Atlus announced Persona 5 for the PS3 this week as well as a spinoff for the 3DS, we go through the highs and lows of the Xbox One launch and rumors of an open-world Star Wars game from EA surface!
Update: Sony has temporarily disabled the option to redeem vouchers through PlayStation Network in a bid to ensure a smoother service.
"To minimise the inconvenience we have suspended the 'redeem voucher' functionality whilst we investigate further. Unfortunately this means that money cards, product vouchers, PlayStation Plus vouchers, PS3-PS4 upgrade vouchers and any other vouchers for digital content are not redeemable at this stage," said Sony. "Other PSN features such as log-in, online multi-player gaming, PlayStation Plus trial, PS Store (excluding voucher redemption), trophies, messages, friends etc. are all available."
Original story: PlayStation Network in Europe has collapsed under the weight of users attempting to connect their new PlayStation 4 consoles to the service, following the launch of the machine in the region today.
"We are aware some users are experiencing issues logging into PSN on PS4 due to the heavy traffic we are receiving, we're investigating," said Sony on the PlayStation Europe Twitter account.
"Thanks for your patience."
Sony attempted to lessen the potential outages yesterday by disabling the What's New and Content Information screens on PlayStation Network in Europe, but Twitter and the Sony forums are currently awash with tales of people unable to connect.
One of the main things people will be looking for is the initial update for the PlayStation 4, which enables many of the machine's services and features. Anyone looking to manually install the machine's day one update can do from Sony's site, provided they have some USB storage handy.
The 1.51 update weighs in at 308mb, so any stick made in the 21st century should suffice.
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Sifting through all of the Black Friday ads to separate the great deals from the simply OK can take a lot of time, so we did the work for you. Below, you'll find the best in-store deals we could scrounge up to help you put together your own buying game plan for when Friday, November 29 rolls around.
Console and Portable Deals
Xbox 360 250GB Bundle -- $189.99
Comes with: Tomb Raider, Batman Arkahm City, Halo 4, Darksiders 2
Where: Best Buy
Alternate: Basic Xbox 360 4GB at Wal-mart for $99
You can also find a bundle with just Tomb Raider and Halo 4 at most retailers.
PS3 Slim 250GB Bundle -- $199.99
Comes with: The Last of Us and Batman Arkham Origins
Where: Best Buy, Wal-mart, GameStop, Amazon, Target, Fry's, and Toys R Us
Alternate: Basic PS3 12GB at Wal-Mart for $149.99
Nintendo 3DSXL Bundle --$149.99
Comes with: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Nintendo 3DS Bundle with Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon $149.99 (Toy 'R Us and Best Buy)
Nintendo 2DS at Wal-Mart for $99
Wii U Deluxe Bundle -- $319.97
Comes with: Super Mario U, New Super Luigi U, Nintendo Land, and Mario or Luigi Wii Remote Plus
Where: Best Buy
UK Special -- Wii U Premium Mario Mega Bundle
Not to leave out anyone living in the UK, Nintendo is offering a special Wii U bundle through the Nintendo UK Online Store.
Comes with: Super Mario 3D World, New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Luigi U, Mario Hat, Mario Wii Remote Plus, free delivery.
Services
PlayStation Plus 1 year subscription
Price: $29.99
Where: GameStop, Amazon.com, Wal-mart, Toys 'R Us, Best Buy, Groupon.com
Xbox Live Gold 3 month membership
Price: $10
Where: Target
Or you can get one year for the same price in one fell swoop ($39.99) from the Microsoft store.
Individual Game Deals
Wal-mart will have a number of games on sale from 6pm - 7pm If any of these items sell out in the first hour, Wal-mart will offer a Guarantee Card for the item, ensuring that the product will be shipped to your store for you before Christmas.
