Gamer's Outpost Press (Archived)

by Dave Thier

Destiny, as a game, has already had a stellar launch and opening few months. It’s a strange beast: oddly cobbled together, repetitive and wholly addictive, but these early days only represent a small portion of Activision and Bungie’s ambition. As evidenced by titles like Skylanders and Call of Duty, Activision isn’t really one to do things halfway. Bungie is already planning on releasing the first expansion pack in December, and has apparently already started work the next full retail release, though one assumes it’s a very long way off.

“Work has also begun on future expansion packs as well as on our next full game release,”  said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg during today’s Activision Blizzard earnings call, via Polygon. “We’re very pleased with the launch and continuing engagement.”

Since the beginning, it’s been interesting to think about just how Activision plans on turning Destiny into a reliable revenue stream. The publisher already has two basic models in its wheelhouse: on the one hand, we have World of Warcraft, which charges players a monthly subscription fee as well as a larger chunk for infrequent expansions. We always knew that a subscription service wasn’t really going to fly for a console shooter of any kind. Way on the other end of the spectrum, we have Call of Duty, which relies on $60 boxed releases every year. It’s by no means an MMO, but the sort of “upgrade charge” that it asks out of regular multiplayer gamers actually looks sort of similar. Destiny was always going to have to be somewhere in the middle.

My guess is that we’re going to see something like three expansion packs a year at $20, as well as a full $60 release every two years. That gives us $90 a year for the gamer that buys everything, which is less than a World of Warcraft subscription or a Call of Duty player that buys every game and season pass.At some point, once the player base is well established, I’d also expect to start seeing some player customization-based micro transactions — ghost and ship skins, class items and that sort of thing. Again, World of Warcraft provides a decent model for when the player base will accept that sort of thing.

That’s just one possibility: I imagine that the strategy will evolve over the course of Activision’s planned decade. What’s nice about a model like this is that it really does put the onus on the developer to make expansions and upgrades that are actually worth buying. People will still upgrade just to stay with the pack, sure, but Bungie is going to have to deliver new and interesting content to get people to make that purchase every time.

Hirshberg also reported that the game has 9.5 million registered users, which isn’t chump change by any stretch.

by Arthur Gies

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games has the unappealing responsibility of cleaning up someone else’s mess.

Last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts was a low point for the series coming off its most successful game ever. Its campaign and story were uninspired and boring. Its multiplayer design took away what had proven so successful in Black Ops 2 and replaced it with something that failed to improve on the series’ defining mode of player progression, and its maps felt awkward and empty too often. And now, with Advanced Warfare, new developer Sledgehammer has to make everyone forget any of that happened with their first full Call of Duty release.

With little exception, Sledgehammer has demonstrated itself up to the challenge. Advanced Warfare’s production values and excellently paced campaign set the table, and its major additions to Call of Duty’s multiplayer, from basic mechanics to its deeply addictive progression system, might be enough to chase away bad memories of Ghosts.

“Advanced Warfare’s big changes revolve around the new exo suit”

Sledgehammer hasn’t veered away from the basic building blocks of the Call of Duty formula with Advanced Warfare’s trip to a near-future of massive paramilitary corporations and superhuman technology. It remains a fast first-person shooter oriented around crouching behind cover and aiming down gunsights with the left trigger while firing with the right. It’s arguably the most-copied set of mechanics in games from the last decade, because it works. Movement and shooting in Advanced Warfare is quick, smooth and recognizable to anyone who’s played a shooter since 2005.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s big changes are all oriented around the Exo suit, an exoskeletal support system that’s standard issue for all soldiers in Sledgehammer’s near future setting. Practically speaking, the exo adds new kinds of mobility to Call of Duty’s genre-standard toolset, with actual options varying somewhat from level to level based on the situation at hand. Most exos allow for a double jump, and every exo allows a sort of boost left, right or backward.

