Half Batman, half raptor, all deadly.

We also take your questions on the Xbox One for the last twenty-five minutes of the episode, so make sure to listen if you dropped us any talking points via Twitter.

Finally, there’ll be no podcast on Monday, as we’ve decided to focus our attention on the Xbox One this week. Don’t worry, we’ll be back on the 3rd of June with our normal mix of games, movies, comics and lunacy.

• Please send us questions via email to podcasts[at]thesixthaxis.com.
• You can also tag your questions on Twitter with #tsacast and, provided you’re not on a private account, we’ll see them in our search each week.

This podcast features strong language, jokes in poor taste and adult themes, if you’re offended by that then we recommend that you don’t listen to it at all.

• As usual, you can grab the MP3 file here (right click to download).
• You might want to get it (when the RSS catches us) on the RSS feed, here.
• Or we’re on iTunes, when iTunes feels like updating. You can also leave us a review and subscribe there, if you want to be particularly lovely.

For the first time, we’re trying out soundcloud as a way to put the podcast in this page as an alternative way for you to listen. Please let us know in the comments if this is something you’d like us to continue or if you’re happy grabbing it as a direct download or via an iTunes subscription.

Get us on Twitter:

• Kris – @halbpro
• Peter – @colossalblue
• Kev – @kevatron400

“PlayStation 3 continues to deliver stable hardware and software sales,” says the report, “and Sony will continue to reinforce the business’ position as a stable source of profit. In particular, the Company will seek to grow sales of content and services through PlayStation Store and contribute to profit.”

The report also mentions the Vita. “The Company will aim to secure further sales and profit through various hardware sales initiatives and the introduction of compelling software titles,” it says, suggesting further bundles and perhaps a price drop.

In terms of the PS4, the report highlights that “smartphone and tablet users” will be able to share in the enjoyment of the next-gen console “without owning one”, suggesting plenty of cross-media game and application functionality, which is interesting.

Sony is targeting a 2% operating income margin for PlayStation in financial year 2014.

Source: Sony.net.

Website ExtremeTech discovered the patent which contains the following text:

“The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.”

This is further clarified in the detailed description;

“[0042] At 412, a license validation is performed by comparing the user count and any view or performance limitation against that allowed by the license. If the license is satisfied, the content presentation begins at 420. If not, then at 414, the user is presented with an option to adjust the license terms. If the license is updated at 416, then the content presentation begins at 420. If not, the presentation is halted at 418.”

Of course just because there is a patent for the tech it does not mean it will ever be used, but now the ‘always on’ Kinect and the massive focus on TV, sports and movies Microsoft aimed at during the XBox One reveal, it does appear rather ominous.

Source: Extremetech

I’ve seen people casually claiming that the PlayStation 4 is 1.5 times more powerful than the Xbox One. Microsoft is claiming that the Xbox One is ten times more powerful than the Xbox 360. It’s all a bit silly but it serves a purpose: to give misinformed fanboys something to spout on forums. We suspect this claim will crop up in a few of the next gen console wars, despite how ridiculous it is.

A Spokesperson for Microsoft, Adam Pollington, has told an Australian site called Stevivor.com that the Xbox One makes clever use of The Cloud to augment its processing power. He claims, in what I really hope was just a throwaway number he plucked out of the air in passing conversation, that it makes the Xbox One’s processing power 40 times greater than the Xbox 360.

“It’s also been stated that the Xbox One is ten times more powerful than the Xbox 360, so we’re effectively 40 times greater than the Xbox 360 in terms of processing capabilities [using the cloud].” He said, after an interview that mostly just quotes the somewhat confused company line on things like always-on and used game sales.

Pollington went on to say “if you look to the cloud as something that is no doubt going to evolve and grow over time, it really spells out that there’s no limit to where the processing power of Xbox One can go.” That emphasis would go some way to implying that a constant internet connection – while perhaps not required – would be something that’s so beneficial so as to eventually become almost essential.

Something’s got Tuffcub typing in capitals. It could have been last week’s teddy bear mascot quip or his trying to enjoy playing Sleeping Dogs which he gave another try after you were all nice about it in the WeView. It was probably the latter.

He “got bored very quickly,” which likely did not help when the game forced him to “walk (not run) through a street market” all in the aid of developing the plot by letting “Johnny Exposition explain things”. ”I DON’T CARE, let me play the frickin’ game” was the resultant outburst.

Things don’t seem to have got any better once he was past that market. ”Then it decided to teach me how to press buttons,” the literal, not the figurative ones, “and just to make sure, I had to press the right buttons THREE TIMES!”

He ended his little Sleeping Dogs tirade with a plea to developers: “PLEASE MAKE TUTORIALS SKIPPABLE.” I have to say that I find it hard to disagree. 

He soothed his raging mind with a bit of Killzone 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted on his PS Vita and lots of Velocity Ultra. Talking of Velocity Ultra, he would like you to buy the soundtrack for some reason.

Aran’s another staffer playing Futurlab’s PS Vita update of their minis title, Velocity. He’s enjoying the game’s “fast paced action” and the fact that while challenging it’s yet to become frustrating. Ultra’s doing a pretty good job of keeping the “decent side-scrolling shoot’em up” Sine Mora off his PS Vita’s screen, with it only getting the odd look in.

After last week’s less than successful exploits he’s decided to cut his losses and start a new game of XCOM Enemy Unknown, something most people I know who’ve played the game do so about 12 hours in owing to a blip in the difficulty curve. More research investment and caution is his revised plan.

Celebrating the end of his exams, DanToo has dived back into Demon’s Souls with a new save. ”It’s still as tough as ever” he says, though having completed it “dozens of times before” he has some idea of what to expect.

He’s got to the point where death is often just “funny to watch,” and the fact that the servers are still up was a pleasant surprise as he’d thought them long gone. The “lovely” Velocity Ultra which is “a joy to play” has seen also some play, as has BioShock in both the original and Infinite incarnations, around which he has squeezed some F1 2012 racing.