Call of Duty: Ghosts -- $39.96
Grand Theft Auto V -- $34 (also available at Amazon.com)
Batman: Arkham Origins -- $34 (also available at Amazon.com)
NBA 2K14 -- $34
The following sales are in place while supplies last:
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag -- $29.99 (Best Buy)
Battlefield 4 -- 24.99 (Amazon.com and GameStop, Friday only)
Beyond: Two Souls -- $25 (Wal-mart)
Disney Infinity Starter pack -- $37.49 (Toys 'R Us)
FIFA 14 -- $25 (Wal-mart and Amazon.com)
Just Dance 4 -- $14.99 (GameStop, Friday only)
Last of Us -- $25 (Wal-mart)
Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack -- $37.49 (Toys 'R Us)
Also, be sure to check out the Amazon site for their current Black Friday countdown deals, which will continue for the next two weeks.
We'll also update this page with additional deals as we get closer to Black Friday on November 29, but you should keep a close eye on both Amazon and Steam. Amazon has a wide-range of deals starting now and going through the holidays, and Steam will have some good discounts around Black Friday (though the discounts don't tend to dive quite as deep as the summer and winter sales).
Credit to BFAds.net for unreleased deal information.
Have you found an even better deal than? Let us know in the comments!
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Beneath the surface of Mars lies tranquility. The exotic planet houses valuable minerals amid the impenetrable rocks, and as you survey the vast subterranean world, a serenity washes over you. It's not the treasures that drive you many leagues below the surface, nor is it the promise of unraveling a mysterious conspiracy. No, it's the desire for solitude that serves as your motivation. A calm that can only exist when the tight spaces surrounding you provide comfort, rather than claustrophobia, and every clump of dirt you push aside puts you one meter further from civilization. There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Of course, you weren't set to Mars to unwind from the everyday toils of life on Earth. The unquenchable greed of a starving corporation shuttled you to this distant oasis. The Solarus Corporation craves money, its very existence dependent upon expanding its already bursting coffers. And so you dig for gold and silver, trigger explosions, and circumvent magma, all to keep the powers that be happy. It's a thankless job, so you find respite where you can, but their presence is a constant reminder. The dreamy contentment of rhythmic mining is shattered when voices scream in your ear, extolling you to dive ever deeper. As if there was any other direction to travel. Hints of psychotic episodes infecting those already stationed below ground, of alien civilizations threatened by your largesse, offer more distraction than intrigue, and never blossom into fulfilling tales.
So you tune out the noise. Your capable driller eliminates debris as quickly as it can soar up vertical passageways. Carve tunnels beneath the two-dimensional landscape, shifting away dirt in strategic paths to ensure that whatever mineral you desire becomes yours. Smart planning leads to copious rewards. As mobile as your driller is, it's unable to burrow while hovering, so if you're not careful, troves of platinum and emeralds might rest within sight but out of reach, repeatedly lecturing you for being so sloppy. A feeling of accomplishment washes over you as you scoop up the many minerals that populate this world. There's little guidance in how best to proceed, so when you figure out how to make the many gems and minerals yours, you feel as if you earned whatever spills into your purse.
There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Your driller is agile, yes, but also fragile. Without enemies to fear, it's your own carelessness that provides the biggest danger. Even with this knowledge, it's easy to forget about your own vulnerability. The lone propeller atop your craft provides surprising lift, and as you careen joyfully toward the surface, smashing into an ill-placed rock can lead to a quick grave. However, punishment won't leave much of a mark. Your cargo is unceremoniously taken away, but you're allowed to carry on undeterred. It's your driller's other failings that provide the most distress. Fuel is as valuable as anything on Mars, and your cargo hold is quite small. As you quickly eat away at your gasoline and extra space, your driller soon becomes useless. So you must resurface to the nearest station, where you unload your goods and refill. This is a frequent and unsatisfying necessity of life underground. And though you can purchase expensive teleporters, you spend too much time drifting between your base and the excavation site.
