SQUARE ENIX JAPAN LAUNCHES TEASER SITE FOR NEW PROJECT
The teaser site is still sparse, with the text “S_AR” and “01 01” overlaid on what appears to be a satellite image of a snowy planet, or perhaps an ocean.
In the lower corner is a Twitter feed featuring tweets from people using the#sqex_secret hashtag. Based on the “S_AR” text and the possible ocean backdrop, many fans speculate that a new Star Ocean is coming, but we won’t know for sure until Square Enix drops more info.
UPDATE:
STAR OCEAN 5 ANNOUNCED FOR PS4 AND PS3
it’s been revealed in the latest issue of Famitsu (via Gematsu) that Star Ocean 5 is in development for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. Officially called Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness, the game is being developed by Tri-Ace and published by Square Enix. Set on an uncivilized planet called Fakelead, 6,000 light years away from Earth, the battle system will be seamless and take place in real-time.
We’re still waiting on an official reveal, or any news of a Western release.
REPORT: UNCHARTED TRILOGY FOR PS4 LISTED ON SWEDISH SITE
A Swedish retailer called CeDe has listed Uncharted: The Remastered Trilogy for PS4.
The page has since been taken down, but before then, the product description simply read “Uncharted 1-3 in HD! More information soon!” It listed September 30 as a release date. The accompanying box art is below, as well as a screen cap of the product page.
An Uncharted trilogy is certainly possible. Developer Naughty Dog ported another PS3 game, The Last of Us, to PS4 last year. And with Uncharted 4 delayed into 2016, there’s a nice, Drake-sized gap that needs to be filled.
REPORT: SPEED RUN OF THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT TAKES 25 HOURS
Developers at CD Projekt Red have commented on the length of their upcoming open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Speaking with German site Gamereactor, they claim that speed runs of Wild Hunt have taken approximately 25 hours to complete.
This includes taking the most direct routes and skipping past all dialog options. Reportedly, it only applies to speed runs of the story and not to any additional side content found in its open world.
ACTIVISION CONFIRMS NEXT CALL OF DUTY
WITH ‘BACK IN BLACK’ SHORT
Via Twitter: It’s official—@CallofDuty Black Ops III is coming this year from @Treyarch http://bit.ly/1H88T0A #BackInBlack
STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT TO BE PLAYABLE FIRST ON XBOX ONE
Star Wars: Battlefront will be playable first on Xbox One, thanks to EA Access. That’s according to Microsoft game marketing lead Aaron Greenberg, whotweeted confirmation of the news on Twitter. At this stage we don’t know any further details about how far in advance Xbox owners will be able to play the title, or if there’ll be a time limit on how many hours can be racked up, as was the case with Battlefield Hardline.
ACTIVISION ANNOUNCES GUITAR HERO LIVE WITH 2015 RELEASE DATE
Activision has announced Guitar Hero Live, the latest installment in the popular franchise, will be released in autumn 2015.
Developed by FreeStyleGames, whose previous credits include DJ Hero and DJ Hero 2, Guitar Hero Live costs $99.99 and is currently planned for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. Additionally, select mobile devices will support the game. It’s currently up for pre-order on Amazon.
The biggest change for gameplay is the switch to a first-person perspective, which places you on stage looking out at the crowd who’ll react in real time to how well you play. Alongside this, the new GHTV mutliplayer mode enables you to challenge friends or random players.
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP STILL UNHAPPY WITH
XBOX ONE ENERGY-SAVING MODE
US-based environmental advocacy group the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has welcomed Microsoft’s plan to give users the chance to activate the system’s energy-saving mode during the initial console set-up period but remains unhappy with the way Microsoft may be planning to describe the differences between “Energy-saving mode” and “Instant-on mode” to new Xbox One owners.
Based on a screenshot Microsoft published earlier this month via Xbox Wire, the NRDC’s Noah Horowitz is disappointed with the language Microsoft has chosen to use to differentiate between the two modes.
The proposed new option.
