Pre-E3 Announcements Part One

Morning folks,
With E3 just around corner it's that time of the year where everyone starts announcing new games, show off trailers and of course good old rumours/leaks. So to catch up I decided to do a post series on everything so far and then I should be caught up (fingers crossed). Going to start off with Ubisoft announcing the Farcry sequel, Farcry 4 of course.

Few of my friends was shocked this got announced before E3 but to me it was a brilliant idea, stops people leaking it just before the event. They confirmed it existed and will be present at the conference with all the details, stops a troll from doing a big leak and trying to get a little fame for leaking a big announcement.

Anyway so yes we have a sequel which I will admit I was shocked to see, did not think there be another Farcry just yet. I still not played the third one yet and I do own it thanks to PlayStation Plus, think it's going to be one of those games I need to make time for this summer. Feel like I'm missing out but I got some time before this one comes out since it's slated for start of next year. There are some rumours about leaked story details etc. but I'm not holding my breath about them, wait until the E3 trailer.

So that's one announcement done so what's next? hmm so much to choose from so how about the new Batman Arkham trailer.



How good does that look? I'm talking a serious Game of the Year contender for 2014. Batmobile gameplay looks amazing and Arkham Knight at the end? badass. This is on the top of my list to buy for day one and I cannot wait to see more at this E3, hopefully some very cool limited editions as well will be shown. Would love a Batmobile figurine this time around oh man that would be amazing.

Right I need to continue on and going to end this part of the series with Halo of course, like Farcry they did a small announcement. The image below was put up confirming the full title Halo 5 Guardians and that the game is slated for Fall 2015.

If you remember my old posts I did say I was worried that a lot of the announcements would be for 2015/2016. So having both Farcry and Halo saying 2015 I was really worried, I really do not want to go a full year with only a few games. Don't get me wrong there are good amount of games coming out but it has been months since the launch of the new consoles and the releases have been quiet. Don't want to wait another year to get a good line up of stuff to play.

Anyway shortly after this a rumour started appearing which could explain why this is slated for next year. Halo HD remastered edition, the rumour slates that Halo 1/2/3 and 4 was coming to Xbox One. Now it's just a rumour right now but that would make a ton of sense, the Halo series is spread across two consoles and some people might had not played the first two. So releasing the full set for the new Xbox to allow everyone to try it out and catch up before they release 5 would make a lot of sense. Have to wait and see what E3 will reveal but I would be shocked if they didn't because Microsoft do not have that many exclusive for this year. Especially with their big guns like Gears of War only just been started and Halo 5 next year.

I will be adding Halo to my list to get since I'm fan of the series although I don't remember finishing number two, I do own it for the PC but just cannot remember getting to the end. I know I've done everything else though, have to fix that.

Well that's it for part one folks and are you guys looking forward to these games? all of them are on my want list except Farcry which is on my watch list. Probably will be added to my want list once I've started 3 or seen a trailer.

~Iznic 

That was quick

Morning my readers,
Surprised to see a post from me? I would be since it's been nearly a month since the last one which promised I would update more regularly. I have been rather busy with work since this time of year is jam packed with plenty of new releases then what little time is left goes to family/loved ones then gaming time so it doesn't leave much time to write blog posts. I will try harder but I know I'm going to be more busy over the next few weeks, might try and at least dedicate an evening once a week just to get one post up. See how it goes anyway but on that note let's talk about games! it's what we are here for is it not.

So we are now slap bang in the middle of the quarter four release window, Assassin's and Battlefield have been released. We have Call of Duty about to hit along with the November line up across the next two weeks then at the end of the month the next generation consoles. Plenty to keep us busy with that's for sure and it really does surprise me how fast this time comes around, does not feel like it's been a year since the last time we did this.