All of this makes moment-to-moment navigation much more interesting in Advanced Warfare than previous entries in the series or its imitators have managed. The exo conceit also allows Sledgehammer to vary up the singleplayer campaign’s format and ideas in some exciting new ways. There are some real standouts, including a brilliant stealth mission and an extended drone sequence that gives the C130 mission from the original Modern Warfare a run for its money.

In fact, speaking strictly from level and encounter design and mission variety, Advanced Warfare is the best campaign the series has seen since Infinity Ward re-imagined the franchise with Modern Warfare in 2007. There’s no muddy objectives to get stuck on, and at least on my playthrough on the “hardened” difficulty setting, there were very few cheap-feeling death loops to get stuck in. It balances fairness with enough challenge and sophistication to make success feel worth it, and I never felt like any one part overstayed its welcome.

This is somewhat more surprising, given that Advanced Warfare is longer than last years Call of Duty: Ghosts by a healthy amount — I dragged myself through last year’s game in around four and a half hours, which was more or less on par with Modern Warfare 3. My time through Advanced Warfare on Hardened clocked in closer to seven. And through that extended playtime, I didn’t feel like Sledgehammer had run out of new scenarios or concepts.

In fact, the only truly deflating element of Advanced Warfare is a story that never manages to get off the ground. Much has been made of House of Cards actor Kevin Spacey’s turn as Jonathan Irons, the CEO of a paramilitary-oriented corporation named Atlas, but his performance tends toward over-the-top. This is at odds with the over-genuine, hyper-serious sobriety of literally every other character and the overarching environment the story takes place in. The plot is just an inch or two short of completely predictable, the dialogue is frequently gibberish, and the “interactive” points in scripted scenes are often in “press X to whatever” territory — a staple that reaches some almost parodically frustrating lows here.

This is an especially sour note for the campaign given that it moves the series forward in other small ways that I appreciated regardless. In a departure for first-person war games, Advanced Warfare isn’t predicated on killing some evil invading force that seems primed on capitalizing on border paranoia, and the enemy isn’t composed of third world canon fodder. There’s concern shown for civilians. There is a somewhat sophisticated view of geopolitics and America’s place in it, and the most interesting character in the game is former-Spetznaz-turned-Atlas operator Illona, one of the series’ first major female characters.

Sledgehammer even wisely knows when to pull back, when to let the game breathe for extended periods of time without shooting or violence, something the series often felt like it lost after Modern Warfare. But the protagonist and leads all otherwise hedge closely to the Call of Duty status quo, leaving Advanced Warfare’s otherwise forward-thinking changes in the background. The result is a really good Call of Duty campaign that feels like it could have been truly great.

Multiplayer is a different story, as Sledgehammer more successfully leverages the new possibilities for movement and player ability more consistently. Advanced Warfare’s levels all seem tailored to the exo — you can walk around, but you’ll find much more speed and access by looking up and plotting a less conventional path. There are multiple points of entry everywhere, and they’re accessible from more places.

This change of philosophy might sound like a small addition amongst a list of new levels, new guns and the like. But this makes the biggest difference from its predecessors in Advanced Warfare’s immediate play experience. There’s less safety, less predictability, and it combines with some of the best map design the series has seen — hiding places never have total cover, and corners are hard to find. Sight lines exist all over, but there’s just as many means of breaking out of a field of fire by using a boost or performing a running slide.

One new game mode, Uplink, seems designed completely around the new physicality. Uplink most closely resembles single flag CTF, but the “flag” is actually a ball-shaped satellite device, and each team’s capture point is an “uplink point” represented by a glowing sphere suspended in mid-air. You can throw the ball through for one point, but running it through yields two, and a rewarding sense of satisfaction. Uplink takes advantage of every new mechanic that Sledgehammer introduces to fantastic effect, making it the best mode to happen to Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 3’s Kill Confirmed (which also returns).

