Gamer's Outpost Press (archived)

by Giuseppe Nelva

Microsoft’s Xbox Division head honcho Phil Spencer went all out recently in responding to questions from the fans, giving quite a lot of information on upcoming games, events and more.

He started by talking about Black Tusk Studio’s work on Gears of War:

“I’ve been really impressed with the work of @GearsViking [Black Tusk’s Studio Manager Rod Fergusson] and the team so far. Hard to tell long term what @blacktuskstudio will be doing but for now they are busy on GoW.”

He also gave a rather important hint about Rare’s new and unannounced game:

“I’ll say this, Gregg Mayles was the one presenting the game. If you know Rare, you know Gregg is true Rareware.”

For those unfamiliar with the name, Gregg Mayles worked on Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Star Fox Adventures, Viva Piñata, directed Banjo-Tooie and more.

Spencer then apologized for the problems faced by Halo: The Master Chief Collection early adopters with matchmaking and online gameplay:

“We have to do better with the matchmaking, apologies for that. Team is working around the clock. Sorry about the issues. I know our fans expect more from us. Team is making progress but I know it’s still disappointing.”

He also expressed his interest in what Sony is going to show at PlayStation Experience, mentioning that he’s focused on 2014, but there will be new announcements from Microsoft before E3.

“I know Sony is doing a fan event in Dec. We don’t have anything planned for that time. Will be cool to see what Sony shows.

Not sure yet. Right now just focused on what we are doing in 2014. I think we’ll have news before E3.”

Additionally, he also talked about his plans to celebrate Xbox One’s 1st anniversary:

“Yea, it will be a fun day. Hard to believe it’s only been a year, first year really helped me get centered for future.”

Finally, as an added bonus, Spencer mentioned that BBC’s iPlayer is coming to Xbox One “Very Soon.”

That’s quite a lot of information, and honestly my interest in Rare’s new game just skyrocketed now that I learned that Mayles is involved with it in a prominent position. Hopefully we’ll hear something about it soon enough.

by Britton Peele

It’s kind of hard to believe that Sony’s PlayStation 4 has already been out in North America for an entire year. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve, anxiously waiting for the next generation of video game consoles to arrive.

But a year has indeed passed, and for Sony it’s been a pretty good one. The PS4 passed the important 10 million units sold milestone back in August and continues to sell very well. And for good reason. It’s a solid console with a solid library of games — even if we’ve seen some of them before on other systems.

Maybe you bought a system a launch. Maybe you waited until more games were available. Maybe you’ve been putting it off and it’s at the top of your Christmas list this year. Whatever the case, if you’ve got one or are in the market for one, you need games to play on it. So here are the games that I, personally, think are the best games available for the PS4 at its one-year anniversary mark.

inFamous Second Son– “Infamous: Second Son is the PlayStation 4′s first truly great exclusive.

It’s not that the system doesn’t have good or even great games, but this open-world, super powered adventure is the first game that I’ve loved that isn’t available on any other platform. And while its gameplay basics might not demand a lot of power from the PS4′s hardware, Second Son is also one of the first games on these new consoles where it was easy for me to say, “Yes, these graphics are a lot better than what they would have been on the PS3.” I’m not usually one who cares much about how games look, but at several points during playing Second Son I just had to stop and say, “Dang, that looks so good.”

Wolfenstein: The New Order — “Without playing it, The New Order might look like any other first-person shooter, and in some ways it is. The weapons you would expect (shotguns, assault rifles, etc.) are all here, you can lean out of cover, you can dual wield guns and toss grenades… Nothing especially revolutionary there. But it’s a great blend of those modern shooter conventions with a mix of classic FPS sensibilities and a few newer twists that help keep things strategic and fresh.”

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – I’m pretty sure Shadow of Mordor was made after someone looked into my brain and said, “This guy sure likes Lord of the Rings and Assassin’s Creed a lot. Is there a way to put those two things together?”

