Don't Starve: Shipwrecked available on Steam Early Access

Game Athen: Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked is accessible currently, just in case you forgot, and this provides Pine Tree State with a news excuse to lead into the lovely nonsense I simply discovered. Cats, how cute are these Don’t Starve plushies?



Resident Don’t Starve addict Steph stumbled across these today, and I’m having a tough time keeping my mastercard in my billfold when viewing their very little faces. sadly the classic beef appears to be oversubscribed out, however the edition Shadow beef remains smart.

Remember the Tim Burton-esque survival game Don't Starve? Its latest single-player expansion Shipwrecked has released via Steam Early Access for $4.99 (currently on sale for $4.49), and it appearance pretty amazeballs as expected.

Capcom Cup 2015 will be start this Weekend

Game Athen: The best Street Fighter players within the world can play this weekend.



Capcom Cup 2015 takes place at PlayStation expertise on this Weekend. It’s the end result of this year’s Capcom professional Tour and therefore the final major Capcom tournament headlined by Street Fighter four before Street Fighter five arrives to require over next year.



Capcom are going to be streaming the tournament live for those of you United Nations agency won’t air website to look at, and albeit you’re solely mistily keen on fighters you ought to tune up. We’re expecting some exciting matches. Peep this hoopla trailer and start gibbering in excitement.

Danganronpa 3 Monokuma will back

Game Athen: Famitsu has new details on New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki, initial declared for note Vita and PlayStation 4 at SCEJA Press Conference 2015 in Sep.



Danganronpa abandons the characters and storylines of past games in favour of all new murder shenanigans.


Gematsu reports the threequel is named New Danganronpa V3, with the “new” bearing on a blank slate beginning point: the characters and story up to now won’t be continued .

Series organism Monokuma can come, though, and therefore the basic gameplay discovered are going to be unchanged.

The PS4 and Vita title is due in Japan next year and can in all probability return west, since the primary couple and immoderate Despair ladies production did terribly nicely for NIS America. Expect additional details once the total Famitsu issue leaks, or when this week’s Danganronpa press event.

Dreamfall Chapters Book 4 Gets Release Date And New Teaser

Game Athen: Dreamfall Chapters has emerged from its cocoon as a beautiful butterfly.



After a long wait, Dreamfall Chapters Book Four: Revelations has a release date.

The new episode hits Linux, Mac and PC on December 3, more than five months after Book Three.

The reason Book Four looks so good is that it was built on Unity 5. Past episodes have been converted to the new engine and although the metamorphosis was exquisitely painful for Red Thread Games, it seems to have paid off with improved performance as well as shinier graphics.



There’s still one more episode to come after this, as well as a PS4 port, so Red Thread has plenty to keep it occupied.

Source: vg247

Rock Band 4 DLC for December 1: Beck, Cold War Kids, and more

Game Athen: Rock Band 4 takes a tour through the Billboard charts this week.



This week’s Rock Band 4 DLC only includes popular songs. Scandalous!



As usual you can pick up the tracks individually for $2 or save a bit of cash and grab the lot for $8.50 in the Off That Charts 01 pack.

Here’s the track listing:

Beck – Dreams
BØRNS – Electric Love
Catfish And The Bottlemen – Cocoon
Cold War Kids – First
X Ambassadors – Renegades

Source: vg247

Life is Strange Limited Edition Trailer Released

Game Athen: Life is Strange, I am trying to get shit done. I don’t need to sit here having my heart break all over again.



Life is Strange is getting a fancy physical release and to make sure you are fully across this news Square Enix sent us this trailer.

I viewed it, as is my wont, and then I had to stop viewing it because I remembered that Life is Strange made me have a lot of feelings. I don’t know if I can do this again.

On the other hand, the Limited Edition comes with a bunch of cool stuff. Today Square Enix confirmed that all versions all come with a real game disc (no need to download on PC, although you will still need to activate on Steam) and the soundtrack is shipped on its own CD, so you can play it anywhere.

The publisher also gave us a bit of description of the Directors’ Commentary, which “contains footage of the development team providing insight and discussing major elements themes as they revisit key moments of the series”.



