We’re proud to announce has come to Steam for your PC. It includes new stages, higher resolution graphics and a new Iron Wizard mode to prove your worth. For a limited time pick up the game for 10% off.
Combine powerful gems with towers, and use them in intricate ways to defend yourself against endless waves of monsters. Fight your way through an epic story, unfolding mysteries and facing sinister enemies and artifacts to entrap the Forgotten.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight, and I am honored to be your host once again! As all of you will quickly discover I took to heart a lot of the input that many of you provided about improving the format and readability of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight. As always please continue to provide more advice as this is a feature for YOU and always has been.
Anyways in terms of the housekeeping for the site there are a few items worth going over. Firstly Dan is selling a signed "" sign from Wrestlemania with all of the proceeds going to charity over here. Friend of the site Dave Lang wants to inform any Giant Bomb users that did NOT receive your Extra-Life rewards from Iron Galaxies to drop a comment over here. The engineers have located the problem behind the CSRF Token errors! It all traced back to the spam attacks earlier this and last week, and a fix has been deployed. Speaking of the spambot problem @edgework would like to inform you that the anti-spam measures that he designed sometimes target regular users. If this happens to you please refer to, and create an alternate account as a remedy. Finally...you all really need to check out the PAXAMANIA.com site that @marinocreated.
The first clip comes from BTNS from YouTube/Tumblr who has been using the Giant Bomb Quick Look intro to sharpen his animation chops. Check out his best attempt at animating the intro below! The second "clip" is a fairly amazing animated .gif from @fobwashed and showcases his attempt to cross Dan's love for all things Waluigi and Metal Gear Scanlon. Fobwashed also created a wonderfully hilarious clip featuring Drew's bafflement with MGS3's Fury boss battle.
As some of you may recall last Sunday was Wrestlemania, and for those of you that did NOT watch the event our very own Dan perpetrated an invasion of the event by promoting his doofy face, Air Force Gator, as well as his pro-Waluigi propaganda. Don't believe me? Well here's the proof:
This week we are honoring the continually awesome work that @mento makes to improve the wiki pages to numerous Japanese only games that few of you have ever heard about. Might I also provide a friendly reminder that this is all part of his latest Wiki Project that you can read on his latest blog, and that you are all capable of similar feats as well!
At a Windows 10 event held today, Microsoft made a number of announcements, including a new, wearable technology the company is calling Hololens.
Hololens is a headset device that's built around augmented reality technology. It creates 3D holographic images that wearers can interact with. Hololens is a standalone headset device--its CPU, GPU, and "Holographic Processor" are all on-board--that exists within a larger platform called Microsoft Holographic, an initiative the company says is intended to further blend your digital life with reality.
There is no projected price, nor exact release date yet for the Hololens. Wired has an extensive write-up of the device that's absolutely worth reading if you want to get a picture of what Microsoft envisions for this thing. You can also see the company's demonstration video embedded below.
Elsewhere in the event, Microsoft discussed Windows 10's applications in regards to its home gaming console, the Xbox One. Microsoft will integrate Windows 10 into the Xbox One in the future, though Xbox head Phil Spencer did not have specifics on how that integration would function. He did, however, offer a demonstration of Windows 10's new Xbox One streaming technology. Xbox One owners will be able to stream any game from their library to any Windows 10 PC or tablet.
Spencer also confirmed that the Xbox One will have its own Windows 10 app, allowing users to see games you've played on Xbox One and PC devices, and access your friends list and messages. Lastly, it was revealed that Lionhead Studios' upcoming online co-op game Fable Legends will also be coming to Windows PCs, with cross-platform play built in.
Windows 10 is expected to roll out later this year, and will be offered as a free upgrade for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users for its first year.
Hey everyone! It's been a while since we've run a membership sale, so in celebration of the Big Live Live Show: Live, we're going to be running one for the next week. If you're a brand-new Premium member, you can sign up for the bargain introductory price of $29.95 (will revert to $35 tomorrow); existing members can add a year to their subscription for $35 even, over here. That price will also apply to new members attempting to sign up after today's promotion ends. Head on over to the upgrade page to find the relevant links or you can go straight to the yearly extension page right here if you already have an account.
Note that we had some issues with extensions this morning. If you already tried to extend and ran into any problems, drop me a line at support@giantbomb.com and we'll get you sorted out. Most likely what happened is that your transaction was declined and you'll want to try again! I'm already getting a bunch of emails, though, so unfortunately responses may take some time to get out to you. Like I said, the sale will last into next week, so hopefully a little delay won't affect you too badly. You can also post in the bug reporting forum and we'll try to get you checked out.
We are still working on integrating Paypal into our on-site payment system; in the meantime, you can find a Paypal option on our store over here. Keep in mind that all of those subscriptions have to be hooked up manually, so, as with the support emails, you can expect a bit of a delay before I manage to hook you up. Sorry; there's only one of me. I'll hopefully get to everyone by the end of the week.