And it worked. Shadow of Mordor is not only a fantastic open world action game, but it’s also got a unique hook in its “nemesis system,” which results in personal feuds with a bunch of high-ranking orcs that each have their own traits and personalities — and they’ll remember you as much as you remember them.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Coming off of the relatively disappointing Assassin’s Creed III, Black Flag surprised many by just how good it was. It’s a pretty big departure from the earliest games in the series, which focused on cities dense with buildings and crowds, but this seafaring pirate adventure is a blast from beginning to end.

In an ideal world I’d be recommending Assassin’s Creed Unity here, which just came out this month. And honestly, I like Unity quite a bit (more than some other reviewers, apparently) and think it’s worth playing. But it’s got quite a few problems (both technical issues and in problems with design), and as a whole, Black Flag is a better game. No, it won’t blow you away with the kind of “next-gen graphics” you might expect out of your new system, but it’s a highly enjoyable time.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition – The reboot of the Tomb Raider series really caught me off-guard when it debuted on the last generation of consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3). I was never been a huge fan of Lara Croft’s adventures, and honestly I didn’t expect much from this fresh take. But Tomb Raider hooked me quickly with great exploration, satisfying combat and a story I actually found relatively interesting. Turns out I’m capable of caring about Lara Croft after all. Who knew?

So it’s not a new game and may not be worthwhile for old fans, but Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition earned its title with improved graphics and new features that made me more than happy to play the game again.

The Last of Us: Remastered – Like Tomb Raider, The Last of Us isn’t new… But dang it, it’s still good. Leave it to the people behind Uncharted to make a game about zombies (more or less) that doesn’t feel horrifically tired or cliched. It may have the good dose of action like you’d expect from most major video games, but The Last of Us really shines in its quiet moments — moments that have more emotion than you might expect from the medium.

If you missed this one while it was exclusive to the PS3, now’s your chance to see what the fuss was about.

Transistor — “The second game from small, independent developer Supergiant Games, following in the footsteps of their hit Bastion (one of my favorite games of 2011), Transistor is a sci-fi RPG that in many ways is better if you don’t know much going in. The story in particular — one of the main draws of Transistor as it was for Bastion – works better if you learn as you go. It begins in the world of Cloudbank with a girl, Red, who appears to have lost her voice. The very first action of the game involves picking up a talking sword-like weapon, the Transistor, which serves as your friend, instructor and narrator, all to great effect.

And then you run. What are you running from? Why can this sword talk, and how does it know you? Who took your voice, and why? These are all questions the game throws at you immediately, and it’s worth answering them at the game’s own pace.”

Destiny — This one comes with some caveats: From a pure gameplay standpoint, Destiny is outstanding. Bungie took everything that made Halo’s combat a blast and ramped it up, making moving and shooting feel great. But its multiplayer-focused gameplay runs into some issues of repetition, and if you can’t stand playing through the same environments (and fighting the same enemies) over and over again, Destiny might not be for you.

If you’ve got a good group of friends, though, and want a little MMO in your FPS, you could certainly do worse than Destiny. It’s the kind of game that’s good if you need something you can stretch out for hours — not if you want something with a simple beginning and end.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – It feels a little weird to be recommending, as a console game, a PC RPG that originally came out in 2012. But the console version of Diablo III is fantastic, and the Reaper of Souls expansion pack content makes the entire experience much better than it was two years ago.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare — If you had told me a year ago that a Call of Duty game would be one of my favorites on the PS4, I would have looked at you funny. The series is wearing a little thing for me, and last year’s entry, Ghosts, was pretty average.

But Advance Warfare pushes all the right buttons for me. The near-future technology that gives you skills like a dash and a double jump makes the mere act of getting around the environment a blast, and the gameplay overall is nice and fast. Furthermore, the story (starring a virtual Kevin Spacey in a role that he nails) is more interesting than I expected it to be.

Other worthwhile games:
Velocity 2X
The Binding of Isaac
Alien: Isolation
Minecraft

Family friendly games:

Getting a PS4 for the whole family? Here are a few games that are more aimed at all ages.

