Good news :Firewatch has a release date .

Looks like  early 2016 will be packed with games , a variety  from AAA titles to indie , and firewatch a fan favorite with it's gorgeous art design and gameplay mechanics ,will be also out .

Campo santo the studio behind the games has set release date and it is (February 9th, 2016 on Steam and PlayStation 4).

for thews who don't yet know, basically it is a  puzzle-adventure game ,surrounding a firewatch , that relies heavily on his talkie-walkie  for instruction , since his new to this job , and from there you go in the wild.




source :campo santo

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HALO 5:guardians install size is massive

looks like some lucky gamers had there hand on the anticipated title, but the first thing noticed was the massive install size required , and it's a 60 GB .

and yes it's 60 GB which is gradually becoming the norm nowadays , before it was GTA V on the current gen consoles and the PC , the later had a similar size.

The one thing that could be said about this massive size is Halo is a  single player and multiplayer game and the maps require some size,that we know ,but for god sake 60 GB is huge .

Hhopefully the game live up to it's expectations and be the game we all waited for. The wait will be over on October 27th , but first you better free some space up.

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Looks like destiny microtransactions move could generate a huge deal of money .

Destiny a game when first introduced had a great concept , a very good gameplay mechanics , and a 10 year plan for the game , the latter at first was seen as some bold claim by Bungie, however it seems that it's true with all the DLC packages and recently the introduction of microtransactions to destiny.

Actually the move to add  microtransactions to a game is not that new ,since all AAA games are using it to generate a big chunk of money from it and since destiny is a multiplayer  focused game , additional-paid- content is a very solid move in a economic/revenue wise .



Looks like Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz has the same opinion stating that destiny introduction of microtransactions could very much lead to "hundreds of millions" per year , he added that  it has the potential  broaden the revenue opportunity for what is already a very successful core franchise for Activision."





With that said, are microtransactions a plague roaming in the game industry or is a milking strategy to make gamers spend more on games , making into account that all the DLC nowadays are ripoff content from the original game especially  in story driven games , however when it comes to multiplayer focused games things may change for the benefit of the game since in way it's adding some freshness to the game .

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Star Citizen Squadron 42 cast is loaded with talent .

Star citizen is easily the biggest game from design perspective to featured modules to budget ,but the issue here is it's not complete yet , and waiting for such a marvelous space sim is hard.

Star citizen ,the crowd funded game with a huge budget and even ludacris plans for it,as previously shared it will feature different modules such as Arena commander which is heavily multiplayer , and Squadron 42 that features a fps story driven mode.


The later module and according to the annual convention, CitizenCon a huge announcement was made,that the squadron 42 module will cast a huge A list experienced actors from Gary Oldman (Dark Knight Trilogy, Bram Stroker’s Dracula),Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, The Fall),John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones Franchise),Mark Hamill (Star Wars),Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings) to name a few .


It's shaping up to be an epic space rid with all the great talents and the already realistic gameplay , can't wait for the complete package .

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Good news : Xbox One controller remapping coming soon .

Looks like that the Xbox team is doing some hard work ,after the sluggish start , since Phil Spencer became the boss, a huge effort was put by him and all the Microsoft camp starting from the kinect removal then the price drop adding to that the huge exclusives lineup which Phil Spencer called the best in all Xbox history.

And apparently they are adding a very welcome feature which is controller's button remapping , at first the feature was expected to only work with the elite controller (previously announced at e3).

The good news came from Mike Ybarra, of Microsoft's gaming team stating on his twitter account :"It’s coming for all controllers soon".

That said , it means that we don't have to buy the very expensive elite controller to enjoy button remapping feature .

The button remapping option is very old on the PC, however on the consoles it was not there from the beginning but that's going to change hopefully Sony will follow the move. since default button Shem sometimes it works with some hands and sometime it don't and that is due to hand size or muscle memory which is different from one person to another , that's why it's a very welcome feature .


source : Mike Ybarra (Twitter)

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Bad news :ARK Survival evolved DirectX 12 update delayed indefinitely

The well received ARK Survival evolved had some very good time both critique  and sales wise .Recently it was announced that the games has sold over 2 million copy which is huge for an early access game.

However Studio Wildcard the dev behind the game kept us waiting for the DirectX 12 update and the performance gain followed by it , but the long awaited update was delayed over and over again , It was set to originally release back in august then delayed for the reason of GPU drivers not fully ready ( immature ) .
Finally Studio Wildcard made a statement in steam's game forum , one of the developers said :"After we found out it was heavily dependent on drivers and the hardware vendors progress we slowed ours a bit. It’s still being worked on, but we have no plans on releasing it until it at least runs betters than the DX11 version. And that is a hard thing to generate an ETA for.”