If you want to buy a gift subscription for a friend, your best bet is to buy a Paypal membership and let me know the username of the friend you're buying it for . Otherwise, email me and we'll get it sorted out.
Speaking of the store: new shirt! Blacker than the blackest black, redder than the blood moon under which the beast was birthed, this metal-tinged Luchadeer t-shirt goes all the way to 10 (because volume knobs do not actually go to 11). . If you order a bunch of shirts with a
You can pick that up over in our store. If you missed the Giant Bomb Reactor shirt or the Sneaking Shirt, those are both back in stock as well.
RuneScape Road Trip 2015 kicks off on the 1st of May � a month of task chasing and community events for where you'll uncover some cool rewards.
Tick off tasks in your new Road Trip Journal � by yourself or with JMod help � and unlock the four-tier Explorer's Aura, which grants you increasing access to your own personal combat or skilling area throughout the month.
Complete the lot and get a new companion pet, plus the Hiker's outfit and Partyhat Firemaking animation, if you missed them last year.
Read on for more information!
To start, speak to Challenge Mistress Fara in Burthorpe or Challenge Mistress Heriau in Prifddinas. They'll give you your Road Trip Journal so you can get started.
You can manually complete one task per day. You can also automatically complete tasks, using chits gained once per day by heading to Lumbridge Crater and receiving one from a JMod!
To make sure no-one misses out, JMods will dispatch a team of highly trained JMod clones every four hours on weekends, as well as the 4th and 25th of May.
With those two exceptions, JMods will be available - in person - every weekday in May to hand out chits at 12:00 UTC and 16:00 UTC with JMod clones available regularly outside those hours. For full details of when you can collect your chits from JMods or their cloned counterparts, .
Note that chits can be stored up and used at any point during the month.
Tasks fall into four categories:
Skilling:
Combat:
Social/Minigame:
Miscellaneous:
Each task you complete � manually or by skipping � gets you an XP lamp.
Complete a category and you'll unlock the Explorer's Aura. Once per day� for 30 days from when you first unlock it � this will grant you access to an instanced area where you can skill or kill to your heart's content, with increased XP and gathering rates.
Right-click the aura itself to spawn a portal to the area. Whenever you enter, you'll choose whether it contains combat or skilling content. It will contain enemies or skilling spots appropriate to your level, and you can change by leaving and re-entering the area. It'll always contain a bank chest and deposit box.
As you complete more categories, the aura's tier will increase � and so will its activation time:
Note that � upon increasing tier � the aura can be activated again the same day.
Each category will also reward you with a compass piece, and when you've got all four of these the completed compass will lead you to the final Road Trip reward: a companion pet and large XP lamp.
You can also get the hiker's outfit from last year by claiming the journal and completing categories, if you don't already have it:
Finally, you can claim the Partyhat Firemaking animation override by completing all the categories, if you don't have it from last year.
We're also running a set of bonus weekends, similar to last year. The order and duration of some of the bonuses has changed, so do read through the list below.
Note that all bonuses start and end at 12:00 UTC (Game Time), on the days given. Ironman accounts are not eligible for these bonuses.
Skiller Weekend | 1st May - 4th May
Minigame Weekend | 8th May - 11th May
Dungeoneering Weekend | 15th May - 18th May
Special Ports Bonus | 15th May - 1st June
Slayer & Boss Weekend | 22nd May - 25th May
There are some cracking bonuses to be had over the May weekends, so gather some friends and get stuck in!
Hit the road and have a magnificent May! Have fun, and over on the forums.
The RuneScape Team
Telltale Games is a exceedingly busy developer these days. Between Game of Thrones, Tales from the Borderlands, an upcoming Minecraft game, and potential future seasons of both The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, it's difficult to imagine the adventure game developer taking on too many more projects without straight-up exploding.
But that's just what the company is doing. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner announced a new joint venture with Lionsgate Entertainment for an original show/game that Bruner refers to as a "Super Show." What does a Super Show entail, you might ask? Here's Bruner's description:
A “Super Show” episode combines one part of interactive playable content with one part of scripted television style content. Both pieces, when combined together, are what make an actual Super Show “episode.” As we’ve been developing the series, we’re using both mediums in concert to deliver our story. Developing both aspects simultaneously is key to utilizing this new medium. Both parts are first class citizens during the writing and design process. It’s not an interactive series with a show, or a TV show with a game, but a story integrated in a way that only Telltale can do. For us it’s a very natural evolution of the interactive story telling expertise we’ve pioneered.
Bruner goes on to explain that each Super Show episode will include both the scripted and interactive components, and will release on a schedule that he described as "more predictable like TV scheduling, but still a bit further apart like our games." This first original Super Show, which is in development with an as-yet-unannounced "world-class creative partner," will be set in an original universe, though Bruner hinted that future Super Show projects could be developed with existing licenses. He also notes that Telltale still plans to release more games using their current episodic format.
