EA's Peter Moore to assume Liverpool FC CEO role
Earlier today, Liverpool Football Club officially announced that EA’s Chief Competition Office for the competitive gaming division Peter Moore would be joining the staff as Chief Executive Officer. The announcement, made on the club’s official site and shared through NeoGaf, states that “Moore will take up his new role in June and report directly to the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group.” Moore has previously held high-ranking positions at Microsoft, Reebok, and Sega. His role at EA began in 2007 when he moved from Microsoft to head the sports division at Electronic Arts. Moore is originally from Liverpool, and has continually expressed his support for his home football team, so it is likely a great opportunity to head the team in the future. On the NeoGaf thread where the announcement was initially shared, gamers shared sentiments of confusion in the move from video games to real-world professional sports, as well as support with many wishing Moore luck in the new role. One commented going by the username RecRoulette writes that Moore’s departure from video games marks the “[e]nd of an era.” Forum user Feorax notes their skepticism at Moore’s transition, writing “[having a fan of the club at the helm has] clouded judgement in the past and led to some questionable decisions.” While Moore isn’t leaving EA immediately, it will be sad to see the games studio nonetheless. We do not yet know who will be assuming his current position at EA, but we’ll be sure to update you when we do. Until then, stay tuned to Rectify Gaming for the latest. Source: Liverpool FC Via: NeoGaf
Halo Wars 2 demo now available for Xbox One
Halo Wars 2 officially launched for Xbox One and Windows 10 early last week. Since then, the game’s playerbase finally got to log in and test their strategy against that of new franchise villain Atriox. Today, 343 Industries Community Manager Brian Jarrard announced that, if players weren’t sold or simply weren’t sure if the game would run well on their system, a demo is available. Jarrard writes on Xbox Wire that the game’s fans “have been eagerly diving into the battlefield, fielding armies of Scorpions, Warthogs, and more.” He continues, noting that the demo is available for “Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox One today” and that the Windows 10 flavor of the demo will be “coming soon to anyone with a Microsoft account on Windows 10 PC.” This demo is launching in the same manner as the demo for Forza Horizon 3 in late September 2016, with the Windows 10 version coming later. So, if you aren’t sure whether you want to pick up the new Xbox Play Anywhere real-time strategy title pick up the demo and give it a play. The store link for the demo is just below. Store Link Source: Xbox Wire
Review: A Pixel Story
Title: A Pixel Story Developer: Lamplight Studios Release Date: February 24th, 2017 Platforms Available: Xbox One, PlayStation 4 Difficulty: Normal Story A Pixel Story is a puzzle platformer with a retro feel that takes you deep into the world of gaming. This 2D indie game developed by Lamplight Studios puts the fate of the video game universe in your hands as you traverse six diverse worlds to take down the evil OS and restore the memory back to its normal state. You play a character that probably looks familiar for a few different reasons. You begin as a ball in a game of Pong in the introduction sequence, and then you are given what looks like the body of Rayman, the hat of Mario, and a yellow cape. As you journey through the perils and puzzles of the game you are accompanied by a little robot helper named Search who provides tutorial help and hints. The goal of your quest is to collect diamonds, which are the fragments of memory you need to overthrow the evil OS. Many other NPCs exist that you can interact with, each holding a little humor to share with you and help you along your way. Some even give you side quests, an element not found in most platformers. The story does not progress as much as you would expect because the graphics are supposed to do the story telling, but I expected a lot more out of the transitions than I found while playing. Still, there are lots of gaming references to find that bring back fond moments in gaming history, and that adds a touch of magic to the story. It is a little short, but not so short that it isn’t worth the time or money. Gameplay While the story is a fun ride, the gameplay mechanics leave quite a bit to be desired. Your hat unlocks the ability to teleport, which has many different applications both in puzzles and in gameplay. But this title lacks something essential to any platformer game: double jump. Your jump is never upgraded, double pressing or holding the button do nothing. It isn’t what I would call a deal-breaker, but the jumping mechanic is not very responsive and often times tricky to get just right. You can use the hat to jump a little further/higher, but not enough. The game utilizes jump springs as well, but their aim is off and it is hard to guess where you are going to land. I did run in to a big glitch that almost stopped me from continuing the game where when I jumped to a certain platform I just slid across it and into a spike pit. This was fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling, thankfully, but it is worth mentioning. Aside from the skittish controls the music is great, exactly what you would expect, and the graphics are excellent for what it is supposed to be, a throwback 2D game. The difficulty of the game increases in a natural way as you go from world to world, and there are special challenge rooms you can get to by spending coins to unlock more diamond memories. Final Thoughts While I really enjoyed the story line and premise of the game, I felt like the mechanics needed a lot more work and polishing, which took away from some of the fun. All in all I would recommend buying this game if you like classic games, platformers, and unique graphics and storytelling. [rwp-review id=”0″]
Minecraft has sold over 120 million copies
Microsoft have announced that Minecraft continues to have great success, the sandbox game king has now sold more than 121m copies across all platforms. 55 million people now play every month – that’s an increase of 15m from the last tally in June 2016. In case for some reason you did not know, Microsoft owns Minecraft and supports the game on a load of platforms including their competitors in Sony on PS4 and now it will be available on the Nintendo Switch. Ahead of Minecraft, only Tetris now claims to have ever sold more copies.