At least you can make use of all of the money you're accumulating. Upgrade your driller when you return back to base to extend its life ever so slightly. Expand the cargo hold and fuel tank, strengthen your hull, and improve the speed of your craft. Sink money into a radar to be able to identify which debris is desirable, and what's just dirt. Unfortunately, the radar isn't much help. The more money you spend on it, the more focused it becomes, but it's rarely detailed enough to provide information that you couldn't gleam from just using your eyes. At least the other upgrades offer more tangible rewards. The option to smelt materials provides the most interesting upgrade. Your smelter unlocks combinations that can earn you money much quicker. By nabbing materials in a specific pattern, you automatically forge alloys, which adds a dose of strategy to your shoveling duties.
What devilish person set up such intricate traps a mile below Mars' surface?
As you dive deeper below the surface, the terrain becomes more difficult to navigate. Rocks and magma halt your progress, so you must find clever ways to avoid them. That's where bombs come in. By either picking up bombs while digging or purchasing them at shops, you gain an invaluable way to borrow deeper. Be careful, though, because a sizable C4 blast could eliminate nearby pockets of gold even though you were trying to disintegrate some rocks. So, just like in real life, you should do a bit of planning before you detonate your explosives. T-shaped blasts are perfect for carving out a niche to dig while vertical strikes can clear an entire column in a snap. Charge certain blocks with an electromagnetic jolt to turn them into magma, and then either use a bomb to clear that lava out of the way, or drill through it yourself while taking some damage. Super Motherload hides its puzzle elements in the early going, but if you want to become the richest person on Mars, you have to become a thoughtful and willing arsonist.
There's beauty in loneliness. Super Motherload is at its best when you're miles below Mars' surface, lost in the peaceful rhythm of excavation. But if that solitude frightens you, three of your friends can join you in your quest for minerals. Just don't get your hopes up for online friendships to blossom; Super Motherload is offline only. No matter if you're alone or with friends, there's an uncommon appeal to your extraterrestrial exploits. There's no excitement here, nothing that will make you whoop or yell. The draw comes from the slow satisfaction of carving intricate paths, of razing rocks and planting bombs. It's thoughtful desolation. Super Motherload somehow makes alienation feel like a warm embrace.
At CES in 2001, Microsoft boldy unveiled its first gaming console, the Xbox, putting the desktop software giant in direct competition with Sony, a successful hardware company with a proven and popular line of gaming consoles. In a market dominated by Japanese manufacturers, the Xbox immediately stood out. It was massive, and featured forward-thinking components like an internal hard drive and integrated Ethernet. Exactly one year later, Xbox Live came to life and ignited a digital revolution of downloadable content and broadband-fueled multiplayer. For Microsoft, there was no looking back. In 2010, it took another stab at innovation with Kinect, the sophisticated camera array that promised full body motion detection and speech recognition. Sadly, due to strict lighting and space requirements, on top of middling software integration, original Kinect failed to deliver on its full potential.
Then, along comes Xbox One, and with it, Kinect 2.0. Microsoft's next-gen console relies heavily on the new Kinect and an 8 core CPU for voice-controlled multitasking. Its HDMI passthrough port allows for advanced cable and satellite TV integration, and Kinect's IR blaster and face recognition promise a seamless, personal TV viewing experience. It's also, of course, a gaming console first and foremost, but by requiring all users to pay for a Kinect upfront, Microsoft's messaging and direction has led to confusion over its priorities. The ultimate test will be whether the additional functionality adds to the gaming experience, or detracts from it.
Superficially, the Xbox One looks like more than an average gaming console. It's big and glossy, and likely to dominate any device in your home theater setup, save a high-end AV receiver. Unlike the Xbox 360, the Xbox One has to remain flat, a caveat Microsoft has attributed to both ventilation and the Xbox One's slot-loading drive, but it's an unfortunate limitation given the sheer size of the console. The Kinect camera isn't small either, and though it's optional, omitting it from the setup removes a lot of Xbox One's definitive functionality.
The Xbox 360 controller earned high praise during the last console generation, and Xbox One's controller retains many of that controller's positive aspects. The layout is mostly the same, except that the Xbox guide button is now known as the home button, and has been moved higher up on the controller. Similarly, the start and back buttons have been renamed to the menu and view buttons, respectively. Disappointingly, the bumpers, RB and LB, are too stiff towards the center of the controller.
