Another week has past us by and in the gamer world a lot can and as always has happened; hopefully you squeezed in a game or two as well.
In the video game world the best thing that can happen are new games, and this past week has been a pretty great one. Starting us off is LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, yes, another LEGO game. Our main man Alaisdair took a look at another entry into a franchise he was a fan of, suffice it to say he was left bitterly disappointed by this one. Plagued by clunky controls and plenty of bugs, Alaisdair summed up his thoughts by saying, “This game overall just proved to be such a let down for me, I wanted it to be great, especially after the string of hits that Lego has produced before it, and this just felt like a rushed cash in and I am going to say it, this is the worst Lego game adaption ever made.”
Another game we at Novastream got our hands on during the week was Darkest Dungeon, an RPG that has a lot of people talking about for all the right reasons. Our reviewer Charlie Eastwood’s final thoughts were, “So in summary, Darkest Dungeon is a game that not only is incredibly entertaining and results in silly little anecdotes, but has an amazing feel, scale and design that fit into the created world brilliantly.” One final game that capped of a stellar week of new releases was The Witness, a puzzle mystery game for the PS4 and PC. It was a game that had plenty of people excited and so far it’s lived up to the hype with early ‘witness reports’ of the game suggesting it could well be an early front runner for game of the year.
To news of games to come and the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, Mutants in Manhattan, has been revealed via an announcement trailer. Developed in collaboration between Activision and Platinum Games the game will release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC later this year.
Meanwhile PayDay co-creator Ulf Andersson has revealed he is working on a new co-op first-person shooter with his new studio, 10 Chambers Collective. While details are few and far between a brief description by Andersson suggests it will be horror rather than crime based.
And finally, Her Story developer Sam Barlow has teased a sequel to the hit PC game tweeting that the follow-up already has one page written for it.
Virtual reality is never far from the headlines these days and tech giants Apple and Google are looking to cash in on the booming technology.According to a report in the Financial Times, Apple have hired VR expert Doug A. Bowman while Google job listings have been seen with descriptions of ‘virtual reality’ in them. Which giant would you see as the safer bet for VR?
Nintendo is set for a year of change with their next console NX seemingly not too far away. A rumour that adds weight to this inevitability is that Bandai Namco are reportedly working on several NX games including Super Smash Bros. that is set to be a release title. Another indicator that the NX has to be on its way is a recent survey that suggests only 5% of game developers are working on a Wii U game, making the NX a logical next step for Nintendo…
EA have had a busy week of announcements with the company revealing via their third quarter earnings call that the next Mass Effect and ‘Titanfall experience’ will release next fiscal year meaning we will have our much needed fixes by March 31, 2017. Also via their third quarter report, the company may have accidentally revealed Xbox One sales with EA saying they estimated around 55 millions units have been sold between the PS4 and Xbox One. Considering Sony revealed that over 35 million PS4s have been sold, that would put Xbox figures somewhat behind at the 20 million mark. Microsoft has decided not to report on sales figures of Xbox Ones and you can maybe see why.
While the latest consoles are selling admirably, market research suggests PC gaming still reigns king. Generating around $32 billion in revenue compared to the cumulative revenue of consoles which sat at $25.1 billion for 2015. Surprisingly mobile generated an identical figure, making PC the undisputed highest earner. Free to play MMOs incidently raked in the most money for PC with such games making a crazy $17 billion, not much free about them it would seem…
Quantum Break may be taking its time to grace the Xbox One but reports out of Brazil suggest that the supposed Xbox exclusive may be heading to PC too. It received a PC specific rating meaning an arrival on PC might just happen at some point.
Bungie President Harold Ryan has stepped down with the developers board of directors announcing long serving Pete Parsons as his replacement of sorts being elevated to position of company CEO. Last week it was rumoured a Destiny sequel had been postponed and these staffing changes may just extend these delays.
Homefront: The Revolution beta will release exclusively on the Xbox One from February 11 to February 14 with fresh details like an online co-op mode in the form of Resistance Mode unveiled. The sequel to the not the so great original Homefront is set to release worldwide May 20.
As one LEGO game released this week another teased its release with LEGO Dimensions showing off its large number of characters from many different universes. A short trailer of famous doctors was released with Dr. Venkman from Ghostbusters, Doc Brown from Back to the Future and The Doctor from Dr. Who teaming up to create own brainy team.
In the final bit of news, military charity Stack-Up has been boosted by the arrival of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and DayZ creator Dean Hall to their advisory board. The charity has a strong focus on the welfare and support of our forces both past and present.
To eSports and ESPN isn’t the only media outlet looking to benefit from the mainstream appeal of the industry with US channel The CW, announcing they will broadcast the ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League Finals on February 15. It looks like eSports may well be finding their way to a TV near you very soon, what eSport would you like seen broadcast down under?
After a beautiful week of game releases, the week ahead isn’t looking quite as glorious. February 2 will see the HD release of Gravity Rush on PS4 while on the same date Cobalt will grace the Xbox One. Also on the gaming radar is The Division beta which yours truly will be checking out over the week, stay tuned on Novastream to hear my early impressions.
And that my fellow gamers, was the week that was, game on
News by Joshua Thomas
