Leaky Faucet - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Out November 14th

Literally the best I could do. Destructoid has their pictures watermarked.

There was to be a massive announcement on Sunday morning about the next iteration in the Call of Duty series - this time developed my Sledgehammer Games. But some bloke said, "Screw that noise," and leaked a smattering of information on the upcoming game. This includes the supposed trailer that was meant to be shown during the grand reveal, featuring Kevin "Power" Spacey.

According to the leak given to Destructoid, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (not to be confused with this), is set in the future and follows a group of private military soldiers that turn on the United States. The story-based trailer shows Elysium-esque gear that can cloak and scale walls, among other future tech, such as exoskeletons. The mash of Spacey talking politics, and the sci-fi setting actually has me intrigued. Last time I said that about a CoD game was Black Ops II. 

Destructoid has a gallery and a breakdown of how the news came about, which includes Spacey's involvement being confirmed on the Call of Duty Instagram account. 

-- Destructoid, Call of Duty Instagram

Lead Artist Nate Wells Leaves Naughty Dog for Giant Sparrow

In another departure from Naughty Dog, lead artist Nate Wells announced on Twitter that he had left the developer for the team behind The Unfinished Swan, Giant Sparrow. The news comes after former lead writer Amy Henning and game director Justin Richmond left the The Last of Us dev for other avenues. It's been confirmed that Hennig acquired a gig at EA for Visceral Games' upcoming Star Wars game, while Richmond landed at League of Legends team Riot Games.

Wells joined up with Naughty Dog back in August 2012, after a 13-year stint at Irrational Games. Within those two years were ten months working on The Last of Us. It's a strong possibility that Wells will assist in Giant Sparrow's latest project, first announced as Edith Finch, but then re-announced as "Unfinished Giant Sparrow Project." To quote the developers, "it's not a sequel to the Unfinished Swan, but it's not a million miles away either."

Until we hear from Naughty Dog on the matter, all I can say is - What the hell's going on over there?

Sources -- Wells' Twitter, Joystiq

 

MountieGamesCast Episodes 3 - 4: Rifting Threats and Skeleton School

Above unrelated, I just like Log Horizon

We're back to fill your little earholes with random gaming crap once more, and joining us in whatever it is we're doing is Sabrina Hernandez, fellow gamer, Leaguer, and all around awesome character. You'll find Eps 1 and 2 on our Spreaker page soon, meantime, here's the latest:

Recorded April 1st, 2014

We welcome newcomer Sabrina Hernandez to the Cast this week, and find that she can more than handle mine and Julian's shenanigans.

This week - Sabrina gets excited about Mercenary Kings on the PS4, Julian gets his mitts on Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag, and I lose my sh*t for a bit over death-threat-sending morons over the Oculus Rift/Facebook deal. 

We also dive into gaming's April Fool's jokes, give love to the free-to-play games doing it right, and Julian and Sabrina talk DEEP about League of Legends while I nod aimlessly.




Recorded April 8th, 2014

Finally in our proper home in the newsroom, Sabrina joins us again on a day lackin with news coming from the past week.

We still find stuff to talk about though, as Sabrina dives into Mercenary Kings on the PS4, Julian talks about the new FTL: Advanced Edition and Lu Bu's insane swag (read: douchebaginess), and I talk/don't talk about South Park: The Stick of Truth's gnome section.

Elsewhere, Titanfall's 360 version finally gets media...from a stream on Twitch.tv, the Smash Bros Direct brings the release dates, and Julian and Sabrina get into their favorite League players.

Transistor Hits PS4 and PC Next Month

Since Bastion hit digital shelves a few years back, I've been a big fan of Supergiant Games' work. When the trailers and gameplay videos for their new title, Transistor, were released I was more than happy to delve in. Bastion had presented a great balance between gameplay and storytelling, and Transistor seemed to be doing the same with more than just a new environment. The wait, however, has been excruciating.

Thankfully, Supergiant has announced today that Transistor will arrive on the PlayStation 4 and PC on May 20, for $19.99. To recap, the game follows the same overhead style as Bastion, with the ability to stop time and plan moves that immediately execute in real time. Even sweeter is Logan Cunningham's return as the voice inside the titular sword - he voiced Rucks the narrator in Bastion.