Co-op

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare features co-op that should feel familiar to fans – it’s a wave-based survival mode taking place on the multiplayer modes maps where you earn points to buy better weapons and upgrades for your expo. There are wrinkles that mix things up a bit. For example, some waves have objectives that need to be completed to avert additional obstacles, like a glitched out exo.

It’s all competent enough, but it lacks the distinctive identity that powers the zombies mode in developer Treyarch’s Call of Duty games. We’ll see if that remains the case.

The exo suit also offers new sub-abilities and perks to choose from, such as an energy-based riot shield, enhanced healing or temporary invisibility. All of these new options can make for more variety in play, but usage is based on a battery that only recharges after death. I found myself discouraged from using these exo abilities — I never knew when I might need them more and was afraid to “waste” my one shot per life. It’s a small complaint in the grand scheme of what Advanced Warfare is introducing, but it feels like a moment of indecision in an otherwise confident game.

But if the exo and its additions are the draw for lapsed players and jaded veterans alike, it’s Advanced Warfare’s progression that will keep them playing.

That, and the loot.

The Pick 10 system introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 returns, albeit with more options and opportunities in the form of Pick 13. Players can pick and choose weapons, perks, and streak bonuses as they like, albeit at a price. The more obscure your choices, the more they will cost you. If you want to take a primary weapon in your secondary weapon slot, you can — but you’ll have to pay with more points. Score streaks can be modified in many ways, including making them support streaks (which keeps progress for them on death, but makes them take longer to earn).

It’s a welcome return, and it allows for the most personal customization of your character class the series has seen when joined by the updated options available for avatar customization. Male or female presets can be outfitted with various cosmetic items, which are in turn now visible in multiplayer lobbies between games.

It’s cool to see other players’ operators, but this seems particularly oriented to showing off the various bits of cosmetic loot that you can earn in-game. As you play, you’ll see the same challenge rewards that have defined Call of Duty since Modern Warfare, but achieving challenges can now also yield “supply drops,” which is a fancy, Call of Duty way of saying treasure chests. You can open these chests between matches for special rewards like temporary XP boosts and improved in-game called-in support drops.

But you can also collect new pieces of armor and gear to set your soldier apart, which is a truly diabolical addition. The Pick 13 system let me find a loadout I really liked without much encouragement to vary it up, and gaining new scopes or attachments for my weapons felt tired years ago, but I got excited for every new cosmetic item I earned via a supply drop.

Supply Drops can also include special versions of Advanced Warfare’s weapons with multiple levels of rarity, another smart feature snagged from MMOs. This might be the most encouragement to leave your comfort zone that Call of Duty has offered in years. These weapons have minor bonuses to their attributes (along with a couple of penalties as well) and hardwired attachments that can’t be removed; the pull to use them was almost impossible to resist. This is especially useful in Advanced Warfare, given the presence of unrecognizable weapons for long-term fans — for example, directed energy weapons like the TAC shotgun or, you know, the lasers.

No really. There are lasers. And tracking robots you fire out like grenades.

That said, I would have resisted more, if not for the genius of Advanced Warfare’s firing range. Until now, testing a new weapon loadout in Call of Duty meant using it in a match and hoping for the best. But now a press of a button in the pre-game lobby will take you and your loadout more or less instantly into a virtual arena where you can fire on targets and get to know your guns without feeding yourself to the wolves.

It seems like a small thing, but the firing range is symptomatic of smart decisions that seem poised to continue moving Call of Duty’s multiplayer forward. And in the present, right now, Advanced Warfare is the most fun I’ve had with the series since it re-invented the shooter mold. Which isn’t to say everything is perfect, exactly — there’s still a meat-grinder mentality to the multiplayer, where a few great players will likely contribute the lion’s share of the kills, and anybody below that threshold will probably die again and again.

by Ron Ruwell

Square Enix is home to treasure troves of classic, wonderful video game properties that go sadly unrecognized in the modern age. I’ve always been more partial to Brave Fencer Musashi and Parasite Eve, but by and large, the most popular of these untapped franchises are SaGa and Mana, the company’s third and fourth oldest RPG series’. Square Enix has teased fans with whispers of revivals in recent times, and one could be upon us within a week!

