Doesn't Paris look pretty?.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's announcement that the 'independent young noblewoman' and 'fiery Templar' Elise will play an important role in Assassin's Creed: Unity (an announcement that surely has nothing to do with the fact that Ubisoft recently came under fire for the lack of playable female characters in the very same game), a batch of fresh new ultra high quality screenshots has just been released.
$4.99 a month or $30 a year for unlimited EA games.
Hands up if you saw this one coming. EA has unveiled EA Access, a game subscription service that's exclusive to Xbox One. Members get access to every game in the EA "Vault" for $4.99 a month or $30 a year, beginning with FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2 and Battlefield 4.
Every night's all right for fighting when you're an Inquisitor.
Do you know, my fellow Grey Wardens, I think BioWare might have cracked it. Dragon Age: Inquisition appears to have the cut, thrust, boom and bang of fantasy world combat pretty much nailed. As this video demonstrates, it's possible to alternate between mashy up-close action and top-down freeze-time easily and naturally, allowing the player to play more or less tactically as the situation dictates.
The promised Black Market and Burn Card boosters, plus a mode shuffle.
Respawn has released the full patch notes for the next Titanfall update, which should materialise on Xbox One before 31st July - the release date for the game's next DLC pack, Frontier's Edge. Players of the Xbox 360 version may have to wait for Bluepoint to port the update and DLC across, as ever.
Buy statue! Get DLC!.
You might recall that Ubisoft got into a spot of bother last month as regards the non-existence of female character avatars in Assassin's Creed: Unity co-op. I'm sure that has absolutely nothing to do with the latest trailer and press release, which are all about Elise - "an independent young noblewoman" who is "determined to secure her place in the Templar dynasty amidst the chaos of the French Revolution". She's not a playable character, alas, but she is the star of a spin-off novel. What's more, you can buy her as a collectable "Elise: The Fiery Templar" figurine. How's that for equal representation?
FAO kickers of balls and poppers of caps in asses.
Sometimes, Microsoft's Deals of the Week are full of quirky indie games. Other times, we're handed a bunch of EA Sports titles and Battlefield DLC. Check out the latest reductions below. Notice their cast-iron imperviousness to whimsy, to anything save the coldest and most calculating of commercial sentiments. It's like staring at the Superbowl licensing down one side of a Predator drone, just before it puts a missile through your patio.
Crash-landing on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
I'm not sure I could pick a favourite between Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Drax and Star-Lord, but at least with the new Guardians of the Glaaxy skin pack for Minecraft, I won't have to. Lookit how adorable their little cuboid faces are.
Wizards confirmed.
On Saturday night, Bungie made Destiny's first Moon-based story mission "The Darkness Beyond" available to beta players on Xbox 360 and Xbox One for two whole hours. I was having dinner with my girlfriend at the time, but what is mere transient love when set against Man's age-old desire to zip around craters aboard a stolen Pike, severely upsetting dug in Hive Acolytes and Knights? Besides, I hear wizards come from the Moon.
There's only one multi-region area per planet, however.
Space, as Douglas Adams once wrote, is "vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big", and so by logical extension is Destiny, Bungie's latest interplanetary adventure. You might think otherwise, admittedly, if you limit your investigation to this Reddit thread, which reveals that there will be "only" one explorable area per planet. Posting on NeoGAF, the developer's Eric "Urk" Osborne reassured beta players that the full game is packed with things to see and do.
For Clementine?.
With just one more episode left in its second season, Telltale has confirmed that The Walking Dead will receive a third series, as confirmed by series creator Robert Kirkman and Telltale's founder Kevin Bruner during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend.
Will the Devil Gene get a gameplay upgrade?.
Imagine a Mishima family Christmas. They'd be all "Waahh you threw me into a volcano" and "Gawd, stop letting your bodyguard bear fart on me ffs." If you thought they were dysfunctional before, just wait until you see the latest trailer for Tekken 7, which proclaims that the title will serve as a conclusion to the Mishima family saga.
Release date, setting, timeframe and multiplayer features still under wraps.
A new version of Mass Effect's love-it-or-hate-it planetary rover the Mako will appear in the forthcoming Mass Effect for Xbox One, BioWare confirmed at ComicCon in San Diego this weekend. It'll be unarmed but faster than the original, and facilitates a stronger emphasis on exploration than in previous titles.
Kangaroo codpiece, anyone?.
If you can never decide what to wear between your top hat and your cowboy boots, never fear. Sunset Overdrive will let you wear them both together, with perhaps a pretty pink tutu to tie the whole outfit together. Developer Insomniac Games has shown off the game's player customisation options in a new video over on Polygon, and the sheer amount of accessories on offer is nothing short of amazing.
Do Gangnam Style next, internet.
Lord Shax! We now have peak Internet Virality across all systems! The Great Enterprise can finally begin! Yes, somebody's thrown together a Harlem Shake video for Destiny, thus opening the floodgates to every dance-based meme from the past decade. Gaze upon those sweet, sweet moves, ye mighty, and despair.
Since when were there bicycles in Mass Effect 4?.
BioWare's new IP will be announced at Gamescom in August, if a new live action teaser trailer and website are any indication. The video shows a man in a hoodtop fleeing in terror down a corridor full of abandoned bicycles. Then he approaches a car and sees himself behind the wheel. And then his face turns into a big ball of light. Is this some kind of statement about fossil fuels, BioWare?
Also: smoking rocks. Smoking rocks everywhere.
Step right up, folks, and get your first glimpse of Halo: Nightfall in this trailer, fresh from a screening at San Diego Comic Con. It introduces Nightfall's main character, Jameson Locke, and dangit if he doesn't look like a complete badass.
Is November busy season in Los Santos?.
I'd say you should take this with a pinch of salt, but there's too much salt in the average Western diet already. Try a few shavings of fresh ginger root, or a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Or whatever you deem appropriate to the news that Grand Theft Auto 5 will release on 7th November 2014, according to online retailer GameSeek. Rockstar has yet to confirm or deny this claim - I'll keep you posted.
No modified hardware required, but do this at your own risk.
Weary of Grand Theft Auto 5's three lead characters? Help is at hand, and you won't even have to dig into your Xbox 360's innards. Enterprising Youtuber ocrammarco5 has put together a video guide to a save game hack outlined on Se7ensins, which allows you to play as any other character from the game, be it a stripper, a police officer or Chop, Trevor's pet pooch.
"Please pardon our dust, and thanks for helping us test Destiny!".
I tried to play Destiny's Xbox One beta with OXM Australia's Paul Taylor last night. It was a fun experience for the most part, with just the one major snag - the Xbox Live party app's voicechat feature wouldn't work, obliging us to communicate by way of scattershot pointing, sitting and dancing. Just like in real life, then.