As someone who has played (and enjoyed more often than not) Telltale's recent episodic outings, this interview leaves me somewhat split. In some respects, it sounds like a natural progression for the kinds of transmedia storytelling plenty of other companies have developed in recent years, but I also can't help but be wary of anything that spreads Telltale any thinner than it already appears to be from the outside looking in. The company has already had difficulty keeping the quality of its seasonal releases at a consistent level (as this recent Kotaku story helpfully illustrates). Lionsgate has invested in Telltale as a part of this deal, which should afford them additional resources for this project.
We'll bring you more on this new Super Show project as it becomes available.
Here's a fun little Friday afternoon news bomb for everyone. According to Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz, Netflix and Nintendo are working together on a new live action television series based on the latter's Legend of Zelda franchise. The report, which comes via a source "familiar with the matter," is intended to be a Game of Thrones style series, albeit with a more family friendly tone.
This apparent partnership between the online streaming giant and Zelda maker is in the very early stages. No writers have been hired for the project yet, and the story cautions that any number of hurdles still need to be cleared before the series reaches the production stage. Should it get to that stage, it would be the first officially sanctioned episodic Legend of Zelda series since the 1989 animated show, which lasted just 13 episodes.
Regardless of whether or not this show comes to fruition, it's interesting to hear rumblings that Nintendo is even considering anything like this. Is a Legend of Zelda series officially produced in conjunction with Nintendo something you'd be into? If so, what would you want to see out of it? I have my own ideas. Well, one idea, anyway. It's actually just the concept of this video spaced out over seven seasons.
You'd watch that, right? Of course you would.
Hey, are you getting this weird feeling that, for Sony and Microsoft, a whole lot is hinging on E3 this year? I mean, don't get me wrong, every E3 has the opportunity to be pivotal when it comes to a platform's overall "story." Between price cuts and game announcements, these situations can turn on a dime. I guess what I'm getting at is that it doesn't really feel like either company has that much going on right now. And with Sony having very little in terms of announced products right now combined with Uncharted 4 getting bumped into 2016, I find myself wondering what the hell PlayStation 4 owners are going to be playing this holiday season. (Or, at least, what they'll be playing that you can't play anywhere else).
Obviously, it's a bad time of the year to be looking at this sort of thing. We're in the lull before E3 comes in and, theoretically, brings with it a lot of new game announcements. But even taking that into account, when it comes to (which are the sorts of things that usually make the big splashes at something like E3, though that's changing), things feel a little slim on the Xbox One and PS4 right now. The Uncharted 4 delay means that Sony's announced-and-dated PS4 lineup seems to run out in March, when MLB 15: The Show and Bloodborne ship to stores.
Of course, Gran Turismo 7 has been mentioned as a release for sometime in 2015 or 2016... which to me sounds like 2016, if not 2017. And then there's... uh... The Last Guardian? That's still a game, right? Of course, there are more teams in the Sony system that are currently working on unannounced projects, too. (Hopefully it isn't just another God of War game).
So yes, it's a bad time to look at this list, because one would think that E3 would bring with it some actual announcements. And there are plenty of obvious perennials that haven't opened up for pre-orders or been announced yet, like EA's sports lineup or Call of Duty, which make this list look slimmer than it should be. But looking at this list makes me feel like Sony probably needs to come with the thunder during E3 and get some first-party stuff on the docket ASAP. Or maybe they're just content to let it be a third-party machine? I mean, I feel like the PS4 has the best controller in games right now, but that probably isn't enough, considering the vast majority of the other games on the platform show up on PC and/or Xbox One.
This list consists of every PS4 game that is currently listed on GameStop's calendar, dated or undated. It's obviously not perfect, but since they're a game-focused retailer, they're usually a decent indicator of what's coming up, what has a firm date, and what's still slipping around. I could go through and add more likely candidates to this list, like Call of Duty and Rock Band 4, but let's avoid additional speculation and just go with what's there for now. We can speculate and talk about informed guesses for 2015 games later.
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
March 2016
No Date, But They'll Happily Accept Your Pre-Order Money (How Kind!)
The Xbox One list on GameStop looks roughly identical, but Forza Motorsport 6 and Halo 5: Guardians are on the list and stuff like Disgaea 5 and J-Stars Victory VS+ aren't there. Rise of the Tomb Raider also isn't there, but that's supposed to hit Microsoft's platforms this holiday, too. Though that certainly isn't a huge number of games, at least you can say that Halo is one of those big-ass "marquee" franchises that can at least feel like a big deal. And I guess that last Tomb Raider was popular. Meanwhile, Nintendo will keep on doing its own thing with the Wii U and 3DS, which gets increasingly exciting as time goes on. Personally, I'm pulling for Splatoon, it seemed really cool at E3 last year. Regardless of all that? It's slim pickings if you're looking for big things on the "new" consoles. I don't know about you, but all of this pushes my interest in E3 this year up a bit. Between the obvious games that haven't been announced or shown yet and the potential for actual new announcements, it should be an interesting year one way or the other. Potentially pivotal, even! Maybe we'll come out of E3 understanding why we spent all that money on new consoles, or maybe it'll be the E3 where everyone threw up their hands and said "well, guess it's time to build a living room PC."
