Hello reapers.
Another batch of news articles is here. There are some pretty interesting collectors editions, a new batch of cars for Forza Horizon 2, some new game announcements and trailers. Enjoy.
Treyarch is Making 2015’s Call of Duty
Treyarch is developing 2015’s Call of Duty game, Activision announced today.
During an investor call, Activision said this year’s CoD title will be the first from Treyarch to have a three-year development cycle. The first Call of Duty game to receive three years of development time was last year’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Treyarch was the developer behind Call of Duty 3, Black Ops, Black Ops II, and other non-mainline Call of Duty games. Treyarch’s studio head Mark Lamia recently shared at the Las Vegas DICE Summit that the series’ beloved Zombies mode almost didn’t exist.
Columbus Nova Acquires Sony Online Entertainment
Investment firm Columbus Nova has acquired Sony Online Entertainment, the company announced today, and has rebranded the studio as Daybreak Game Company LLC.
Daybreak will operate as an independent game development studio under the new title, according to a press release, and will continue to work on MMO-style games.
“We see tremendous opportunities for growth with the expansion of the company’s game portfolio through multi-platform offerings as well as an exciting portfolio of new quality games coming up, including the recently launched H1Z1 and the highly anticipated EverQuest Next to be released in the near future,” said Jason Epstein, senior partner at Columbus Nova.
Columbus Nova is a NYC-based investment firm managing over $15 billion in its own assets and partnering portfolio companies. It operates four different investment groups specializing in corporate credit, private equity, venture/growth equity and real estate.
“We are excited to join Columbus Nova’s impressive roster of companies,” said John Smedley, president, Daybreak Game Company. In a recent Tweet, the president also said he can’t wait to make Xbox One games following the acquisition, and that all of SOE’s existing games are still under Daybreak’s care, and will continue to be.
The Latest Batch of Just Cause 3 Screens are Gorgeous
A selection of stunning Just Cause 3 screengrabs have landed. There are 10 screenshots in total, as spotted by NeoGAF, which showcase a variety of different activities, such as skydiving, standing on a jet, and of course, blowing stuff up.
Mortal Kombat X Kollector’s Editions Revealed
Warner Bros. has revealed a number of different special editions of Mortal Kombat X, all of which are available to pre-order now on Amazon.
The Kollector’s Edition by Coarse, Kollector’s Edition and Limited Editions will only be available for PS4 and Xbox One, while the Premium Edition is available for all platforms.
First up, The Kollector’s Edition by Coarse costs £100 / $150 and comes with a Scorpion figurine and accompanying Certificate of Authenticity signed by artists Sven Waschk and Mark Landwehr. An in-game skin for the ninja based on the figure will also be included. Finally, you’ll get the Kombat Pack, which includes four additional unnamed fighters who will apparently be a mix of older Kombatants and guest characters.
If you’re wondering why the Scorpion statue looks a little bit different, it’s because it was redesigned by Coarse, which has extensive experience creating collectible figurines. 
The standard non-Coarse Kollector’s Edition costs £90 / $180. It will only be available through Amazon. It includes a 28cm hand-painted Scorpion statue, a steel pack and card, the in-game gold Scorpion Skin, the Kombat Pack and Mortal Kombat X: Blood Ties Comic Book Volume 1.
The Limited Edition costs $95 and can only be pre-ordered at Gamestop. It comes with an exclusive Scorpion Skin inspired by the Cold War, and the Kombat Pack. Finally, the Premium Edition is download only, costs $90 and comes with the Kombat Pack.
Forza Horizon 2 Top Gear Car Pack Out Now
Forza Horizon 2‘s Top Gear Car Pack is now available on Xbox One for $5 USD, or free to Car Pass holders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgILwXIBoGI
The Top Gear Car Pack adds six cars to the open-world racer’s roster: the 2015 Lexus RC F, 1993 Jaguar XJ220, 2014 BMW M235i, 1986 Lamborghini LM002, 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale, and the 1966 Ford Lotus Cortina — which is free to all throughout February.
Destiny: House of Wolves Release Date
and Details Possibly Leak
Details about Destiny‘s upcoming House of Wolves expansion, including a release date, have appeared online.
Reddit user megamanexe4 managed to find out the details through datamining the game’s files, though Bungie has since warned fans that all the information could change. According to megamanexe4, the DLC will unlock on May 19, which is a Tuesday. This is the same day of the week the game resets, and when previous expansion The Dark Below released.
A leak earlier in the year suggested we’d be seeing House of Wolves in March, and according to megamanexe4 some of the new content is still scheduled to unlock then. He suggests a patch will be released in the near future to modify the date to May, when the majority of new features are set to become available.
The description for the DLC reads “The Queen’s Fallen have purchased their freedom with Awoken blood. Hunt down the traitors and your debt to the Queen will be paid.” As for what we should expect, House of Wolves apparently brings with it new story missions and a new raid, along with three fresh multiplayer maps and a new strike. The raid will allegedly be in the currently off-limits Reef area. A level 28 strike playlist called Vanguard Dragon is also present, while the Weekly Nightfall level cap has been bounced up to 32.
As you can guess, lots of new weapons and armour are also getting added but there’s too many to post here. Check them out in the original post.
Interestingly, a lot of this information falls in line with an earlier leak about what’s coming in House of Wolves. Despite this, Bungie community manager DeeJ has been quick to warn players on the game’s official forum that everything is subject to change and, until the studio announces otherwise, none of this is final.
