of the final match with everyone holding their breath to see who would win. The skill, passion and energy brought by these teams and the crowd looking-on showed just what makes our community the best in the world,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “Call of Duty is more than a video game. It’s a pastime shared by millions. It’s exciting to play and fun to watch, and we can’t wait to see what this year’s event has in store.”

    With Call of Duty Championship being hosted by Xbox, Microsoft makes a big to do about this year’s tournament games being played on the Xbox One. The tournament will also be broadcast over Xbox Live. If you don’t have Xbox Live, you’ll be able to watch games via MLG.tv as well.

    The qualifying events will be taking place across six continents with players competing on the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Ghosts. The winners of those matches will then go on to the regional finals in late February. The winners of those will then move on to the finals in Los Angeles in late March.

    If you want to take part in the Call of Duty Championship, get your team together and head to the MLG Web site. The first preliminary qualifier for the U.S. will take place on February 1. A second preliminary qualifier will take place on February 8.

    Image via CALLOFDUTY/YouTube

  • Get Even Is A Next-Gen Shooter From The Folks Who Brought Us Painkiller HD

    The Farm 51 made a name for itself in 2012 with the release of Painkiller Hell & Damnation. The remake of the original Painkiller kept the original game’s fast-paced gunplay in tact while updating the visuals to current gen standards. The team then took on the Quatermain mythos in Deadfall Adventures – a first person shooter/puzzle game hybrid that was much better than critics would have you believe. Now the team is back again with a next-gen shooter that may change how we approach single-player campaigns.

    This morning, The Farm 51 announced Get Even – a first-person shooter for Xbox One, PS4 and PC that challenges players to distinguish between what is real and what isn’t. It features a novel approach to multiplayer where the single-player campaign will be dotted with players trying to take down the hero alongside the usual AI combatants.

    The game also promises a narrative that’s shaped by the decisions made by the player during the course of the game. By taking one path over the other, the narrative is significantly changed.

    In the first trailer for the game, we’re treated to what looks like a live-action trailer. The developers claim it’s all in game, however, as they’re using a new scanning technology that allows them to place real world locations into the game.

    Get Even will be released in 2015 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

    Image via The Farm 51/YouTube

  • Microsoft Sold More Than 3 Million Xbox One Consoles Last Year

    Months away from the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in November, both Sony and Microsoft are now settling in for a long console competition in the coming years.

    Microsoft today announced that it sold over 3 million Xbox One consoles between the device’s November 22 release date and the end of 2013. The company called the reaction from its fans “mind-blowing” and cagily claimed that the Xbox One had been “selling out throughout the holidays at most retailers worldwide.” Though the Xbox One is clearly in stock at retailers such as Amazon, GameStop, and Best Buy, Microsoft promised that it would “work hard to deliver additional consoles to retailers as fast as possible.”

    This latest Xbox One announcement is another in a growing line of announcements about PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales from both Sony and Microsoft. Both companies boasted of over one million day-one console sales at launch. Sony later followed that up with the reveal that it had sold 2.1 million PlayStation 4 consoles during the device’s first 18 days on sale and Microsoft quickly shot back with the announcement that it had sold 2 million Xbox Ones in that console’s first 18 days on sale.

    Oddly, Microsoft did not use its announcement to update everyone on how many achievements Xbox One owners have earned or how many zombies have been dismembered in Dead Rising 3. Instead the announcement praised Xbox fans, stating that Microsoft is “proud to have the most passionate, engaged, and simply the best fans in the world.”

  • PS4 Will Lead The Console Race In 2016, Says Analyst

    Predictions are fun, especially when said predictions involve video games in some capacity. That’s why it’s no surprise that analysts are already making predictions about what the video game market will look like in 2016 – three years after the launch of the Xbox One and PS4.

    In a note sent to investors today, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter provided his very own predictions of how all three consoles will fair in three years time. It’s important to note that these consoles will be nowhere near done in 2016 and we’re likely to still see games being released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 at that time. A three year timeframe does, however, give analysts enough time to factor in a potential price drop that’s likely to occur within the first three years of a product’s life.

    Moving onto the predictions, Pachter says that the PS4 will lead in 2016 with 37.7 million console units sold. Microsoft will be a little behind Sony with 29 million Xbox One units sold. As for the Wii U, he doesn’t expect it to reach 20 million by 2016.

    Of course, there are those console games who won’t buy into new hardware until a price drop. Pachter expects Sony and Microsoft to both drop the price of their consoles by 2016 with the PS4’s price dropping to $299 and the Xbox One’s price dropping to $349. He gives no prediction for Nintendo, but he does expect the company to continue producing the Wii U through 2016. I personally expect Nintendo to institute another price drop in 2014 to further push Wii U hardware.