This article brought to you by the fact that I'm already in some meetings about our E3 plans and now I officially have E3 on the brain whether I like it or not. We're planning to extend our livestream nights out a bit to handle the Bethesda press conference on Sunday night and we're hoping to find a location that's less, like, echo-y than our big-ass room from last year. We'll see how it goes.
SimCity developer Maxis is undergoing a major shift within EA, one that will see the closure of its primary Emeryville location. According to a statement from EA, an undisclosed number of employees have been either reshuffled or laid off as a result of the restructuring. Maxis will continue on as a brand within EA, but development responsibilities of existing franchises have been distributed among multiple other internal studios.
The full statement from EA on the closure is as follows:
Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.
These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline.
All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance.
Founded in 1987, Maxis was responsible for a wide variety of Sim games over the years, from the original SimCity on through the early installments of The Sims. Though development responsibilities for The Sims had split off to a separate studio--called, appropriately enough, The Sims Studio--as of 2006, Maxis continued to work on various major projects for EA, including Spore, and 2013's troubled SimCity reboot.
As someone who counts the original SimCity and some of its sequels among his favorite games of all time, this is a horrible thing to have to write about. Say what you will about the current state of SimCity and post-Will Wright Maxis, it's a terrible thing to see a studio with so much great history get broken down into component materials like this. Here's hoping everyone affected by the layoffs finds work quickly.
Sony Online Entertainment is no longer a Sony joint, according to an announcement released by the studio today. Venture capital firm Columbus Nova has purchased the developer from Sony, and rebranded it as Daybreak Game Company.
"We are excited to join Columbus Nova's impressive roster of companies," said John Smedley, president of Daybreak Game Company. "They have a proven track record in similar and related industries and we are eager to move forward to see how we can push the boundaries of online gaming. We will continue to focus on delivering exceptional games to players around the world, as well as bringing our portfolio to new platforms, fully embracing the multi-platform world in which we all live."
The studio, which had been a part of Sony since the mid-'90s, is best known for its work on the EverQuest series of MMOs, as well as Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, and recent Early Access release H1Z1. In addition to H1Z1, the company had been working on at least two EverQuest-branded projects--EverQuest Next, and Landmark--which will continue to develop, albeit now with an eye toward multi-platform releases, according to a post by a Daybreak developer in the company's official forums.
So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in.
If you're specifically wondering if this will mean Daybreak titles will end up on Microsoft's Xbox One console, studio head John Smedley has a tweet for you.
can't wait to make Xbox One games!
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) February 2, 2015
So, there you have it. I ask you, Giant Bomb commenters, are you excited at the prospect of being able to play SOE Daybreak's games on new platforms?
murder mystery game is coming to . Director Hidetaka Suehiro, who is perhaps better known by his nickname, Swery, announced the news today in Japanese gaming magazine and .
"Yes. D4 will be release for PC. #ThanksObama," he wrote.
Back in October 2014, Suehiro said a PC version of D4 was . The game is , however, according to the developer.
D4 isn't the first game announced as an Xbox One exclusive to later be released for PC. and both made the jump to computers, while .
D4 was released for Xbox One in September 2014, and . Reviewer Kevin VanOrd praised its ridiculous story and atmosphere, while lamenting its stereotypical characters and several slow stretches that bogged down the pace.
Video game retailer GameStop on Monday announced new plans to support the Make-A-Wish charity this year by allowing shoppers to donate to the organization when they visit a GameStop store or shop online.
Starting May 1 and running all month long, people who shop at brick and mortar GameStop stores or through the retailer's website will be prompted at checkout with an option to donate $1, $5, or $10 to Make-A-Wish. If you decide to chip in, GameStop will give you a 10 percent off code code for your next pre-owned games purchase; PowerUp Rewards members, meanwhile, will receive triple loyalty points.
GameStop subsidiaries Spring Mobile and Simply Mac will also accept donations to Make-A-Wish at the register all month. In addition, GameStop's online games portal Kongregate will allow players to donate to Make-A-Wish.
, GameStop raised about $300,000 for Make-A-Wish, while the retailer's goal this year is to do even better and bring in $500,000 for Make-A-Wish.
“We know the power of granting a wish to children in need and are honored to give our customers the chance to feel the joy in helping to make wish kids' wishes come true," GameStop CFO Rob Lloyd said in a statement. Lloyd is also a member of Make-A-Wish's board for its North Texas division.
The funds GameStop collects from its Make-A-Wish campaign will support shopping sprees for children facing life-threatening medical challenges. In 2014, GameStop granted some 335 "wishes." This year, GameStop worked with 12-year-old gamer Jahred Joyner, who has AGS leukodystrophy, to fulfill his wish.