Peter was about to tell me about Remember Me but only just managed to get the title out before recalling the embargo doesn’t expire until a week tomorrow. Other than that he’s been passing time with Passing Time, the PlayStation Mobile game, on his PS Vita.  It’s an “attempt to make a one-touch football game” that’s all touch-based and it doesn’t quite work:

Your players move by themselves, mostly (you can drag to intercept when you don’t have the ball) and you tap on them to pass. The matches can be quite tricky and a little bit fiddly but it’s a clever enough concept and it’s executed well.

I haven’t had a lot of time with it and I get the impression that, once I am used to the controls and get over the fact that I want to control my players myself, it could get to be quite fun.

Hiding Snake-like under an otherwise empty, stationary box is where we Dom. Having moved, mostly unpacked and got relatively settled in, all is still not right with his world.  ”I still have no Internet,” he complains, a state of affairs which has given him plenty of time to consider writing about “society’s reliance on the web”.

He’s playing more Talisman HD Prologue on his phone, which “just really wants to make [him] play Games Workshop games,” and he’s dabbled with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate which he observes is still “er… ultimate.” He also shares with us that Microsoft’s fumbled Xbox One reveal has cemented his pre-order. For a PlayStation 4 that is.

As for me, I’ve been playing Project Planning all week which I’m giving a “not much fun” rating but the hours invested in it do at least contribute towards my ‘paying the bills’ achievement, so I’ve stuck with it for now.

Hope you’ve played some more game-like activities?

“Now is the time, the world’s greatest players are going to entertain, create and amaze on the ultimate stage. This year a new generation will push the boundaries of play and share in moments of wonder. This year players will become legends.”

That is the text from a full page advert hidden in the sports section of today’s Metro newspaper. As PlayStation sponsor the EUFA Champions league then the text could refer to the “players” from football teams but you could also read this to mean “gamers”, very clever Sony.

The advert also states “PS4 Coming 2013″ at the bottom.

Start saving.

I’m confident it’s just a strange coincidence, since people have been complaining about it all over the internet for the last several months, with a forum post on the topic spanning sixty pages and going back to last August.

There’s no new features per se but in the above post, Online Support Co-ordinator who goes by the name of SuperFastZombie has confirmed that this update “has been released to address the issues you guys have been having.”

The community reaction seems positive so far despite a few issues remaining, so if you’ve been plagued by PlayTV’s issues then go ahead and fire up the software and go to Settings and click on Software Update to download and install the 88mb patch.

From my own experience, viewing and deleting items in the library (which was my main issue before) seems to be much faster and less prone to crashing, although going back and forth to the XMB is still a bit slow.

Now that you’ve fixed this, Sony, how about PlayTV HD for PS4? I’m sure you’re listening.

As expected, Activision have released a (very) short film, directed by Jon Favreau and featuring Giancarlo Esposito, titled “Law of the Jungle”, for Bungie’s multiplatform title Destiny.

The trailer features the work of visual effects studio Digital Domain and, according to the press release, “gives players a taste of Destiny’s action-packed adventures through a live-action and CG interpretation of the epic game universe.”

The worldwide gameplay reveal for Destiny will be on June 10th, as part of Sony’s PlayStation pre-E3 Press Conference in Los Angeles.

Amazon has put up a pre-order page for Mirror’s Edge 2, an unannounced sequel to the cult hit Mirror’s Edge. The artwork is clearly placeholder, but it has listed the game for the current gen Xbox 360, which is interesting.

Mirror’s Edge 2 was previously claimed to be “in production” although the publisher, EA, has been tight-lipped on the record. We’d have expected this – should it be real – to be a next-gen game, but regardless, could this be something we see at E3 in a fortnight?

Via GAF.

Jonathan Blow has taken time out to discuss his upcoming first person puzzler The Witness on the PS Blog as part of Sony’s “conversations” series. The game will be exclusive (timed, most likely) to the PlayStation 4 when it launches, and it certainly looks interesting.

The game finds you on a mysterious island packed full of puzzles to solve, at first they may seem impossible but Jonathon said that the game is based on “epiphanies”, events at which point the solution to the puzzle will become blindingly obvious.

“Every puzzle has an idea which is communicated in a non verbal way,” he explained.

As expected, EA have announced Need For Speed Rivals. The game, co-developed by Criterion and Ghost Games, will run on Frostbite 3 and will be released this November for current gen platforms, along with a next-gen outing whenever they’re released.

The game is described as a “white-knuckle action/racing game” and aims to “capture the adrenaline and intensity of the street’s ultimate rivalry between cops and racers.” It’ll be an “open road” environment, so won’t be like Need For Speed: The Run.

“In Need for Speed Rivals, gamers play as either a cop or racer,” says the press release, “where each side of the law has its own set of high stakes challenges, rewards and consequences. As a racer, the goal is to become infamous for taking risks behind the wheel and capturing your most intense escapes on video for the world to see.”

Players gain Speedpoints for evading the police, which unlock new cars and items. You lose all your Speedpoints if you’re busted, apparently.

As the police, players work together to pursue the street racers, earning promotions in the ranks for each bust – which in turn unlocks new cars and tech.

The press release also mentions something called AllDrive, which allows seamless transitions from single to multi-player racing, “creating a world where no two events will ever be the same.” It also confirms the return of the Ferrari brand, which is nice.

Its art style, however, is something special. Textures and details are reduced to their bare bones, leaving the world of Kairo a clunky but vibrant and vast area to explore. This minimalistic approach bodes well for the game.

The aim of Kairo is to bring ancient machinery back into working order by completing puzzles. This machinery connects four different areas together, so to progress you must fix it all. This brings solitude (I guess) to a once lost and abandoned world.

Although this sense of the world being abandoned isn’t made clear at first, it becomes evident when you begin to explore; rotting skeletons are always a strong indication. It’s all a bit like Fract in an more mythical, temple-y environment.

