The Walking Dead - Season One Now Available For Xbox One

With Halloween looming over us, Telltale's iconic first season adaptation rises from the grave to make the leap to next gen and grace the screens of the Xbox One.

For any who missed season one's first circulation of XBLA, the five part episodic saga follows convicted felon Lee Everett as he struggles to survive through a grim post-apocalyptic walker infected world with a band of misfit survivors and his innocent daughter figure - Clementine. The series, both critically acclaimed and publically well received, won over 80 game of the year awards and is praised for its bleak emotional tone and peerless storytelling.

The Xbox One edition will set you back £19.99/$24.99 (US) and 4.65 GB for the entire series, and for newcomers to the franchised simply cannot be overlooked. As an extra bonus, if like myself you were eager to transition to next gen, you may have missed the opportunity to experience the second series, in which a more mature Clementine steps into the limelight. You will therefore be pleased to hear that it looks as though series 2 will also be making the journey to Xbox One as well as a third season being announced for future release.    

State of Decay Sells 2 Million Copies!

Congratulations are in order for the zombie developers, Undead Labs, for managing to shift a colossal 2 million copies of their zombie survival simulator, State of Decay. An impressive feat in itself, Undead Labs deserve a special pat on the back when Community Manager Sanya Weathers revealed that the 2 million copies of the game – excluding DLC – were sold with no marketing whatsoever.

 

A seemingly impossible achievement, Weathers states “No marketing, no advertising, just you playing and streaming and spreading the word. You made this happen, and if we could individually thank each person who hit that download button, we would. Your enthusiasm and support have been everything. Thank you.”

She goes on to say “When we hit five hundred thousand copies sold (which was pretty remarkable for a zombie apocalypse simulator with a persistent world and permadeath), we celebrated by starting work on Breakdown. When we hit a million, we gave away some freebies. Two million calls for a hell of a celebration.”

Any gamers who purchased one of the 2 million copies via Xbox Live Arcade or Steam, need to follow the Developers on Twitter at @undeadlabs to not miss any goodies. Amongst which will be reward to players who participate in their #2MMinutes campaign, a compilation of State of Decay gameplay streamed in October by you, the players, making up 2 million minutes of footage.

State of Decay’s Xbox One debut will transpire sometime in 2015 as the Year-One Survival addition, consisting of the original game re-mastered in 1080p, both Breakdown and Lifeline add-ons, and some juicy new content.

Dragon Age: Inquisition Gameplay

 

There has been a lot of previews to Bioware’s upcoming title Dragon Age: Inquisition, revealing everything from recurring characters to unexplored regions of Thedas. The most in depth of which being Bioware’s two part E3 demo gameplay series, narrated by creative director Mike Laidlaw.

The series showcases the most in depth look at the world of Dragon Age and the mechanics of player combat and navigation. It is immediately clear from the gameplay footage at just how far Bioware has come since Dragon Age II and just how big of a leap the studio has taken visually. We are introduced to a beautifully and painstakingly crafted world, much bigger than anything we’ve ever seen from a Dragon age game. In order to traverse the enormous maps, Bioware has finally introduced mounts to the series, ranging from your standard bay horses to more ‘exotic’ creatures.

Combat proves to be more fluid than ever before, jumping in and out of battle seamlessly. However, Inquisition also pulls back to its tactical roots, drawing inspiration from Dragon Age: Origins’ combat system. Players now have the option of playing more strategically than the previous Dragon Age titles – ducking in and out of the tactical combat camera to inspect enemy weaknesses and issue orders to party members to exploit them, before jumping back into real time. This also encourages players to utilise their entire party, playing as each character, rather than controlling them via pre-programmed orders for every fight.   As well as skills and spells powered by stamina and mana, a new ‘focus’ system has been introduced, allowing players to unleash powerful, strategic team attacks for tougher foes.          

Inquisition features a wide new range of monsters and villains to take on - naturally dragons remain the Alpha dogs when it comes to enemies, ranging from mere hatchlings to the fearsome High Dragons. With such impressive foes, Bioware has altered how players engage with the winged beasts, including the ability to attack a dragon’s limbs and wings, bringing it down and turning the tides of battle.

