May The Fourth Be With You All – GameTrailers.com’s Star Wars Game Retrospective May 4, 2015

I’ve long held high regard for GameTrailers.com’s excellent Retrospectives series.  They’re incredibly researched, well scripted, well edited and excellently narrated videos which rival television’s quality.  A few years ago, GameTrailers was working on an epic-length ten part video Retrospective on Star Wars video games in honor of the upcoming release of The Force Unleashed.  Only the Final Fantasy franchise has seen more episodes produced for their own Retrospective.  This was an incredible undertaking which took several months to fully release.

I questioned the chronology of the retrospectives, because for some reason GameTrailers chose to feature games based on the prequel series before games based on the original trilogy, even though the games on the original trilogy were produced years earlier.  They also lumped together some games that I didn’t think went well together, but that’s just my opinion.  The retrospective is still very well produced and has some great information you may not be aware of!

You can watch the entire Star Wars Retrospective here on GameTrailers.com.  It is over three hours in length, so make sure to set some time aside before you start watching it.

Ultima VIII: Pagan Now Free Through Origin On the House April 28, 2015

The guys at EA have gone from offering one of the greatest games from their classic back catalog…to one of the worst games from their classic back catalog.  EA is now offering the Gold Edition of Ultima VIII: Pagan, one of the worst games in the Ultima series, for free on the Origin digital distribution service.

Like with all games offered through Origin On the House, the game can be purchased, downloaded and played completely free of charge.  You only need to download the free Origin client and create a free Origin account to take advantage of the promotion, and you can do both of those things right here.  Once downloaded, the game will continue to remain on your Origin account, even if you delete it.

If you haven’t played this game and want to know what you’re in for, I recommend Spoony’s Review.

Silent Hills Officially Cancelled April 28, 2015

Ever since Konami started to distance itself from all references to the name of the Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, gamers everywhere justifiably became concerned about what Hideo Kojima’s future was with Konami. Not only was his development studio working on the latest Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, it was also working on a new game in the Silent Hill franchise, Silent Hills, with Hellboy‘s director, Guillermo del Toro.

Silent Hills was announced shortly after the Sony Playstation GamesCom 2015 Press Event. At that event, Sony showed a teaser for a game called P.T., and encouraged all their PS4 owners to download the game for free on the Playstation Store. Hours after the event concluded, players stumbled unto the truth behind P.T., and discovered it was a teaser for Silent Hills, a game which would be developed by Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and would star Norman Reedus.  The Internet, hungry for a new Silent Hill game, went crazy.  This was like a dream project.

However, in the past few weeks, users everywhere has been noticing Konami had been removing Hideo Kojima’s name from their websites, and gamers became concerned that Kojima had left Konami or had been fired. While Konami and Kojima stood firm that there would be no problems with the upcoming release of MGS V: The Phantom Pain, this still begged the question as to what the status was for his other game project, Silent Hills.  This past weekend, del Toro was asked about the project and said it had been disbanded. Today, Konami confirmed that statement was true.

The P.T. demo is expected to get pulled from the Playstation Store on the 29th of April. If you have a PS4 and haven’t downloaded it, get it right now before its gone forever.

What does the future hold for Silent Hill?  Konami says they still plan to make future games for the franchise. Hopefully this gives them the incentive to reassemble Team Silent.

Batman: Arkham Knight “All Who Follow You” Trailer April 28, 2015

We are less than two months away from the release of Batman: Arkham Knight, the very first game in the incredible Batman: Arkham series to hit the next generation consoles.  Before today, we had a good idea of this game’s cast of villains, but we had no idea the scope of allies that Batman would have with him this time around.  Take a look!

Batman: Arkham Knight is coming June 2015 to the PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Video Showcase April 24, 2015

When the Wii U was first showcased, Nintendo had a lot of footage to offer for several of the platform’s upcoming games.  Among those titles, a game simply called X got a lot of hype.  It was being developed by the studio which had made the Xenoblade franchise, and the visuals looked absolutely stunning for the Wii U.  Within a few months, Nintendo confirmed that X would be part of the Xenoblade series when they announced its full title, Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Today, Nintendo gave us a closer look at Xenoblade Chronicles X.  Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Bill from Nintendo.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is coming exclusively to the Wii U.