Surprisingly creepy for a puzzle game.

There is never really a moment in Kairo where you don’t have to solve a puzzle of some sort to progress. While this has the potential to become tedious, the game’s saved by the fact that it never uses the same puzzle twice. It’s always something new, showing that a great deal of imagination has gone into the game.

The puzzles are pretty challenging as well. Some examples include having to draw a certain shape by walking through different musical notes, or having to cross a bridge by only stepping on the correct stones (which reminded me a little of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade). You will also have to memorise certain patterns from earlier stages in some situations, which resulted in me actually bringing pen to paper outside of the game in preparation.

It sounds complex, and it is. The game left me stumped many times, sometimes for an embarrassingly long time.

As a big fan of puzzlers, I found Kairo to be both mentally stimulating as well as enjoyable. The solutions are never so hard that they leave you frustrated. Instead there is a balance, meaning you’ll get a great sense of accomplishment when you figure it all out. The solution is always right there in front of you, all you have to do see it for yourself.

For a game with a completely minimal world Kairo still remains to be a treat to see, though not in the graphical sense. The art style is really unique, and especially shines in the way colour is used.

The use of colour is powerful.

The soundtrack is very eerie and powerful, and really helps create an isolated atmosphere. The music compliments the game by lingering in the background, accentuating the sense of eerie loneliness the abandoned world so easily delivers. In contrast it can leave you in shock and awe as some of the more vast areas open up, or upon completion of a particularly challenging puzzle.

It is a great example of graphical prowess, or more the lack if it. It shows that stellar graphics aren’t needed to immerse you in a world. Kairo doesn’t need fully detailed and dynamic environments for the player the connect with the game. It is yet another showcase of aesthetics and gameplay and further proof that it’s not the technology behind a game that makes it great, but the design of both visuals and gameplay.

At roughly four hours long Kairo isn’t exactly the longest game you’ll come across. However, this all depends on how long it takes you to finish each puzzle, and how much you’d like to explore the world (there are collectibles to find). Priced at about £4.99 ($7.99) this does seem like good value and is certainly worth the money for a unique experience.

I can’t quite put my finger on what Kairo actually is. As a puzzle game it performs exceptionally well, but added on to this is an underlying eeriness to the atmosphere that is not common in the genre. To me it’s like bread and butter pudding – it really shouldn’t be nice but instead it works a treat, and maybe it’ll turn out to be a classic. I would definitely like to see more puzzle games trying to test your emotions as well as your wit.

With Kairo I think it’s best to actually show off what it is all about, as words simply don’t do it justice. Below I take you through the first level of Kairo, which really is only a warm up for the puzzles you will be faced with later on.

You can get Kairo from its official website here for $7.99. It’s available for Windows, OSx and Linux, as well as iOS if that’s more your thing.

Then they popped up again with a version of their fantastic twin-stick shooter (Super Stardust Delta) for the Vita’s launch and gave us all some frantic action on the move.

Now, they’re working on a new title that will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4. It’s still untitled but is being touted as a “spiritual successor” to their Stardust games. Housemarque’s CEO, Ilari Kuittinen says the company “can take advantage of the architecture of PlayStation 4 to create incredible visuals with direct impact on the way the new game feels.”

They also have another PlayStation 4 title in development but they’re not sharing any information about that one just yet. They say that more information will be released about both titles in the coming months so hopefully we’ll get to see the Finish studio’s labours at E3 and if not then surely Gamescom in August?

Rockstar have just announced that there’ll be two additional versions of Grand Theft Auto V when it releases later this year on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Anyone pre-ordering the game (regardless of version) will get the Atomic Blimp to pilot. However, the two additional versions will come with a big pile of other goodies.

The Grand Theft Auto V Special Edition includes:

– Full retail copy of Grand Theft Auto V;

– Collectible SteelBook with Exclusive Artwork – features custom color and metallic treatments to bring out the detail of the Michael, Trevor and Franklin artwork created exclusively for this SteelBook;

– Blueprint Map – exclusive, 21.5″ x 26.75″ map displays a blueprint view of Los Santos and Blaine County;

– Special Ability Boost – Michael, Franklin and Trevor each have a unique special ability. With this boost, the special ability bar will generate 25% faster;

– Stunt Plane Trials – single-player Stunt Plane Trials let players take on additional aerial challenges spread throughout Los Santos and Blaine County;

– Bonus Outfits, Tattoos and More – Michael, Franklin and Trevor get bonus outfits in their wardrobes, character specific tattoos at tattoo parlors, and special deals from shopkeepers across Los Santos and Blaine County;

– Additional Weapons – when visiting Ammunation stores in single-player, merchants will have special weapons in their inventory available for free: the Pistol .50, Bullpup Shotgun and melee Hammer.

The Grand Theft Auto V Collector’s Edition includes the contents of Grand Theft Auto V Special Edition plus:

– Grand Theft Auto V Security Deposit Bag with Logo Key – inspired by the heists in Grand Theft Auto V, this custom 10.75″ x 8.5″ money bag features a pop-up style lock and laser cut logo key to secure important items. The reverse side features a pressed Rockstar Games logo on the security mount with a framed ID window;

– Grand Theft Auto V New Era 9FIFTY(TM) Snapback Cap – this exclusive New Era 9FIFTY(TM) cap features an embroidered Los Santos logo on the front, a stitched, black Rockstar Games logo on the wearer’s left side, a Grand Theft Auto ‘V’ logo applique on the opposite side, and snapback closure for an adjustable fit;

– Custom Characters for Grand Theft Auto Online – get classic Grand Theft Auto characters to use within the Grand Theft Auto Online Character Creation System;

– Unique Vehicles and Garage Property – players will instantly receive a garage to store custom vehicles. In single-player, the garage will be stocked with the 1930′s style Hotknife hotrod and the CarbonRS sports bike. In Grand Theft Auto Online, players will get the high-end Khamelion electric car.