    As for games, he expects the price of new games to stay at $60. There’s always room for a price increase though. Some publishers may look at the rising cost of game development as an excuse to charge even more for games. While the AAA blockbusters will still sell well, the A and AA games will continue to suffer with the rising cost of game development. As they are now, indie developers will likely still be the ones propping up the lower end of the development spectrum while major publishers like EA, Activision and Ubisoft duke it out in the AAA packaged market.

    Like always, it’s important to note that this is all merely speculation. While Pachter and other analysts have access to data that helps better inform their decisions, they can still be (and are often) wrong. The games industry is an especially volatile market and one little change can have major repercussions throughout the entire industry.

    [h/t: Kotaku]
    Image via PlayStation.Blog/flickr

  • ‘Max: The Curse of Brotherhood’ Out For Xbox One

    As far as console launch exclusives go, Microsoft’s Xbox One had a solid slate of titles. Missing among the violence of Ryse and Dead Rising 3, however, was an exclusive family title (like the PlayStation 4’s Knack, for instance) that younger gamers could enjoy.

    Microsoft today filled in that gap with the release of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. The game is out now for Xbox One consoles and costs only $15.

    Max: The Curse of Brotherhood follows Max, a boy who gets exactly what he wishes for and must then journey through evil lands to save his brother. Max carries no weapons but does have a marker that players can use to manipulate Max’s surroundings, spawning vines and trees into existence.

    The game is a puzzle-platformer that emphasizes the puzzles, most often solved with market powers. The game’s developer, Press Play, describes the game as a reimagining of Max and the Magic Marker, a similar game that was released for Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, and mobile platforms back in 2010.

    The game’s launch trailer shows off a few of the enemies and locations Max will encounter, as well as a preview of the marker play mechanic. It also shows that Max: The Curse of Brotherhood just might be the best Xbox One exclusive yet released:

  • Ryse: Son Of Rome Gets Its First Batch Of DLC

    It was revealed last month that Ryse: Son of Rome would continue the proud tradition of games selling DLC season passes before it even comes out. We’re not even a month out from the Xbox One’s launch and we’re now starting to see just what that season pass entails.

    Microsoft announced on Wednesday that Ryse: Son of Rome will be getting free and paid add-on content this week. The free content adds two new level events in the arena – a new enemy turret and reward statues. The first will attack players until its destroyed while the second provides buffs to players when touched.

    As for the paid content, the Colosseum Pack includes the following content:

  • Two new arenas: Henge and Ascension. Henge tasks Gladiators with seizing an ancient forest shrine from hordes of barbarians and securing it for Rome. In Ascension, combatants must fight their way through the burning embers of Hades’ lair up to the lavish surface world.
  • Two new Gladiator skins: Commodus and Centurion. Don the opulent golden breastplate of Commodus, the twisted son of Emperor Nero, or the battle-tested armor of a Roman Centurion.

    • The new content costs $4, or can be obtained as part of the season pass. Here’s a trailer:

    Image via xbox/YouTube

  • Microsoft to Release Documentaries on Xbox Consoles

    At Microsoft’s big Xbox One announcement this summer, the company chose to focus on its new console as a multimedia machine and heavily promoted the use of the device to watch TV. Though Microsoft’s marketing message has shifted slightly toward gamers in recent months, the company is still intent on making its Xbox consoles great devices to watch TV through.

    Today Microsoft announced that it will be releasing a new documentary series on Xbox consoles next year. The series will be produced by Xbox Entertainment Studios in cooperation with Simon Chinn (producer for Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man) and Jonathan Chinn (producer on TV show 30 Days). The documentaries will debut first exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles.

    The first documentary will be on about a famous legend in the gaming industry. In 1983 Atari Corporation allegedly buried millions of unsold Atari console cartridges in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. The documentary will take a look at a new excavation on the site, settling decades-old questions about what Atari really buried at the site.

    Shooting on the series will begin in January and the first episodes will be available sometime in 2014. Zak Penn, a screenwriter on movies such as Elektra and X-Men: The Last Stand has been tapped to direct the Atari landfill episode.

    “Our goal is to produce a series of compelling and entertaining docs which will deploy all the narrative techniques of Simon’s and my previous work,” said Jonathan Chinn. “It’s particularly exciting to be partnering with filmmakers like Zak Penn who come to this process from other filmmaking disciplines and who will bring their own distinctive creative vision to this.”

  • Here’s A Peek Into The World Of Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

    So, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is coming out early next year. At this point, we’ve seen a lot of the game, but Square Enix thinks you could use a little more information.