There you go. I’m pretty tempted, to be honest; I don’t want to live it again but I do want to be able to stare into Dontnod staff’s eyes while their game does terrible horrible things, searching for a glimmer of compassion for my poor broken heart.

Source: vg247

PES 2016 free-to-play coming December

Game Athen: A free-to-play version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 is coming soon to PlayStation platforms.



After being outed earlier this week, Konami has confirmed the existence of a free-to-play version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2016.

The publisher calls it “entry level” and it’s going to be available starting December 8. Only PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions were announced.

In this version, you get to choose from seven teams to play in Exhibition Mode. Teams include Bayern Munich, Juventus, AS Roma, as well as national teams for Brazil and France. Training mode and MyClub features will be available

Konami also confirmed the new light version will be compatible with future gameplay and content updates the main game receives.

Source: vg247

Ark: Survival Evolved Turkey Trial Trailer

Game Athen: It's Thanksgiving, so this is the natural time to add giant fire-breathing Dodos to your game. Sadly you can only summon Ark: Survival Evolved's newest monster after harvesting wishbones from tough Super Turkeys. Alternatively, because this is a survival game in 2015, you can turn those Super Turkey bits into a "Chieftain" hat, modeled above.



You reportedly have to throw 1,000 wishbones into a cooking pot to summon the Dodorex, and he vanishes after 15 minutes. That probably isn't worth it. You'll need 60 to craft the new hat at the smithy, and that may also take a while, as Super Turkeys are uncommon creatures. So uncommon in fact that players have reported individual animals dropping more than one wishbone, which isn't how wishbones usually work.



The event started yesterday and runs until Tuesday December 1. The game is also 40% off in the current Steam sale, at £13.79 / $ 17.99, until the event is over. Watch the Dodorex in action in the video below. It might be the only one you see this weekend.

Source: pcgamer

Codemasters Re Dedicates Itself To Racing Games

Game Athen: We didn't review Overlord: Fellowship of Evil, but you can get an idea of how it went over on Metacritic, where it sports a brow-furrowing aggregate review score of 24/100. That's "generally unfavorable" in Meta-parlance, which I think is a remarkably generous way of putting it. In the wake of that ugliness, and the recent closure of the studio that made the mobile card game Battle Decks, Codemasters told Eurogamer that it's giving up on other genres in order to focus exclusively on racing games.



"While it's been great to explore projects outside of racing, we know that our hearts belong to racing in all its many glorious forms," a Codemasters rep said. "The success of Dirt Rally's Early Access program has been incredible, F1 2015 was very successful reaching number one in many territories, we've recently announced that Micro Machines will come to mobile, and we have a strong road map ahead of us that keeps racing as its razor focus."

If that sounds familiar, it's likely because the company said essentially (and, regarding its "razor focus," exactly) the same thing in early 2012, when it announced that it was giving up on the action genre. "We have kept our reputation for delivering best-in-class racing games," Codemasters told MCV at the time. "And best-in-class racing games is now our razor focus going forward."

Unfortunately for Codemasters, the racing genre hasn't been a pot of gold for it recently either. Dirt Rally is doing well for itself in Early Access, but the 2014 release of Colin McRae Rally on Steam was a PR disaster, and the last two F1 releases weren't exactly barn-burners either. On the other hand, Grid Autosport was quite good, and it's on sale now in the Steam Autumn Sale for 75 percent off—that's $18/£11 for the Complete package, which includes the main game and nine DLC packs. More of that, and Codies might just be alright.

Source: pcgamer

Rainbow Six: Siege Open Beta officially underway

Game Athen: The Rainbow Six Siege open beta, which was delayed at the last minute because of problems with matchmaking and connectivity, is now underway. In an update posted earlier today, Ubisoft announced that those problems have been solved and the beta, as of 12 pm EST, is open.



Ubisoft said in a prior update that the server issues were introduced while fixing a different aspect of the game. It added that the scheduled launch of Rainbow Six Siege will not be affected, and that it is "confident the game will work as intended" once it goes live.

