Last Week Today: Week 52, 2014

Not much news last week, Christmas can do that. Ok, so there was the whole Xbox Live and PlayStation Network attacks, but overall it has been very quiet. Here are some links we found to be interesting, there is a mixture of news and articles. This is not our usual news rundown format, but we are trying new ways to present the news to keep it interesting.

These should keep you up to date — and busy — for the Holiday period.

• A Ton Of Cheaters Just Got Banned From Counter-Strike
• Bandai Namco changing name again, adds Entertainment
• Cards Against Humanity announces sequel to Hawaii, gives private island to bullshit buyers
• Delay Will Help Witcher 3 Look Better "Across All Platforms"
• DRM glitch leaves new Max Payne 3 buyers temporarily in the lurch
• Federal court dismisses Wiimote patent case against Nintendo
• FFXIV Community Holds Massive Vigil For A Dying Player
• GTA 5 Franklin Voice Actor Working on DLC
• Guy Turns Grand Theft Auto Into Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
• Hackers Explain Why They Supposedly Took Down PSN and Xbox Live
• Halo: Master Chief Collection Patch Adds Halo 4 Spartan Ops Mode
• Halo 5's Aiming Has Changed, And Not Everyone Likes It
• Halo Fan Spent 3.5 Years, $7,000 Creating Epic Lego Ship
• Hideo Kojima Trolled Everyone On Christmas, Because of Course He Did
• Man Buys PlayStation 4 From Walmart, Says He Got Two Bags Of Rocks
• PlayStation Now hits Samsung Smart TVs in first half of 2015
• Read the fine print: Ubisoft free game offer waives lawsuits
• Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl Dev Reopens, Announces New Game
• Wheel-to-wheel racing: Ars compares Xbox One steering wheels
• Xbox Exec Teases Gaming News for January Windows 10 Event
• You Can Control This Guy's Real-Life Christmas Tree From Minecraft

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Australian Game Releases: Week 01 - 2015

Slim pickings this week.

Week 01 - 2015

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

The intrepid Captain Toad sets off on his own adventure for the very first time through a wide variety of tricky, enemy-infested, maze-like stages to find hidden gems and nab elusive gold stars.

Equipped with nothing more than a neck scarf, backpack and oversized head lamp, Captain Toad finds hidden gems, coins and power-ups on his way to the gold star at the end of each tricky, trap-filled stage. Captain Toad isn't particularly fast or strong. He can't jump and he has no super powers. But he knows that sometimes, it's all about wits and perspective. Twist the camera to reveal hidden locations and other secrets. The Wii U GamePad offers a closer view of the dangers and hidden items in each maze, and its gyro controls can also be used to peer around.
Captain Toad's world is brimming with life, with dangerous enemies, tricky platforms, nasty traps and secrets to uncover. Each stage is its own puzzle to solve, and littered throughout are hidden items in hard-to-reach places. Can you help our tiny adventurer survive to find them all?

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: 03/01/2015

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Merry Xmas from Insert Coin 1P

From all of us here at Insert Coin 1P we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!

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Writing Throwback: Asheron's Call Review

Here is an old review I wrote over 14 years ago. It's a little repetitive, short, and badly written. However, it is what is and did the job at the time. Maybe that's why that site no longer exists?

Review

MMOG, heard of it? That is massive multiplayer online game. Moreover, what is that you ask, well in a word Asheron's Call. Asheron's Call is a role-playing game with a twist; it is played solely on the Internet. What that means is that you do not play against the computer or challenge a few friends, but instead thrust into a vast world that sometimes can contain up to 1800 people at once. Now we understand MMOG I will tell you a bit more about Asheron's Call.

Asheron's Call places you in a complete world with shops, dungeons, enemies and real life players. You start by creating your character where you get to choose things like race, appearance, class and what skills you have. The character creation is very easy to use but also gives you many options so each person can be a little bit different. From there, you are dropped into the world of Dereth.

So what can you do? Well, almost anything. You can explore, fight, trade, build your experience or just do nothing. This is what makes Asheron's Call fun as you get to choose what you do. Add in the interaction with the other players and you have a unique and exciting game. You can elect to go solo or band with other adventurers by either joining an allegiance or creating your own. You can make up your adventures or just help people that are new to the game.

The world of Dereth is quite large. Running from one end to the other could take a few hours, and I am talking real time here. You just don't realise how big it is until you explore. Along the way are numerous monsters that you can slay to increase your experience. The more experience you acquire, the more skills you can learn or improve, the more weapons and magic you can use and higher level monsters you can fight, and beat.