The Grand Theft Auto V Collector’s Edition comes packaged in a collectible outer box featuring a foil embossed Grand Theft Auto V logo on the top and finished with a matte, scuff-resistant film lamination housing all of the contents.

The Collector’s edition will be $150, whilst the Special edition will be $80. We’re awaiting localised pricing but that should give you some idea.

Following the success of both Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, it certainly wouldn’t come as a surprise if Ubisoft confirm this rumour of Far Cry HD to be true.

Far Cry originally released in 2004.

Source: Brazil ratings board.

Following on from our hands on time with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, we had a chance to sit down and use our best torture techniques on Nico Bihary, Senior Producer on the game.

Read on to find out where it sits in the franchise, how 2K have adapted the property to the third person perspective, and what’s going on with multiplayer…

TSA: The Bureau: XCOM Declassified feels almost like a standalone franchise, with “The Bureau” headlining, but it does also sit under that XCOM brand. How does it relate back to the main series?

Nico Bihary: Well we’re telling the origin story of XCOM, so there’s obviously some direct linkage there with the rest of the franchise, but with the origin story comes this agency. There isn’t a big bang moment where XCOM just appears out of thin air, and what we found is that telling a story of how they’re formed is extremely interesting.

That era we’re representing in our story, as well as the characters within it, are really fertile soil for a compelling story of The Bureau. So because of that we really wanted to identify this as a game about The Bureau and that agency.

TSA: So it’s almost like the OSS turning into the CIA, that kind of evolutionary process?

NB: Yeah, at first it was mainly a defence network operating under very clandestine methods within North America, within this fiction that we have. It then evolves slowly into this global institution, this global protectorate.

William Carter is a great starting anti-hero, in a way. He’s got the look of a polished G-Man [Government man], but as we get more into our narrative, we’ll find out that he has his own internal conflict as well as the conflict going on with the alien threat.

TSA: With it being set way back in the 60’s, was the choice of this setting to do with the real world alien abduction stories from that period?

NB: I think that in 2011 we had some video footage during an E3 presentation, and if you go back and look at it, it’s even more of a 50’s tone. It’s softer, and it colour use is very Norman Rockwell in style, and there were even military vehicles, which we removed because there is no military coming to save us. The is no red phone that’s going to be ringing.

As our narrative was really starting to come together, as we sculpted the series, the 60’s just started to make more sense, mainly because of the tensions between the Soviet Union and America, as well as all the other political bonfires that were occurring at the time. It really made sense that this organisation could exist.

Not necessarily fighting aliens, but we all know that there was a Bureau, right? It was called something else, but The Bureau did exist. That just really worked and it stuck.

TSA: There’s a much more narrative focus, as opposed to the instances in the main XCOM series, but you do still have these little offshoots on the map. Why have you kept that sort of distribution as opposed to a purely led narrative?

NB: I think, and I know as a player, that I sometimes want to step outside of the obligation of continuing through a story. Sometimes you just want to check out for a bit and just go and shoot some aliens, or in the case of our optional missions, it’s a great opportunity for me, who’s a “minmax” style of player, to get some additional XP along the way.

Also, we have the Dispatch missions, which you have to explain to the consumer what they are for them to understand the true value of. These Dispatch missions allow you to level up agents while you are participating in either side missions or the main narrative, so that you always have a steady roster of guys who you can bring out into the field in the event that one of your favourite agents die.

Or even that you have an Engineer and a Recon guy with you on every mission, but you’d really like to play with a Commando and don’t want to go back and grind from level 1. This is a great way for you to level up that commando, so that he’s within close enough range that he’s not just going to keel over when you bring him into battle.

TSA: You do have a lot of other XCOM hallmarks, such as the home base, classes and a squad alongside you. Was this as a reaction to keep the XCOM fans happy, who were concerned after the announcement it would be a pure action game?

NB: I think we did it to keep ourselves happy!

Ultimately we’re fans of the XCOM franchise too, and the things that we did evaluate from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which does a ton of things right, were things that made sense for our game, like permadeath. Understanding that consumers are ready for permadeath, that they’re OK with that in a game, and they understand the value of it.

The visual language that Enemy Unknown brought to the table, like when you’re taking cover it was very clear that you have good cover vs. partial cover. We didn’t feel like we wanted to reinvent the wheel or re-educate people, so we brought that over. Then there are very interesting hominid aliens, such as the Sectoid and the Muton, and even stuff like the Silicoids, the blobs, which are good cover deniers, they made a lot of sense in our game.

That’s just some of the high level stuff that we brought over, just because… it was a peanut butter and chocolate moment, you know? With our third person tactical cover shooter, some stuff just came over perfectly.

I’ll give you this analogy. If XCOM is a sport, imagine the playing field of Enemy Unknown, you’re playing that from the coach in the skybox perspective, and in The Bureau you’re the Quarterback, the combat Quarterback, which is even a development term that’s been brought up in design meetings.

You’re calling plays on the fly, and can see the defensive line up over there, as they’re repositioning, for high tactical advantage or to gain flanking positions, you can call out balls and move guys around. It’s not a dissimilar sport, but it’s a different perspective on how you play.

The game's box art is evocative and eschews the "guy with gun" generalities in favour of some censorship.

NB: Well it’s a sweet spot, right? [In Battle Focus] you want to keep the pressure on, but at the same time you don’t want it to be at full speed, because you’ve got this UI element which is occluding everything which is going on on screen.

So you can’t punish them, but you can’t stop it outright, because it’s like playing a word search game [against the clock] and if you pause it you could see and then go back and un-pause it to get all of the words. You don’t want to overly favour the player by stopping it entirely with Battle Focus up, nor do you want to overly penalise them because things are flying around too fast while they’re still understanding the mechanics, especially early on.