He wanted to appear in a video game commercial, and GameStop and Make-A-Wish teamed up to make that happen. You can watch the commercial below.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a non-profit organization that grants "wishes" to children with life-threatening medical issues. and developer is also a of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
This year's is not only introducing a range of aiming to push the formula forward, but it will also be the first entry in the core series to feature a female playable lead character. Female soldiers for Black Ops III were first revealed in the .
GameSpot editor Chris Watters, who recently visited Treyarch's offices in Santa Monica to play the game, that Black Ops III represents the first game in the series that lets players choose the gender of the campaign protagonist.
Black Ops III's campaign supports co-op for up to four players, so in theory, you could play through the game with a squad of four female fighters.
Campaign director Jason Blundell said Treyarch took inspiration from 's hero, Commander Shepard, a character who can be played as a male or female. The overall script for that game didn't need to change to accommodate a player's gender--and Black Ops III's won't, either.
According to , Treyarch Studios head Mark Lamia described Black Ops III's story as being "gender neutral." He also referenced the script for Alien, which was originally written for a male to play the lead role before Sigourney Weaver ultimately got the part. "The emotions and dynamics between characters is kind of gender neutral," he said about Black Ops III's story.
Female playable characters . That was first game in the series that let gamers play as a woman, though you could only do so in multiplayer mode.
For lots more on Black Ops III, check out from our visit to Treyarch's office in Santa Monica recently. You can also see some images in the gallery below.
Developer Avalanche Studios has aired the world's first look at gameplay, with a video montage said to be captured directly from a console.
The video showcases the extent of Just Cause 3's potential for unrelenting destruction, with helicopter dog fights, high-speed car chases, planes ripping through pylon structures, and entire facilities going up in plumes of fire.
Between these scenes of destruction, the short trailer also hints at the exotic splendour of Just Cause 3's Mediterranean archipelago, Medici. Players are tasked with finding enemy bases within this fictional set of islands, as well as its propaganda billboards and loudspeakers, all of which must be destroyed. As the trailer shows, such obliteration can be approached creatively:
Publisher Square Enix said those who pre-order Just Cause 3 will be given the Weaponised Vehicle Pack, shown at the end of the trailer. This bonus content comes with three "exclusive luxury vehicles primed for action and fully loaded with the firepower to kick-start a revolution."
Just Cause 3 launches for , , and . GameSpot recently visited Avalanche's offices in Sweden and got to play some of the game. You can.
Recent screenshots can be found below, and click through the link for more .
Key new details on will not be revealed at this year's E3 event in June, according to the game's director Hajime Tabata.
Speaking on the latest Active Time Report--a semi-regular video briefing presented by publisher Square Enix--Tabata explained that the team has instead targeted the Gamescom event in August for its next major promotion and marketing initiative.
"I think most people are expecting a big reveal around E3," he said in the video embedded below.
"E3 doesn't give us sufficient time to fully prepare [to release pertinent information about the game]. So I have been discussing with our marketing teams, and we've actually been considering Gamescom in August, instead of E3, as the target for the next major reveal.
"So we'll be taking a break from E3 this year," he said.
The news comes a week after it was revealed that publisher Square Enix will on the Tuesday ahead of the official E3 opening. The lack of Final Fantasy XV information at this event will make room for several other big games from the publisher, including , , , and a . It's not certain if Square Enix has another major game to announce at the show.
Sitting alongside Tabata in the video is Square Enix marketing manager Akio Ofuji, who added that Final Fantasy XV will not likely be completely absent from the Los Angeles event.
"I think we'll still prepare a short trailer for E3, but I think it'll serve as a segue into our Gamescom plans, and make you all excited for what's ahead," he said.
Tabata added that, while the FFXV development team will be relatively quiet in the months of May, June, and July, there are extensive marketing opportunities in the months that follow.
"Promotion for the main title will officially begin at Gamescom. Right after that, there is PAX Prime in North America at the end of August to early September. Then in mid-September, we have TGS in Japan. This group of events will be the platform for our reboot, or restart if you will, towards the release of the main game."
Elsewhere in the 84-minute video, Tabata and Ofuji outline fifteen feedback points that they are taking on board for the Final Fantasy 15 demo. A recent survey, i, sought feedback on what areas required more work.
Take a look below for the latest screenshots for Final Fantasy 15.
Electronic Arts has admitted that its refusal to provide refunds for games purchased digitally via Origin was against Australian consumer law and is amending its refund policy after being warned by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), reports.
According to the report, the publisher will also be setting up a contact number for Australian consumers who digitally purchased a faulty video game via Origin after January 2012. At the time of writing, users are able to refund a game on Origin within 24 hours after it is first launched, within seven days from the date of purchase, or within seven days from the game’s release date if it was pre-ordered; whichever condition comes first.
"Businesses such as EA selling digitally downloadable goods cannot avoid their responsibilities under the Australian Consumer Law just because they are located outside of Australia," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.