The main draw card of Asheron's Call though would have to be character interaction. It is surreal to hear the townspeople say hello or quipping how they have not seen you for a few weeks. It shows you the size of this game that you have so much to explore that you can get lost with other players for weeks.

The visuals for the game are excellent with the world in 3D and your stats placed around the screen for easy access. Asheron's Call runs smooth with little to no jerkiness, and the user panel is also easy to navigate. From there, you run all your commands with a click of a button, and you can also get help too within the panel.

Many people ask what is the point of the game though. Well, it is what you want do. If forming a massive alliance is your goal then so be it. Just exploring and making your adventures is exciting too. New stories are added to the game as well so the look of Death shifts and the adventures change so finding new challenges, new places to see and new monsters is quite easy to achieve.

Microsoft publishes the game and as such the game utilises The Zone. There is a monthly subscription fee but to be honest it is worth it, there is just so much to do. It is hard to put into words just exactly what Asheron's Call is like. The best way to understand it too play it. Asheron's Call is a worthy purchase and a taste of the future with the way we play Role Playing Games.

You will meet new people and find new adventures every day and marvel at just how big this game is. I must warn you though; this game is big and only ends when you stop playing it. As such, you must be careful as you can and will lose many hours to this game but just remember you are not alone.

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Xmas Edition - Feature - Inflashuated

What better time than now to launch our new series Inflashuated. The premise is that we find some flash games, have a quick play, and see which games we instantly fall for. For the other games, we do not showcase? That is a story for another time.

Some might say that it is a little odd to start a series with a Christmas Edition, but we crazy. This episode, Daniel takes a look at Effing Worms, Infectonator, Factory Balls, Icy Gifts 2, Rocket Santa, and Rockstar Santa 4.

Warning: Video contains Swearing.

Music: "Night Owl" from "Directionless EP" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

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Last Week Today: Week 51, 2014

This week Bonnie Ross — Head Developer for 343 Industries — told fans how they are planning to address "the matchmaking issues and other bugs impacting players’ experience with Halo: The Master Chief Collection" so they can "make this right." This means gamers who have logged in online since launch to the announcement — so between November 11th, 2014 to December 19th, 2014 — will receive sometime later this month:

• 1 Month of Xbox Live Gold
• Exclusive In-Game Nameplate
• Exclusive In-Game Avatar

These items are a one-off and will not be available again, so anyone who misses out will do so forever. Additionally the following items will be available in the future once developed:

• Halo 3: ODST Campaign
• "Relic" Halo 2: Anniversary Multiplayer Map

"Both projects were not part of our original development plans, but as a result of community feedback, and to do something special for our fans, both are now in development" an FAQ page setup by 343 Industries said. The Halo 3: ODST Campaign will not come with the Firefight multiplayer mode — which makes sense as they explicitly announced the campaign — with a release date in Autumn (U.S. Spring) 2015.

Rockstar announced the GTA Online Festive Surprise, a collection of free Christmas-themed freebies and updates for its fans. There are snowballs, new rocket launchers, vehicles, clothes, fireworks for New Years Day, and Christmas gifts available in the inventory on December 25th. They also told fans via their Rockstar Newswire that while they are not planning to leave last-gen consoles behind "there may be a point where we reach the limits for the previous generation of consoles as there may be some updates that are only technically possible on the new hardware." PC gamers will be happy to know they can transfer their console character. So if you "already transferred your progress from PS3 or Xbox 360 to either PS4 or Xbox One, then you will still be able to do another transfer again from PS4 or Xbox One to PC." Lastly, Rockstar provided more details about GTA Online Heists via an interview with IGN, and also released a trailer.

Valve may be Region Locking game gifting according to a Reddit post due to the recent issues with the Russian Ruble, although they are yet to confirm. They also banned the game Hatred as confirmed by Destructive Creations Facebook post. However, the next day they again confirmed via Facebook that Valve's Gabe Newell sent an apology and confirmation that the game will be re-instated. A redesign of the Steam Controller may have leaked with the latest Steam Client Beta update. Oh, and the Steam Holiday Sale 2014 arrived, so if you feel like hating your wallet until January 2nd, 2015, here is your chance.