So I think we’ve got a pretty good spot right now, where there’s still the pressure, enemies are still firing upon you and things are still happening, but you have enough time to react and place your agents strategically on the battlefield.

TSA: How do you try to keep the tactics fresh in the game? I feel a good comparison is to Brothers in Arms, where it could often feel like you’re always just setting a line and then you’re going and flanking, getting stuck into a tactical rut. How are you trying to keep things mixed up?

NB: Well a good thing for us is that we’ve got a variety of different classes. So you can get synergy between those classes however you want and you could take the Recon guy and the Commando.

In addition there are all the abilities that you level into. You benefited from the fact that you could play from a couple of fully loaded out classes, with all their abilities and so you see it all at once, but you know what it’s like when you’ve only got a couple of abilities early on. The next time you unlock an ability it’s like, man, it’s your birthday! The first thing you’re going to do is fire off this ability, and it’s all new and fresh.

So it’s just a case of metering out these abilities, so you’re getting them at the appropriate time, you’re feeling rewarded and you’re feeling progression. Like you say, that’s to avoid you getting into a rut, which is also where the customisation comes in, the different backpacks and some of the later abilities that you get.

TSA: And finally, is there multiplayer? Is there not multiplayer? How would it fit if there is?

NB: So, the short answer is that there is no multiplayer.

The long answer is that this is a very strong narrative experience, and one which has permadeath in it, which complicates things when you have multiplayer and even co-op. So our focus is on the bullseye with Battle Focus, squad based tactical combat, and what those bring to the narrative. We don’t have multiplayer or co-op anywhere on the bullseye, we’re just focussing on the single player.

Thanks to Nico for taking the time to sit and chat with us. For our hands on preview, head here.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is set for release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on 20th August 2013.

The DLC will come as a pre-order bonus with the game, and will also be available after release for a price for those that didn’t pre-order.

The pack will feature four exclusive liveries and two extra routes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track, so not a huge amount, really.

You can read our GRID 2 preview here.

The game releases on the 31st May.

Now those troubles are coming to a head. After failing to find a bidder willing to take on the whole company, Atari’s assets are set to be auctioned off this July. They’ve set minimum bids on many of their well known properties, hoping to reach a total of at least $22.2 million.

So, what’s being sold and for how much? Well, Test Drive is up for $1.5 million after a couple of console games that had a fairly invested core of fans. Roller Coaster Tycoon could be yours, if you have a spare $3.5 million to spend. The most recent Roller Coaster Tycoon game was for the DS but the genre seems ripe for mobile platforms these days.

And for those on a budget? Total Annihilation, the well respected strategy game of the late ’90s, is a steal for just $250,000. This was the first RTS to use 3D units and maps and is fondly remembered by many of us older RTS fans.

Source: WSJ (paywall)

Rockstar’s The Warriors will, in its PS2 Classics format, be landing on PlayStation Network next week for PlayStation 3, following recent releases of the Grand Theft Auto games.

On May 28th in the US and May 29th in Europe, the game will be $9.99 / €9.99 / £7.99.

The Rockstar Toronto developed 2005 game was based on the 1979 movie, and is set in a gritty New York City before moving outwards to Brooklyn and The Bronx.

It’s an excellent choice of setting, I must say. The 50s and 60s saw a massive increase in claims of UFO sightings and alien abductions in the real world. The CIA hid secret projects, such as the Lockheed A-12, behind the veil of UFOs to obscure them from the Russians. Set against this backdrop, The Bureau drops you in to have a crack at the actual aliens, as you see the beginnings of the organisation that would become XCOM.

After the announcement of the game a few years back, there were fears that this would sully the XCOM brand once more. A straight up action shooter which misses a lot of the soul of the turn based games was not what people wanted. It’s not the first time a third person XCOM game has been attempted either, although the less said about X-COM: Enforcer, the better.

Granted, it is a third person cover-based shooter, but 2K Marin have combined it with another experiment from XCOM’s past, that of real time tactical play which was first seen in Apocalypse, to create something which will use your brain too.

In mission you will primarily be in control of Agent Carter, but you will also have two team mates along for the ride who you can order around. While this can be done on the fly by, for example, looking at a car or a wall and ordering your troops to quickly take cover, I much preferred to open up the Battle Focus command wheel.

Doing so doesn’t quite pause the gameplay, but rather slows it down to a crawl, giving you the time to better assess the battlefield. You can switch to the third person view of your team mates during this, allowing you to really see their situation, but you shouldn’t dawdle because the game is still in motion. If Carter isn’t ducked into cover, for example, he’ll be taking bullets.

Pino, New Mexico

The level I played was set in Pino, New Mexico and saw Carter and his team heading into a town which had been infected with an alien virus, causing all those who didn’t escape to endlessly loop the final few seconds of their life. The real goal here is to find the team that went before, and then to infiltrate and destroy a huge tower which has sprung up nearby.

Did I mention how big of a cover-up job this was?

The level occasionally mixed things up with more defensive points, but most of it was about more attacking play. You want to use the plentiful cover and have your soldiers pushing up the field to really dominate your opposition, taking use of any high ground available, so that Carter can take the opportunity to flank the aliens and quickly end an engagement.

It’s a particularly simplistic tactic, and one I think might get a bit old eventually, but it’s helped by several things. Firstly you and your troops all have extra abilities beyond just shooting guns, thanks to somewhat Ghostbusters-esque backpacks. These abilities come down to a combination of their class (Engineer, Commando, Recon or Support) and how experienced they are, with more experienced team members unlocking new abilities.

Just as in last year’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you will want to keep your guys alive, level them up further, give them newer weaponry, armour and so on. Of course, they’ll die you take the wrong class into the wrong situation, or just get your tactics wrong, and, as in Enemy Unknown, there will be permadeath.