"This Open Beta will ensure the cleanest launch possible," Ubisoft wrote. "Keep in mind that this beta is intended for this exact reason: find problems and troubleshoot them to ensure the most stable launch possible."

This is true, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have more confidence in the process myself if it wasn't just five days away. The Rainbow Six Siege open beta runs until November 29 and, barring further breakdowns, the game will go into full launch on December 1.

Source: pcgamer

Capcom’s 5 top tips for Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen on PC

Game Athen: Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is on its way to PC. Capcom wants to make sure you’re ready.



Although Dragon’s Dogma doesn’t hit PC until January, Capcom UK’s most fearsome community manager is ready to extend a helping hand to any baffled new players.



Dragon’s Dogma and the better value Dark Arisen re-release are both available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 if you can’t wait for the Steam launch.

Source: vg247

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin free on PC for buyers at Square Enix sale

Game Athen: Just a quick PSA if you were thinking of picking anything up in the sales today.



The Square Enix Black Friday sale is now in full swing and in addition to the admirable bargains on offer the publisher has elected to throw in a free game.

For a limited time, you’ll score a copy of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin with any purchase, just by entering the code “FreeSilentAssassin” (no quotes) at checkout.

The deal is offered in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Hitman franchise, and there’s also a 10% off offer on pre-orders for the March release.

Hit up the North American Square Enix Store to take advantage.

Source: vg247

Xur Agent of the Nine Items and Location for March 27, 28

Game Athen: Get loaded with Exotic gear in Destiny’s weekly fair.



Xur: Agent of the Nine is here for another week to trade you Exotic weapons and armour for some of your Strange Coins. Xur is no longer guaranteed to bring new, Year 2 weapons, but he’ll always have armour.

You can also buy Three of Coins and Glass Needle from him. The first increases your chance at getting an Exotic drop after killing bosses, the second is what you need if you’re looking to reroll stats on Exotic armour.

You can find Xur in the Vanguard Hall, on the right. He takes off 9am GMT on Sunday, November 29.

Here’s what you can spend your Coins on:
Legacy Engram [Special weapon engram] – 31SC
Helm of Saint-14 [Exotic Titan helmet] – 13SC
Crest of Alpha Lupi [Exotic Hunter chest armour] – 13SC
Light Beyond Nemesis [Exotic Warlock helmet] – 13SC
The 4th Horseman [Exotic shotgun] – 23SC
Three of Coins – 7SC
Glass Needle – 3SC

Source: vg247

Xbox One deals go live in Black Friday sale

Game Athen: As promised, Microsoft has added a few heavy hitters to the digital Black Friday sale on Xbox Live.



An initial list of digital discounts on the Xbox Games Store was published last week, with the promise of more to come.

Today, the list is now complete with new deals on Batman: Arkham Knight, Far Cry 4, The Witcher 3, Destiny The Taken King, and many more. All deals are available through November 30, including the week-old ones, for Gold and Silver members. Gold members get more discounts though.

Find the list of Xbox One deals below.

These are Gold prices.

Batman: Arkham Knight – $32.49
Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition – $53.99
Batman: Arkham Knight Season Pass – $25.99
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Advanced Supply Drop Bundle 10 Pack – $13.39
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Drop Bundle 20 Pack – $26.79
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Edition – $30.00
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Digital Pro Edition – $59.99
Call of Duty: Ghosts – $15.00
Destiny: The Taken King – $29.99
Destiny: The Taken King Digital Collector’s Edition – $51.99
Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition – $40.19
Dishonored Definitive Edition – $16.00
Far Cry 4 – $30.00
Far Cry 4 Edition – $36.00
Game of Thrones – Season Pass (Episodes 2-6) – $12.50
Game of Thrones – The Complete First Season (Episodes 1-6) – $12.00
Just Dance 2016 Edition – $40.19
Mad Max – $40.19
Rory Mcilroy Pga Tour – $30.00
Rare Replay – $19.49
T-15 New Recruit Kit – $5.00
The Elder Scrolls Online: 1500 Crowns – $8.99
The Elder Scrolls Online: 3000 Crowns – $14.99
The Elder Scrolls Online: 5500 Crowns – $23.99
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited – $24.00
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Imperial Edition – $32.00
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Premium Edition – $48.00
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – $25.00
Watch_Dogs – $15.00
Watch_Dogs Complete Edition – $20.00
Wolfenstein Bundle – $16.00

If you’re looking for retailer deals on games and console bundles for Xbox One, our massive hub page will get you sorted.