To make a conclusion over this Mather , the game is looking great and performance for the majority of PC peasants  is in an even greater chap  , and to add to that the game is  in early access so it's not complete and future updates will roll here and there .

ARK Survival was supposed to be the first game to fully support DirectX12 since it's release with windows 10 , but that I'm afraid is a bit early for the game , or we rather say for the GPU drivers.

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Fallout 4 PC requirements are here .

Bethesda when asked about the PC system requirements , they responded that they won't release them until they are 100% sure of them .

 today the specs are released and they are as fellow :

Minimum :
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended :
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent

Earlier this week we were bombarded by star wars : battlefront  recommended requirements  , but  thank god the fallout 4  requirements are more reasonable and within reach for the majority of PC gamers .

know what remain is will it run great or will it be a port mess.

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Naughty Dog expecting The Uncharted Collection to do great on the PS4.

Well since the last generation  was won by the Wii then the Xbox 360 second , the majority of gamers did not have the chance to play as Nathan drake the renowned thief . Since The uncharted series was an exclusive to the Sony console.

building on that  Naughty Dog  is expecting that a lot of gamers that made the change to The Sony camp will play the Uncharted Collection  due to huge reputation of the trilogy and The success that previous remastered The last of Us had , which had the same situation as Uncharted games .

Naughty Dog’s Eric Monacelli on the expectation of The Uncharted will do great sales wise on the PS4, he told MCVUK : “We did a lot of research and discovered that about 80 percent of the people that own a PS4 have never played Uncharted, period That was one of the reasons why we thought remastering it would be a good idea.”.

the critically acclaimed trilogy was hit in every possible way , so every gamer out there should experience it , and this remaster is the best way to do so with a glorious 60 fps rather than 30 fps on the previous ps3 versions.

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Ps4 to cost 349.99 starting tomorrow In the US.

The long awaited price drop for the Sony console is here , the cut was  rumored earlier by a retailer , however Sony is confirming  that the price drop will start October the 9th.

This price drop was the first one  in the US since the launch back on 2013 with a retail price of 399.99.
the move by Sony was to  purposely  maintain the lead in sales over the Xbox One since the later was already costing 349.99 since the past June .

A similar price drop was already done in japan ,but  it's safe to mention that the reduction will affect only the base models of the Ps4 that features a 500GB hardrive.

So price drops are always welcome  especially for consoles since games nowadays aren't that cheap .

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Apparently people want Black Ops 3 the most this holiday season .

Like every holiday season , AAA games are fast approaching , from consoles exclusives to annually multiplatforme releases .And according to a survey by Nielsen ,Call Of Duty Black Ops 3 is leading the pack of the most wanted multiplatforme release , as for the Xbox one Halo 5 :Guardians take the lead ,and in the Sony camp Uncharted : the Nathan Drake Collection take the spot with no surprises there . finally for Wii U Yoshi's Wooly World take the hearts of the Wii U owners.

The survey takes into account several key factors such as awareness, purchase interest, and consumer rating...etc.
So it's safe to say that numbers weren't the only key .

regarding the results for all the major consoles exclusives , it's not a surprise to see long established franchises taking the lead , however the big hit there is in the multiplatforme category , since Fallout 4 comes second.

Taking into account that call of duty releases annually while bathesda " fallout  devs" take there time making games. 

So what do you think , is Fallout 4 a better fit in the first place? ,or numbers don't reflect the true feelings of gamers around the world .



source : Nielsen survey

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Resident Evil 7 news in the horizon according to capcom.

 A good news has landed this morning , resident evil 7 is  happening .

Producer Masachika Kawata speaking to the 600th issue of Dengeki PlayStation magazine as noted by Siliconera ,
 on resident Evil 7 “We’re currently not at a state to talk about it… but please stay tuned.”


He also added that funs complaints that the franchise is lost in all the spin offs , reassuring them that he was
“preparing” to bring back the horror and returning to the series roots.


“Since there’s been more spinoff titles, I can see how it can be perceived in such a way. And of course I believe that we should produce titles that bring out the horror. I’m thinking about it and also preparing for it.”

So apparently capcom  is still pushing AAA games and long running franchises , Hopefully resident evil 7 will be the start of a new era .

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Life is Strange last episode has a release date

life is strange , an episodic adventure from Dontnod , previously 4 episodes were already out , and so far so good.
the long awaited last episode has finally a release release date .

The fifth and last episode "polarized" will be out on October the 20th . the news was announced by Dontnod earlier today.

The news comes from a post on publisher Square Enix's official European blog. Luc Baghadoust, producer of the game, wrote that despite it not yet being "100% ready ... in the spirit of [protagonist] Max's birthday (today)" the developer wanted to share the news.

Baghadoust adds that "many things can change in the lead up to release but the team are working really hard to try and hit this date." he added " "We know the wait may be a bit longer than some of you were hoping for but we want to ensure Episode 5 is the best it can be."


