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BioShock Collection Announced for Xbox One, PS4, and PC

BioShock is back. After a three-year hiatus since the release of BioShock Infinite on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the dark mysteries of Rapture and Columbia return in a single package.

BioShock grew to immense popularity quickly with an incredible narrative and story telling. BioShock Infinite set the bar even higher in 2013 with what one of the best endings to a trilogy in gaming history.

This three-game collection offers all DLC, add-on content, and also includes bonus Director’s commentary to take gamers through the eyes of the development team as they created the worlds.

Many gamers were teased on the idea of the collection before and even during E3, and though 2k Games waited just a bit longer than most expected the game is finally confirmed.

Check out the trailer below for the official announcement:

The BioShock Collection is slated to release September 13 in North America and September 15 world-wide.

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Things to look for at E3 2016

E3 2016 is coming at a time where it seems like calling the Xbox One and the PS4 the “new generation” sounds crazy at this point. Now developers are fully in the swing of this iteration of hardware and though the excitement of the first few years of the new generation is dying down, a new excitement for high quality games is building.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what the gaming giants are coming out with in the next week when E3 starts on June 12.

Microsoft

Most gamers are familiar already with the idea that Microsoft is poised to announce a new “slim” Xbox along with perhaps an Xbox One “Scorpio” — an upgraded version of Xbox with potentially 4x the power of the 2013 Xbox One. These news stories are the biggest bombshells for Microsoft at E3, but beyond this the games that they’ve got in their arsenal are just as exciting.

Gamers have long deserved a quality Pirate game and very few have even attempted to create an original game in this style for over a decade. Rare is back in action looking for redemption and this comeback tour starting with Sea of Thieves is an incredible starting point. An open-world, multiplayer-focused adventure game set on the rugged seas is well deserving of some new information that gamers will certainly be privy to during Microsoft’s conference on June 13.

ReCore is another lesser known title just starting to come to the forefront since being announced at last year’s E3. This action-adventure game comes from some incredible minds — Keiji Inafune, the designer of the first 3 Mega Man games is teaming up with Armature Studio another developer who has plenty of high quality games behind them like Metroid Prime 3 and Batman: Arkham Origins.

recore

ReCore deserves to be brought to the spotlight with such prestigious developers working on it and an incredibly unique concept powering it.

Sony

Just like Microsoft’s next version of the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4.5 is expected to be the highlight of the show with the more powerful version of the console being prepped for more extensive use with the PlayStation VR. VR is certainly the future of gaming at least in some facet. The immmersion created is incomparable to previous gaming experiences and if Sony can capitalize and market their PS4.5 as a way to bring those VR experiences closer to life they’ll find success despite the not-totally-favorable idea of releasing an upgraded console midway in it’s life cycle.

The Last Guardian looks like it will finally come out with a definitive release date as well.

An infinite number of beautifully unique worlds seems impossible. But it's the reality of No Man's Sky.

No Man’s Sky is a bit of a concern with some having expected the game would be here by now, Sony and Hello Games will have to be careful if they intend to show any footage of the game — so as to avoid any bad publicity or resentment fans may have for its late release.

Nintendo

Is Nintendo even a real giant anymore? It’s certainly incredibly successful and has the greatest characters and history in gaming behind it, but with so little excitement being centered around it today it’s tough to imagine them having an overtly “successful” E3.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U 1

Pokemon has taken center stage for the last year and The Legend of Zelda WiiU continues to be the biggest talking point for them. But is that enough to keep fans excited? Or will they actually release a more comprehensive breakdown of what the Nintendo NX is? Most signs point to no, but Nintendo always seems to have a knack for surprising people.


Check out The Platinum Achievement Podcast for a greater breakdown of E3 predictions along with a lot of other nonsense.

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Halo: Reach framerate issues being addressed by Microsoft

Halo: Reach is one of the highest regarded games of the Halo franchise; taking players through a story of multiple spartans before the start of the 2001 title, Halo: Combat Evolved. When Microsoft announced backwards compatibility Reach was seen at the forefront of their advertising for it with the game case prominently displayed as one of the first titles to be available.

While Reach wasn’t one of the first titles, Xbox One owners and Halo fans were certainly excited that the game was still to come in the subsequent set of titles released through backwards compatibility.

Unfortunately for those fans, Halo: Reach has been an abject disappointment with borderline unplayable framerate issues and buggy physics all wrapped up in a package that only matches the graphical capability of the splitscreen mode of the original Halo: Reach.

The complaints of gamers have reached Microsoft and they “are aware some users are experiencing issues.” Microsoft claims the Xbox team is working on a fix, but no timeline has been given.

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Microsoft launches “17 days of deals” for holiday season

Black Friday is long over but Microsoft isn’t done with the deals now offering more price cuts on popular games on Xbox One. Their “17 days of deals” is supposedly Microsoft’s biggest sale ever with major titles like Halo 5 getting 20% off and Rise of The Tomb Raider 35% off. Exact prices will vary by region.

The majority of the deals are arcade games that won’t exactly blow you away, but that doesn’t mean there’s plenty of good titles scattered in the nearly 100 deals that MajorNelson listed on his blog.