If you feel that one soldier isn’t enough to get the job done, you can combine powers from different classes. For example, you could throw a mine with the engineer, and then have the commando taunt a particularly tough enemy into coming at him, which triggers the mine. If the recon class gets stranded in a sea of enemies, have him call an artillery barrage right on himself, and get the support class to pop a shield over his head.

It’s important to get comfortable with these abilities, as bigger aliens quickly show up. It might all start out as the franchise’s traditional Sectoids, but before long you’ll be battling other returning enemies like the Muton, or new creations that might have their own battlefield abilities.

Brothers in Arms x Mass Effect

The core gameplay will probably remind a few people of games like Brothers in Arms, or, since there are RPG-like abilities, the Mass Effect series. In fact, even the in-game dialogue system feels like Mass Effect, letting you pick from a few topics to follow up on. I did find that a little at odds with my expectations, having assumed there would just be a straight up cutscene when I found the survivors of the previous team, but it does make sense in the context of the wider game.

There are also some of the traditional trappings of the XCOM series. Your home base has several areas like the research lab, somewhere to recruit and customise your team, and even the big map of the USA (not a globe just yet) where you can choose your missions.

You have little side missions, where you’ll take your team into a town and clear out an alien threat, akin to the randomised instances from XCOM: Enemy Unknown. However, with only two slots on your team, and your natural preferences with classes, you’ll also want to take advantage of the AI-only missions, where you can send out a team to take on a threat without you, gaining them more experience, and bolstering up the B-team for the times when it all goes belly up and you lose a soldier.

Everything adds up to a game that feels like it knows what it wants to be. The title says it all, with “The Bureau” at the forefront with “XCOM” relegated to the subtitle. It still takes all the main hallmarks and trappings of a traditional XCOM game, but wraps it up into a fresh experience for the series, one which will hopefully broaden the reach of the franchise in the years to come.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is set for launch on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on 20th August 2013.

TheSixthAxis understands that EA will reveal a brand new Need For Speed later today, teasing the event with yet another photo, above.

The screenshot, featuring a Ferrari, follows on from one two days ago.

The next Need For Speed is unlikely to come from Criterion – they’ve said they’re not doing a racing game at the moment – so perhaps this is EA Ghost’s first genre game.

Sadly hopes of a new Underground were at least partially dashed, so chances are this is another game that’ll match the recent titles more than the PS2-era ones.

Given that both the PS4 and Xbox One are now ‘out there’, this is likely to be a next-gen game. If so, it’ll be up against DriveClub and Forza 5, both top tier exclusive titles.

Why? Well Microsoft’s Don Mattrick has today explained that he doesn’t see backwards compatibility as a big deal.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, he said that only 5% of customers questionned play older games on a new console, and so didn’t see much point in spending time and money to develop the technology to make it happen.

“If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards,” he said, in a quote that’s set to resonate around the internet tonight.

According to research surveys carried out by Fizziology, 12% of potential customers said they’d be “unhappy if there wasn’t backwards compatibility” – obviously the survey was carried out before last night’s big reveal.

That’s a bit of a shocking quote from Mattrick but it’s related to an interesting point: If only 5% of your fan base cares (according to their own research) then at what point does the expense of developing and manufacturing that capability become prohibitive for the potential gains the company could make?

If it’s likely to cost more than it makes, Microsoft has a duty to its shareholders to shun the idea. That’s how public companies work. Also, as an analyst from Piper Jaffray puts it, this might lead to more potential for profit “as gamers rebuild their entire library for a new console.”

But where does that leave the Xbox “brand” and its duty to its fans? We’re sure there’ll be a big fuss over the language in use here, and the apparent disregard for a set of fans, even if the majority doesn’t want the particular feature being discussed.

I thought that one of the biggest problems I’d have later this year would be either having to keep my PS3 (yet another device) aside my new consoles or lose my TV recording capabilities entirely, having to part with more money to get a different box thing to connect to my television.

You think that I’d be happy, then, with yesterday’s Xbox One reveal – they appeared to relieve a worry of mine by integrating TV right into the core of the console, making it even easier to watch the shows I want with minimal fuss, featuring instant switching between games and other media, simple Kinect commands and even a full Xbox One powered guide.

That doesn’t ring true at all, though. They’ve taken the beauty of PlayTV – using the consoles power but not actually interfering with the games at hand – and smashed it with a big hammer, mixing the pieces back up with integral components of a game console in the process.

I don’t want to watch TV while I’m focusing on my games. Rather, I want it to be there, ready to launch in the background without having to change a cable or flip the channel over. I want it to be a standalone application, not something I reach by shouting commands at my console. I want games and TV, not games and TV.

PlayTV just worked, without interfering with your game experience.

PlayTV got it right. The application sat completely separate from the games I was playing, its only visible presence coming from the handy recording notifications as it worked away in the background without interruption. It only ever took up my hard drive space, not my gaming time.

It all worked through the one HDMI cable and – for the most part – the one box. I found it a revelation at first. I had only ever experienced low resolution built-in TV before and I had never actively recorded shows for myself, being forced to put up with monotonous adverts, eating up my time as I had to find the right moment to watch TV live.

Now though, PlayTV is a poor shadow of itself, often dropping recordings and at times skipping them altogether; freezing as I enter the library and crashing when I try to delete items. I won’t be glad to be rid of a TV recorder but I definitely won’t miss the deteriorated, outdated shell of a piece of software that it has evolved into.

In fact, now I find myself only using it as background noise on a rainy afternoon, a device to visualise the news as it happens, an occasional (extremely occasional) tool for live sporting events or to watch the latest episode of Doctor Who as it airs.

I’ve watched more and more through Netflix recently; a similarly separate but much more solid application which also works through my PS3. Perhaps the next generation of TV apps could take a few hints from this and early PlayTV; we don’t need anything fancy, just a service that works, plays in HD where possible and sits away in the background, far from interrupting the game you’re playing.