New Assassin's Creed Egypt screenshot has been leaked
For a while now there have been rumors about Assassin’s Creed Egypt launching this year by Ubisoft and now it seems like there has been a new leaked screenshot from the game. The picture definitely shows an Egyptian-esque warrior with an Assassin branded shield on his back, sandals, and a sword. We will most likely hear more about this title come E3 2017 and forward from Ubisoft at their conference. Source
Middle Earth: Shadow of War officially announced by Warner Bros, Talion and Celebrimbor return
After Target jumped the gun and put up the pre-order page yesterday for Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Warner Bros has officially announced the game with an incredible new, action packed trailer. In the game, players wield a new Ring of Power and confront the deadliest of enemies, including Sauron and his Nazgul, in a monumental battle for Middle-earth. David Haddad, Warner Bros. President, commented on the continued partnership with Monolith Studios by saying “Monolith Productions continues to innovate by introducing deeper, more personalised gameplay experiences, coupled with authentic storytelling. Middle-earth: Shadow of War truly drives the genre forward by taking the Nemesis System to new heights and allowing players to create their own personal journey within Middle-earth.” The Nemesis system that was created for the first game has been expanded on to include two new components; Followers and Fortresses. The followers bring new stories of loyalty, revenge, etc to the game, but it’s unknown if this will happen automatically or as a result through branding like in Shadow of Mordor. The Fortresses allows players to utilize different strategies to conquer dynamic strongholds and create personalized worlds with their unique Orc army. Both Warner and Monolith describe the expanded world in Shadow of War by saying Players will be engrossed in a richer, more personal and expansive world full of epic heroes and villains, iconic locations, original enemy types, even more personalities and a new cast of characters with untold stories. Both Talion and Celebrimbor have returned to Mordor, and they must unite everyone against the evil hand of Sauron. All of this in an expanded universe of Lord of the Rings has the excitement already extremely high for Shadow of War as Shadow of Mordor won multiple awards, including many Game of the Years. Although not announced today, yesterday’s Target hiccup did reveal that a Gold Edition would launch on both Xbox and PlayStation. Listed at $99.99, it would include the main game plus four additional story expansions and a number of cosmetic items. No info on a season pass was announced, but with Shadow of Mordor having one it would seem logical that this game would as well. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor will launch on Xbox One and Windows 10 via Xbox Play Anywhere and also be made available for Project Scorpio. Other platforms include PC, PS4 and PS4 Pro. The release date is listed for August 22nd in North America and the 25th in Europe.
Twitch will start selling games and give streamers a cut of the revenue
Twitch has been providing lots of updates the past few days and weeks the most recent one was being able to change your name which is a big deal since the streaming service never had that option. Today they have announced that you will be able to buy games straight from Twitch and streamers will get a cut of the revenue. Soon we’ll be taking another step to further strengthen the community and benefit streamers and viewers alike. Twitch has always been the best place to watch, share, and play games. Soon, it will be the best place to buy games as well. When you watch a stream, you’ll see an option to purchase below the video on the channel page if the game or in-game content is available on Twitch. Any purchase over $4.99 will earn you a Twitch Crate, a digital loot box with a special reward like a game-specific emote, a chat badge, or some Bits. The contents of each Crate are randomly generated so you never know what surprise will be inside. The feature is not out yet, but they will be rolling it out very soon so stick around for updates.
Sony has recreated cities in the UK and Ireland to show how they would look in Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn launches in Europe on March 1st and it doesn’t seem like the UK and Ireland is left out at all when it comes to the game. The PlayStation UK team (via Eurogamer) has shared a series of images of what major cities in the UK and Ireland would like in the post-apocalyptic world of Horizon Zero Dawn. From Aloy looking over Cardiff in Wales with a Watcher, one of the robotic machines in the game, to a massive Stormbird on top of the GPO in Dublin, Ireland, as well as artwork crafted from London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and more the UK team at PlayStation has covered most of the major cities. Take a look at some of the artwork below: Birmingham Cardiff Dublin Edinburgh Liverpool London Manchester Newcastle Stay tuned for our official Horizon Zero Dawn review.
Mass Effect Andromeda will be at least 45GB on PS4 and XB1
Last week it was announced that Mass Effect: Andromeda went gold and now it is less than a month until the game releases. BioWare has revealed that the game will be “at least 45GB” on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In a response to a question on Twitter, Lead Designer Ian S. Frazier said, “At least 45, not more than 60.” He later added, “On PC, 55 GB. On consoles, I’m not 100 percent sure, could be as low as 40 or as high as 60.” We can safely assume that the size will be in that ballpark. Andromeda will also be getting a day one patch, “A good portion of the team is still working on the day-one patch. No rest for the wicked,” said Frazier. He also revealed that the team is actually pushing hard to get the patch out in time for those who’ll have early access on Xbox One EA Access and on Origin. Source
VOEZ will be the first Nintendo Switch game to be only playable in handheld mode.
Rhythm based title VOEZ, was confirmed for the Nintendo Switch about a week ago by Famitsu. The music title is available on mobile platforms but many wondered how the game would make the transition to the big screen. Well, it turns out it won’t, as it will be the first Nintendo Switch game that will only be playable in portable-mode only. This makes a lot of sense since the game is more reliant on the touch screen, but this makes you think that more titles in the future will become handheld only. Source