"It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that customers are not entitled to refunds under any circumstances. Where a product has a major failure, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their choice. Representations that this right has or can be excluded, restricted or modified are false or misleading," Sims said.
In a statement sent to GameSpot, EA regional public relations manager for Asia Pacific Snezana Stojanovska said, "We're pleased to have worked co-operatively with the ACCC to resolve the ACCC's concerns and ensure our players in Australia have the best possible experience when purchasing and playing EA games. In addition to rights available to our players under the Australian Consumer Law, we are also proud to offer our global, industry-leading Great Game Guarantee that allows for digital returns within certain timeframes if anyone is not satisfied with a digitally-downloaded game from EA." More details on the EA's Great Game Guarantee can be found on the .
EA came under fire in 2013 for its for , a game which At the time, the publisher's Returns & Cancellations page stated that it did not offer refunds. The Origin to a selected list of countries, which included Australia.
EA is not the only company to face warnings from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Last year , and its alleged conflict with Australian consumers' right to a refund under the Australian Consumer Law.
Retailer Best Buy has rolled out a new offer where shoppers can buy a new for just $175. It's one of the best deals on Microsoft's new console we've ever come across, and here's how it works.
Trade in a working (250 GB) or a Slim (120 GB) at a participating store in the United States (), and you'll receive a $175 credit toward the purchase of a new Xbox One. This comes in the form of a $75 coupon towards the console and a $100 Best Buy gift card.
But what it ultimately means is that you'll be able to buy the $350 console for just $175.
To be eligible for the full trade credit, your console must include an AC adapter/power cord, it needs to be able to power on, and it must not be damaged or have its warranty seal broken. Best Buy also warns that "some stores may have additional limitations" and that there is a limit of one trade per person.
As always, it's a good idea to call your local Best Buy before heading out. Best Buy's Xbox One trade-in deal is valid now through May 2, and is good in-store only.
GameStop offered a similar deal earlier in the month, where shoppers could receive a $125 credit toward the purchase of a new Xbox One, meaning they could get the system for just $225. But this deal .
Looking for more gaming deals? Check out .
Following the of racing game yesterday, we have captured four minutes of gameplay captured on Ultra settings. Take a look at the 1080p/60fps footage below.
On display are the game's gorgeous and varied tracks, its numerous cars, and its various presentation options, among other things.
Dirt Rally is , with a full release expected for sometime in 2016. Codemasters will consider bringing the game to consoles.
For a closer look at Dirt Rally, check out some images in the gallery below.
and publisher Deep Silver on Tuesday announced a partnership withcreator Keiji Inafune and his studio comcept for his current project, the story. Deep Silver will help publish the side-scrolling game at retail stores and digitally for its release this year.
We also learned today that Mighty No. 9 will arrive on September 15 in North America and September 18 worldwide. You'll be able to buy it as a download or on a disc for , , and , as well as older consoles like the and . Mighty No. 9 is also coming to , Linux, and Mac on that date, while and versions will be released "at a later date" and only digitally.
Deep Silver said in a press release that its partnership with Inafune and comcept extends beyond just the publishing arrangement. The publisher is providing "additional resources" to comcept to allow the team to create additional DLC and more for Mighty No. 9.
This includes the "Ray" DLC, which is a new stage that features an "epic battle" with the bad guy Ray. After you beat him, Ray will be added to your game as a playable character for the main campaign. The Ray expansion is included with all retail versions of Mighty No. 9 and is free for anyone who backed the game during its initial Kickstarter run. Everyone else will need to buy it.
Deep Silver's partnership with comcept also means Mighty No. 9 will now include Japanese and French voiceovers (alongside the standard English voiceover), as well as localized versions of the game--with subtitles--for Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Polish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
As part of the Deep Silver-comcept deal, comcept will retain ownership of the overall Mighty No. 9 brand. Deep Silver went on to say that it will lead the charge for sales and marketing campaigns for the game.
"This is a great opportunity for comcept: The partnership enables us to deliver Mighty No. 9 to a wider audience while adding some great extra value to the game," Inafune said in a statement. "We are confident that the extra content will be worth the wait."
The Kickstarter campaign for Mighty No. 9, , was a resounding success. It asked for $900,000, but ended up .
Mighty No. 9 casts players as Beck, a hero character that bears something of a resemblance to Mega Man. The game has 12 stages, a New Game Plus mode that unlocks extra difficulty levels, and other modes like Boss Rush and two-player online challenges and races. Mighty No. 9 even lets you switch between 8-bit music and its standard soundtrack with the press of a button.
You've probably already seen talk about Hideo Kojima this week. Konami not-so-quietly updated some websites and box art to remove things like "A Hideo Kojima Game" from the cover of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and GameSpot did some source-checking to get some off-the-record confirmation that Kojima and some of the senior staff of his studio, Kojima Productions, have been cut down to contract status and are expected to be completely out of Konami sometime after Phantom Pain ships in September.