Skylanders: Trap Team — This year’s Skylanders game is the best yet, though it might feel like more of the same if you’ve been playing them to death with every game in the series. If you need a break from the tried-and-true adventure, though, Trap Team also includes a new tower defense-esque mode that focuses entirely on fighting enemies.

The only downside? Even compared to previous Skylanders games, buying everything in Trap Team is very expensive. This is due in part to the elemental traps — small, $5 toys that can be used to trap different boss monsters in the game — as you’ll need a variety of them if you want to catch all the different types of bosses out there.

Disney Infinity 2.0 – “If you are someone who liked the original Disney Infinity and loves the Marvel universe (or have a child who does), then this sequel is a no-brainer. It’s a big improvement over last year’s solid foundation, and the character roster this time around will appeal strongly to a different kind of nerd.

It’s still not perfect. For one thing, load times for Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes tend to be exceptionally long, at least on the PS4 copy I’ve been playing on. Many of the missions in the play sets (including one based on The Avengers, which comes with the game’s starter pack) can also get repetitive, boiling down to similar “Run here, fight enemies, maybe solve a very simple puzzle” quests that don’t offer a ton of depth or originality.

But it would be hard to deny that all the improvements in this 2.0 edition of Disney Infinity, of which there are many, make for a better experience overall.”

Lego: The Hobbit — I’m naming The Hobbit here because it’s my personal favorite of the recently released ones, but really any of the Lego games are worthwhile.

Things to look forward to:

Dragon Age: Inquisition — Dragon Age just missed the “one year” window (it comes out November 18), but it’s received a great deal of critical acclaim and looks to be the a fantastic RPG for the PS4.

Far Cry 4 — Like Dragon Age, Far Cry is releasing just after the PS4′s one year anniversary. Also like Dragon Age, reviewers seem to dig it so far, though they’ve noted that it’s very similar to Far Cry 3 (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

Bloodborne — The spiritual successor to Dark Souls just got pushed back from early February to March 24, 2015, but it has the potential to be one of next year’s first great releases.

by Colin Moriarty

A couple of months ago, I wrote an editorial begging Sony to let us change our PSN names. The PlayStation Network launched in 2006 alongside PlayStation 3, and there’s no way to change your name short of creating a new account, therefore losing all of your purchases, Trophies, friends, and more. (Sony has been known to manually change select users’ names for various reasons, though you’ll lose your Trophies if this happens.)

I brought this topic up in an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment America’s President and CEO Shawn Layden. After all, changing PSN names is one of the single most-asked about features not yet on the Network. His answer surprised me, since he seemed to indicate that technical issues may not be standing in the way, as previously assumed by myself and others.

“The road map for feature extension is very long. It goes from here to Hangzhou in China,” Layden remarked when I asked about not only changing one’s PSN name, but about other oft-requested features like deleting unwanted Trophies. “And all of those things are on there. Yeah, we want to give you more control across your experience and your profile and your presence on the network.”

“At the same time, as you’ll understand, we don’t want to make it so that you can go in, grief a bunch of people in Far Cry, change your avatar, change your username, go into CoD and grief everybody over there. We want to stop that.”

When I asked if that issue specifically — the risk of abuse — is what’s holding up the feature being implemented, Layden answered in the affirmative. Transparency in changing your name seems to be the issue at hand.

“[We want to do name changing] in a way that’s transparent, but also don’t let people morph themselves, either. And yeah, it’s terrible that you have to make decisions on a service sometimes by optimizing around the bad actor. I hate that we have to do that. So we’re trying to balance that between… the 99 percent of users going to have a good experience, how can we help make that happen without giving one more tool to the bad actor to go in and ruin the experience for others?”

Here’s hoping Sony figures out this issue so that the many PlayStation Network users waiting to change their names — to pay for the right to do so, even — can get what they’ve been waiting for, many of them for years on end.

by Jason Evangelo

Despite its enormous footprint, Microsoft has always been the underdog in the console space. With Xbox, they had something to prove. With Xbox 360, they challenged the mighty PlayStation brand and emerged mostly victorious. With Xbox One, however, the company has had to self-correct while Sony watched them in their rearview mirror.

