I came across something midway through Murdered: Soul Suspect that summed up the majority of my experience playing this game. I was strolling through a police station as Ronan O'Connor, a detective so hard-boiled that his own death would not stop him from hunting down the predatory serial murderer as The Bell Killer. The game begins with O'Connor being killed by that very serial killer, so the hunt has taken a turn for the personal by the time the player steps into Ronan's shoes.
I haven't been keeping up with Dark Souls II speedruns. I should be. We got a tip in this weekend about Marksel's 21:25 world-record any% run, which has since been topped by Distortion2's 20:14 run, included above. Seems they've got a bit of a friendly rivalry going on right now.
How are these times feasible? Glitches. Bypassing the Shrine of Winter. Running above and below the environment. Binoculars, which inadvertently allow for absurd movement speeds.
I realize that any% runs aren't as interesting to some of you who prefer to see most if not all of a game's content bested, not skipped, and I tend to agree. All the same, watching people obliterate a game I've poured an ungodly amount of hours into is captivating and oddly satisfying.
[Thanks, Steven]
Tomorrow sees the release of the Invasion map pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts, so how about we get one last rundown of the new maps. In Mutiny, you'll fight in what's essentially Tortuga, shooting off almost as many bullets as one-liners about Davey Jones locker and other pirate schtick. Departed is probably the most interesting looking map, as it offers a unique killstreak, turning you into a dual revolver wielding mariachi of death. You can get a closer look at Pharaoh here.
Finally, we have Favela, a remake of one of my favorite maps from Modern Warfare 2. The trailer brings back nostalgia feel goodies too, as it's a near perfect remake of Modern Warfare 2's first multiplayer teaser. My, how time flies.
Call of Duty: Ghosts Invasion releases tomorrow for Xbox One and the Xbox 360.
Two 12-year-old girls from Waukesha, Wisconsin are facing attempted murder charges following a brutal attack on one of their classmates. An attack they say was inspired by their devotion to internet horror myth Slender Man.
Neal "Koibu" Erickson once played video games for 90 hours straight. Since that obviously wasn't enough, he recently tried to game for 120 hours straight.
Losing is a lot more interesting than winning, but the win -- in games and in life -- is incentivized and held up high. Driveclub is aiming to stick a shiny participation medal on your coat for the things that got you into first place before you choked it all away.
According to this PlayStation Blog update (and the above video), Driveclub aims to make rage quitting extinct. "As you race, you’ll be given the option of taking part in smaller challenges on certain sections of the track – maintaining a high average speed, holding a racing line, or pulling off an impressive drift. Put in a good performance and you’ll accrue points for your club and set new markers for friends to try and match."
"With Driveclub," director Paul Rustchynsky explains, "if you’re racing online and you make a mistake it’s not game over. You don’t lose everything and you’ve still got dynamic Face-offs to keep playing for.
"In short, it doesn’t pay to quit from a race in Driveclub. Not only will you lose everything that you’ve already earned, but you’ll also stop contributing to your club as well. It’s always worth finishing the race – you still might record a good run which you can then set as a challenge – and there are then additional rewards tied in to that too."
How DRIVECLUB Aims to Make Rage-quitting Extinct [PlayStation Blog]
If you visit the Origin homepage right now, this is the first thing you'll see. And when the bulk of Steam jokes run with the premise of people buying a ton of cheap games that you'll never play, this ad seems like a clear jab at Steam.
Ten bucks gets you the Dota 2 Compendium, which guy who actually knows about Dota 2 Patrick Hancock says is better than last year's. A portion of the purchase also goes towards raising The International tournament prize pool.
Last year, the prize pool was $2,874,381. Right now it's $8,304,958. The stretch goals only go up to $10 million. Crazy!
An update for the Wii U, bringing the system to v5.0.o, is rolling out right now. If you're sick of waiting for the console's menu to load every time you boot up the system, you'll be happy with it.
The leaked Battlefield Hardline, which isn't our news podcast, saw another leak, this time of straight gameplay from the beta (skip to the 4:00 minute mark).
Some guy alternates between first- and third-person views on a police motorcycle, crashing out of the police lot before going back in and snagging a loud cop car that they can't get out of the garage. There's some shooting at nothing and exploding vehicles before a joyride in a police helicopter.
The ascent shows off what looks to be an enormous map, city-wide map, but some warnings to return to the combat area saw our pilot parachuting back down to earth, before a second helicopter stint. The latter, mostly in first-person, looked especially cool weaving through skyscrapers.
You can also jack a tanker and beat things with a police baton, though it's hard to know just how all this will work out without the trappings the "cops and criminals" setup.
[Via NeoGAF]