I decided to do a little checking of my own, in the form of standing up, walking over to where the GameSpot people sit, and asking "hey, how solid is the source on this?" I got nods and confirmations back, which is enough for me in this specific case.
Of course, maybe Kojima and Konami's particularly worded statement today is all the confirmation you need.
To Customers,
Thank you for your continued patronage of KONAMI products and services.
The latest title in the METAL GEAR series,“METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN” (below, “MGSV: TPP”), will be released as planned starting on Tuesday, September 1st, 2015 in North America, Latin America, and Europe, followed by Japan and Asia on Wednesday, September 2nd. Hideo Kojima will remain involved throughout.
Hideo Kojima stated, "I want to reassure fans that I am 100% involved and will continue working on METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN; I’m determined to make it the greatest game I’ve directed to date. Don’t miss it!"
In addition, KONAMI will continue to develop and distribute top-quality content in the METAL GEAR series following “MGSV: TPP.” We greatly anticipate and deeply appreciate your ongoing support for METAL GEAR.
As the next step in the series, KONAMI has already resolved to develop new “METAL GEAR”.
We will be conducting interviews for main staff to lead the development.
So there you have it? Kojima doesn't want you to miss his next/last Metal Gear game and... Konami is looking for "main staff" to run development on future Metal Gear titles. The notion of Konami wanting to continue making games in that revered franchise makes some amount of sense, but the more I think about Konami and its current treatment of video games, the more I question what form a new Metal Gear would take. Would it be a Metal Gear-shaped treadmill, for use in its health clubs? Maybe a pachinko machine that has a picture of a Hind D on it?
A number of things are capable of happening once Kojima and Konami have officially parted ways. Not to just idly speculate, but... let's idly speculate about what we could be looking at down the line.
Someone would probably step up to fund a new game studio with Kojima in the driver's seat. Microsoft could afford this. Maybe Sony could step up? I haven't seen their balance sheet, but as I understand it, the conventional wisdom about Sony, Microsoft, and money has been that Microsoft has enough to throw around to make deals happen and Sony, beleaguered by its other business units, is forced to be a bit more strategic. That's why Sony plays the "hearts and minds" game while Microsoft stomps out there and says "we've got Tomb Raider (for now)." To be fair, Microsoft has gotten a bit cuddlier and less robotic since Spencer took the reins, but you get my point. Anyway, we're getting sidetracked. It's hard to imagine what other third-party publisher would pony up the amount of cash and freedom that someone like Kojima might want to get back into the big game business. But I'm speculating. For all we know, Kojima might want to take 15 people and go make something small. I'd be all for a spiritual successor to Boktai or something. Maybe he'll finally go make a movie, like I said he should back in 1998.
Konami will probably attempt to fill its positions and give Metal Gear another go. But the company's taste for video games has soured quite a lot over the last decade. They're only spending money on the most obvious bets for them--Metal Gear and Pro Evo. The rest is mobile stuff, some of which doesn't seem to be making it out of Japan at all. It's hard to know what sort of budget a "new Metal Gear" might get. As for talent, it'd be interesting to see what sort of game Konami would make without Kojima at least lending a bit of guiding hand to the proceedings. It might be totally fine. Actually, considering the timeline of the franchise and where/when Phantom Pain seems to fall, it feels like we're getting to a point where Metal Gear could use a major change of scenery and characters. I wouldn't be shocked to see a reboot or some kind of game that takes place far after the events of MGS4, using that world as a backdrop for a new Snake clone or something. OK, now I'm just writing crappy fan fiction, I should probably move on.
It's also possible that Metal Gear could fade into the background and vanish, just like so many of Konami's other franchises. Maybe Konami would be up for licensing them out? Maybe they'd just sell off the old IP to someone who wants to actually make a new Contra or something?
Hideo Kojima has always been an interesting figure in the world of video games. And the thought of him out there, making something new, is pretty exciting to me. New hands on Metal Gear doesn't automatically sound like a bad thing, either. But at least we can all agree that the way Konami has approached this move has been the worst way it possibly could have done this. Even if things behind the scenes have become untenable, it's surprising that this hasn't been spun as some kind of celebration. But I guess they still have to worry about selling copies of Phantom Pain, and that probably becomes more difficult if you're already out there talking about how this was the game that broke up the Kojima/Konami relationship.
Think that game'll show any signs of all this supposed behind-the-scenes turmoil?
Here's a fun PR trick for anyone out there with some bad news to drop on the unsuspecting public: wait until the end of the day on a Friday to let it out. You're way less likely to get follow-up emails from pesky journalists, and you can always say "Sorry! I'd already gone home for the day!" if any writers who did send inquiries complain about not getting a response.
Nintendo just employed this super fun method in announcing (via Facebook, of all places) that The Legend of Zelda for Wii U, arguably the biggest game currently slated for release on the platform, will likely not arrive this year as originally promised.