Source: vg247

3DS XL receives a price cut on Nintendo UK store

Game Athen: Nintendo UK has kicked off a hardware price cut on the popular 3DS XL.



The UK doesn’t do RRPs, but when the official Nintendo Store cuts prices other retailers usually aren’t far behind – especially not in the middle of Black Friday price wars.

Visit the Nintendo Store to take advantage of some great prices on 3DS XL bundles, including:

3DS XL Silver (Black Interior) with free case – £99.99 (44% off)
3DS XL Silver/Black with Pokemon Alpha Sapphire Pack – £129.99 (35% off)
3DS XL White with Mario Kart 7 – £99.99 (44% off)
3DS XL Red/Black with Pokémon Y – £109.98 (48% off)
Yoshi Special Edition Bundle – £119.99 (40% off)
3DS XL Pink with Animal Crossing: New Leaf and CD – £119.99 (40% off)

But there are loads more to pick from. Nintendo’s throwing a pretty huge 3DS and Wii U eShop Black Friday sale, too.

Source: vg247

PS4 Remote Play is coming to PC and Mac, says Sony

Game Athen: PS4 Remote Play is coming to a laptop near you. Now to find a nice quiet corner of the office with good WiFi and few passers-by.



PS4 Remote Play is currently officially supported on Vita, select smartphones and the PlayStation TV, but an unofficial app went on sale this week showing its perfectly possible on PC, too.

Now that an independent developer has managed it, and the Xbox One supports streaming to Windows 10, PS4 owners have naturally asked Sony a few pointed questions as to why the console is missing this feature.

Well, it won’t be missing it forever. According to Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, an app is on the way for both Mac and PC.

This is probably a bit of a blow for the lone developer behind the unofficial app, who had been hoping to go full time on the project. Still, there’s been nothing said about general iOS and Android streaming, so there’s definitely still a market for independent tools.

Some people asked if we plan to provide Remote Play function to PC, and yes, we are indeed working on an official application for PC/Mac. :D

— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) November 27, 2015

Fans of the DualShock 4 are hopeful the app release will be accompanied by official drivers for Mac and PC, allowing them to more easily play non-Sony games with the popular game pad. Fingers crossed, eh?

Source: vg247

Disaster: Summer Memories Report PS4 Trailer

Game Athen: A woman trots through a peaceful summer scene – or is it?



Disaster Report 4 Plus: Summer Memories makes post-catastrophe living look quite pleasant in this first trailer, but we can probably expect the final experience to be significantly more harrowing.



Gematsu‘s translation of Granzella’s supplied blurb doesn’t tell us much more than we learned from the Famitsu reveal and interview earlier in the week.

Source: vg247

Fallout: New Vegas mod recreates original Fallout

Game Athen: Fallout fans are hoping to recreate the story experience of the original game for those who can’t deal with isometric tactics.



As you’ll see in the video below, things kick off just as you’d expect – the Overseer sending you on your journey to track down a new water chip. This was all the motivation we needed in 1997.

Although battles and hubs are played like a modern Fallout title, the mod recreates the earlier games’ map traversal, which is super cool.



This is a pretty ambitious project and has been in the works for at least two years, but this is our first proper look at the mod in action. If you’re keen, you can follow along on NexusMods or Facebook.

Source: vg247

New XCOM 2 screens take a tour of the suburbs

Game Athen: XCOM 2 is all about preserving the simple things in life.



Between the cities and the wilderness, the two XCOM 2 environments we’ve seen so far, are small towns.

As you’ll see in these new screenshots, this third environment is still home to ordinary people, living and working outside of ADVENT’s strict inner-city control.

Tactically it looks like there’ll be a lot of variety, so it’s hard to know what to expect when you’re called to the suburbs.















Check it out below. XCOM 2 is coming to PC on February 5.

