This week was chuck full of news so we decided to make a rare top 6 stories of the week. From Disney Infinity to departures at Naughty Dog and the surprising leak of the next installment of Call of Duty’s details we had to honor all these amazing stories. We have wrapped everything up for you in summaries but if you want to read the whole story click the titles or images of each story. Let us know what you thought was the biggest story this week and what games you’re excited for in the comment section below!
Number 6
Disney Infinity 2.0 Will Be Out This Autumn
Disney has announced that the sequel to their popular action game will be launching this autumn. As we reported last month, Disney Infinity 2.0 will be adding Marvel characters to its roster. A new trailer shows off all six of the Avengers characters in action. The 2.0 starter pack will come with the Black Widow, Thor and Iron Man statues with Disney promising that a dozen more new characters will also be available in time for the launch. The brief trailer gives us some hints as to who those characters might be as it features Spiderman, Green Goblin and Loki as well as Rocket Raccoon and Groot from the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. The Marvel characters aren’t the only changes in this sequel. Toy Mode is getting a significant overhaul to make world building faster and easier. Players will even be able to create their own tower defense or dungeon crawler type games set in procedurally generated worlds. New Power Disks and vehicle types will also be present. Disney promised that yet more new features for the game will be revealed at E3 2014.
Number 5
Dragon Quest XI Is In Development
Yuji Horii, creator of the Dragon Quest franchise, has confirmed that Square Enix is working on ”making the next” title in the long running series. He made the comment whilst attending Niconico Super Conference 3 which was held in Chiba. Whilst the series has many spinoffs, the phrasing he used suggests that he was referring to the next main game, which would be Dragon Quest XI. The most recent game,Dragon Quest X, was the first MMORPG for the franchise and launched exclusively for the Wii in Japan in 2012. The following year it was then ported to the Wii U, PC and Android devices. Unfortunately the game never left Japan’s shores. The last main game we got in the West was the DS exclusive Dragon Quest IX which sold over 6 million copies worldwide. So far no details have been revealed as to which platform Dragon Quest XI is in development for although we do know that it won’t be for smartphones. As such a mainstream franchise, Square Enix has tended to release main games only on the most popular devices. Given this trend I would expect the next instalment to be released for the 3DS, although the PS3 could also be a possibility.
Number 4
Rumor: Mass Effect Trilogy Coming to Next-Gen
Gameinformer has reported but not confirmed that a Chilean retail site has listed the Mass Effect Trilogy for Xbox One and PS4. The website Zmart had a listing for the trilogy that was noticed by NeoGaf user Rushersauce. There is no price listed, but this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard reports about a possible remastering of the Mass Effect Trilogy for next-gen. Bioware has said that they have had internal discussions of porting the Mass Effect Trilogy. Sony just recently announced that there will be a Last of Us remastered edition coming to PS4 in June. There have also been rumors of a re-release of a Halo 2 Anniversary edition.
Number 3
Bungie Releases Destiny Gameplay Video, The Devils’ Lair
Beneath the ruins of the Cosmodrome, in the shadow of an old colony ship, we’ve located the House of Devils’ lair. In this seven minute long gameplay video, players will watch in-game footage of a Strike, which is a cooperative mission. Three members of a Fireteam engage in a battle with hostile aliens with the prospect of potential rewards waiting for them. At the end of gameplay footage, the video shows “Play Destiny E3 2014″. We’re not sure if that means it will be playable at E3 or if that is when the beta for Destiny will launch.
Number 2
Artist Michael Knowland Latest to Depart Naughty Dog
Yet another industry figure has left developer Naughty Dog. Michael Knowland, most well-known in gaming circles for his character artistry for the much acclaimed The Last of Us, has left the company as of this April. Word of his departure comes from his LinkedIn profile, GameInformer reports. No details have been given on the circumstances of his leaving the studio as we await further comment from both Sony and Naughty Dog. This latest Naughty Dog related loss is on the heels of a large-scale exodus from the company that began with Uncharted creative director and writer Amy Hennig (Uncharted, Jak & Daxter) along with the game’s lead of Todd Stashwick (Justified). Both have since boarded third-party publisher Electronic Arts subsidiary Visceral to write for an alleged open-world Star Wars title now in the works. Other notable names to be tossed into the departure hat include lead artist Nate Wells, and Uncharted director Justin Richmond. As the headlines continue to be unkind to Naughty Dog in recent weeks, we have yet to see what comes of the studio creatively in the time to come before E3 this June. Its next game tentatively entitled “Uncharted,” is expected to debut then and there. Watch the game’s Playstation 4 teaser if you haven’t already, complete with Stashwick’s interesting narration.
Number 1
Call Of Duty ‘Advanced Warfare’, First Trailer
It was suppose to be a Game Informer exclusive. a big reveal of the next Call of Duty installment was scheduled tentatively for May 4th. But somewhere in between that first announcement and May 4th the name and first trailer for Call of Duty Advanced Warfare were released. It revealed a far more futuristic Call of Duty game featuring drones, hover bikes and exoskeletons just to name a few. It brought on a whole new sci-fi feel to the franchise. They called this the New Era of Call of Duty. Let’s see if they’re right. Read the rest of the leaked details and watch the first trailer by clicking the title or image. It includes a famous actor from a Netflix hit series. I won’t tell you who it is. Okay, it’s President Frank Underwood, I mean, it’s Kevin Spacey.
Honorable Mentions
This week had a lot of big news and the news staff and I found it hard to narrow it down to the usual five stories:
The Golden Age Of Game Reboots | A Travel Back In Time
Happily Destroying The World | King Oddball Review
