Hello, and welcome back to the weekly news recap of all the biggest news in gaming. This week begins the first of many weeks of gaming news for 2014, so without delay, let’s get this thing going and start with the headlines:
Sony Announces Playstation Now
Sega Announced ‘Alien: Isolation’
King Dedede Smashes his way into the Roster
Nintendo continues its very slow reveal of its characters for Super Smash Bros. This week we get to see everyone’s favourite penguin with a hammer, King Dedede. Dedede has always been my favourite character, and my main. Dedede is a character from the Kirby series, and has been a villain/rival character through the series. He’s also a returning character from Brawl and is a heavy damage character, yet surprisingly light, and his final Smash is insane. I loved playing as him in Brawl, and I am so glad he is back.
Humble Indie Bundle X offers Gods, Motor cycles, Surgery, Monsters, Runners and Tears
The newest Humble Indie Bundle has been revealed this week, and damn is it a doozie. The list of games include ‘To the Moon’, ‘Joe Danger 2: The Movie’, ‘Papo & Yo’, ‘Runner 2’, ‘Reus’ and ‘Surgeon Simulator 2013’. Every game in the list is fantastic, especially ‘To the Moon’ and ‘Papo & Yo’. This is a fantastic deal for the average price of $5.33, and you also receive the soundtrack for each game. The deal is only available for 11 more days and more games are to be added during the week. If you’re interested, you better hurry up and get over to The Humble Bundle Website
Titanfall Sets Player Count at 6
One of the most highly anticipated games of the year, ‘Titanfall’ has been given a set player count. Many fans have been very interested in the online aspect of the game, and Respawn have finally revealed the games player count, coming in at 6. Many fans have reacted very badly to this, claiming the game will not support a healthy online community with a low player count.
Vince Zambella from Respawn discussed the reasoning and ideals behind the games player count on Twitter, stating it “turned out to be the best balance with AI for us. We had it higher at points in testing, but this felt best.”
I personally don’t see any problem with the player count if it is tested and designed around the number of players, and I certainly trust Respawn with game balance online.
Valve Releases a number of Steam Machines at CES
CES was this week, and along with news on fancy new hard drives and graphics cards, Valve also was there and brought a bunch of Steam Machines with them. The recently announced machines are Valves latest push for the living room gaming experience. A Steam machine is basically a compact PC, which will run on Steam OS and shall be packaged with a Steam Controller. The interesting thing is that Valve is not the only company making these consoles. They have outsourced the development to a number of big name PC companies such as Alienware, Gigabyte and Alternate. Every machine will be a different price dependent on the power and graphics parts. The full list of the companies making Steam consoles are Alienware, Alternate, CyberPowerPC, Digital Storm, Falcon NW, GigaByte, iBuyPower, Maingear, Materiel.net, Next Spa, Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen and Zotac. Prices can go from $500 to $2,500, so you have a lot of choices.
For more info on the Machines head on over to the official site.
Razer Unveils “Project Christine” at CES
Another snippet of news from CES now, and a very important one at that. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Razer’s “Project Christine” and is possibly the future of PC gaming. The entire system is modular, which means that each unit could incorporate things like BluRay players or hard drives. All components will easily slot in and out, making it easier to modify your machine. Upgrading will no longer be a hassle. The PC can be as powerful as you want it to be and will be very quiet, almost silent. Now, while this is only a project and not close to completion, a PC with so many options, with such ease of use, power and silence is a significant advancement. I haven’t even pointed out how gorgeous the thing looks. While Razer is nowhere near considering selling the project, they have stated that if enough interest is brought up about it, they will continue to work on it. Regardless, colour me excited.
China lifts ban on foreign video game consoles…for now
Many gamers have been having fun with their new shiny black consoles over the past few months, playing new games and arguing on forums about which one is best. Odd to think that some countries don’t even have them yet, or have even experienced the last gen either. Well, many people forget that China, one of the most highly populated countries in the world has had a ban on foreign video game consoles for the past 14 years. Yes, that’s right, the 14 year ban on foreign video game consoles has been temporarily lifted, allowing Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to sell their devices in the region. While the devices were originally banned due to “negative effects” on children, many people just turned to PC gaming instead. No news on the ban being officially lifted for good, but it will be interesting to see if such a lucrative market will change the industry at all, or will the public even take notice? Either way, it’s fantastic news that such a ridiculous ban is finally gone.
Release Roundup
The biggest release this week is actually a re-release port for the PC, and it would be the wonderful ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’. If you have not played the game on consoles last year and you’re looking for an insane, over the top, fun, action spectacle fighter, then you need ‘Metal Gear Rising Revengeance’. One of the most fluid and fun combat systems I have ever played, with a fantastic soundtrack. Pick it up or you’ll be missing out.
Consortium -PC- 8th January
Joe Danger Infinity – iPad/iPhone-9th January
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance – PC-9th January
