Microsoft’s Black Friday deals include $299 Xbox One bundles
Microsoft is desperate for the Xbox One to make an impact this holiday season. In addition to a slew of exclusive games, including Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Forza Motorsport 6, the company is continuing to undercut Sony’s PlayStation 4. To mark Black Friday — specifically November 26th to 30th — Microsoft is slashing $50 from 12 Xbox One holiday bundles. The cheapest of which will be going for $299 with either a copy of The Lego Movie Videogame or Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Needless to say, there’s never been a better time to jump on board with Microsoft’s latest console. Combined with the greatly redesigned dashboard, a customisable “Elite” controller and backwards compatibility, there’s little else the company can do at this point to promote sales.
Source: Major Nelson (Blog Post)
‘GTA V’ will never feel the same with this hydraulic rig
Grand Theft Auto V provides the perfect playground for car junkies that want to perform some Furious 7-inspired stunts. Take this clip of a player landing his favorite ride inside a flying cargo plane. Nuts. But what if you could make the first-person driving experience a little more realistic? Force Dynamics, a small company from upstate New York, has done exactly that with one of its wild gaming rigs. At first glance, it looks like a typical racing arcade cabinet with a large display, a steering wheel and a bucket seat. But the entire contraption can rotate and tilt up and down, mimicking the movement of most in-game vehicles. In the case of Grand Theft Auto V, it’s a gut-wrenching rollercoaster every time you launch a car off a ramp or, indeed, check out the fairground attraction in Los Santos. We’d love to have a go, although we’d probably need a paper bag within arm’s reach.
Via: Kotaku
Source: Force Dynamics (YouTube)
Sony’s adding PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility to the PS4
Revisiting PlayStation 2 games (at this point) might cost more than you expect. Sony and Electronic Arts have a Star Wars: Battlefront PlayStation 4 bundle available right now and with it comes a quartet of games from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away: Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars Racer: Revenge and Super Star Wars are available via a single download code. This news comes by way of the tech-minded folks over at Digital Foundry who say that of the PS2-era games (all but the latter), they’re running via emulation. The evidence is in the details here, as DF says that the sophomore console’s select and start buttons have been mapped to either side of the DualShock 4’s touchpad, which, considering these were made by Lucasarts Interactive and not Sony, wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Source: Eurogamer
‘Hotline Miami’ sale benefits the artists behind those wild soundtracks
Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number are both dense, addictive and brutal — and a lot of those adjectives come courtesy of the games’ soundtracks. In recognition of this musical magnificence, Dennaton Games is holding a sale this weekend that benefits the aural artists responsible for both Hotline Miami soundtracks. Hotline Miami 2 is 40 percent off ($9) and Hotline Miami is 75 percent off ($2.50), and 100 percent of the proceeds during this sale go directly to the games’ musicians. The combo pack, offering both games, is just $11 during the sale, and both soundtracks are discounted as well: 75 percent off for Hotline Miami’s ($2.50) and 40 percent off for the sequel’s ($9). The sale is live now through Monday at 10AM PT. If you’ve never heard the Hotline Miami soundtracks (Seriously, what are you doing with your life?), listen to a few songs below.
Adorable, grisly adventure game ‘Jenny LeClue’ hits PS4 in 2016
Jenny LeClue is a coming-of-age story wrapped in a choose-your-own-adventure novel and tied up with the pixelated ribbon of a point-and-click detective game. And it’s coming to PlayStation 4 next year, creator Joe Russ announced on the PlayStation Blog today. We’ve been keeping an eye on this one since its $105,800 Kickstarter in 2014 — it’s poised to be a witty and charming investigation game starring a pugnacious young woman, Jenny LeClue, on a mission to prove her mother is innocent of murder. However, Jenny is fictional even within the game, where she’s the star of a series of (also fictional) choose-your-own-adventure novels. As Jenny hunts down evidence and discovers secrets in her sleepy, creepy town, her author narrates, and the two characters play off of each other in often-humorous ways.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Cyberpunk noir game ‘Read Only Memories’ heads to PS4 and Vita
Read Only Memories, a pixelated adventure game set in the futuristic city of Neo-San Fransisco, will make its way to PlayStation 4 and Vita “soon,” developer Midboss announced in a new trailer. Midboss is composed of the folks behind the annual GaymerX convention, and Read Only Memories is a narrative-driven, sci-fi romp set in 2064 that happens to include an array of inclusive character options, such as the ability to choose your preferred gender pronoun. However, these options are almost a side-note to the game’s emphasis on story, retro 2D gameplay and robust character interactions.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Playdate: Answering the ‘Call of Duty’ in ‘Black Ops III”
Another year, another Call of Duty campaign. It’s almost comforting — an annual tradition of unlocking weapons, leveling up and ultimately realizing that we’re a lot worse at this game than we remember. Join us on the Engadget Gaming homepage, here in this post or Twitch.tv/Joystiq starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific for two hours of Call of Duty: Black Ops III. We’ll be checking out the campaign and spending some time in team deathmatch to see just how bad Sean is at online shooters.
Someone made a giant Rubik’s Cube in ‘Fallout 4’
It seems there are two types of Fallout 4 gamers: those who want to do nothing but take out bad guys, and a very patient few who painstakingly create some incredible stuff. Case in point, this giant floating Rubik’s Cube. User “Theowest” spent a whopping 25 hours gathering and assembling 128 generators, 36 terminals and thousands of wires to create this neon behemoth, but we’re not entirely sure whether or not it’s a cube that can be “solved.” It seems to be missing a top and bottom panel and each square is able to change color. So if you’re not a gamer who would make anything like this, then take a second to appreciate its complexity — right before you get back to kicking bad guy butt.
Via: Push Square
Source: Steam
‘Gravity Rush Remastered’ launch date shifts up a week in Europe
Sony is doing the fine people of Europe a solid and pushing up the release date of Gravity Rush Remastered from February 10th to February 2nd. This is the new-and-improved, PlayStation 4 version of Gravity Rush, originally a (truly incredible) Vita game. Gravity Rush Remastered includes updated graphics, motion-sensing controls, and extra missions, costumes and challenges. The game is due to hit PS4 on February 9th in the US, in both digital and physical forms. A sequel, cleverly called Gravity Rush 2, is also on its way to PS4 — and PS4 only, with no Vita version in sight.
Source: Sony
Get some face time with a snarling dinosaur in virtual reality
Until the real version of Jurassic World opens the closest we’ll get to going face-to-face with dinosaurs is in virtual reality. The folks at German game developer Crytek are helping that stopgap by releasing one of their Back to Dinosaur Island demos to the public via Steam for free. As VRFocus reports, this demo has been on the trade show circuit since this past March at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. Here you’re seeing the world from the eyes of an infant dino hanging out in a nest of unhatched eggs as gigantic dragonflies flit about a gorgeous looking and sounding primeval forest. Oh you wanted terror? Don’t fret because one of history’s most impressive apex predators pokes its nose in for a view as well.
Via: VR Focus
Source: Crytek
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