“With this design, most users are likely to select the Instant-on mode because of the negative language such as “Slower start-up time” and “Get interrupted for updates” used to describe the Energy-saving mode,” writes Horowitz onthe organisation’s website. “It’s also unclear whether Microsoft will ship its new consoles with the Instant-on feature already highlighted as shown above, which would require an extra step to choose energy savings instead.”
Horowitz notes there is no mention of the respective standby power levels for each option: “less than 1 watt for Energy-saving mode and 12.5 watts for Instant-on, which translates to an extra [USD]$33 to [USD]$75 (depending where you live) of electricity use over the typical five year life of a console, which is enough to buy an extra game or two.”
Horowitz suggests more neutral text to describe the Energy-saving and Instant-on options and that the Energy-saving setting should be the default setting should users not make a choice themselves. Horowitz believes there is “no reason for a device to be drawing 12.5 watts 24/7 just so it can be ready to receive and install an update.”
“If your cell phone or tablet operated this way, the battery would run out of power almost immediately,” he writes. “These devices receive notifications that updates are available for downloading, often in the background while the device is in use. Microsoft’s competitor Nintendo provides an elegant and effective solution whereby its Wii U game console automatically wakes for a few seconds hourly to check for updates. If an update exists, it downloads and installs it and then goes back to sleep at less than 1 watt. This results in a trivial amount of energy spent for background updates compared to Microsoft’s current energy-guzzling approach.”
The NRDC expressed its concern regarding the amount of power the Xbox One draws in Instant-on mode late last month.
THE ESCAPISTS COMING TO PS4
The Escapists is coming soon to PlayStation 4. Previously released on PC and Xbox One, the prison break game has six unique prisons to escape from with many ways of doing so.
You can find out more information about The Escapists on the game’s website.
TWO SOCIAL SPACES UNEARTHED BY DESTINY DATA MINERS
Destiny data miners have dug their way into Update 1.1.2 and unearthed plans for two new social spaces.
This information became available thanks to Reddit user ShdwFlm. It was already covered previously on IGN that the new expansion, House of Wolves, would have a new social space in the Reef. That social space now has a name: Queen’s Bay. At Queen’s Bay you will collect Reef bounties and get involved with the new The Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris activities.
Along with this was discovered an entirely new social space called Halls of Amentet. This requires experience in Trials of Osiris and it could potentially be a small, three-player social hub.
House of Wolves will include three new player versus player maps: The Timekeeper, Thieves’ Den, and Widow’s Court. However, the data miners found a reference to two more called Black Shield and MM Test Factory. Black Shield will be set at Firebase Thuri on Phobos, one of Mars’ moons. MM Test Factory is described as being for testing purposes only.
Lastly, an Exotic class ship schematic called Manus Celer Dei has been unveiled among the 46 new ship schematics.
House of Wolves will release on May 19.
INVISIBLE INC. ANNOUNCED FOR PLAYSTATION 4 WITH NEW TRAILER; PC RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED
Invisible Inc., the tactical, turn-based stealth game from the creators of Mark of the Ninja and Don’t Starve, is headed to PlayStation 4.
The announcement trailer and a PlayStation blog post confirm the PlayStation 4 version as its exclusive console debut.
It’s also headed to PC, Mac, and Linux on May 12th after spending over a year on Steam Early Access.
There’s no conclusive word yet on PlayStation 4 release date, but the trailer does hint at either late this year or a few months into 2016.
Developers Klei Entertainment describe it as, “If XCOM had a baby with FTL, that was raised by Mark of the Ninja, and grew up playing Shadowrun.”
CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE ASCENDANCE DLC DATED FOR PLAYSTATION AND PC
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s second DLC pack, Ascendance, has a release date for PS4, PS3, and PC.
On April 30, players on those platforms will have access to four new maps, including Perplex, Site 244, Climate, and Chop Shop. Ascendance also includes the new Infection episode of Exo-Zombies, which takes the four survivors to Burgertown — a fast food restaurant known well by Call of Duty fans. It will cost $15 USD (€14).
Thats all for today,
– Audible Silence