You are forgiven to believe that Inquisition is based around combat with its sophisticated tactical and real time battles and random dragon encounters – yet Inquisition remains true to the series and continues to be narrative based and story driven. The members of your party are enough to alter the story during specific quests, allowing options that would be unavailable to players with different characters accompanying them.

Any fans of the series or simply gamers excited for the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition should take a look at the mini-series and allow the creative director to inform you of the games’ features, as you’ll find it difficult to come across anyone else to talk about Inquisition as passionately as Laidlaw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDVdSPpCj7M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe_KAi9flTY

News for Dragon Age:Inquisition

With more and more details being revealed, a couple new trailers, and now a release date, the hype for Dragon Age: Inquisition is at an all-time high.

Living in the shadow of one of the greatest RPG series ever made is both a blessing and a curse. BioWare’s masterpiece has cemented the studio as one of the top dogs with its blend of adrenaline pumping action, cause and effect morality choices and truly epic story telling. However, as proved with Dragon Age II, not everything from Mass Effect is transferrable. It seems you can’t just give Shepard a broadsword and call him “Knight-Commander Shepard”. 

There was a lot of negativity towards Dragon Age II, mainly referring to repetitive dungeon levels and the limited character creation of the original, Dragon Age: Origins. Have no fear however, it seems as though BioWare has been listening. The studio made a big deal of traipsing through all the Dragon Age II feedback and using it as a source for the design of Inquisition, and has significant changes in store to ground the game back to its roots. “We’re missing our top-down tactical mode we had in Origins, so lets do it. But saying that, you take that feedback and you want to look between the lines a little bit, and also combine that with where you want to take the franchise, so it kind of gets a bit of a spin”, explains producer Cameron Lee

The most obvious change to Inquisition is its return to a wider range of character creation options that were available in Origins. The transition to a named, voiced human character was not a popular one. Inquisition will therefore revert to allowing players the option of multiple race choices, including Human, Elf and Dwarf. Players will also get to choose between the standard fantasy classes (Warrior, Mage, Rouge), as well as new unlockable sub classes. Warriors may choose between Champion, Templar and Reaver, Mages have the option of choosing between Rift Mage, Necromancer and Knight Enchanter, whereas Rouges pick between Assassin, Artificer or Tempest.

Being able to customise your character is important to the spirit of Inquisition believes Lee. He states that “One of the principles that we’re working towards is that Dragon Age: Inquisition is your game – we want you to be able to create the character you want to create, which is why races are there as well, why you can customise the way you look, the way your followers look, crafting is more complex than any BioWare game we’ve done before”.

This principle of players playing “their game” is not only reflected in characters, but the world around them. The most exciting change being implemented is the shift from sandbox to an open world environment. Players are now free to explore Thedas in whichever way they see fit. It’s no secret that the developers have designed Inquisition as a ‘Skyrim Killer’ and have extensively researched the environment of Bethesda’s epic adventure. Where Inquisition differs however is that players can physically alter the world around them both knowing and unknowingly. This is where BioWare is in its element, decision making. Mass Effect veterans will know that every action has a consequence in a BioWare game. Saving a life in Mass Effect may spare a life in Mass Effect 3, whereas aiding a human fleet may brand you as xenophobic for the entirety of the series.

Inquisition expands upon the typical paragon and renegade dialogue choices to achieve change to the world around you. Instead the world is fluid and constantly in flux. If a player finds his or herself gallivanting past a village under attack by bandits, they have no obligation to assist the townsfolk and doing so will not affect the main storyline, however if they allow the village to be destroyed then it may disappear from the world forever. Lee explains the mechanics of the world as “based on an emergent system that adjusts what you’ll encounter based on how your actions tip the balance in the area. You’ll see towns attacked by bandits, deer fleeing from wolves, giant’s feeding on bears, and countless other scenarios”. It’s as if BioWare are fulfilling all the promises of Peter Molyneux.

Areas announced for Inquisition include a return to Ferelden as well as the French inspired land of Orlais, of which includes The Dales, a mass elven graveyard in memory of the fallen Elves. To gain an idea of the size of the map, it’s claimed that one area of Inquisition is larger than every area of Dragon Age II combined.