So, Sony, all I ask of you is a more stable, more robust – yet functionally the exact same – PlayTV HD, not only integrated separately without fuss but announced that way too. When you take to the stage in a few weeks just focus on the games, please. After all, that’s why I bought my consoles in the first place, everything else is just a bonus.

At the time Sony responded with a polite but firm statement saying the company would stay in one piece, “We look forward to continuing constructive dialogue with our shareholders as we pursue our strategy.”

Bloomberg is now reporting that the Sony board of directors is discussing Third Point’s proposal.

“The board will discuss this”

“It’s only a start,” said Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai, “It’s important that the board will discuss this and come to a decision that represents Sony’s stance.”

Anaylysts have mixed feelings towards the proposed IPO, “Realistically, it’s not clear whether a spinoff will strengthen Sony,” said Mitsuo Shimizu, a Tokyo-based analyst.

“Sony will consider how to keep control of the company and may be forced to throw a bone to prevent a long, ugly fight,” commented another analyst. “They will try to give up as little as possible and are no doubt receiving advice on how to fight off the aggressor.”

However, since news of of the proposal was leaked, Sony’s shares have risen 22 percent, which may indicate that investors back the deal.

Source: Bloomberg

“Both Sony and Microsoft have said games can be resold and that’s exactly what we anticipated,” said Bartel, “It’s a recognized way to make these games more affordable. All three new platforms understand that.”

“That’s why the ‘buy, sell, trade’ model works well. It enables people to purchase new games by trading in their old ones. We expect to see the same thing with this transition for PS4 and Xbox One. Trade-ins allow for a seamless transition.”

From what we have pieced together, once installed an Xbox One game is locked to your Xbox Live account and this is verified every twenty four hours. If the game is installed somewhere else, on another Live account, then the second player has to pay for the game.

That would mean if you bought the game from GameStop you would pay for it at the till and then again on Xbox Live, which can’t be right.

It looks like Microsoft really needs to clarify the situation quickly, before it gets any worse.

Previously, Xbox Live Indie Games tried to offer a way for developers to publish their own indie games on the Xbox 360 but it was very limited in scope, with only one development environment: XNA, which has now been discontinued.

This doesn’t mean no indie games on Xbox One but makes it even harder for developers to get their games on the system – they’ll have to go through a publisher “as of right now”, according to Matt Booty of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms.

That doesn’t rule out a new service similar to XBLIG, however; Booty continued “I would also expect that for this new generation, that we’re going to continue to explore new business models and new ways of surfacing content.” which is a relief – it doesn’t seem likely that there will be anything around launch, however.

From his final comment, it seems that Microsoft Studios work with indie developers to release content on Xbox Live Arcade if they like their game – “Microsoft Studios is a publisher that works with a wide range of partners, as do a lot of other people, to bring digital content to the box.”, though this will surely be at a cost to the developer.

Sony and Nintendo are really pushing the indie content on the PlayStation Store and eShop respectively, with titles such as Thomas Was Alone, Velocity Ultra and Bit.Trip Runner 2 being recent acclaimed yet self-published titles.

Source: ShackNews

Oh sure, the concept of an always listening Kinect in my front room is exceptionally troubling, but the quick boot time, the rapid task switching and the multitasking that the Snap concept demonstrated showed that a huge amount of time, effort and innovation has gone into designing the operating system that lies at the core of the Xbox One. Even the TV concepts looked great, although it seemed obvious that they’d only be available in the US initially.

Don Mattrick put on a slick show, but it all started to fall apart afterwards.

However, as the show ended journalists started to ask questions about the new console, and that positivity rapidly drained away. We started to get answers to the troublesome topic of internet connectivity, and while it seems that you don’t need an internet connection to play, you will need one to register games when you first play them.

Always Online

Then came the news that the Xbox One needs to check in once every 24 hours, just to make sure that you’re not doing anything you shouldn’t be.

While many will find this annoying, things got a whole lot worse when questions about pre-owned games started to be asked. On the upside, you can, in theory, re-sell your games. In practice this seems like it will never, ever happen.

You see, you need to register the game against your account when you first play it, installing it as you do. Once it’s registered you can play it on as many consoles as you like, as long as your account is logged onto Xbox Live on the console.

If another account wants to play the same copy of the game, either because the game’s been resold or because you’ve loaned it out, then they’ll have to pay a fee. That fee? Anything up to the actual price of the game. It’s a little unclear what kind of fee we can actually expect, but some amount of money is going to come out of your account.

Backlash

As you’d expect, this has caused a huge backlash, as has the almost comically poor way Microsoft’s PR machine handled the announcement of this element. They seem to have revised their answer a half dozen times, before finally confirming that there will be a fee, and that the fee may well be the full price of the game.

Then there’s the fact the TV integration that seems to lie at the core of Microsoft’s vision is all smoke and mirrors, simply using an HDMI pass through from the cable or satellite box that your provider gives you. Oh there’ll probably be some clever things with a few select providers they’ve partnered with, but in general they’re just sticking the Xbox overlay on top of what your set-top box already has.

In some ways this is clever, allowing them to hook up to a much wider variety of boxes and TV providers. In others it seems disingenuous, particularly with the fact that you always need a set-top box, even if you’re using a provider that Microsoft have established a relationship with.

Microsoft may be putting TV at the core of their console, but they don’t seem to have done it well.

The thing is, I’ve got no objection to Microsoft centring the Xbox One around TV and other forms of media, it’s just the way they’ve implemented it and announced it that I find frustrating. Whatever you want to put at the core of your system should be a masterpiece that works flawlessly and simply in almost any situation. Unfortunately, the solution that Microsoft has seems inelegant and deceptive to me.

The same holds true for their internet based DRM solution and the frankly ludicrous concept of transferring a game licence for the same price as buying the game new. The solutions simply aren’t great, and the way that Microsoft put out inconsistent, conflicting statements was incredibly frustrating in the wake of yesterday’s reveal.