    In a new trailer released today, Square Enix gives us a “guided tour” of the world of Lightning Returns. As it would suggest, the trailer gives us a peek into some of the areas Lighting will be visiting throughout the game. The trailer also delves into detail on how this game’s new battle system differs from past games.

    The trailer spends a lot of time on what may be the most radical change in a Final Fantasy title to date – the free movement given to Lightning. In past games, the player character could merely move through the environment without much interaction. Now Lightning can dash, jump, climb and roll her way through the environment thus making it more of an action game instead of an RPG. It will surely rub some fans the wrong way, but you should just check it out for yourself.

    Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will launch in North America on February 11 and in Europe on February 14. If you’re one of the five people who haven’t given up on the Final Fantasy XIII series up to this point, you can grab a limited Collector’s Edition of the game from the Square Enix store.

    Image via PlayStation/YouTube

  • Here’s 9 Minutes Of Dying Light Gameplay Footage

    One of the most anticipated games of next year is Dying Light – a free-running zombie game from the guys that brought us Dead Island. One of its most interesting mechanics is a day/night cycle that affects the gameplay in a significant way. While most of the gameplay shown thus far has taken place during the day, we’re now starting to see more of its night gameplay.

    As previously noted, the zombies transform at night. They cease being the simple slow-moving zombies that you’ve come to expect from zombie games and become effective fast-moving hunters. It’s one of the many reasons why the game encourages players to take care of their business during the day to avoid being caught out at night.

    Interestingly enough, the latest gameplay trailer introduces a special infected that can spit what appears to be bile at the player. This type of zombie has been seen in both Dead Island and Left 4 Dead, but it’s nice to know that there will be some variety among the daytime zombies as well.

    Dying Light is scheduled to launch at some point in 2014 for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

    Image via GamersPrey

  • Can SmartGlass Make Xbox One Games Better?

    Can SmartGlass Make Xbox One Games Better?

    In 2012, Microsoft introduced SmartGlass for Xbox 360 to the world. It was Microsoft’s foray into the second screen gaming experience that Nintendo kicked off with the Wii U a year prior. Unlike Nintendo’s console, however, Microsoft would let you use any tablet or phone to get additional information about a game or movie.

    With the launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft has promised us a much better SmartGlass experience. While the second screen experience would be beneficial in scenarios like Battlefield 4’s commander mode, the benefits are less apparent in a game like Ryse: Son of Rome. The action game does have SmartGlass support, though, and Microsoft wants you to know how it improves the gameplay experience.

    In a new video from Major Nelson, he walks us through the SmartGlass app for Ryse. As you would expect, the companion app lets you track your progress as well as that of your friends. In what you might not expect, the app also tracks your progress through a level in real time and lets you know where secret collectables are located. It’s like a mini-strategy guide on your tablet.

    Not every game is going to take full advantage of SmartGlass, but Microsoft-published games certainly will. Both Microsoft and Sony have already acknowledged that the second-screen experience is going to be a pretty big deal going forward. While Sony’s PlayStation app can’t do everything that SmartGlass does yet, you can bet that Sony will be working with developers to offer its own unique take on the second-screen experience in the coming months and years.

    [Image: xbox/YouTube]

  • Sony Says PS4 Was Best Selling Console In November

    Last month, we were treated to the release of two next gen consoles – the PS4 and Xbox One. Both consoles sold their fair share of units, but Sony says it came out on top.

    Sony announced via its PlayStation blog that the latest NPD report revealed that the PS4 was the best selling console of November. The same report also revealed that all three PlayStation consoles – PS4, PS3 and PS Vita – combined to make PlayStation the number one brand in home console sales last month.

    Alongside this news, Sony says that gamers are embracing “the social capabilities of PS4 at a record pace.” In short, 800,000 gameplay broadcasts and 7.1 million spectate sessions have been streamed through Twitch or Ustream. All of the above contributed to 20 million minutes of live gameplay being streamed since launch.

    To celebrate what Sony calls the best console launch in history, they put together a short video thanking their fans:

    Oh, and what about Microsoft? It doesn’t dispute that Sony sold more units in the month of November. After all, Sony’s console was out a week before the Xbox One. The Xbox One was, however, the fastest-selling console of November. In its first nine days on the market, the console averaged 101,000 units sold per day. Microsoft notes that the Xbox platform (hardware, software, accessories) made the most money last month as well.

    As for the month of December, I’m willing to wager that the Xbox One will pull ahead in the North American market. Microsoft’s focus on Western markets will help it make sure enough stock floods the North American market before Christmas while Sony is now focusing its efforts on even more countries as it launches the console in the Middle East today and in Asia on December 17.

    [Image: PlayStation/YouTube]