The tide might be turning. Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Devices and Studios at Microsoft, published a blog post today expressing excitement over the company’s string of exclusives (such as Sunset Overdrive and Halo: The Master Chief Collection) and high-profile releases for Xbox One.

Within the update there’s an underlying message for Sony which seems to say “We’re coming for you.”

One temporary price drop (can they honestly spike it back up to $399 after this?) to $349 and a few compelling bundles later, Microsoft’s Xbox One has outsold Sony’s PlayStation 4 for the past two weeks according to internal Microsoft numbers. Of course we’re not privy to how large that lead was, but Microsoft did say the Xbox One sold three times as many units following its November 2nd price drop.

Mehdi also stated that “more than” 10 million Xbox One consoles have been shipped through to retailers. It’s worth mentioning that it took the Xbox 360 1.5 years to reach the same milestone.

By comparison, Sony shipped through 13.5 million PS4 consoles to consumers by the end of October, and they hit their 10 million milestone at the end of August (again, shipped through to consumers and not merely to retail). They’re still comfortably ahead. But Microsoft is gaining through a combination of aggressive marketing, exclusives, and of course that timely price drop. Regardless of who’s at the top of the podium, Microsoft has done exceptionally well for itself in its first year shepherding the Xbox One, especially when compared to Generation 7 (Xbox 360).

“Almost one year ago, I had the honor of shaking hands with hundreds of fans at our Xbox One launch in New York City,” Medhi writes. “We have listened to your feedback and have worked hard to deliver hundreds of improvements to Xbox One, celebrated the launch of amazing new games, and sought ways to offer more value for you. As we reach this milestone, I remain awestruck by your passion for games and your support of Xbox One. Thank you for an incredible year.”

But as you all know very well, it’s the next two weeks that are crucial for both companies. This week, Microsoft launched the well-received, nostalgic, and valuable Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Halo is their flagship franchise, it’s recognizable, and the disc itself is a ridiculously strong value. Historically it’s the reason Microsoft has found such success in the console business. Though only anecdotal at this point, it seems to be the tipping point many Xbox 360 holdouts were waiting for to jump into the new generation. (I do wish Microsoft would tell us how the white Sunset Overdrive bundle did, as it seemed to disappear quickly…)

Next week, the mighty Grand Theft Auto V hits Xbox One and PS4 with a seriously upgraded graphics engine and a brand new first person view. Sony is offering Rockstar’s open world blockbuster as part of a bundle. That’s the kind of hardware that gets noticed on Black Friday.

Then again, Microsoft has great momentum headed into the holiday season, and they have the price advantage. It will be fascinating to see how it all shakes out.

I know it’s always tempting to get sucked into the notion of a “console war,” (and as press, we absolutely instigate it) and I’ve not been shy about my overall preference for the PlayStation 4 this generation. But milestones like this aren’t just good for headlines, or for Sony and Microsoft, or for their shareholders. They’re good for gamers. The larger the installed base, the more attention publishers, developers, and app creators give to our new boxes, the more competitive the landscape gets, and the more we tend to see price drops, bundles, and features that take full advantage of our hardware.

Tell me, if you’ve yet to upgrade to PS4 or Xbox One, will anything releasing this holiday compel you to take the plunge?

by Chris Reed

For console gamers, the most important difference between the Xbox One, Wii U, and PlayStation 4 is the games. Sure, they differ in CPU and graphical power, but none of that matters unless it’s used to fuel awesome gaming experiences. To find out which console is worth your hard-earned cash, we’re going to look at what exclusive games are in the works for each system. Here are five of the most exciting upcoming Xbox One games you won’t find on any other platform.

Quantum Break
Release Date: Q2 2015

If you’re wondering just how ambitious Xbox One developers are, wonder no more. Quantum Break, by the makers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, is a third-person shooter that’s being made alongside a live-action television series. You’ll play a section of the game, then watch an episode of the show, then lather, rinse, and repeat. Some of the scenes in the episodes presented to you, however, will depend on the choices you make in the game.