Source: vg247

Dreamfall Chapters, Extreme Makeover Edition, or: The Rocky Road to Unity 5

Game Athen: Dreamfall Chapters has had a major makeover, and now looks – and runs! – better than ever.



Partway through development of Dreamfall Chapters, Unity 4 began to be phased out and replaced with Unity 5. Faced with major performance problems on the original engine, Red Thread elected to convert the game to Unity 5.

Over on Medium, studio lead Ragnar Tørnquist admitted the conversion has been extremely difficult and expensive, nearly leading to disaster for the small indie team.

“Several hundred thousands of dollars is a massive pile of cash. Knowing what we know today, the decision to upgrade would have been a lot harder,” he said.

“We’d still have done it, though. Fuck it, it was worth it.”

Check out these in-development screenshots of the Unity 5 build, which is available now for free on Steam. Tørnquist noted that Red Thread’s artists are still working on tweaking the lighting, so things like character’s faces not being lit in some scenes will be fixed.



















Dreamfall Chapters Book Four is coming soon, by the way.

Source: vg247

Heroes Of The Storm's New Map Ditches The Old Formula

Game Athen: Heroes of the Storm has a new map where you can’t attack the enemy’s core.



Look, cats, I’m no good at MOBAs. I don’t really understand them. But I do know the point is to either destroy the enemy’s core, or to make them so sad and despairing they just give up and forfeit (either by triumphant play or being a jerk). So what’s up with Towers of Doom?

Well, as the video below explains, players can’t damage the core directly but can control towers that spawn altars. These altars cause damage to the enemy core.

There’s more to it; the area directly in front of each core is a kill zone where players shouldn’t go, but mercenary camps include sappers who will go after enemy towers and attack the core directly, leaping over the kill zone.



There’s also a boss on the map, who unleashes an attack on the enemy core when defeated, and a special transportation tunnel will get players into action rapidly.

Source: vg247

Team Fortress 2 – you can play a Heavy with Gabe Newell’s face

Game Athen: You can now wear Gabe Newell’s face as headgear in Team Fortress 2.



The Steam workshop is full of very delightful and sometimes wacky mods that alter the appearance of in-game assets. Team Fortress 2, being one of the early games to adopt the feature, has more than a few Workshop items to its name.

Today’s skin, made by users retro~, donhonk, and void~, is a headgear wearable for the Heavy class with the face of none other than Gabe Newell himself. The skin creators are good at what they do, each of them has a Workshop with various items made for the game.

This one in particular, called The Big Boss, is very well done, and comes with a range of hair colours. It also has Valve’s gold star, indicating that the item follows the company’s standards.

Source: vg247

Just Cause 3 The first hour of gameplay is a subtle narrative experience

Game Athen: Got an hour to kill? Want to see Just Cause 3 in action? Then this, my friend, is your lucky day, because as you may have already soothsayed, the first hour of Just Cause 3 gameplay is now on the tubes.



The video includes the opening credits, a brief introduction of the game's central characters, and a tourist's-eye view of Medici, the Mediterranean-inspired island that's under the control of the despotic General Sebastiano Di Ravello. The actual gameplay begins when Rico climbs onto the roof of a small airplane—while it's in flight—and proceeds to bomb the city it's flying over with an RPG, which of course has unlimited ammunition. Subtle, like I said.

As Square Enix notes, your mileage will vary in a game like this. "Your first hour of play might be different to ours," it wrote on YouTube. "But we thought we'd focus on some of the early missions and content to whet your appetite ahead of next week's launch."



That, to be a bit more specific about it, will happen on December 1. The system requirements were revealed yesterday.

Source: pcgamer

Killing Floor 2 Launching New Item Marketplace, But Only for Cosmetics

Game Athen: Killing Floor 2 is getting its own in-game marketplace where you can purchase goods with real money. Dubbed The Trading Floor, the shop vendors cosmetic items like clothing and weapon skins, which will drop at random during gameplay and can be traded with fellow zombie-killing enthusiasts



These drops will come in crates, which need a "decryption key" to unlock. "Horzine supply crates contain a single skin variant of a wearable cosmetic, chosen at random from a set of possible items for each type of crate," Tripwire explains. Those decryption keys can be purchased either on the Trading Floor directly or via the Steam Market. In addition to skin types of various levels of rarity, crates might also drop a "precious golden accessory".