Less obvious features of the Xbox One controller reside within its matte-black exterior, including vibration motors for each trigger and infrared emitters that work in conjunction with Kinect to provide motion controls in place of embedded accelerometers or gyroscopes. Though there's little evidence that this inclusion will have a meaningful impact, the force feedback in the triggers has already been put to good use in games such as Forza Motorsport 5, where they inform the players understanding of road conditions and traction, or loss there of.
Every controller can be used in a wired or wireless fashion thanks to the addition of a micro-USB port. You get the best of both worlds, though you still need to provide your own AA batteries for wireless functionality. There are rechargable battery packs for Xbox One controllers, but they aren't included with standard retail units, and must be purchased separately or in a special controller bundle.
The third key piece of Xbox One hardware, the Kinect 2.0, is easily the most interesting of the lot. Now, with lax space requirements, additional high resolution sensors and improved speech recognition, the Kinect of today is a vast improvement over the original model. The Xbox One operating system can respond to dozens of voice commands through Kinect, allowing you to manage multiple windows and tasks, and you can even use it to adjust the volume on your TV, or better, turn your entire entertainment setup on with the utterance of "Xbox On."
The caveat here is that you have you speak with the right cadence and tone for the Xbox One to respond accordingly. It's up to you to learn the best way to communicate with it, but even after a few weeks, it quite often fails to work the first time everytime. That said, there's nothing quite like it when the Xbox One manages to consistently respond to your commands. Switching between TV, Skype calls, and games, without picking up a controller or changing inputs on your TV, feels new and exciting. The first time the Xbox One tailors itself to your voice, showing only your content and friends, it leaves an impression that won't soon wash away. That is, until the next time it fails to work.
Thus is the dilemma in regards to Kinect. It has a lot of potential, and is designed with the future in mind, but if it isn't consistent, people will quickly revert back to using the controller for navigation. Who in their right mind wants to yell at their TV, repeatedly commanding, "Xbox. Bing Assassin's Creed?" Considering that Microsoft is leaning so heavily on these features to sell the Xbox One, it'll be interesting to see how they can improve it down the road. At launch, it's still a bit too underwhelming and inconsistent to be considered a triumph for the troubled Kinect line. Unfortunate, given that the Xbox One costs $500, in part due to the mandatory inclusion of the camera.
The guts of the Xbox One are the product of a collaboration with processor giant AMD, resulting in a hybrid CPU and GPU, known as the APU. The 8-core CPU module, based on AMD's Jaguar line, boasts a 1.75 GHz clock-rate. With multiple cores on hand, the Xbox One can simultaneously handle tasks in the fore and background, resulting in a new level of console-based multitasking.
On the same chip as the CPU sits a GPU based on AMD's Radeon technology, and here is where the Xbox One's architecture gets interesting. Like the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One comes with 8 GB of RAM, but it's the slower and cheaper DDR3 variety, compared to the PlayStation 4's GDDR5. To account for the Xbox One's lackluster memory bandwidth, calculated at ~ 68 GB/s, Microsoft opted to include 32 MB of hyperfast ESRAM on the APU, taking up valuable space that would otherwise have allowed for a mightier GPU, in order to offset the slower speed of DDR3.
On one hand, the inclusion of ESRAM helps speed along simple non-gaming tasks. On the other, its presence on the APU has effectively neutered the GPU's potential. For such a critical component of a next-gen gaming system, this is odd. The ESRAM acts as the middleman between the DDR3 modules and the APU, and it helps to boost memory speeds a bit, but even so, the combination isn't enough to match Sony's GDDR5-packed PlayStation 4. This may not matter to customers wooed by the Xbox One's extra-entertainment features, which Sony can't begin to match, but for anyone who values gaming performance above all, the Xbox One is at a disadvantage in terms of graphics capabilities from a raw numbers perspective.
