The Weekly Wrap With DC

Hi Gamers, DC here … welcome to the fourth instalment of “The Weekly Wrap” – the best place to find everything that’s happened in the wonderful world of gaming over the past seven days!

Well, it’s been a VERY busy week in that gaming world so, without further ado, let’s get stuck into it.

In case you missed it

Another super anticipated 2015 release dropped this week, I’m talking about Star Wars: Battlefront! EA DICE have been teasing the game since E3 2013 and after more than 2 years of waiting the game released here in Aus on November 19. The game has received mixed reviews with some saying it’s lacking content, and others eagerly awaiting the season pass content and preparing their wallets for the sizeable hit. As with any new large-scale AAA title there’s been some strange, albeit bizarre happenings taking place on the internet … I’m of course referring to the claim by Breaking Benjamin’s Ben Burnley who took to Instagram to post a picture of a broken SW:B disc along with a statement he was offered money to endorse the game. For those of you who love a good scandal … you can find the post here.

Novastream will be posting a review of SW:B in the coming week, but for those of you just getting started, be sure to prepare yourselves adequately for the battlefront. Here’s the DICE development team’s 20 tips for getting ready.

Battlefront shared it’s released day with the PC port of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. The PC version arrived 1 month after the console versions to ensure PC players got the most stable, optimised version of the game according to Sam Kovalev, Studio Production Manager at Ubisoft Kiev.

“We have introduced several new improvements to our production pipeline and validation process, which allowed us to focus on polishing, stabilizing and optimizing the PC version very early on in the project,” says Kovalev. “This has been one of the top priorities for the production team this year.”

With little noise coming from the #pcmasterrace it seems the port has gone reasonably well … only time will tell.

Nintendo RPG fans have less than 2 weeks until the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X releases in Australia and New Zealand on December 5. The planet the game is set on is apparently five times bigger than that of it’s predecessor and using the Wii U GamePad, players can access the navigation system, which displays a hexagonal map grid to plot the course ahead to avoid ambushes from giant monsters and fast-travel between previously discovered locations. The game can also be played on the GamePad screen alone. The latest trailer is below:

Quantic Dream, the guys behind the PlayStation exclusive Heavy Rain, have digitally remastered the game for the PS4. Announced last week, PlayStation Australia have said both Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls will be bundled and available for purchase both physically and digitally March 2016. Beyond: Two Souls is available to digitally download from November 26. The PS4 edition has a number of improvements:

• Enhanced 1080p graphics including motion blur, bloom and depth of field effects, as well as improved lighting and shadows. The game also makes use of the DualShock 4 speaker to improve immersion when playing as the EntityDecisions are highlighted at the end of each scene and compared with those made by other players
• Once you have completed Beyond: Two Souls, you will be able to replay the game in chronological order – a much-requested feature in the PS3 version!
• Increased difficulty in certain fight scenes, combined with improved controls for action sequences
• Includes the “Enhanced Experiments” DLC in the base game

Announced in a very peculiar – under the radar fashion – PlayStation have confirmed the existence of a PS2 to PS4 emulator. Reports coming in state that the emulator could be used to run games in native HD resolutions and that potentially even trophies could be added to supported titles.

“We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,” a Sony representative said via email. “We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”

Sony no doubt still intend to push their service PlayStation Now for playing PS3 games, however it seems playing old PS2 classics like God of War and Gran Turismo 3 on the current generation could be a distinct possibility. No word on how the emulator will work, whether it will require purchasing of digital games from the PS store or whether you’ll be able to insert a disc to play – similar to Xbox One’s backwards compatibility.

Halo 5: Guardians has had an update which adds the following content:

•  Big Team Battle – 8v8 team combat comes to Halo 5: Guardians!
• 4 New Big Team Battle maps – Grab a group of friends, jump in a Warthog and duke it out on four new Big Team Battle canvases:
  • Deadlock
  • Basin
  • Guillotine
  • Recurve
• 48 New REQs – New weapons, weapon skins, armour, vehicles, player emblems, and the new “Shove It” assassination add even more variety to the Halo 5 multiplayer experience.

At gamescom, earlier this year 343 Industries and Xbox announced the Halo World Championship (HaloWC), well now more information has been released about the location of the event and prize-pool. The figure started at $1 Million and thanks to the crowd-funding – via the all-new Requisition System (REQ System) – it’s now over $1.7 Million dollars and growing!

Partnering with MLG, ESL and Gfinity, the Halo World Championship consists of online and in-person live events that will take place in U.S. and Canada, Europe along with the Middle East and Africa, Greater Asia, Latin America, and Australia and New Zealand. Key dates include:

• December 6, 2015 – Online Ladders Begin
• December 19, 2015 to January 31, 2016 – Online Qualifiers and Regional In-Person Live Events
• January 23, 2016 to February 21, 2016 – Regional Finals across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia/Australia/New Zealand
• March 1, 2016 to March 20, 2016 – Halo World Championship Prelims and Finals

Anyone who wants to learn more or register in the Halo World Championship should head over to the new Halo esports portal, Halo.gg. For esports fans, they’ll be livestreaming everything from ladders, qualifiers, regionals and finals – be sure to tune-in to the Halo and Xbox Twitch channels! The stakes have never been higher in the world of Halo esports – maybe it’s time to start practicing?

 

Games releasing this week

Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires (Vita) – November 24
Minecraft Story Mode Episode 3 – The Last Place You Look (Xbox One, 360, PS4, PS3, PC, iOS, Android) – November 24
Teslagrad (Vita) – November 24

Beyond: Two Souls (PS4) – November 24
Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours (PS4, Vita) – November 30
One Final Breath (PC, Linux) – November 26, (Mac) – November 28, (Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Vita) – November 30

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (Xbox One, PS4) – December 1
Just Cause 3 (Xbox One, PS4, PC) – December 1
Rainbow Six: Siege (Xbox One, PS4, PC) – December 1

So that was the week in video game land, catch you next week.