The first four episodes had a 2 month or so widow between each release , hopefully the last episode will be out on date.

Life s strange is available on all consoles both The PS3,PS4, and Xbox 360, Xbox One and also PC.
Dontnod are currently working on there next game called"Vampyr" stay tuned for more details about it.


source :Square Enix EU Blog

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Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be big, very big.

CD Projekt Red , the studio behind one of the best Rpgs of all time the witcher 3 , a masterpiece by all terms .the Dev team are working on another Rpg called Cyberpunk 2077 with a totally different setting than the witcher   trilogy , it will feature a dystopian futuristic setting the game was announced back in 2012 , the Devs are very secretive about it since the witcher 3 was the main focus the last few years .


However CDPR visual effects artist Jose Teixeira told MCV that the sci-fi RPG will be "far, far bigger" than anything else the studio has worked on before

“We're really stepping into the unknown in terms of complexity and size and problems we encounter,” Teixeira said. "If anything, working on The Witcher 3 was a really good and often brutal learning experience. Cyberpunk is going to benefit greatly from it. I can almost guarantee it."

While the witcher was rocking a 120 to 150 hour main story with the largest open world game ever made, imagine what biger far bigger would mean in Cyberpunk 2077 .


In the meantime the witcher 3 is not done yet , considering that two expansion are due to arrive,  the first one "heart of stone " will arrive on the 13th of October , followed by " heart of wine " next year.

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The next Far Cry game is :Far Cry Primal and to be released early 2016

The next installment on the long running franchise will be called Far Cry Primal ,and guess what it's set on a Jurassic setting .

Ubisoft revealed today after a long tease on it's YouTube channel a video showing  some cave drawings , finally  a trailer appeared  and it's description sums it all ;

"The award-winning Far Cry franchise that stormed the tropics and the Himalayas now enters the original fight for humanity's survival with its innovative open-world sandbox gameplay, bringing together massive beasts, breathtaking environments, and unpredictable savage encounters,"


"Welcome to the Stone Age, a time of extreme danger and limitless adventure, when giant mammoths and sabretooth tigers ruled the Earth, and humanity is at the bottom of the food chain. As the last survivor of your hunting group, you will learn to craft a deadly arsenal, fend off fierce predators, and outsmart enemy tribes to conquer the land of Oros and become the Apex Predator."


The video showed some group hunting , a sabretooth encounter and a weird language , so far so good .

the last installment was far cry 4 , it was well received by both critics and gamers , but will the shift from guns and grenades to spears and arrows will be a success , time will tell.

Far Cry Primal will be available on February 23rd 2016 across Ps4 , Xbox one and a month later  on the  PC.




Source :Ubisoft's YouTube channel

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Can your rig handle Star Wars: Battlefront

finally Ea has released the long awaited star wars :Battlefront, and it's  pretty demanding with a 16GB recommended ram while the minimum is 8 GB ram .CPU wise both the recommended and minimum are skylake based CPUs or AMD equivalent which is pretty high .




Minimum PC System Requirements


OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or later

Processor (Intel): Intel i3 6300T or equivalent

Memory: 8GB RAM

Hard Drive: At least 40 GB of free space

Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB

Graphics card (ATI): ATI Radeon HD 7850 2GB

DirectX: 11.0 Compatible video card or equivalent

Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection




Recommended PC System Requirements
 

OS: 64-bit Windows 10 or later

Processor (Intel): Intel i5 6600 or equivalent

Memory: 16GB RAM

Hard Drive: At least 40 GB of free space

Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB

Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB

DirectX: 11.1 Compatible video card or equivalent

Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection



hopefully with diectx12 we'll see some gains .






source :EA

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Rise of the Tomb Raider’s main story is longer than the 2013 reboot.

Nowadays a lot of AAA games are aiming for the sweet spot , gameplay and story wise 20 to 30 hours was the perfect equation for a lot of gamers , not to short not to long and more importantly maintaining the fun and interest especially in story driven games .


And one of the most anticipated games this holiday is rise of the tomb rider ,lead designer mike brinker talking to Pixel Vulture discussed the game length.

“Expect to spend around 30-40 hours getting everything done. This is gathering every weapon, ability and completing every side quest,” Brinker said. “Expect double the playtime collecting everything and exploring every secret tomb.”


The 2013 reboot took around 11 to 15 hours to complete the main story , so it's longer and according Brinker the gameplay is more diverse he says : ” all our hub spaces, the areas that allow you to explore and choose your own way to play, have been increased by three times the size.”


Rise of the tomb rider , will be out November the 10th across Microsoft consoles and followed by the PC early 2016 and finally for the ps4 on holiday 2016 -since the console exclusivity will last a year-

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