Thanks to Viva Sonata and anthonydarko for putting this together:

Games Round-Up

Hey, guys. After a few weeks off, I'm back on with the ever-wonderful anthonydarko and ready to go. :D

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

- Recently, titles like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed have had new additions released for the holiday season, despite having predecessors release only a handful of months before. This is due to the increased demand and 'instant gratification' mentality that our country is rapidly adapting into our retail formula.

This week, Square Enix announced, courtesy of eurogamer that it would soon be releasing a new canonical title in its flagship series, Final Fantasy, every year or two. This would break up the significant gaps between games [five between XI and XII, three between XII and XIII].

How do you feel about this new release plan that more and more companies are integrating into their releases? Are you happy to see new titles you're familiar with coming up every year, or does it take away from the games you play?

THIS WEEK IN GAMING

- More Squeenix news for you - a new studio is bring set up in Montreal to start work on the new Hitman coming out. This will create 250 jobs. Woo!

- November 30th is the date that the new Counter Strike: GO beta goes live.

- You guys sick of Skyrim? Anyone? Oh, wait, no one will answer this because they're still playing it. Watch out for this Steam patch of the game, though.

- Speculation time; noclipping in Skyrim, which allows a hacked freeroam, gave one user to access to Morrowind and Cyrodiil, which were featured in previous Elder Scrolls games.

- BioWare's done a lot of diverse titles - apart from Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate, a Sonic RPG for the DS, and now... a Command & Conquer title.

- B'doop! The Xbox Dashboard update will officially happen December 6th.

- The PS Vita launch title Ridge Racer seems a bit lacking - when purchased, only three courses will be available. The rest need to be downloaded. Another reason not to buy a Vita.

- More curveballs from Hideo Kojima - in addition to crazy news about Metal Gear Solid: Rising and a new project entitled Ogre, a new interview has him talking about Metal Gear Solid 5.

- Sony recently announced that sales have increased for its motion sensory counterpart the PS move, catching up to the Xbox's new Kinect addition.

- Black Friday has come and gone and with it, stories of people committing violence all in the name of deals. In California, a woman pepper sprayed at least 5 people for a game console.

- For PC gamers looking forward to playing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on their gaming rigs, that sadly will not happen. Ubisoft has announced that the title will not appear on the platform due to fears of piracy and that Ghost Recon Online will take its place.

- After much protest and jeers from their PS3 customers for not including a free version of Battlefield 1943 with copies of Battlefield 3, EA has finally relented and is offering free copies of the game here.

- Rumor has it that a sequel to Dante's Inferno is on the way. No word yet on if it's going to be over hyped like the last one however.

- For those who enjoy tinkering with game engines, the Doom 3 source code is now available.

- Looking for a reason to show why the CryEngine 3 is amazing? Look no further then ORM Entertainment's use of the engine for a Titantic simulator. The video of the simulator can be found here.

Contributors: anthonydarko and Viva Sonata

Sources: Joystiq, Destructoid, eurogamer, gamasutra, videogamer, andriasang, ign, pikmal, rockpapershotgun, psm uk, industrygamers

I think I'm the only person who played / thoroughly enjoyed Jade Empire.

I don't believe that article about PS Move

Yay! Another free PS3 game!

Originally Posted by Xx sorrow xX

I don't believe that article about PS Move

There's nothing unbelievable about it.

I don't really like rapid release titles. Well, I do like some of them, but I don't like the idea. I need time before the next sequel comes out to get sick of the prior one first.

Originally Posted by Asthenia-182

I don't really like rapid release titles. Well, I do like some of them, but I don't like the idea. I need time before the next sequel comes out to get sick of the prior one first.

I agree, not a fan of the idea.

Liking skyrim, but i feel like it has definitely been given a gracious rating. I've had nothing but issues with bugs in the game and freezing. it freezes daily for me.

Originally Posted by stonecoldfox

I think I'm the only person who played / thoroughly enjoyed Jade Empire.

Lies. I was an Open Palm.

Thanks for the roundup.

I think there's a happy medium to be had with game releases. Two, three years. Five is pretty rough and Valve-time is atrocious.

whoa, that CryEngine3 titanic simulator was unreal. Hopefully we can expect that kind of detail with next gen gaming consoles :)

Originally Posted by stonecoldfox

I think I'm the only person who played / thoroughly enjoyed Jade Empire.

I don't think I know a single person who didn't love it, haha. Your situation is the complete opposite of mine.

Originally Posted by stonecoldfox

I think I'm the only person who played / thoroughly enjoyed Jade Empire.

Originally Posted by Cpt. Geech

whoa, that CryEngine3 titanic simulator was unreal. Hopefully we can expect that kind of detail with next gen gaming consoles :)

It would be ridiculous

Originally Posted by stonecoldfox

I think I'm the only person who played / thoroughly enjoyed Jade Empire.

Loved that game. I was a huge fan of the combat mechanics and game world. There's nothing else really like it out there, even since its release.