A new teaser site from the Japanese publisher shows the countdown of a single week and a curious saying in Japanese that roughly translates into “The legend will be revived.” The word “densetsu,” meaning “legend” in English, can also be found in the Mana franchises Japanese title, “Seiken Densetsu,” meaning “Legend of the Holy Sword.” Many fans point to this as the most likely culprit, and I am willing to believe them.

Square Enix has hinted at attempts to get back to its JRPG roots over the last year, and what better place to start than its most beloved “lost” series? It has already made a small comeback with Rise of Mana, a free-to-play smartphone game which has a better reception than most others, and it has even been confirmed for a PS Vita port. It is unknown if this is the revival Square Enix is hinting at or not, but why release a countdown clock for something that is already publicly known?

If we see an original game, it will fulfill series Producer Masaru Oyamada’s wish to please the Mana fans “who’d like to sit back and enjoy it (on home console).” If not, well… what else is new?

I’ve learned not to get my hopes up too high over Square Enix’s numerous countdowns, but this is one I think will pan out in our favor. If not a new Mana game, it should be something that will please Square Enix’s longtime fans. If that happens, then we can continue to hope for a localization and that Square Enix finds it in itself to continue tapping those RPG roots once more.

See you in a week, hopefully with good news!

by Mike Minotti

This one hurts.

Publisher Bethesda has revealed that Prey 2, the sequel to the 2006 sci-fi first-person shooter, is officially cancelled. CNET discovered this via Bethesda vice president Pete Hines at the ongoing PAX Australia convention.

“It wasn’t up to our quality standard, and we decided to cancel it,” Hines told CNET. “It’s no longer in development. That wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one that won’t surprise many folks given that we hadn’t been talking about it.”

Bethesda originally unveiled Prey 2 at E3 2011. While the original was a pretty standard shooter, the sequel was an open-world game that focused on bounty hunting. The trailer and hands-off demo had a lot of people buzzing. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the last good look we ever got at the game. Slowly, Bethesda talked less and less about it, sometimes only to say that work was completely restarted. Now, Prey 2 is officially done.

Which kind of sucks. I was at E3 2011, and Prey 2 was the coolest thing I saw at that show (keep in mind that Bethesda’s Skyrim was also on display right next door). Sure, my preview of it was hands-off, so maybe everything I saw was just smoke and mirrors, but the demo showed off a beautiful world and interesting characters who would react to their surroundings (for instance, the tone in one alien’s voice completely changed when he was suddenly staring at a drawn gun).

Sadly, we’ll never get to play Prey 2 now. It joins the likes of Sonic X-treme and StarFox 2 in the sad halls of games that almost were.

by Rob Crossley

Sony’s troubles with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network have worsened further as users begin to report of console crashes and glitches following the “Masamune 2.0” system update.

One of the most widely reported issues in the aftermath of the 2.0 update is a bug which prevents the console powering back on after it enters “Rest Mode” (the new name for Standby Mode).

A growing number of complaints have been issued to Sony via the official PlayStation community forums, which Sony has acknowledged, adding that it is looking into the problems. As a temporary counter-measure, Sony suggests users boot in safe mode if they are having problems.

Another bug some users are reporting is with YouTube functionality, with reports of the service not responding during video uploads.

Both issues come amid intermittent PSN downtimes as the 2.0 update stresses Sony’s servers, and in the wake of a three-week disaster launch for the online racer Driveclub. Meanwhile, the PlayStation Plus version of Friveclub has been put “on hold”.