Series producer Eiji Aonuma delivers the bad news in a short video, explaining that in the last few months, the team has "experienced firsthand the freedom of exploration that hasn't existed in any Zelda game to date," and that they have discovered "several new possibilities" for the game. In an effort to fully realize these ideas, the team has decided that they are "no longer making a 2015 release our number one priority."
You could read into this and conceive that there's a chance that Zelda still might hit this year, but it's also wholly unlikely that Nintendo would even bother to drop a video message like this if they believed there was still a solid shot of that happening. Why rile up the fanbase unnecessarily, you know?
Delays are delays and a game with more work put into it almost always trumps a game shoved out to meet a specific release window. Still, that's likely cold comfort to anyone who was hoping to play the game this year, especially given the paucity of Nintendo's remaining Wii U lineup for 2015.
If you were among the many people eagerly anticipating Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro's take on the Silent Hill franchise, you might want to grab yourself a stiff drink and take a seat. We have a bit of...news...
Following a flurry of rumors over the weekend, Konami has confirmed, by way of an official statement sent out to multiple sites this morning, that Silent Hills has been canceled. The statement reads as follows:
Konami is committed to new Silent Hill titles, however the embryonic ‘Silent Hills’ project developed with Guillermo del Toro and featuring the likeness of Norman Reedus will not be continued.
In terms of Kojima and Del Toro being involved, discussions on future Silent Hill projects are currently underway, and please stay tuned for further announcements.
As tremendously disappointing as this news is, it's also not terribly surprising. The fate of Silent Hills had been up in the air since news broke that a rift had developed between Kojima and Konami. That speculation got a lot more weight behind it when over the weekend word got out that P.T., the free "playable teaser" released last year to promote Silent Hills, would be disappearing from the PlayStation store as of Wednesday, April 29.
Guillermo del Toro may have confirmed the news this past Saturday, as well. Matt Hackney, an attendee at an "Evening with Guillermo del Toro" event in San Francisco tweeted out that del Toro had confirmed the game was done, quoting him as saying, "It's not gonna happen and that breaks my greasy heart."
There's a lot to unpack here, but ultimately, the big takeaway is that a very promising-sounding project is now dead in the water. The ongoing Kojima/Konami drama appears to be chugging along unabated, and now Guillermo del Toro is 0 for 2 on video games, after this and his ill-fated project with THQ, inSANE, were both canned.
Even worse, P.T., one of the neatest horror experiences to come around in quite a while, will be disappeared in just a couple of days. If you haven't had a chance to play that thing yet, now would seem like a prudent time to do so. It's worth it, even if you're not especially invested in Silent Hill-related stuff.
Meanwhile, Konami also just voluntarily delisted itself from the New York Stock Exhange. Things seem to be going great over there, don't they?
Giancarlo Varanini is GameSpot's Executive Sandwich Artist and a regular member of Giant Bomb's Powerbombcast. He likes Fester's Quest, The Undertaker, and you following him on Twitter.
Destiny is a mess of a game, and I can't get enough of it. I suppose that says more about what it does right than it does wrong because Bungie nailed the most important part of any game, its foundation.
This might sound a little weird, but I haven't felt this satisfied firing weapons in a first-person shooter since GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64. There's just something about the speed of the weapons, their animations, and the damage they cause that makes even the most mundane tasks (like farming materials) bearable and the most intense moments that much more entertaining. And despite the fact that they share the same arsenal, the three classes are different enough to offer an experience that scratches a variety of play style itches. It helps that some of the respective class armor sets look totally sick, too.
In fact, the overall look Destiny is another big draw for me. Bungie created a fantastic (albeit weirdly anachronistic at times) science-fiction universe that comes to life in wonderfully detailed environments, weapons, and enemies. A single exotic weapon in Destiny has a grand story about why it exists based only on the way it looks (it's just too bad the game doesn't take time to tell it.) Look at the amount of attention paid to two of Destiny's more popular exotic weapons, the Gjallarhorn rocket launcher and the Suros Regime auto rifle. These two weapons contain a ton of details that have absolutely no bearing on function, but these and other equally detailed parts of Destiny reveal an immense labor of love and desire to construct a world that you want to learn more about.
Everything else in Destiny serves function over form, and there are simply too many functions that exist to prolong the value of a relatively small amount of useful gear and to preserve the utility of retreading familiar environments. In other words, Destiny just doesn't have enough stuff and the stuff that's there is being stretched beyond its limits to the point that it continually feels like the whole thing could snap at any minute, like an overworked piece of dough.
Still, I played a lot. I still play it a lot. Destiny delivered some of the most memorable moments in my 30 plus years of playing games. It got me to play competitive multiplayer for a week. It reunited me with friends that I haven't spoken to in years. It created a sense of community and atmosphere that very much harkens back to an era of gaming where I played a single game for months, dissecting every last bit of it and discovering secrets and strategies I wanted to share with friends the next day.