For technical reasons relating to multitasking and the limitations of Blu-ray drives, every Xbox One game has to be installed to the system's internal hard drive. At 500 GB, there's room for a lot of games, and the operating system features dynamic storage management to mitigate running out of space, but like the last generation, storage needs inevitably grow over the course of a console generation.
Sadly, Xbox One users are not allowed to upgrade the internal drive to something faster or larger. Even if you void the warranty and physically replace the hard drive, your new drive won't work without the necessary security sectors from the original drive. Microsoft promises that support for external storage is coming down the road, and while that's a good option to have, external hard drives are a clunky last resort. Ultimately, customers should be allowed to replace hard drives, and it's a shame to see that this isn't a feature of the Xbox One.
Once again, Microsoft has excluded Bluetooth from it's console, relying instead on Wi-Fi direct, a standard that enables Wi-Fi devices to connect with each other without the need for an access point in the middle. It's a useful feature, but rarely used, and the result is that most devices for the Xbox One will likely come directly from Microsoft. Elsewhere, the Xbox One Wi-Fi radio uses the 802.11n standard. The good news is that it takes advantage of modern frequency bands in the 5 GHz range, resulting in an increase in range and signal strength, a feature that Sony failed to include in the PlayStation 4.
The back of the Xbox One reveals a range of interesting and useful ports. Of course, you'll find the standard Ethernet port, HDMI-out, two USB 3.0 ports, and an optical audio connection, but most interesting are the infrared-out and HDMI-in ports. They are unusual for a console, but key to the Xbox One's extended media functionality. Most importantly, the HDMI-in port allows you to watch TV through your console, working in conjunction with the Kinect to provide an unusually personal experience.
Truthfully, almost anything you plug into the HDMI-in port on the Xbox One will function within the console's TV app, but Microsoft has designed features for use explicitly with cable and satellite boxes. Once you connect either to the HDMI port, you can choose your service provider and navigate the channel guide directly on the Xbox One. It communicates with your cable or satellite box using the Kinect's infrared blaster for a seamless blending of television and gaming in one device. The Kinect's ability to detect who's in the room, and specifically who's talking, allows for the creation of personalized channel lists, a feature that will prove invaluable for families who watch a lot of TV.
Xbox Live, the online service that made Xbox a household name, returns with the Xbox One, once again requiring people to pay a fee for online gaming and media streaming. The good news is that the Xbox One is tightly integrated with SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud service, allowing you to share content between your Xbox One and PCs, including gameplay clips and pictures. This ties into the Xbox One's ability to record, edit, and share gameplay clips.
With the Kinect, you can easily capture a video of your last thirty seconds of gameplay by saying "Xbox. Record that." The resulting clip is then uploaded to your SkyDrive. The downside to this whole process is that you are required to go to a PC in order share the video with others. With the discrete Game DVR app, you can manually access the last five minutes of gameplay with tools to edit and abridge your footage with audio or picture-in-picture video commentary.
Being able to share your gameplay clips with the internet at large is enticing, but the need to access a PC in order to do so feels cumbersome and ultimately detracts from the experience. As desired as this feature is, it pales in comparison to the ability to stream live video content, a feat Microsoft promises will come to the Xbox One in the near future. Here, Sony has Microsoft beaten with direct support for Twitch.TV and Ustream right out of the box.
Taking everything into account, the Xbox One has impressive potential, but it's disappointingly unrealized at launch. The increased performance of the new Kinect affords the console a unique blend of special features and innovative player interaction, though it's inconsistent and unreliable. Elsewhere, the Xbox One lacks the power of its competitor, the PlayStation 4, due in part to an unusual combination of RAM, and the difference is tangible, with many launch games running at 720p on the Xbox One versus 1080p on the PlayStation 4. On the plus side, Xbox One and Kinect improve the TV-viewing experience by conveniently integrating it into a console. In this regard, the Xbox One offers a valuable next-gen experience if you value television watching as much as gaming. Unfortunately, the Xbox One is designed around that unique feature set, ultimately forcing gaming-focused consumers to make compromises if they decide to make the leap.