With such a large transition from Dragon Age II, BioWare certainly has a tall order ahead of them. That being said, the attention to fan feedback is truly touching and Inquisition appears to keep true to what makes a great BioWare game. A vivid world to explore filled with a rich backstory, and simply unmatched storytelling.

Elder Scrolls Anticipation

In the world of fantasy RPG’s there are many good games, a handful of great series, and one true king of the genre, the Elder Scrolls. Every eagerly anticipated instalment from the award winning series creates a shockwave across the land, cementing itself as a staple of the genre and showing RPG’s that this is how it’s done. Yet no matter how exceptional each game may be, there has undoubtedly been the same statement uttered countless times by fans, “This would be a great multiplayer game”.

There have been many ideas thrown around to suggest a way in which Bethesda could implement multiplayer into the series, such as joining a friend’s game as a mercenary like the Fable series, jumping into a friends adventure and transferring all the goodies to your own world as Dead Rising 3 does, or as a gladiatorial arena to have it out with other players to determine the greatest warrior in Tamriel. Bethesda has finally put our suspicions to rest with the announcement of The Elder Scrolls Online; Bethesda’s first MMORPG.

Right from the off there have been mixed opinions on Bethesda’s tangent of the series. That being said, gamers are excited for TESO, very excited. There are just some issues that have cropped up. With the Elder Scrolls shifting from single player RPG to MMORPG, there are aspects of the series that made it so popular that are simply not possible to implement in an online elder scrolls.

One moment that no Elder scrolls player can deny experiencing, whether it be Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim, is littering the land with weapons, armour or piles of junk just as a means to keep jogging when over encumbered. In this process you may have dropped something important to your character in the middle of nowhere. However, have no fear, this is the Elder scrolls. Simply retrace your steps and you will eventually trip over your discarded items, whether you’ve ran to town and back or spent 50 plus hours adventuring.

Now that’s great, thank you Bethesda, very helpful. But imagine a world with thousands of players dropping there unwanted items wherever they please, and it staying there forever. The rolling hills of Tamriel would soon become a landfill of cabbages, torches and iron weapons. However this issue, believe it or not, is not of countless digital litter bugs, think of how much the performance would plummet with the amount of physics acting upon all those items. ALL the time.

Despite lacking the quirks of the single player open world adventure, TESO promises to deliver the very best aspects of multiplayer to the world we know and love. Rather than lone questing, TESO focus’ on party based adventuring and full scale battles amidst online players.     

So what do we know so far? This tale begins with Molag Bal, the daedric prince of domination and enslavement stepping up to become Tamriel’s newest and greatest threat. He’s up to his old tricks and has weakened the barriers between worlds, allowing his armies to seep through the cracks of oblivion to wreak havoc. Whilst the fate of the Imperial City and the Ruby Throne falls into the hands of Bal worshipers, three unlikely alliances form, each with their own agendas, but all with their eyes on the Ruby thrown.

TESO allows players to be a part of the Daggerfall Covernent, the Ebonheart pact, or the Aldmeri Dominion. Each faction has its own races, lands and bonuses to offer players and all are available to choose from. As well as being part of a mighty faction, players have the option to join or create their own guilds, allowing joint questing with friends online.

With all these impressive added online and multi-player features to the newest Elder Scrolls, TESO looks like a very promising next step for Bethesda’s award winning series. Although the game may lose some of its inherent traits that made the series such a popular franchise due to its more focused approach to multi-player, players need not worry as the rich backstory and lore of the Elder Scrolls universe runs deep in TESO, meaning players will soon forget about not being able to find their leg of venison they left outside a cave twelve levels ago. Any lone wolf adventures out there shouldn’t be to disheartened. Although your race will determine which faction you be a part of, you have no obligation to join faction or even join other players on quests. You can simply strap a sword to your back and head out into the wilderness. Saying that however, if you do participate in faction related conflicts you have the opportunity to become the Emperor himself! Doing this will benefit your entire faction as well as giving you some very powerful upgrades to your fighting capabilities.

The Elder Scrolls Online is a game that has very big boots to fill, living in the shadow of its previous instalments. Hard-core fans of the series should go into it with an open mind and not be too disappointed it differs from the game series they fell in love with. TESO promises a lot of exciting changes to what we are used to and looks to be one of the most exciting fantasy games of the year. So grab a weapon, join a faction and prepare yourself for war.