The Witcher 3: Wildhunt may be the best deal right now at half price. This massive open-world RPG by CD Projekt Red has restored many gamers’ faith that developers can make an incredible high quality experience without adding micro transactions or only partially working games. It’s well deserving of the Game of the Year awards it’s winning from multiple outlets.

Ori and the Blind Forest (50% off) has been a name in the mix for best art from multiple outlets — including this one.

Borderlands The Handsome Collection is on the high end of discounts with a 60% price cut. Borderlands 2 is one of the best multiplayer games even today and the Pre-Sequel looks better than ever on a new generation console.

Destiny: The Taken King (25% off) the major expansion pack to Destiny adds a huge chunk of content to the base game, expanding the story, and adding more gear and weapons.

Forza Horizons 2 Storm Island content pack is now 75% off and a must have for any current player that hasn’t made the jump for the extra off-road content as of yet.

Just Cause 3 has been out for less than month and is already 20% off. One of the most chaotic sandboxes you can play in with an absurd amount of destruction.

Dragon Age Inquisition (40% off) from Bioware is another testament to the developers strength with making great RPGs. This continuation of the Dragon Age series was in contention for Game of the Year Last year.

Other notable games:
Grand Theft Auto V (40% off)
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (50% off)
Call of Duty Black Ops III (17% off)
Mad Max (33% off)
Need for Speed Deluxe Edition (60% off)

Check out the deals right now both on the Microsoft store and on the console’s own online store.

The deals will continue from December 22 to January 7 with offers changing weekly. Daily deals will also be available.

Full list of games available at MajorNelson.com

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Sony to add backwards compatibility; Playstation 2 emulator for PS4

Microsoft made waves announcing Xbox 360 backwards compatibility for the Xbox One at E3 2015, and Sony is showing they have their own, similar plan up their sleeves.

A Playstation 2 emulator has been confirmed by Sony.

The emulator is currently in the works but no exact details are yet available regarding what games — or how many games are going to be included.

While the Xbox One took advantage of the tremendous success of the Xbox 360 with backwards compatibility, the PlayStation 4 is arguably in a better place skipping back two generations. The new generation console will be taking on part of the library of the best-selling console of all time. While many of the titles are outdated, this is certainly a welcoming feature — especially for older gamers who want to experience the nostalgia.

Digital Foundry suggests that the PS2 emulation software is already being utilized by the PS4 console. The latest PS4 Star Wars bundle includes copies of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter along with the new Star Wars Battlefront release. Digital Foundry claims that these games all run on the same PS2 emulator that Sony is expected to soon roll out in a larger scale.

More info to come soon. Follow Pixelpine on twitter for updates.

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Activision/Treyarch garners $550 million from Call of Duty Black Ops III release

Call of Duty has been a staple of video gaming for a decade now, and though the franchise has been developed by multiple studios with various subsets it always pushes out a consistent, quality product.

That trend is continuing with Call of Duty: Black Ops III — the fourth installment of the series following the story arch of Call of Duty World At War, Black Ops I, and Black Ops II.

The game is not only a week old, but according to reports by Activision the game had sold $550 million copies worth within just three days of its November 6 launch.

It is currently the most successful launch of a media this year whether it be games, movies, or anything else.

The game competes with the same success that Black Ops II had in 2012 when it took in $500 million in just one day.

“Call of Duty is more than a game, it’s a year round passion for a growing base of millions of fans and it’s only gaining momentum.” – Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing

The bread and butter of the franchise has been the multiplayer ever since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and there was no reason to expect anything but a massive success in that department. Activision reports “more than 75 million hours” have been spent online through the first three days.

Also of note, Black Ops III’s digital sales set a record for Activision with downloads on new generation consoles up 100% from last year. Digital gaming is continuing to rise in all facets of the gaming industry.

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Microsoft reveals Xbox One backwards compatible games

Backwards compatbility may very well have been the feature that won Microsoft E3 2015, and after a long five months the promises that they made are finally coming to fruition.

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson and Head of Xbox Phil Spencer revealed exactly which Xbox 360 will be available on the Xbox One November 12.

“At Xbox, we believe that gaming is universal and should be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere. Our philosophy since launching Xbox One two years ago has been to put gamers at the center of everything we do and create the best, most seamless gaming experience possible.” – Mike Ybarra and Larry Hryb

104 games — mostly first party games — will be part of the initial launch. The majority of the games are not particularly major titles or among the top titles that gamers were clamoring for in the Xbox Live uservoice community reach-out initiative by Microsoft.

Instead the biggest name titles include Just Cause 2, Fable II, Fallout 3, Mirror’s Edge, Super Meat Boy, and all of the Gears of War games. There is an extensive collection of Xbox Live arcade games as well.

While the selection isn’t particularly bad, there are still many gamers that are reasonably disappointed that even Halo: Reach will still be a ways away. Reach, Halo Wars, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite and Skate 3 are among the big name games that are “on the way.”

Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Skyrim were the top three requested titles and nothing was mentioned regarding future compatibility with these titles. It’s certainly possible that Microsoft simply has been given the go-ahead from Bethesda or Rockstar to release their games again through backwards compatibility.

Still, backwards compatibility is here, and it’s a major bonus for the console struggling to compete with the PS4 in European and Asian markets. Microsoft is continuing to re-invent it’s image and inticing previous-gen gamers with a few more games with the added media features of the Xbox One (game streaming, screenshots, game DVR) can’t hurt.

Are you happy with the games included in backwards compatibility?

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Halo 5 forge still to come; releases in late December

Halo 5 is now available on Xbox One and with a flood of positive reviews showering 343 Industries and Microsoft with praise, there’s still some more to come — especially for fans of custom games.

Forge mode is due for a December “holiday break” release and is poised to offer the most in-depth and intuitive player creation tool ever included in a contemporary triple-A game.

While 343i is dedicated to pushing out more free, developer-quality maps for use in the online multiplayer, fans will be able to make maps in a fashion more closely aligned with the developers own process.

Josh Holmes took to Halo Waypoint to describe what they were going for and how they wanted to build on Halo 4’s forge.

“The creativity of the Forge community knows no bounds and our goal was to give them more power and control than ever before. We wanted to remove as many constraints as possible so they can create high quality maps that rival the ones that we are shipping with the game.” – JoshingtonState, Halo Waypoint

Improved controls, better magnet between objects, and multi-select capabilities are among some of the improvements to the system.

Since Forge was introduced in Halo 3 creators would be given a cap on how many assets could be used with dollar values assigned to each object. That changes in Halo 5. Players will now get a greater idea of how they’re using resources with a “multi-budget system.”

Multiple budgets based on real engine systems; max object counts, memory, etc. This means when placing something like a large terrain piece, its large texture will only eat into the memory budget once, and additional same/similar pieces will only use up the object count budget because their shared texture is already loaded.”

The amount of variety now is remarkable. Simple lighting changes can drastically alter the atmosphere of maps and combined with the new Forge canvases — similar to the Halo Reach forge world — reusing the same environment still offers a great amount of diversity.

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Xbox 360 to Xbox One Backwards compatibility confirmed for November 12

What most considered was the biggest deciding factor in the winner of E3, backwards compatibility of 100+ Xbox 360 games to the Xbox One is finally nearing a full release.

While preview members have been benefited to seeing it over the last few months, the amount of games has been fairly slim, but games like Mirror’s Edge, Burnout Paradise and Halo: Reach will be some of the new titles that preview members have yet to revisit through backwards compatibility.

It was revealed by Phil Spencer at the Halo 5 launch event that November 12 would be the official day that all Xbox One gamers would get access to their old Xbox 360 games.

Xbox One 360 backwards compatibility
The current top Xbox 360 games requested for backwards compatibility on Xbox Uservoice.

The exact list of which games are coming has yet to be revealed, but Microsoft has been asking fans through their Xbox Uservoice system which games they would like most. The Xbox team simply waits for the go-ahead from developers and then ports the game through an Xbox 360 emulator.

Games like Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and more are potential titles on the way. However, Microsoft will be primarily focusing on their own first party games and IPs.

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Making sense of Microsoft’s recent controversial news

As of late Microsoft and the Xbox division have had some controversial news surrounding them.

Here’s a quick recap of what’s happened and a reasonable thought process making Microsoft’s decisions seem less crazy.

First is a major change to Xbox Live’s staff —

Eric Neustadter, one of the guys who made Xbox Live awesome serving as an architect for the platform left Microsoft.

Over his 14+ year career, most notably as Xbox Live’s main architect, Neustadter was a great asset making Xbox Live what it is today, but the online service has been running generally smoothly since the Xbox 360 and the platform has been stable enough where those around him can continue to keep the service at a high quality level without Neustadter being around.

Yeah, Microsoft has had some DDoS problems and other minor issues, but the Xbox Live service is generally reliable — plus free games are always cool, eh? (Except you Pool Nation FX.)

Next issue!

For the entire life of Xbox Microsoft has always reported and measured the success of their consoles through sales numbers and the amount of consoles shipped.

Friday it was revealed that Microsoft would be taking a different approach — using Xbox Live subscribers to measure success.

Microsoft’s decision to use Xbox Live membership rather than sales is said to be done to measure “active users.” People that have turned on their consoles and signed in within the last month are the only ones included in that metric. It’s done primarily because Xbox 360 sales are declining with the new generation in full swing and showing active users makes them look better. (The only thing gripe I have is that they could still just show Xbox One sales specifically instead of packaging it in with the 360.)

What else?

A little less than a month ago, Phil Spencer commented saying that Xbox doesn’t need to catch the PS4 to be considered a success.

This is technically true considering the Xbox has objectively been a success from Microsoft’s stand point. They make a f*** ton of money from it and it’s generally viewed positively by those that play on it. From a financial perspective it kind of makes less sense though to be okay with stagnating, but Spencer is definitely correct saying they’ll be okay if they aren’t ahead of the PS4 by the end of this console generation.