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Luxuria Superbia is a strange artistic and emotional experiment, coyly blending abstract, vibrant visuals with libidinous imagery and themes. You delve into flower-shaped tunnels, coaxing the pale walls to life by opening flower buds, which burst open with images tied to the stage's theme. But overly simplistic controls and a refusal to evolve forces the game into the realm of tedium, turning this colorful ride into a tiring venture.
The game is tongue-in-cheek regarding its sensual nature, but the signals are clear. The uncomplicated soundtrack is highlighted by descant hums and sighs, while phrases such as "Touch me" and "Keep going" appear in the center of the screen. Progress is demonstrated with a bumpy border enveloping the edge of the screen, and with color slowly climbing a tall pillar with a large, rounded cap, which erupts in varied images upon reaching fulfillment.
Progress is shown with a series of phallic pillars.
You open the flower buds utilizing a twin-stick controller, or two fingers when using a touchscreen device. Points are attributed by keeping the pulsating walls rich in color, and this concept does offer a slight challenge. The game insists on a delicate touch; prodding without delicacy ends the round prematurely. The goal is to keep the walls flushed, but sometimes it's necessary to back off and let the pace relax, gradually causing the walls to lose color until stimulated again.
The game's resistance to offering anything new beyond its simple concept hinders it from reaching a satisfying release.
Each stage is based on a theme, such as green fields with flowers.
The longer you traverse the tunnel, the more points you accumulate. An icon on the screen shows how many points you have gained, as well as how close you are to acquiring one of the stage's three medals: bronze, silver, or gold. When you reach the gold medal, the next stage opens up upon revisiting the menu. There are 12 stages in total, each of which has a different motif, from grassy green fields of birds and bees to the dark lavender of space. But it is not the stages or themes that ultimately bog the game down. The main problem Luxuria Superbia faces is that it's not particularly engaging--at least, not for long.
There are 12 stages in all, each themed after a color in the rainbow.
In Luxuria Superbia, your only battle is your fight with boredom. From your foray into the first tunnel to the final climax, the pace remains stagnant. The game's mechanics are easy to pick up after a few failed attempts, but there is no evolution beyond the first stage. Where some games would change in parallel to your progress, Luxuria doesn't step beyond its comfort zone. After the first two stages, any sense of amusement quickly tapers off as you begin to realize that, though the number of walls increase, each stage is functionally the same. Luxuria gets tiresome and repetitive, and it takes effort not to nod off while completing some of the lengthy stages later in the game.
There is no incentive to complete each stage to full. Earning a gold medal allows you to continue, but unless you're a completionist, filling the pillar offers no reward. The game yields nothing else after completing each pillar to its top, and there is little reason to play through the game again. Your overall experience may improve if you decide to jump into the game with a partner, who can play with a second controller or offer a second finger with a touchscreen device. While this may result in some extra laughs and enjoyment, it doesn't take long to have two people yawning, instead of just one. Luxuria Superbia's unusual premise roused my interest early, but the game's resistance to offering anything new beyond its simple concept hinders it from finding a satisfying rhythm.
An animation director job posting from October says EA Canada is developing a "major new next-gen open-world action game." What's more, a former recruiter for EA Canada tweeted a link to a combat designer job, mentioning that the position was for a Star Wars project.
EA Canada is now the third EA-owned outfit known to be working on Star Wars games as part of the publisher's ten-year deal with Disney. DICE is working on an all-new Star Wars Battlefront for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, while the project from Dead Space studio Visceral Games, described as a "core" game, remains officially unannounced.
It is possible that EA Canada's open-world Star Wars game is the same title in development at Visceral Games, as the animation director job ad calls for a person with "mutli-site development" experience. What's more, few AAA games today are developed by one studio alone. In the case of Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar put more than 1,000 developers to work on the open-world game from its network of studios.
As a mutant, Gambit possesses the ability to convert the potential energy in an object into destructive kinetic energy. Check him out in the latest trailer for Marvel Heroes.