Reminder: International StreetPass Week Continues Until April 26th April 23, 2015

Last week, Nintendo released two new titles for the Nintendo 3DS which took advantage of the system’s StreetPass functionality.  These games require players to be in proximity with other 2DS/3DS owners for a short time, so they can use other people’s Miis to complete the StreetPass games.

For years now, Nintendo has offered 3DS and 2DS owners unable to find other players locally the opportunity to still obtain StreetPass Tags using specially equipped Nintendo Zone locations.  By bringing your Nintendo handheld to one of these locations, you will get free internet connectivity automatically on your device, and StreetPass tags for as many as the past six StreetPass users.  You can usually find these Nintendo Zone locations in various businesses such as McDonalds, Best Buy, Starbucks and AT&T stores.

However, StreetPass relays will only grant players access to the Miis of the people who physically visited that location before them, meaning it is tougher to obtain StreetPass tags from new users using this method.  This week users won’t have that problem.   Nintendo is designating this week International StreetPass Week, and any user who brings their Nintendo handheld to a designated Nintendo Zone location until April 26th can participate. Users will be given as many as six random StreetPass tags from Nintendo users across the world. 

This is not only perfect timing for StreetPass users hoping to do well on the new StreetPass Plaza games, but it’s great for new 3DS players who may have just recently picked up the New Nintendo 3DS XL and want to make up progress in games like Find Mii.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Update 8 Released April 21, 2015

Since it’s launch, Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been a colossal disappointment with its wide array of bugs, multiplayer connection issues, and the months of waiting that players have had to endure for 343 Industries to finally fix them.  Today, Microsoft and 343 Industries have released the eighth patch for the game, and boy does it have a lot of fixes in it.  You can read the official patch notes here.

343 Industries promises that the promised gifts for the game’s early adopters (the full Halo 3: ODST single player campaign and a remake of the Halo 2 multiplayer map Relic) will be launching next month with the game’s NEXT title update.  Is this it?  Is the game finally stable now?

If you’ve previously had the most recent version of the game installed, you should be looking at a download of slightly over 1.6 GB.  You must install this patch if you plan to play your game online.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is out now exclusively on the Xbox One.

PS4 Software Update 2.51 Released April 21, 2015

Sony has just released a new update for the Playstation 4, version 2.51. The new update includes several fixes and optimizations for the PS4’s internal software.

The software update can be downloaded automatically while your PS4 is in standby, or you can simply download it manually from the System Menu. If you previously had the most recent software installed on your PS4 the new update shouldn’t be larger than a 250MB download.

You must download the new system update to access the Playstation Network.

Exclusive Spartan Locke Multiplayer Armor For Anyone Who Preorders Halo 5: Guardians at GameStop April 20, 2015

GameStop has just announced that they are going to offer a special incentive to anyone who plans to preorder Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One, Spartan Locke’s armor set for use in multiplayer. What is this armor going to look like in action?  Let’s take a look.

Halo 5: Guardians is coming October 27th, 2015 exclusively on the Xbox One.

Reminder: Xbox Live Gold Members Don’t Forget to Download Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel for Free April 20, 2015

Microsoft is offering two major Xbox 360 titles for download in the second half of April 2015 completely free of charge for all Xbox Live Gold Members through their Games With Gold Promotion.

As of April 16th, 2015 the full versions of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel can be downloaded on the Xbox 360 completely free of charge through the Xbox Live Marketplace if you are a current Xbox Live Gold subscriber.  If you haven’t downloaded the games yet, you can still get them until the end of April.

Like with all games downloaded on the Xbox 360 through Games with Gold, as long as you download them during the promotional period that they are free, they will remain redownloadable through your account forever, even if your Xbox Live Gold subscription expires.