While this isn’t the first video game to have a TV show tie-in (Defiance is a current example), the way the two interact here sounds very interesting. Don’t expect innumerable branching pathways, because then they’d have to film an ever-expanding set of alternate scenes. But if this multimedia project coalesces into a powerful whole, it could turn out to be a very interesting project. Look for Quantum Break sometime in the middle of next year.

Halo 5: Guardians
Release Date: Q4 2015

Coming late next year is the next major episode in what is arguably the most beloved first-person shooter series of all time. The Halo franchise is nearly synonymous with Xbox, so Halo 5: Guardians is a huge deal for Microsoft. Developer 343 Industries is taking its time with the game, not rushing to get it out before it’s ready, or to bolster sales of the Xbox One hardware.

This may be why very little has been revealed so far, aside from a pair of cryptic teaser trailers. But based on the way Microsoft is treating this game, all signs point to Halo 5: Guardians as being a very big hit.

Fable Legends
Release Date: (TBA)

Another long-running Xbox exclusive series is Fable. While designer Peter Molyneux has a long history of promising more features than he delivers, his Fable games have always been a lot of fun. Typical to the fantasy genre, in these games you start as a nobody and work your way up to being a major celebrity by doing either heroic or villainous things, depending on the choices you make as you play.

Fable Legends is set in the same fantasy world of Albion, but it’s a different sort of game from its predecessors. Instead of a single-player action role-playing game, the developer calls Legends a “multiplayer online quest adventure game.” To cut through the jargon, four players (or AI-controlled characters) will act as heroes in the game, while a fifth player takes the role of the villain. The villain’s job is to set up the quest, deploy the enemies, and trigger traps as the heroes play. It sounds kind of like a dungeon master in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, which could work out very well on Xbox One.

Scalebound
Release Date: (TBA)

Developed by Platinum Games, the makers of such excellent action games as Bayonetta 2 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Scalebound looks like a fantasy game of epic proportions. You play as an adventurer who travels to a distant world full of enormous monsters. Luckily for you, you soon befriend a dragon who helps you take on these vicious beasts.

Really, that’s about all we know so far about the game, but the trailer looks suitably grand. If the game is anything like that (or like the excellent titles Platinum has made in the past), it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Crackdown
Release Date: (TBA)

The Crackdown series follows a futuristic cop in a corrupt, open-world city overrun by violent gangs. What’s remarkable about it is how you start out as a pretty normal guy, but thanks to incremental upgrades, by the end of the game you can leap up the sides of skyscrapers and wipe out swarms of bad guys single-handedly.

We haven’t seen much of the third installment (which will not be called Crackdown 3, according to EuroGamer), but we do know that it will offer a cooperative campaign, destructible environments, and will take advantage of the Xbox One’s cloud computing feature. Watch the cinematic trailer to get an idea of what to expect once the game comes out.

by Tom DiChristopher

Activision Blizzard launches the latest expansion to its blockbuster World of Warcraft series this week, but some wonder whether the fantasy role-playing game still has the magic.

World of Warcraft remains the top performing subscription-based online role-playing game, and it’s a huge moneymaker for Blizzard Entertainment. But the decade-old massively multiplayer online title, or MMO, is shedding subscribers as the video game market evolves and some fans lose interest.

“Part of what we’re seeing is the game was so successful for so long. It’s just the natural evolution of the product that the base players will end up declining,” BMO Capital Markets managing director Edward Williams said.

At its peak in 2010, 12.3 million subscribers logged on to role play in the immersive fantasy world populated with elves, trolls and orcs, according to digital research firm SuperData Research.

“We’re in what’s likely to be a pretty significant state of decline,” Williams said. “The overriding direction is going to be down, with exceptions every now and then around product releases, which will reinvigorate the subscriber level.”