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Jess gets very shrill while Ed varies between having his head sawn off and shooting down flying axes in mid-air. Warning: cartoon animals were harmed in the making of this highlights reel.
Bucking the trend of black boxes, PC developer iBuyPower revealed the first images of their prototype Steam Machine: a white box.
Engadget reports that the system is set to launch in 2014 and "the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps." No other details were revealed about the hardware, but iBuyPower did show off two variations of their white box. When not illuminated, the light bar in the middle is clear on one machine and black on the other. One has been codenamed Gordan and the other Freeman.
The machine runs an early version of Steam OS, but "it's not quite a finished product," writes Engadget. Valve has previously revealed the general specs for the Steam Machines, but with CES just around the corner, we'll have even more info (and hands-on with the systems) then.
Golf might be the very definition of a game that is simple conceptually, but exceptionally difficult to master. It's this mix of simplicity and challenge that makes golf video games so captivating, when they get it right. Which Powerstar Golf does--mostly. There's nothing revolutionary here, but Powerstar Golf is an absorbing game in the tradition of the Hot Shots Golf series, with some fun competitive features and a loot system that offers you enticing rewards for your progress, but can also be stingy with the goods.
When you first fire up Powerstar Golf, you have access to only two golfers and one course, the leisurely City Park. Each golfer has his or her own unique ability that can be used a set number of times in each event. Scientist Reiko Kobayashi's Tesla field, for instance, puts just a teensy bit of magnetic pull on the hole, giving you a slight edge when putting, while retired astronaut Frank Weaver's rocket launch ability lets him send balls flying farther than they would otherwise. These characters and the others you can unlock have a fashion sense and an angular look that make the game feel as if it takes place in some idealized vision of the 1950s.
It's at City Park that you learn the basics--how swings are performed by tapping to start, tapping again to set the swing's power, and tapping one last time for accuracy. It's a straightforward approach to swinging, and just tricky enough that nailing the power and accuracy of a shot never stops feeling great. Simple as it is, though, it becomes quite complicated when you realize you have to take factors like wind and terrain into account. It's your struggle against these factors that makes success on the links so satisfying, but Powerstar Golf doesn't go far enough in helping you to understand the tools at your disposal. Brief tutorial videos introduce you to concepts like putting spin on the ball to curve your shot and to the properties of pitch shots and chip shots. But at no point does the game illuminate the difference between a 3 wood and a 5 wood, or explain why you might want to use a 9 iron for certain shots and a 4 iron for others. Since the game doesn't shy away from many of the complexities of real golf in its mechanics, it's a shame that you can't say the same about the tutorials.
Though the game doesn't go far enough in its efforts to help you succeed on the golf course, it does make your successes, large and small, feel like a cause for celebration. On every shot you take, you can see markers on the course indicating your previous personal best, as well as the best performances among your friends, and even the world record. The game tracks things like the longest drive, the closest approach within 75 yards, and the closest approach beyond 150 yards. And each time you beat your own personal best for longest putt or anything else, the previous marker for your performance vanishes and is replaced with a new one as the game celebrates your achievement. The game finds little ways to make you feel good, even when you're having a bad day on the course.
You don't know anguish until you get a triple bogey.
It's on the green where most of your dreams are realized or shattered, where your heart sinks as a chance at a birdie turns into a double bogey when you miscalculate the left slope in the terrain or overcompensate for an uphill climb. But if the game of golf (and of Powerstar Golf) couldn't conjure such heartbreak, the victories wouldn't be as sweet, and the difficulty of putting properly means that when you do sink that birdie from a distance, you feel like a champ.
As you play, you level up, unlocking new courses and new career events, though the process can take a while. You may be eager to see what challenges await in the lush Emperor's Garden course or in the tropical and volcanic Burning Sands course while you're still stuck only having access to City Park and the autumnal Rocky Ridge. Leveling up isn't enough, in and of itself, to get you access to additional golfers. For that, you must defeat each of them in career events on their home course, and these events can be devilishly difficult. Two-thirds of the game's playable characters require you to win tough events before you can access them, and you might tire of playing those nine-hole contests over and over again in a bid to unlock them.
