Xbox Live having an "Ultimate Game Sale" next week

Payday has come up for the end of June and if your thinking of getting a game for your Xbox 360, you might want to hold off for a few days because an "Ultimate Game Sale" is coming next week.

Xbox Live Programmer and blogger Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb announced that a big sale is coming to Xbox Live and provided a list of games that will be included:

• Assassin’s Creed 3 
• Bioshock Infinite 
• Borderlands 2 
• Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway 
• Bulletstorm 
• Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 
• Crysis 
• Crysis 3 
• Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga 
• Dragon Age Origins 
• Far Cry 3 
• Far Cry Instincts Predator 
• Forza Horizon 
• Gears Judgement 
• Hasbro Family Game Night 3 
• Hitman Absolution 
• Kinect Sports 2 
• Left 4 Dead 2 
• Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes 
• Lego Lord of the Rings 
• Mass Effect 
• Max Payne 3 
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengence 
• Monopoly Streets 
• Perfect Dark Zero 
• Prey 
• Rockstar Table Tennis 
• The Orange Box 
• Tomb Raider 
• Witcher 2 
• WWE 13 GonD 
• X-com: Enemy Unknown

A very interesting list, but no word on how much of a sale we are talking about here. One thing is good though, is that most of the games in the list are considered big titles, some are fairly new.

[Source: Major Nelson]

Guild Wars 2 devs plan to add content every 2 weeks

Usually MMO devs take longer to create more content as the months go by. Well, for Guild Wars 2, Arenanet plans to speed up the content updates from every 3 weeks to 2 weeks. 

It's crazy, at the same time an amazing bit of news for players still stuck in the world of Tyria. The first example is the latest update that just came yesterday, The Sky Pirates of Tyria update, which is a follow-up to the current Dragon Bash festival still ongoing. With June almost over, we might see another content again soon since Arenanet has been releasing themed content every month since launch.

lead content designer Mike Zadorojn told Gamerzines that they are getting better and faster at creating content:

“It’s interesting because it feels like were launching [a new game] every two weeks, and so there’s still that level of excitement when we jump in and see what’s new, what’s going live, and play the content again and then realise, ‘Oh god there’s a bug, okay,’ then it all starts over again,” Zadorojny explained.

“’Okay we’ve got this issue, do we need to fix this right now, or can it wait until the next release? Okay we need to fix it now, okay what hotfix? what’s the priority? Do we have somebody working on it, what’s the solution?’ That kind of stuff…”

“Our goal is that as we do this, we’re getting better and better at it. We’re starting to catch the bigger mistakes that we would’ve missed earlier on. We’re starting to build the infrastructure, the framework and the tools to help us do this because we really think that this is the longevity of the product,” he told us with an air of confidence.

“If we can push this, if we can add content every two weeks that is engaging to the players, then really it’s almost like a TV show at that point. It’s kind of stay tuned until next week for the thrilling conclusion of…That’s where our goal is, and it’s really fascinating when you have an entire studio dedicated to pulling off.”

This concerns me a bit because throwing content out the door might ruin quality. But so far, it looks like they are pulling it off. This kind of consistent updates is rarely seen in a developer, and if they can really dish out good content every two weeks, it will only mean that other devs will pick up that it is possible and hopefully follow suit, because constant updates on an MMORPG is key to staying afloat.

Sky Pirates of Tyria was released just yesterday.

E3 2013: First gameplay footage of Outlast

Aside from The Evil Within, Outlast is another survival horror that's shaping up to be a game to watch out for, if you want a really good scare of course. For PC and PlayStation 4, this game revolves around a journalist entering an abandoned asylum. Of course he regrets that decision when he realizes what was going on inside. Have a look at the gameplay below.

The gameplay gives a strong resemblance of horror movies taken in the cameraman's perspective(Blair Witch Project), which is a good twist in the genre. The night vision is also a nice touch and seems to be required most of the time. It's being developed over at Red Barrel games, a new studio mixed with ex-splinter cell developers. This will be their first game, and it looks like they will be off with a good start.

Outlast - Official trailer

It's expected to be released later this year for PC and PS4.

Guild Wars 2 Sky Pirates of Tyria update coming next week

The ever-changing MMO is still going at it with the monthly updates and this June the Sky Pirates of Tyria will be introduced to the people of Tyria. The update will include a dungeon just for the event, new items for the gem store, new rewards, a new jumping puzzle, a new scavenger hunt, introduction of the torment condition, and a revamp of certain traits and skills. Arenanet is one busy studio.

Even before Guild Wars 2 was released, the studio announced that they will be rolling out content every month for free. So far, they have kept their promise and were already in June. The Dragon Bash event, another event that included added content, will end on the 25th. With one event over, another begins, Sky Pirates of Tyria will go live on the June 25. Here's what's included:

New Story Dungeon: Aetherblade Retreat – Find the hidden entrance to the Aetherblade base and take the fight to the pirates. It’ll take skill, courage, and no small measure of agility to battle through to the Aetherblade Captain and First Mate.

Sea of Sorrows Scavenger Hunt – In this new, permanent content, players search for clues to the locations of 12 plaques that have been set up to honor the history of the city and its founder, in the novel Sea of Sorrows by our very own Ree Soesbee, narrative designer, ArenaNet, hitting store shelves and Amazon on Tuesday, June 25.

New Rewards – A variety of new rewards are available, including Aetherblade caches, a First Mate Horrik miniature companion, a stylish monocle and more.

Skill and Trait Balance Update – The largest balance patch ever is being introduced in this build, which includes significant updates to traits and skills to introduce more viable build diversity. Every profession trait line is seeing changes. Updates also have been made to some less popular skills to improve their effectiveness.

Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode leaves Beta – Custom PvP arenas allow players to host private matches, and customize their map settings. This feature is leaving beta, which means that Custom Arena Starter Kits will be available for anyone to purchase in the Gem Store. Spectator Mode also is officially out of beta. Together, these two features allow for practice, competitive play and tournaments.

Mortar Mastery Joins the Growing List of World vs. World Abilities – Players can increase their mortar effectiveness by training in Mortar Mastery. Improvements in this line include increasing mortar blast radius, beefing up on damage, reducing skill recharge, and even adding a new skill, Mortar Barrage.

I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since day one and I'm surprised on how the game has changed. Every now and then I jump back into my Charr Engineer and I'm always introduced to new mechanics and content to explore. The game was already amazing at launch, and the constant updates can keeps us grounded in the world of Tyria.

Hopefully they keep with this monthly free update, because this is one practice I wish other studios can implement as well.

[Source: Guild Wars 2 site]

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z

And here we have yet another Dragon Ball Z game. Even though the series ended more than a decade ago, people still want that Super Saiyan fix. I know I do.

From a glance, it looks to be like the Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi graphics with the older gameplay style of the previous Tenkaichi/Raging Blast games but with the added twist of co-op or team battles with up to eight players. The team battles aren't new since they already did this on the PSP with Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team.

I guess the Super Butoden-esque gameplay style of Ultimate Tenkaichi didn't sit well with players so Bandai opted to go back to an older system which isn't bad. I'm still hoping we get a successor to Burst Limit with the battle system of Shin Budokai on home consoles. I doubt we'll see it but a guy can dream.

The trailer only shows the Saiyan saga and Frieza saga. I hope they add the Buu saga and hell, even the GT cast. The Buu saga not being included in some of the recent games is just heartbreaking. I do hear that Goku's Super Saiyan God form will be playable.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PS Vita.