Never smile at a crocodile.
Morning all. Got plenty on this week? Bet you don't have as much to do as Batman, whose latest computer-based interactive endeavour Arkham Origins goes on sale Friday, 25th October. Already huge, the game's roster of villains has now swelled to include one Killer Croc and one Lady Shiva. He's a hideously mutated cannibal, she's a top-class martial artist who once taught Batman how to fight again after a, shall we say, spine-tingling encounter with Bane. Did I do good, Aoife? Does all this sound like I actually know what I'm talking about?
"This improvement in hardware allows us to do things we could not have done before".
I bet you had forgotten all about The Fighter Within, hadn't you? I know I did. Ubisoft's motion-controlled brawler is a launch title for the Xbox One, which promises to utilise the full power of the next gen Kinect to produce a "skill-based game that can rival any modern brawler."
Give your crew some personalised motif-ation.
When you're rolling with a crew in GTA: Online you'll want to let everyone know who you're representing, whether it's your group of friends or our very own OXM Crew. But when it comes to making an emblem, we've had to make do with Rockstar's very capable - but not perfect - Emblem Editor.
Unconfirmed rumour means hundreds of apps may be available from launch.
Online PC retailer Dell seem to have outed that when the Xbox One launches next month you'll immediately have a absolute truck load of apps to choose from, because it'll support the running of all Windows 8 apps.
Collecting links like Sonic collects rings.
Phil Collins once sang that he could feel it coming in the air tonight. It's the metaphorical air of shiny newness that's about - we've been applying the magazine make-up a little bit, trying on new dresses and checking ourselves out in the mirror. By the end of this week you lucky people should start to see the fruits of the team's hard work as we release our first issue of the new-look magazine on Friday.
Turns out you can get the staff. (or sword, or spear or...).
Project Soul and Namco Bandai have released footage of their upcoming XBL re-release of Soul Calibur 2 HD Online. If the extra suffixes weren't a clue, the game is getting some shiny new visual upgrades and most excitingly, online play.
Rising up to the challenge of your rivals.
The latest gameplay trailer for the upcoming Need for Speed: Rivals game has shot out of the starting grid over at EA, and this time the focus is firmly on the AllDrive feature, a new addition to the series.
Third party headsets won't work until 2014.
Sadly, those of you who were looking to use a fancy custom headset with your Xbox One when it launches later this year may have to wait a little bit longer, as it seems the Xbox One Headset Adapter Microsoft have been working on won't be available until 2014
Says 50% cut on subsequent runs is to "keep the game balanced".
Bad news for those of you who were repeating missions you knew well for more moolah, as Rockstar has confirmed that yesterday's 1.04 patch has introduced a slash in mission rewards, as reported on by readers yesterday.
Isn't that the darnedest thing you ever Sora?.
Trying to explain the story of Kingdom Hearts - the action-focused JRPG set in a universe that sees the Disney and Final Fantasy worlds collide - is a bit of challenge if you're coming fresh to the series. With the third game coming in an Xbox direction for the first time we might have to figure it out eventually.
The music sounds better with you.
Ubisoft has this week revealed the last of the songs that'll be included on the disk in Rocksmith's 2014 edition when it launches this week, meaning we now know the entirety of the 55 song tracklist that you'll be able to jam along to in the game.
We've got them here to save you Roman around.
Revenge, so we're told, is a dish best served cold. If these latest pair of story related trailers for Ryse: Son of Rome is anything to go by, it's also best served with a side order of blood and plenty of shouting to boot.
4J Studios' latest game reskin hits Marketplace early, now removed.
It's been a while since we last published anything about Minecraft Xbox 360, isn't it? Fulsome apologies, residents of MojangLand - there's been too much GTA Online to deal with. Please accept this video of the new Natural Textures Pack by way of an apology. It gives the game a softer, wilder and more chiselled look, which may appeal if you think the vanilla offerings are too garish.
Rockstar needs to confirm "that any remaining game progress issues have been fixed".
Rockstar has announced that it won't release the first wodge of free GTA Online "stimulus" money - totalling $250,000 - till "early next week", as it needs to first confirm that the latest GTA 5 update has, indeed, addressed problems with deleted character progress.
Also sorts out issues with stuck playlists, disappearing cars, "getting stuck in the sky".
The latest GTA 5 update has a changelog, posted just now on Rockstar's NewsWire. Besides the usual array of network problems, the patch addresses a GTA Online glitch that allows players to resell the same vehicle over and over, for unlimited cash. Sorry, exploiters.
Rockstar to distribute Stimulus package once it's sure the bugs have been fixed.
Grand Theft Auto 5's 1.04 update is beginning to appear on Xbox Live, as spotted by community members over at Rockstar News Wire. OXM can confirm that the update is live in the UK, but in keeping with prior patches, it may take a while to become available in your region.
"We've been looking at how much it's worth, compared to how much we'd have to sacrifice," says Patrick Bach.
War never changes? Not entirely true. DICE will almost certainly introduce female characters to Battlefield's multiplayer, the franchise's executive producer Patrick Bach has promised OXM, but the developer needs to work out how much it would have to "sacrifice" before going fully co-ed.
Xbox.com makes mention of cap on which games can be made free.
Whilst the news this morning that the Xbox Live service Games With Gold will be extended indefinitely certainly makes us happy, a closer look at some of the terms and conditions suggests that Microsoft has put a price cap on that happiness - #163;30 per month, to be precise.
"I think people might not grasp how hard that is, to develop a game at the same time as the hardware.".
The delayed release of Watch Dogs is, we're told, bad news for both next generation consoles - Ubisoft's modern day open worlder is one of the most anticipated new IPs in a while, and according to one analyst, its absence from the line-up could eat into hardware sales. DICE's executive producer Patrick Bach isn't about to put the boot in, however. Creating a console launch game is no mean feat.
Several individuals close to the studio say they are "100%" sure it's done for, after massive lay-offs.
2K Marin, the studio behind Bioshock 2 and the recent The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, is apparently no more, with recent lay-offs affecting the "majority" of its staff, according to various anonymous reports beginning to surface from several online sources.