Subscriptions are indeed ramping up ahead of the release of Warlords of Draenor, the fifth expansion to the original game launched in 2004, but significantly fewer gamers are paying the $15-per-month subscription since Blizzard last released an expansion in 2012.

At the end of the third quarter, World of Warcraft had more than 7.4 million subscribers, compared with 6.8 million the previous quarter. Following the last expansion in 2012, subscriptions grew to more than 10 million from 9.1 million.

These subscriber spikes are historically short-lived, analysts said.

“Of course more people will sign up this quarter, but I doubt it’s going to last,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “It will start to fade the next quarter.”

Activision Blizzard did not respond to several requests for comment.

Wedbush projects World of Warcraft will lose about 100,000 subscribers per month through 2015. In a recent research note, Pachter and his team said Blizzard “can stem declines by introducing a new game to keep World of Warcraft faithful engaged.”

For years, many thought a project called “Titan” would be that game, but Blizzard recently announced it was suspending development. At the time, a spokesperson said ” ‘Titan’ just wasn’t the game we wanted to make.”

But the industry also changed while Titan was in development, which may have made a subscription-based MMO seem less profitable, said Joost van Dreunen, founder of SuperData Research.

For one thing, audiences have flocked in recent years to multiplayer online battle arena games, a very different style of game. These “MOBAs” are action-oriented strategy games in which opposing teams attack one another’s bases.

The most-played MOBA is League of Legends, with 67 million monthly users, according to developer Riot Games. About 7.5 million gamers play during peak hours, more than the total number of World of Warcraft subscribers.

Another thing: These games are typically free to play, with developers making money when players buy premium virtual goods and upgrades. League of Legends (made by Riot Games) earned $946 million through October, according to SuperData Research, compared with World of Warcraft’s $728 million haul. That’s particularly important in emerging markets, where subscription costs can be a significant barrier to entry.

SuperData Research expects revenue from free-to-play games to grow nearly 50 percent to $11 billion in 2017. During the same period, it sees pay-to-play sales slipping about 40 percent to $1.7 billion.

Blizzard is expected to launch its own MOBA called Heroes of the Storm, featuring characters from its World of Warcraft franchise next year, and it’s widely expected to be free-to-play.

“It’s a big play for them. It’s also a tough play. How do you break into a market that’s so saturated with League of Legends and Dota?” said van Dreunen, referring to the second most popular MOBA.

Pachter said that only a small minority of League of Legends players are Blizzard fans, but those who are will likely try Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard can attract others by leveraging its experience operating tournaments, he said, adding that top MOBA players could be enticed to switch games with the prospect of big cash prizes.

Blizzard has already had success with free-to-play games. About 20 million people have registered to play its new digital card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Launched in March, it has earned $114 million through October, according to SuperData Research.

It’s possible that World of Warcraft will eventually transition to free-to-play, but analysts said Activision Blizzard won’t make that decision soon.

“It’s unlikely we see a dramatic change on the World of Warcraft business model any time soon,” said Williams. “World of Warcraft is unique in terms of its ability to grab a large base of players who are willing to pay a relatively substantial monthly fee.”

by Emanuel Maiberg

Several short snippets of Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer gameplay footage have leaked online, and some fans are worried since they show the player sprinting and aiming down sights, abilities that weren’t included in the early Halo games.

The game’s Executive Producer at developer 343 Industries Josh Holmes took to Twitter to put fans at ease. “No penalty to hip fire in H5, no movement penalty when scoping/zooming, no flinch,” he said. Holmes added that Halo fans should tune in to the proper beta gameplay reveal during HaloFest, a live-stream event the night before Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s release on November 11 for Xbox One.

Viewers will get to see developer interviews, the first footage of Halo 5: Guardians gameplay, and the debut episode of Halo: Nightfall. You can tune in through Twitch, Xbox Live, and Xbox.com.

The Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta will begin December 29 and run through January 18. Owners of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection are guaranteed access to the beta, though it sounds like there might be other ways to get in as well. The beta will focus on four-versus-four arena matches with seven maps, three modes, and 11 weapons.