I'm currently working on Assassin's Creed for the Xbox 360, could not wait for the end of the month to get my hands on the next generation version (still going to get it of course). I have clocked the story for Batman and Beyond Two souls last month, so quite happy with my progress so far. By the way Beyond Two Souls is my game of the year by far right now, honestly the story was so gripping that I cannot believe I almost did not pick this game up. Those reviewers who gave it six out of ten have no clue what they talking about, it's not Heavy Rain 2 and it was never trying to be. The story levels jumping back and forth through her history makes sense straight from the start. Just think they wanted to pick faults and want Heavy Rain 2. Anyway the game was outstanding for me and I just could not stop playing it, very rare a game makes me want to play this much.

Batman was good but it could not dislodge Beyond from the first place mark, if you loved Arkham Asylum and Arkham City you will feel right at home. Bit annoyed with some of the button mashing moments but overall a very good game and a decent story, some very geeky moments as well. I be interested in seeing where they take it next year with the Arkham City sequel, hoping for some amazing changes this time around.

So with those two games clocked here is the full list so far for my game of the year in order, of course there are more games to add once I've given them a few more hours of gameplay.

Game of the Year 2013 (Work in progress)

1. Beyond Two Souls

2. Tomb Raider

3. Batman Arkham Origins

4. Saints Row IV

5. Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm

6. Bioshock Infinite

7. God of War Ascension

8. Gears of War Judgement

 

So Beyond takes first place by miles and Batman is in third, it was a hard choice for second but I felt I was more excited to play Tomb Raider then when I was playing Batman. Like Beyond if I wasn't playing Tomb Raider I wanted to, I wanted to know what would happen next and the story kept me gripped. Batman was brilliant don't get me wrong but if I wasn't playing it I was not rushed to get onto my console to load it up.

 

Be interesting to see where the other releases will stand since I've got Assassins, Battlefield and Pokemon X sitting by my TV right now. Call of Duty out in a few days and end of the week Professor Layton will arrive. Right folks I need to end this post now since I've got a lot to do and I'm only just getting over my cold so I really could do with having a rest in a bit. I promise to try and get a evening dedicated each week for at least one post. Don't forget to comment and I would love to hear what your game of the years are so far.

 

Have a good one,

Iznic

Batman Arkham Origins Trailer and Collector Editions

Gamescon is in full swing right now and of course plenty of new trailers for the upcoming games have started coming out. This one below is one of my favourites which introduces Firefly to the mix of villains in the new Batman Arkham game. Plus the fact you get to see a lot more of what you will be up against.


Try and tell me you not excited to play this game? seriously cannot wait for October so I can get my hands on this. But this is not all the news for Batman, last week while I was on holiday the special editions was announced and shown off.

This awesome collectors edition is for North America and I'm hearing Australia as well. Seriously gutted to hear that because that has to be one of the best figurines I've ever seen. And yes there are LED lights in the TV screens behind the joker. This bad ass collectors edition comes with the following goodies:

• Deathstroke challenge pack
• Joker Figurine
• Collectors box
• Batman Wanted Poster
• 80 page artwork book
• Batwing prototype schematic
• 1st appearance Batman skin
• Glow in the dark map of Gotham
• Anarky logo stencil
• Wayne family photo
•  Assassin Intel dossier
• Villains of DC documentary DVD
• 2 key pieces of evidences from the Crime lab of Gotham Police department

One amazing collectors edition that is for sure and I really hope they change their mind and release it every where else as well. Anyway the second one is for Europe only and is very similar to the leaked one we saw a few months back with some changes, I'm guessing the changes was done on purpose thanks to the leak.

As you can see the figurine base as changed a lot and now Joker is no longer holding the joke gun. The box and steelbook as also changed in design from the leaked version. Anyway onto the list of goodies for this edition.

• Deathstroke challenge pack
• 30cm high figurine
• 80 page artwork book
• Assassin Intel dossier
• steelbook with 3D effect
• Collectors box
• 1st appearance Batman skin

The steelbook new design is pretty sweet and I still like the figurine but I did prefer the leaked version over this. In the UK this edition is also exclusive to Amazon.co.uk so my order is down with them right now, hopefully it won't be too much of wait to get it delivered.

