XBF Gaming Daily – Is last Gen Dead & The Chiefs Fate Revealed?
Those crazy guys over at Activision\Treyarch are hardly known for pushing the boundaries of gaming but as has been widely reported the last Gen versions of this years Borefest Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will not feature the single player campaign. I thought single player had been scrapped since Modern Warfare but apparently subsequent games also contained this mythical campaign and not just last years multiplayer re-skinned.
As you can probably tell i have little time for the franchise that has steadily gone to shit since the seminal Modern Warfare but i have to hand it to them dumping the last gen campaign really is a sing that they are trying to utilise current gen hardware without the burden of the 360 and PS3. COD is a massive franchise and you can bet all the other Developers and publishers are following the reactions closely. It’s a big decision they have made and a brave on very much out of Character from a Publisher that puts sales ahead of quality and innovation but one all gamers could benefit from. Regardless of my issues with the Franchise millions will pick it up and play when it launches in November and this decisions coupled with the incoming holiday season could see a large percentage of those players jumping to the Xbox One or PS4.
For the rest of the industry it’s going to be a very interesting few months watching the reaction to the decision to drop the last gen whilst keeping the title almost the same price. RRP for Black Ops 3 on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is £49.99 with the last gen versions without campaign being £39.99. That seems far to high in my opinion and raises the interesting question of why does Activision see the campaign as being only 20% of the games value. In my totally irrelevant opinion the last gen version should be retailing for £29.99 but what do i care i won’t be fucking buying it.
It sets a precedent for others to follow and maybe it’s the beginning of the end for last gen hardware.
In Halo news there is a growing possibility that 343 may actually be killing off the Master Chief. In a leaked image reportedly from the sound studio where dialogue is being recorded reveals script elements that indicate the death of The Chief at the hands of a Warden. We’ve seen the warden in the E3 stage demo during the Fire Team OSiris mission that ends with Locke getting dropped and the Warden stating “The Master Chief is called but you, your passage is Denied.”
Of course it could all be part of an elaborate 343i plot to gain yet more publicity and divert attention from the real story. If they are going to hand the Halo franchise to Spartan Locke then The Chief must go out in style.
A keen Xbox New Experience preview member has been busy comparing the current Xbox One, PS4 and New Xbox Experience performance when carrying out certain UI based tasks. I appreciate it’s not the most taxing of tests but it does show a clear improvement to many of the things that currently piss me off. Things like inviting friends or sending a message no longer take a ridiculous amount of time to complete. The difference is pretty clear and discounting the PS4 completely as i have no metric for comparison it’s looking extremely positive so far just leaves me wondering why the UI they shipped was so horrifically broken.
FInally Eurogamer have put together an excellent article relating to the new consumer rights act that gives gamers better protection when buying broken or clearly unfinished games. The article which can be read here states “Of particular interest to gamers is increased protection for people who buy digital content. If digital goods are faulty, consumers are entitled to a full refund, or a replacement. This is the first time consumers have had clear legal rights for digital content”. It’s a very interesting article that hopefully will ensure we are protected when purchasing digital content which has often sat in a grey area after purchase. Give it a read at once!
Any way that’s me done more tomorrow hopefully !!