In need of a boost

While more facts have at least become clear in the light of day, it seems that within 24 hours of its announcement the Xbox One is already in desperate need of a boost. Hopefully that will come at E3, but right now Microsoft really need to clarify their messaging if they don’t want to fall into a deep, dark hole of negative spin and consumer mistrust.

They need consumers to be buoyant about the console, to be spreading their anticipation far and wide, not worrying about what the console means for buying their habits.

Of course the big question hanging in the air is why they didn’t have a clear message on any of these points from the get go. The questions that were going to crop up were, frankly, obvious and anyone with a modicum of common sense could have worked out what they’d need answers for. How have they managed to get it so wrong?

The single player portion of Pool Nation is divided into a Tour mode, where you have the option to play either 8 Ball or 9 Ball, and an Endurance mode. A Tutorial is also available to help get to grips with the basic controls, as well as learning different tricks to use against opponents. I definitely advise playing the tutorial to learn the different tactics.

Different faces, same play style.

It’s a pretty simple affair in that you have to beat your current opponent in order to move on to the next one, though each match does have extra challenges for you to complete, such as getting a streak of potted balls or performing a trick shot.

Completing these challenges isn’t mandatory but they do affect your score and completing them unlocks bonus matches.

The bonus matches have different rules to either 8 Ball or 9 Ball pool where, instead of having to beat the opponent in a standard match, you have to complete a task. This could be either using the fewest shots to clear a table or clearing the table in the quickest time. These bonus matches then allow you to unlock new cue sets, ball sets or table decals.

However, despite the different characters the game pretty much plays the same, with no style differences between the avatars. The only real style the AI knows is brutal efficiency.

Time and time again I would start a match breaking first. The AI would then take its turn and manage to pot everything it needed to win the match without allowing me to have another turn. If this was a rare occurrence then I could live with it, but it was common enough that the cynic in me might believe it was done on purpose, to add length to the single player.

The only real chance you’ll have to win is by using Aim Assist. I tried to play without it but it was pretty much impossible.

The Aim Assist can be set to either Novice, Veteran or Pro with each setting giving you more or less information. Novice will show you exactly where the balls will go, Veteran will give you a little less information on the route and Pro the least information, though still enough to have a chance against the AI.

The other side of the single player is Endurance mode, a survival style mini game that’s a lot of fun. Basically balls are added to the table after a small time period, with the aim being to pot them before the limit of 24 pool balls on the table has been reached.

It starts off quite simply but the time between new additions decreases the longer you survive. There is some respite in that, at certain points, the game will freeze allowing you to pot without more additions to the table, though this period only lasts a few seconds.

Pool Nation looks stunning.

Killer gives you three lives and if you fail to pot a ball on your turn, you lose a life. Lose all three lives and you lose the game.

In Golf you have to pot your ball in each pocket in order to win, while in 3 Ball you have to get the 3 different balls potted with the fewest shots possible.

Speed is all about time and clearing the table as quickly as possible, while Rotation and Straight are points-based games that differ as to how you get those points. In Rotation you can pot any ball with the person getting to 61 points first winning, whereas in Straight the person to pot 30 balls first wins.

Stylistically, Pool Nation looks gorgeous and is one of the best looking games I’ve seen this gen, with venues looking crisp. There are two main camera angles which give you a view, either down the cue or an overhead view of the whole table. Using both during play is necessary, with a change of camera angle coming at the press of the triangle button.

While the music is also pretty good, overall Pool Nation feels a bit clinical and could do with a bit more atmosphere to lift it.

What’s Good:

• Incredibly good looking game.
• Decent amount of game types in multiplayer.
• Endurance Mode is brilliant.

What’s Bad:

• Aggressive AI meaning you can lose a match without taking a shot
• No real differing styles between AI opponents.

Pool Nation’s strengths lie in the multiplayer and Endurance mode. Both of these offer a good challenge and playing either with friends is a competitive joy. The single player tour mode is let down by the AI which doesn’t give you a chance. Any time you do get a turn, it almost feels like the AI is pitying you. If that were more balanced then this would be almost perfect, but with an introductory price of £4.99 (£2.99 for Plus subscribers), Pool Nation is worth picking up if you want to play something simple.

Score: 7/10

Clarification for the PC related questions earlier – EA SPORTS IGNITE will power FIFA 14 on Xbox One and PS4, not PC bit.ly/192nrNz

— Rob Hodson (@RobHodson_) May 21, 2013

We’re not really sure why – and Hodson doesn’t clarify, perhaps it’s due to a low PC user base for the games, or maybe more low-spec machines run FIFA than higher ones? “I don’t have further information to give at this point in time mate” says Hodson in another tweet.

This essentially means that the PC version should be more akin to the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions of FIFA 14 albeit with improved graphics and stability when running on a powerful system.

This could show a change in the market, with better visuals on consoles as opposed to PC for a change, although I’m confident that the PC will soon better the visuals of the PS4 and Xbox One – they’re not going to stop making better graphics cards in the next eight years, are they?

Meanwhile, you can see the new trailer for the Ignite engine, including a first look of a (pre-rendered) FIFA 14 below.

Source: Twitter, via VG247

A couple of big PlayStation 3 games mark today’s PSN Store Update as one to keep an eye on.

Ubisoft’s latest entry into the Call of Juarez series, Gunslinger (preview), is a good way better than the terrible Cartel, and by most accounts Metro: Last Light is a stunning first person shooter.

Gunslinger’s twelve quid, although it’s under a tenner if you’re a Plus subscriber. Same goes with Last Light: £48 for non Plussers, and just over £38 if you pay the monthly fee.

Pool Nation has also landed on PS3 – we’ve got a review ready to roll for that – £2.99 with Plus, £4.99 without. Men’s Room Mayhem (7/10) is definitely worth grabbing for a quid, too.

There’s the Call of Duty Uprising DLC for £11.59 and the Ranger Mode for Last Light for £3.99, too, but more is expected later as usual.

Until then.