Here's some gameplay footage from TotalBiscuit.




-- Supergiant Games

"Facebook creeps me out" - Notch Cancels Minecraft For Oculus Rift After Purchase

Following the news that Facebook picked up Oculus Rift VR for $2 billion bones, Notch (a.k.a. Markus Persson), creator of the ever-popular Minecraft, cancelled the version Mojang was working on for the virtual reality device. In a tweet, Persson said -

We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out.
— Markus Persson (@notch) March 25, 2014

There you have it, and a big name at that. Would love to hear what other developers have to say about the purchase.

-- Notch Twitter

I'm Not Kidding: Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for $2 Billion

Facebook has announced today that they've bought virtual reality company Oculus Rift for $2 billion.

Yeap.

The money has been spread around: $400 million in cash, 2.31 million in Facebook common stock, $300 million earn-out in cash and stock going elsewhere. The deal is going to be finalized in Q2 of 2014.

In a statement, Brendon Irbe, co-founder and CEO of Oculus VR, said that, "We are excited to work with Mark [Zuckerberg] and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world...We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences that connect people in magical, new ways. It is a transformative and disruptive technology, that enables the world to experience the impossible, and it's only just the beginning."

Here's Zuckerberg's full take:

I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we're in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.

This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.

Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.

Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.

But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home.

This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.

These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.

Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming and we have a chance to build it together. I can't wait to start working with the whole team at Oculus to bring this future to the world, and to unlock new worlds for all of us.

I'm sincerely hoping that the purchase doesn't leave in the dust the developers that have been working on the Rift all this time, but this is going to make a lot of waves. It doesn't help that my co-editor jokingly mentions Farmville VR as a title for the technology (foreshadowing).

Jokes aside, the last two major purchases FB made didn't change squat, so strong chance that the same applies here, and that the money is being used to fast track the process in time for the release later this year. This is big, and considering that Sony is closing the gap with their own VR tech, it's going to be an interesting time for the both of them.

-- Facebook, Kotaku, Destructoid

InFamous: Second Son Gets 19 New Missions, Graphics and Performance Tweaks in Day-One Update

InFamous: Second Son is here, and though it's third in the series, it seems to eschew the "tortured protagonist" role that Cole played in the first two in favor of someone who enjoys running around with powers, Delsin. That's what the critics have been saying, at least. The Sucker Punch title has just been updated with some new content that's supposed to add five hours to the game's play time.

Chief among this are the 19 new story missions added to the Paper Trail game and Web storyline. In it, players look to find out the reason behind the D.U.P's occupation of Seattle through the game and investigations on the Web. The story was co-created with ARG company 42 Entertainment, and will trickle down via updates over a six week period. Pre-order folks will get the Cole's Legacy DLC in this update as well, rounding it out to 300 MB.

Here are the full update notes from VideoGamer.com:

Cole's Legacy Content Pack
FREE with pre-order
Explore the events immediately following inFAMOUS 2
Work with an investigative reporter to understand the source of conduit powers
4 story missions, approximately 1 hour of gameplay

inFAMOUS Paper Trail Storyline
FREE bonus missions and exclusive web content
Innovative online and in-game story arc co-developed by Sucker Punch and 42 Entertainment
Manga and murder, follow the trail of origami doves to discover the full story behind the D.U.P.'s occupation of Seattle.
19 story missions and corresponding web-based investigations, approximately 5 hours of unique gameplay.

Difficulty Balance
Normal difficulty has been slightly increased to challenge the player’s mastery of their powers
Expert difficulty has been fine-tuned to ensure it is the best experience for skilled gamers
Karma progression extended to support longer playtime

Boss Fights
The boss fights have been re-tuned for difficulty and fun
More dynamic boss behaviors and attacks

Pedestrians and DUPs
Engine performance tweaks to allow for more life and activity in the city
Increased pedestrian and traffic density and variety
Increased pedestrian-related karmic opportunities
Post-story enemy activity and D.U.P. raids

Technical Improvements
Graphics and performance improvements
Fixes for a small number of infrequent blocking bugs
PSN integration to support Paper Trail DLC

-- VideoGamer via VG247