Again, you'll be able to trade items with other players, but in the future you'll be able to break down loot and craft exactly what you want. Tripwire doesn't explain how this will work, but it'll come in a future update.

To reiterate, these items are cosmetic only. "All of the content added in Trading Floor at launch will be cosmetic only and not affect gameplay in any way," Tripwire writes. "In the future we may be adding weapons with new gameplay for sale, but this will appear in the “Shared Content” area on the server. This means that, if any player on the server has a weapon (like the Chivalry Zweihander now), then every player on the server will be able to use it. No-one gets any “advantage”. Co-op game - everyone starts out equal! Our goal is for any such weapons to be side grades anyway, so they won’t provide an edge over the current tier of weapon power."

The full rundown of how it'll work is over here. If you're yet to dive in, Tyler Wilde's review of the Early Access version might twist your arm in the right direction.

Source: pcgamer

Batman: Arkham Knight DLC Trailer Shows BATMAN v SUPERMAN Content

Game Athen: Batman v Superman takes front of stage in this month’s Batman: Arkham Knight DLC drop for season pass holders

Several new pieces of Batman: Arkham Knight DLC are available today.



Catwoman and Robin star in two new Arkham Episodes. Catwoman’s Revenge is set after the main story and has Catwoman taking, uh, revenge on the Joker. Flip of a Coin has Robin going up against Two-Face.

The episodes are available separately or as part of the Season Pass. Season Pass holders also receive the 2016 Batman v Superman Batmobile Pack, which bundles the Batsuit and Batmobile from next year’s movie. If you don’t have a season pass, you’ll have to wait till December 1 to buy it.



That’s the meat of it, but there’s loads of new stuff available today:

Crime Fighter Challenge Pack #4: Various challenge and invisible predator maps featuring Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Catwoman and Azrael.
Arkham Episodes AR Challenges: six new AR challenges including Freeflow Combat and Invisible Predator, set in environments from the Arkham Episodes GCPD Lockdown, Catwoman’s Revenge, and Flip of a Coin.
WayneTech Track Pack: two WayneTech themed racetracks.
Robin and Batmobile Skins Packs: Original Tim Drake Robin costume and Robin Themed Batmobile Skin.
Riddler Themed Batmobile Skin
Free Update: Character Selection in AR Invisible Predator Challenges.

Source: vg247

EU4: Cossacks New Video Dev Diary Released

Game Athen: EU4: Cossacks introduces a ton of changes to the grand strategy epic. Why pick through six months of blog posts when you could just watch a summary video?



Paradox Interactive has taken pity on us and piled all its developer updates on EU4: Cossacks into one video, narrated by project lead Martin Anward.

This is the sixth major expansion for the historical sandbox, and brings improvements to domestic politics, diplomacy and culture, as well as a focus on nomadic steppe nations – and more.



Get up to speed below. Europa Universalis 4: Cossacks launches on December 1.

Source: vg247

Star Wars: Battlefront's Battle of Jakku DLC introduces Turning Point mode

Game Athen: The upcoming Star Wars Battlefront DLC Battle of Jakku will add a new 40-player mode to the game called Turning Point, EA announced today. The game mode will have Rebel forces pushing hard to capture a series of increasingly difficult checkpoints en route to taking an Imperial base on the surface of the planet, while the Empire's goons must hold the line against them.



Turning Point begins with Rebel forces needing to locate and capture one of three control points on the map within a specific time limit. Doing so will open new control points, and add more time to the clock. Eventually, the Rebels must advance to the Imperial base, then assault and capture it. Airspeeders and AT-STs will be the prominent vehicles in this mode, speeders on offense and walkers on defense.

EA also said that, unlike a certain other map that some Rebels found frustrating during the open beta, the outcome of a Turning Point is "never sure." It also offers a greater variety of tactical considerations to take into account than some other maps because control points captured by Rebels cannot be retaken by the Empire, even if Imperial forces are able to push the Rebels back.