You can improve your performance with gear that you purchase using credits you earn during play, but you can't just pick out a more precise putter or a more powerful set of irons. Instead, you buy packs that contain five items, and each item could be gear, or a onetime-use booster (a 20 percent boost to the experience you earn, for instance), or a new equippable perk for your caddie (a 50 percent chance for the ball to skip on the surface of a water hazard, perhaps), or even just a new outfit for a golfer or caddie. The element of chance makes it exciting to fork over your credits and see what you end up with, and the color coding of items in the green-blue-purple-orange tier system familiar from so many loot-driven role-playing games makes getting the rare, high-end stuff especially exciting.
To spend, or not to spend?
At least, until you rack up enough credits that you can buy packs guaranteed to contain nothing but orange-colored "extreme" gear. Acquiring that many credits, however, would take an extremely long time, given the slow pace at which the game doles them out. As it is, you can purchase a pack of blue "pro" gear after every few events and purple "elite" gear after every several, and there's always a chance these packs will include a few items from the next tier up. But the game is just stingy enough about doling out credits to nudge you toward purchasing them with real money. This option isn't yet active in the game's online store, but there's already a button prompt for it, so it's likely coming very soon.
Thankfully, Powerstar Golf makes your time on the links enjoyable, whether or not you have any interest in sinking money into microtransactions to get some extra goodies. This game covers well-trodden territory, but the way that it tracks your performance and the performance of your friends makes it a fine fit for the Xbox One's launch lineup, and a pleasant way to spend some time. So long as your idea of pleasant doesn't preclude the anguish that can come with a missed putt or a miscalculated swing that sends your ball plummeting into the water.
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We answer your questions about Microsoft's just launched console and hopefully educate you in the process about something you may not have known about the XBOX One.
GameStop today officially announced its lineup of Black Friday deals, including Battlefield 4 for $25 and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bundles for $200, after the list leaked last month.
Unlike many retailers, GameStop will not open on Thanksgiving Day "out of respect for our store associates and their families," the retailer said. Instead, the majority of the retailer's 4,000+ stores will open at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, November 29.
Some of the biggest deals are listed below. Be sure to check out the original leaked list for all of the deals you can expect from the retailer.
Xbox 360 250GB bundle including Halo 4 and Tomb Raider only $199 (Friday only)
PS3 250GB bundle including The Last of Us and Batman: Arkham Origins only $199 (Friday only)
Battlefield 4 for only $24.99 (Friday only)
Just Dance 4 for only $14.99 (Friday only)
Sophix 7" tablet only $69.98 (Friday only)
Buy two pre-owned items get one free (includes games, accessories, systems and electronics)
Pre-Owned Xbox 360+20GB Hard Drive and Extra Wireless Controller for $99.99
Black Friday is just the beginning for GameStop and other retailers. The retailer will also hold special deals on Cyber Monday, though GameStop has not disclosed these yet. For more on all-things Black Friday, check out GameSpot's Best Black Friday deals roundup.
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With digital photographs, the art is now in creating black and white images. This course will teach you how to use Photoshop techniques to create beautiful images.
Corrinne Yu's LinkedIn profile indicates that she has moved from her position as Principal Engine Architect at Microsoft's Halo 4 developer, 343 Industries, to Uncharted developer Naughty Dog.
At this time we don't know what project she is working, but her position is listed as "Graphics Coding on PS4." However, during the launch event for Sony's new console Naughty Dog announced that it's currently developing Uncharted 4, a PlayStation 4 exclusive.
Yu has an extremely impressive résumé with a number of awards and notable credits to her name. Prior to her role at Microsoft she was the director of Technology at Gearbox where she worked on Borderlands. She is also a founding member of Microsoft's Direct 3D Advisory Board.
This week in New Releases we go back to revisit a few games that didn't get enough love; Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Tearaway. We also talk about the new State of Decay DLC and Nether.
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