So what do you guys think of the new trailer and collector editions? happy? excited? drop a message with your thoughts.
~Iznic

Batman Arkham Origins Collectors Edition Leaked

Looks like someone as leaked the collectors edition for the new Batman Arkham Origins game, check out the image below which looks very real and less likely to be a fake.

Look how awesome this is! soon as I saw the picture this just went straight to the top of my want list. Holographic collectors box which looks amazing plus look at the 3D steelbook case for the game. About time they did a true steelbook for the game, the Arkham City was too flimsy and easy to dent.

Of course that is probably not what you paying attention to right now and instead drooling over the figurine! Batman holding Joker in a threatening way yet Joke with the classic joke banner gun and laughing. It's brilliant and blows the Arkham City one out of the water by far. I need to make space on my shelf for this beauty, a day one must buy and I cannot wait for pre-orders to start.

Gutting though because I was trying to cut some costs down earlier since my want list is huge, another collectors edition I was not expecting. Argh why doesn't money grow on trees!
~Iznic

P.S. Now for the long wait for official reveal and see who is taking pre-orders and for what cost.


Source of Story and Image: Official Xbox Magazine

Batman Arkham Origins Trailer

Well it was finally put up yesterday, the first official full trailer for the new Batman Arkham game and I got to say it looks awesome. Yes I know it's just a CGI trailer but it as potential so check out below if you not see it yet, if you have then skip below to the rest of the post.



So interesting things, well if you Pre-order you get to play as Deathstroke but I think that is just like the past Robin for Batman Arkham City. Just a challenge map player and not actually in the game like Catwoman, it would be a stupid thing to put a full ingame character to play has for a pre-order bonus.

Anyway the story looks good and you get a glimpse of Deadshot again and of course Black mask is taking a bigger role this time. I be interested to see if some of those moved will be in the game that you see during the fight, especially at the start with Batman coming out from the under floor to do a take down. Guess time will tell and mostly likely find out at E3 which I'm hoping for a gameplay trailer this year. Pre-orders have started and most companies are offering the Deathstroke bonus so start ordering so you don't miss out.
~Iznic

Going to be a busy one

Morning folks,
Currently waiting on my PlayStation 3 to finish installing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, seriously forgot how terrible the load/install times can be. Reason I'm doing this is so I can redeem all the codes in my Anthology edition, spent the morning so far doing it for all different games since I keep putting it off and knowing my luck the codes will expire. Anyway while that is sorting out I thought it be a good idea to get a blog post up, especially with the fact my weekend was crazy and nothing was posted up. Plus this week will be a busy one since we have the Batman trailer going up today and of course the huge Xbox Reveal tomorrow.

Not sure how I'm watching the reveal tomorrow but I will be Twittering either way about my thoughts, then my plan is to copy all the Tweets onto a blog post to put up here. This is going to be test practise since this is what I was planning for E3, should be interesting to see how this will turn out.

So other then being excited to see what is revealed tomorrow I think it's time to update about my gaming adventures so far. Well in the multiplayer area I've got up to level 39 on Tomb Raider so getting close, of course it's taking more XP each level so it is dragging a little. Really cannot wait to hit level 60 so I can just focus on the kill achievements. On Gears of War Judgment I clocked the 10 wins on Team Deathmatchs in the week and now working on the 10 wins for OverRun, after that it just levelling up and working on the 100 kills for each Locust which will probably be a huge pain in the ass.

I did do some Call of Duty Black Ops 2 multiplayer this week, mostly because I redeemed my COD Ghosts weapon skins and wanted to see what they look like. Not bad to be honest just black with the white skull but the nice touch is the code gives the skin for every weapon in the game, thought it was just for the one gun so really happy about that. Had a few matches and laughs, in fact came top in my team on the one match which was shocking. I did plan to do some Battlefield 3 as well but Skyrim took over and well it was nearly midnight when I finished.

I bought a house in the game (cheer) and then took on another random Dragon who nearly had me, ok that's a lie the entire fight was not my best. So need to restock on health potions and find a better way to fight a Dragon because I struggle. Oh yeah I was in Windhelm and ran into a Orphan girl, as I walking past her I overheard her say that no one bought her flowers again.