The quickie teaser we saw earlier this month portrayed the Battle of Jakku as a sprawling, chaotic mess, and that's exactly what EA is going for. "We wanted to portray a battle completely surrounding you, in every direction," DICE Concept Artist Anton Grandert explained. "Debris is falling from the sky, telling the story of battles above. On the surface of the planet you can see ground troops as well as X-wings, all taking part of the fight."

The Battle of Jakku DLC will be available to anyone who preordered Star Wars Battlefront on December 1, while everyone else can get their hands on it a week later. In both cases, it will be free.

Source: pcgamer

How Techland's tribute to a young cancer victim helped his family heal

Game Athen: A story posted on Kotaku UK today about 17-year-old David Acott, an endearingly enthusiastic Dying Light fan who died of cancer earlier this year, is heartbreaking by any measure. But it's also uplifting, and even important, for what it says about the power of videogames to help people heal.



Alcott revealed that he had cancer on February 20, on his YouTube channel Bad Wolf Gaming. Less than two weeks later, he reported that his cancer had not responded to chemotherapy as expected, and that he would have to start taking stronger doses, which would keep him from making videos for awhile. He's obviously downcast and worried through the first half of the video, but he absolutely lights up around the midway point when he starts talking about Dying Light, a game he'd unboxed with great enthusiasm just a few days before.

That positivity in the face of such dreadful adversity led friends of his younger brother Howard to send a copy of the video to Techland in April, the month after David's death. The studio decided that it wanted to do something to honor David, but not before speaking to his parents. That led to contact with his mother, Janet, and ultimately the creation of a mural that was added to the game in May.

That was expected to be the end of it, but the response to the tribute was so strong that Janet and Howard took a trip to Poland to thank the people at Techland personally for their efforts, which proved to be a very positive experience for both of them. "I really feel for Howard," his mother said. "The whole dynamic of the house has changed. This has given him something, he feels part of that community. He’s now an only child. He’s lost his best friend, his big brother. But this has given him something."



It's a tremendously sad story, and watching Acott's final video, in which he expresses hope for a private room (so he can play Dying Light) and talks about his plans for a "zombie kill montage" video, is incredibly tough to watch. But it's also proof of what games can do, and even more, what a community can do. By any measure, that's an important point of light in a very dark time.

Read David's story in full at Kotaku UK.

Source: pcgamer

People played the Overwatch beta for 129 years at the weekend

Game Athen: The Overwatch stress test was pretty popular.



The Overwatch beta opened to a much larger number of players for a stress test over the weekend.

Blizzard hasn’t really reported back on how the test went, but in a post on the Battle.net forums Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan said testers racked up 129 years of gameplay.

That’s about 1,130,040 hours in total, although unfortunately without knowing the number of active testers we can’t draw many conclusions about how much time the average tester spent with the hero shooter.

Now that the stress test is over most players have been booted right back out, but you can always opt-in via Battle.net in the hopes of grabbing a coveted spot in ongoing beta testing.

Overwatch is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in northern spring 2016.

Source: vg247

They finally gave Ganondorf a trident in Hyrule Warriors Legends

Game Athen: The Legend of Zelda fans have to admit that their big bad is pretty buff.

The latest Hyrule Warriors Legends gameplay trailer shows off Ganondorf in action. He’s pretty damn impressive.



Hyrule Warriors Legends is a 3DS re-release with new content and characters – including a female version of Link called Linkle. It’s due on March 25.

Source: vg247

Total War: Attila expands with Age of Charlemagne

Game Athen: The next Total War: Attila expansion is set well after the age of the great khan, as a Middle Ages leader seeks to bring peace back to the continent.



The largest Total War: Attila expansion so far, Age of Charlemagne Campaign Pack adds a brand new campaign map set in Europe from the year 768 AD onwards.

The time shift means new units are inbound. Expect Knights, Housecarls and more as you trample across 50 conquerable provinces, enjoying new campaign mechanics. The Creative Assembly predicts hundreds of hours of new gameplay await you.



The $15 pack drops on December 10 and is currently available for pre-order on Steam at a 10% discount.








Source: vg247