On Wednesday, Sony told GameSpot: “We are aware of issues reported by some PS4 users following the release of PS4’s latest system software update, v2.00. We are investigating these issues and will provide an update as soon as we have more information.”

by Chris Mawson

In one of the more unusual popular culture cross-promotions in recent memory, family-friendly gaming giant Nintendo has combined forces with Playboy to promote hack-and-slash title Bayonetta 2, which was released exclusively for the Wii U on Friday (October 24).

Playboy Playmate Pamela Horton, voted Miss October 2012, donned the skin-tight leathers, guns and pistol-heels of the trigger-happy witch for a photoshoot posted below.

All photos by Playboy:

by Giuseppe Nelva

We’re still learning a few caveats about the rather innovative Share Play feature coming on the 28th with the “Masamune” 2.0 software update for the PS4, and there’s a rather interesting one, mentioned by PR Manager Andrew Kelly in the comments of yesterday’s PlayStation Blog post.

“Trophies gained during Share Play will be reflected on the host’s account, not the visitor’s.”

While this means that a guest won’t be able to earn trophies without owning a game, which is pretty understandable, it also means that he will be able to literally help out the host earn trophies he might be having trouble with.

There’s also another interesting fact. The limit to one hour to the share play session got people suspicious on whether there could be some kind of wall in order to push the guest to actually play the game after a while. Luckily this isn’t the case.

Kelly clarified that the 60 minutes limit is in place regardless of whether the guess has the game or not (even if both players own it, the session will still end in one hour), he also mentioned that there’s no limit to the number of sessions you can initiate with the same person. This means that the 60 minutes limit is virtually not existent, given that you can start a new session right after.

So why implementing the 60 minutes limit to begin with? This hasn’t been explained, but my guess would be so that people don’t just idle for hours keeping the servers clogged.

That said, I’m personally not so sure if I appreciate the fact that people will just be able to have someone else earn trophies for them. I guess it was already possible by having someone else sit at your console, but this makes it even easier.

by Eddie Makuch

Improving Xbox One install times ranks highly on Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s platform priority list, though it remains to be seen when gamers might start to see zippier install periods.

“It’s high on my priority list,” Spencer told IGN.

Part of the reason that Xbox One install times are slower than PlayStation 4 times in some cases, Spencer said, is a result of Microsoft dropping the always-online requirement for Xbox One. He said Xbox One launch titles like Forza Motorsport 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome were developed with the assumption that all Xbox Ones would always be connected to the Internet, but this changed. “The change to having to deal with an offline-only state meant that all the install code-flows weren’t as perfect as they could be,” Spencer admitted.

“It’s really our developer pipeline and our ingestion system where we have to do the most work” — Spencer said about improving Xbox One install times

In response to this, Spencer asked him team to install third-party games on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to measure the differences in install times. He said in some cases, Xbox One install times are in fact faster, but in others, Microsoft’s console does “significantly worse.”

“Are there systemtic reasons for that? Our drive’s obviously the same speed, moving stuff into memory takes the same amount of time; hard drive speed’s basically the same, so what’s going on?” he said. “I’m capturing the data. I want to be state-of-the-art in install times so people can start playing games as soon as possible. It’s high on my priority list.”

So what, then, is the issue? Spencer wouldn’t say outright, acknowledging only that, “There isn’t one thing to say why are we two seconds slower on this game or frankly why are we two seconds faster on a different game. The issues are a little bit in the weeds. It’s really our developer pipeline and our ingestion system where we have to do the most work.”

“I’m not defending it at all, because I do think install times should be faster,” he added.

Asked to specify where on the roadmap improving Xbox One install times is, Spencer reiterated that it’s high on his priority list, though he didn’t have a specific timeline to share.

“It’s kind of a constant,” he said. “It’s one of the things that’s on top of my list in terms of the parity experience between us and Sony, and making sure that the install times aren’t deficient on Xbox in any way.”

In January, Spencer first admitted that Xbox One install times need to improve. What are your thoughts on Xbox One install times? Let us know in the comments below.