Now folks when I heard you could have a family in Skyrim with the new patch I wasn't fussed about it, in fact I planned not too because my thoughts was "what is the point". I had a family in Fable and it just annoyed me, plus I love having the great warrior with no ties background. Anyway back to the Orphan story, so I over heard her saying she had not sold anything. Yeah who ever said that gamers are heartless and that video games cause violence have no clue because I had to turn around and talk to her. I thought buy a few flowers from her and help her to be nice (dang my good nature!), well I got the fully background history from instead. Both her folks are dead and she now selling flowers to buy food so she can survive.

Good lord my heart broke! damn myself for being nice and getting into stories too much. So I tried to adopt her but at the time I had not bought my house yet since I was still 600 gold short. Hearing her voice sound happy at the chance to be adopted then go sad when I don't have a house yet so I couldn't adopt her. Well as you can imagine I charged out to get more gold, of course I was so determined that ran right into a Dragon (the one I mentioned earlier) and was nearly a BBQ. Next time I load the game I will be adopting her, well I think I need to sort the house out first so she can stay there but that is the plan.

So that my friends is why I love games! because the story can really suck you in.

~Iznic

P.S. My plans for the week? other then watching a ton of new stuff being announced I will be working on my multiplayer games again, cleaning up lego Lord of the Rings and of course Skyrim.

Batman: Arkham Origins Teaser

How to start this post off? well how about this...


Excited now? I know it's quite a short teaser trailer but you got to be a little excited about it. The video went up yesterday and it was just to tease that the full trailer will be launching on the 20th May. Interesting date to put it up since the Xbox reveal is the next day and then a week or two later is E3, really cannot understand why they putting it up early. Guess we will have to wait and see but either way October cannot come quick enough!
~Iznic

Batman Arkham Origins

I'm still shocked about this being announced since I was just not expecting it, I know there have been rumours of a new Batman Arkham game for a while now. Especially after a load of domains where registered with different titles, my favourite was Batman Arkham Universe but I was not expecting a new Batman game until next year. Thought they would save it for the next generation consoles to be honest, never would I had guessed they would announce for current and a 25th October release date.

So folks we have a new Batman game coming out and it's a prequel this time, starts off earlier on his career so expect first introductions for most of the super villains. Set on Christmas eve as well it seems Black Mask has put a bounty on your head and now everyone his out for your blood. Of course since it's earlier in Batman's career the Police force don't trust him and he's not got his skills 100% yet. This sounds so awesome for a storyline and if they pull it off right, could be the best game in the series by far.

May Issue of Gameinformer

The May issue of Gameinformer is meant to be jam packed with Lot's of details about the game plus screenshots, plus check out CVG's (Computer and Video Games) full article just here since they go into full detail about a preview demo they saw.

Another surprising bit about the announcement was that on the same day they will be releasing Batman Arkham Origins Black Gate for the PSVita and 3DS. That's right folks for the first time ever a handheld game for the series and it's events take place after Origins. Finally some love for the Vita, was really getting worried about the lack of games being announced. Hopefully we will see more information about the handheld games at E3, hoping they do something amazing with them.

So before I wrap this post up I do have a few worries, first of the fact it's getting release in Quarter Four with all the other new releases and possible new consoles. There is way too much coming out over those few months to keep adding more, I know it's the Christmas period and the best time for sales but come on! the consoles alone could kill peoples budgets. I hope the publishers know they might not be getting the best figures this year. although at the same time since everything is coming out on current generation it makes the choice of switching over harder. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 graphics are not that bad, yes the PlayStation 4 is amazing but when it's going to cost £300+ then £50 per game it really does kill the budget. Or you could save the money and use it on the lower priced current generation versions and get a lot more games for your money.

As I keep saying to everyone it will be a interesting year that's for sure, anyway that's it folks so have a good one! Really cannot wait for this game to come out now.
~Iznic


Sources:
Image - Gameinformer
Details - CVG