“What could it all mean?” he wrote. “I know that rampant speculation will burn for a while on this topic. As you enjoy a conversation about the pearls of information that can be lifted from this, please bear a few things in mind…
“1. Aside from giving it a name, Bungie has yet to reveal the House of Wolves. That means that anything you know about it can change. We have a team working on the experience in their own fancy room, and they have some exciting surprises up their sleeves.
“2. We reserve the right to overwrite anything you’re looking at right now. These placeholder items enable us to save room on your drive for actual future updates. You’ll all download them before it’s time to play.
“3. Any stats or assumptions about power or impact or handsomeness are months old, and do not reflect the things that we’re doing to adapt to what you’ve taught us about Destiny. There is a process here, and you’re a part of it.
“Leaks are fun. I totally get it. Please discuss to your heart’s content. All we ask is that you leave your mind open to the evolutions that are inevitable. What you see here are very old ghosts from our pre-launch database. These are not necessarily the wolves you’re looking for.”
MLB 15: The Show 10th Anniversary Edition Announced
A special 10th Anniversary Edition of MLB 15: The Show will be released alongside the standard version on March 31.
For $70 USD, the Anniversary Edition includes an exclusive cover on a woodgrain steelbook, 12k in Stubs, fifteen Bonus Item packs, dynamic PlayStation 4 themes for all thirty MLB teams, and the official MLB 15 dynamic theme, according to the PlayStation Blog.
The post also revealed Canadian copies of the game will feature Toronto Blue Jays’ catcher Russell Martin on the cover, rather than Yasiel Puig.
Pre-orders for physical copies of the Anniversary Edition begin today, while digital pre-orders will begin on February 10. Pre-ordering will get you a voucher for a DualShock 4 Skin for the MLB team of your choice from Skinit. Pre-ordering from GameStop will also net you six additional Bonus Item packs.
Warhammer: End Times Vermintide Announced
Fatshark has announced Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, a co-operative first person shooter and melee combat adventure, releasing in the second half of 2015.
Set in the End Times of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, players will be teaming up to take on the Skaven across the city of Ubersreik. According to the announcement, the action will stretch from “the top of Magnus Tower to the bowels of the Under Empire”. There will be five heroes to choose from, each with unique abilities and attributes.
Speaking on the PS Blog, Fatshark Executive Producer Martin Wahlund said: “We’ve been wanting to make a Warhammer game since a group of us at Fatshark started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle together in our spare time back in 2004.”
PS4, Xbox One Get 6-Player Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
There’s an ogre standing in the stream. It really shouldn’t be. This stream – which leads into the Forest of Fallen Giants – is one of Dark Souls II’s starting areas, and it’s where a lot of players get their first real taste of action. I’ve died here often enough to know exactly who shows up here and when, and this huge, waddling blob is not on the list. Its presence is throwing me off, and that’s the point.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is more than just a “Game of the Year” edition or a new-gen remake, and while it features better graphics and all three DLC installments, it’s not content to simply rehash last year’s game. Instead, the new-gen version of Scholar of the First Sin reshuffles Dark Souls II from top to bottom, meaning that familiar monsters and items won’t appear where you remember them (although they will on the PS3/360 versions, which include the DLC and patches, but otherwise are unchanged).
Playing on PS4, the new, prettier lighting and particle effects are immediately striking.
According to Daniel Markov, the game’s associate global producer, some of the changes are being made in response to player input, gathered from surveys and emails sent by fans to developer From Software (and then balanced so that normal humans can still play). Other alterations seem to be in place mainly to keep returning players on their toes, like a new NPC Dark Phantom called the Forlorn, who can invade and attack you anywhere online play is possible. If you’ve built up a sense of security about your surroundings, he can show up anytime to destroy it. And speaking of online play, Scholar of the First Sin also rebalances and expands multiplayer, allowing for up to six players and four-on-two matches on new-gen platforms, and up to four players on Xbox 360, PS3, and DirectX 9 PCs.
Of course, Scholar of the First Sin also packs in the visual improvements you’d expect from a new-gen port: The PS4, Xbox One, and DirectX 11 PC versions will all look noticeably better than the original, with the console editions running at a promised 60 frames per second in 1080p. (Markov said that the DirectX 11 version will also look better than the player-created graphics mods currently available.) Playing on PS4, the new, prettier lighting and particle effects are immediately striking, with the former sending warm-looking, dusky rays of sunlight filtering through the forest’s Scaffolding and Cardinal Tower areas. It’s not a big jump – the characters and familiar environments don’t look any different – but it’s a clear one.
There’s also the Scholar of the First Sin himself (itself?) – a hulking but apparently friendly creature added in the big, recent Dark Souls II update. Here, he’ll show you a new path through the game, although it’s not clear if or how much that’ll differ from the content that was added in the update. Otherwise, Dark Souls II’s familiar layout and hack-and-slash feel are largely unchanged, although it’s worth noting that the demo character I played as was overpowered, so I wasn’t able to gauge how much the beloved difficulty has been affected, if at all.
“It’s hard to say if it’s more or less difficult,” says Markov. “It’s different.”
Atlus Releases New Persona 5 Gameplay Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BC2jySmCc
It’s less than three minutes long, but the trailer gives a sneaky peek at the leading characters and in-game action. It also confirms that the game will be directed by Katsura Hashino with characters designed by Persona stalwart Shigenori Soejima.Persona 5 – the follow-up to smash-hit Persona 4 that we loved on PlayStation 2 and even more so as Persona 4: Golden on PS Vita – was originally confirmed in November 2013 and is expected to release on the PlayStation 3 and 4.
Thats all for today,
-Audible Silence