Xbox released two new apps for the Xbox One, Pandora and Vevo. Ok, they announced five but as usual three are U.S. only, so that is no interest to us. A leaked version of Windows 10 build 9901 appeared online, and many screenshots were taken showing a new Xbox App for Windows 10. Australian Xbox One game servers were announced with new Azure Datacentres for Sydney and Melbourne with "lightning quick connection speeds, centralised local hosting and improved reliability on certain Xbox One games with further title support coming soon" according to Microsoft. Xbox outsold PlayStation 4 in the U.S. and U.K. in November. Microsoft might be working on a streaming game and app service with their "Arcadia" team while another team is also working on a VR Headset?

Quick Shots

After fumbling the launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity, the free game offer is now available. As special thank you after three patches now, Assassin's Creed: Unity gamers on the Xbox One skipped the fourth patches 6.7GB download size and got to download all 40GB instead. Telltale and Mojang are joining forces for Minecraft: Story Mode. Humble Bundle raised US$50 million for charity. Transformers Universe is shutting down, with many not even knowing it was open. Another developer thinks the tiresome 2014 trend of ports is the "JACKPOT". Kerbal Space Program moved from alpha to beta expanding on bases, buildings, contracts, and more. Sony loses its motion to dismiss the complaint about Killzone and its not-quite-1080P multiplayer graphics prowess. Finally, Pac-Man, who got not only has his statue at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid, but is also getting an official a Pac-Man inspired restaurant coming to Chicago in early 2015.

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Australian Game Releases [The Not Games Edition]

He is making a list and checking it twice!

Week 52 for game releases are pretty slim, or should I say there aren't any. A chunk of Coal is more interesting than the last week of the year.

However, there are only six days until Christmas, and the big red man may be asking "What do I give the kids these days?"

We have got you covered.

Note: Please check with your local place of purchase for exact offerings. Pricing is the Recommend Retail Pricing and is in Australian dollars.

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 4 consoles come in two colours, and each package comes with slightly different game bundles.

The Black PlayStation 4 bundle is $599 and contains:

• PlayStation 4 Black 500GB console
• LittleBigPlanet 3
• Driveclub
• The Last of Us
• Minecraft

Plus choose one of the following:

• Far Cry 4
• SingStar Ultimate Party
• Trials Fusion
• Infamous: First Light
• NBA 2K15
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• FIFA 15

The White PlayStation 4 bundle is $599 and contains:

• PlayStation 4 White 500GB console
• LittleBigPlanet 3
• Driveclub
• The Last of Us
• Minecraft

Plus choose one of the following:

• Far Cry 4
• SingStar Ultimate Party
• Trials Fusion
• Infamous: First Light
• NBA 2K15
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• FIFA 15

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 bundle is $399 and contains:

• PlayStation 3 Super Slim Black 500GB console

Plus either one to all of the below items can be bundled depending on the retailer:

• DualShock3 Controller
• Battlefield 4
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Gran Turismo 6
• Batman Arkham Origins
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Xbox One

The Xbox One Kinect bundle is $599 and contains:

• Xbox One Black 500GB console
• Xbox One Kinect
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (Xbox Live download code)
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Xbox Live download code)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox Live download code)
• Forza 5 (Xbox Live download code)
• Dance Central Spotlight (Xbox Live download code)
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Sunset Overdrive

The Xbox One Console bundle is $499 and contains:

• Xbox One Black 500GB console
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (Xbox Live download code)
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Xbox Live download code)
• Forza 5 (Xbox Live download code)
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Sunset Overdrive

Plus either one to all of the below items can be bundled depending on the retailer:

• The Crew
• Minecraft
• FIFA 15

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 E 4GB Console bundle is $199 and contains:

• Xbox 360 E Black 4GB console
• Peggle 2 (Xbox Live download code)
• Trials HD
• 'Splosion Man
• Limbo
• Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition

The Xbox 360 E 500GB Console bundle is $299 and contains:

• Xbox 360 E Black 500GB console
• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Xbox Live download code)

Plus either one to all of the below items can be bundled depending on the retailer:

• Halo 4
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Batman Arkham Origins
• Borderlands 2 (Xbox Live download code)
• Driver: San Franciso
• Forza Horizon

Wii U

The Wii U Premium bundle is $399 and contains:

• Wii U Black 32GB console
• Wii U Black GamePad controller
• Mario Kart 8

Plus either one to all of the below items can be bundled depending on the retailer. Base console price may increase with some game offers:

• Nintendo Land
• Game Party Champions
• Just Dance 2015
• Rabbids Land
• Sports Connection

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