2016’s best games in a two minute YouTube video

While not every game was perfect, 2016 did mark an interesting year for gaming. Some truly disappointing titles dropped, and others arrived that shocked us with how good they really were.

This video from Youtuber Malcolm Klock takes a pile of the most interesting games from 2016 and montages them together in less than two minutes. He even put them all in a list, complete with an awesome typo or two, in the description of the video.

List of featured titles (in order of first appearance):

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Quantum Break
Uncharted 4
Battlefield 1
Dishonored 2
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Overwatch
Mafia III
Dark Souls III
Far Cry Primal
Inside
ABZÛ
Hyper Light Drifter
That Dragon Cancer
Unravel
Owlboy
The Last Guardian
Obduction
Finaly Fantasy XV
The Witness
Firewatch
Hitman
The Banner Saga 2
Oxenfree
Watch Dogs 2
Civilization VI
Gears of War 4
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Titanfall 2
Homefront: The Revolution
Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst
XCOM 2
ReCore
Street Fighter V
Batman: The Telltale Series
Steep
FIFA 17
Superhot
Pokemon Go
Pokemon Sun and Moon
Stardew Valley
Steins Gate 0
Yomawari Night Alone
I Am Setsuna
Darkest Dungeon
Tyranny
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Ratchet & Clank
Madden 17
Forza Horizon 3
NBA 2k17
Dead Rising 4

This video makes 2016 almost seem better than it really was, doesn’t it?

                  

Google is being sued by one of its employees over “spying program”

Google is reportedly being sued by a product manager at the company for its confidentiality policies, according to The Information. Apparently, the suit, which was filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco, alleges Google is spying on its own employees, violating California labor laws.

Google’s internal policies are allegedly there to encourage employees not to put concerns of illegal activity into writing, which the company fears could fall into the hands of regulators and law enforcement. Employees are also discourages from writing novels about people working in Silicon Valley.

The Information claims the same employee filed a suit earlier this year with the National Labor Relations Board with similar complaints.

“Google has since amended its Data Classification Guidelines, which were the subject of the labor complain,” The Information writes.

Don’t be evil

Should the employee successfully sue Google, the company could be forced to reveal confidential information. Google’s currently policies are meant to dissuade individuals from leaking information to law enforcement or the press. So, what is Google hiding?

That’s a question that will no doubt be raised over the coming months.

The Verge has a copy of the 24-page complaint, which you can read in full at their site.

“Google’s motto is ‘don’t be evil.’ Google’s illegal confidentiality agreements, policies, and practices fail this test,” the lawsuit alleges.

SOURCE THEINFORMATION

VIA THEVERGE

IMAGE SOURCE GOOGLE

The Steam Winter Sale for 2016 has officially begun!

The Steam Winter Sale for 2016 is live. I hope you put some money or Steam gift cards on your Christmas wish list, because the pile of deals that’s arrived in time for the holiday is solid.

The sale started today at 1 p.m. ET, and it’s set to run until January 2 at 1 p.m. ET. Here’s a link to the storefront.

The deals you see today are the ones that will roll throughout the duration of the sale, though Steam will highlight some cheap games as the days roll on. At a quick glance, I’m seeing a few solid titles worth your consideration.

• Cities: Skylines – $29.99 $7.49
• Stardew Valley – $14.99 $9.99
• The Stanley Parable – $14.99 $2.99
• Grand Theft Auto V – $59.99 $29.99
• Hyper Light Drifter – $19.99 $11.99
• Clustertruck – $14.99 $8.99
• Slime Rancher – $19.99 $13.99

                    

Pokemon Go Finally Launched in India; Reliance Digital Stores to Be PokeStops

HIGHLIGHTS

• * To be available in India from "TODAY"
• * Game has been downloaded over 500 million times since launch
• * JioChat users will get exclusive Pokemon Go channel

• 
  
• Pokemon Go - unarguably the most sensational mobile video game of 2016 - has finally been launched in India. Interestingly, Niantic Inc., the developer behind the augmented reality mobile game along with The Pokemon Company, has partnered with Reliance Jio to bring the game to the country. The game is now available to download via Google Play and the App Store.

• As a part of this partnership, Reliance Digital Stores and company's select partner premises in India will appear as 'PokeStops' or 'Gyms' within the game from Wednesday, Reliance Jio said in its release.
• To recall, Pokemon Go created huge waves around the world after its launch in July earlier this year as gamers around the world took the game with open hands and created social groups with those who were playing the game. The mobile game achieved several milestones at both Google Play and App Store and has been downloaded over 500 million times since its launch.

• 
  
• "We are delighted to partner with Jio to launch Pokemon Go in India," John Hanke, chief executive officer and founder of Niantic, was quoted as saying in the release. "It's exciting to see Pokemon fans in India step out and explore their neighbourhoods in search of Pokemon and Jio's disruptive high speed 4G LTE Network will be an excellent way to experience the game," he said.
• Notably, players will get an exclusive Pokemon Go channel on Reliance Jio's messaging app, JioChat. "The Pokemon Go Channel will enable Pokemon Go players to collaborate and be part of an exciting community of players with daily tips, contests, clues, and special events," the company said.
• Reliance Jio recently announced that as part of company's Happy New Year offer, it is offering another three months of free data to users. This means that Reliance Jio users will be able to download the game without incurring data charges.

Battlefield 1 update includes new map and grenade crossbow

EA’s Battlefield 1 is getting an important update just ahead the holidays, which includes a new map from the game’s single-player campaign. Of course, the update also features plenty of behind-the-scenes tweaks, which EA said will improve the experience for everyone.

“The new map is called Giant’s Shadow and is based on the battle of the Selle in 1918,” EA said in an announcement. “With a massive crashed airship casting its shadow onto the battlefield, you can expect fierce combat on the open ground and river banks alongside the Cateau-Wassigny railway.”

The map is derived from the Battle of Cambrai, which sees players assume the role of Danny Edwards, a British tank driver. It’s one of the more intense stories in the game, guiding players through missions in a tank and on foot. There’s also a part that see players sneak through a French town salvaging tank parts.

The update also includes the Grenade Crossbow, available to the Support class, which EA said can “turn the tide with an armored train.” It looks pretty slick and does exactly what you’d expect: launch a grenade towards its intended target.

Finally, there’s a new Spectator Mode, which allows players to join a match as an observer. According to EA, observers can switch between first-person and third-person camera views—there’s even a Free Cam option so you can zoom around the map unencumbered by fixed camera restrictions. It should give casual players an idea of how elite players tackle matches.

There’s a catch

If you purchased the game’s Premium Pass DLC subscription or preordered Battlefield 1you’ll be able to play on the new map tomorrow. Otherwise, the update will be available to everyone on Dec. 20.

The Battlefield forums will have all the patch notes once the update rolls out. In addition to the new map and weapon, the update will also feature shotgun tweaks, modified gameplay aspects, and a new custom game option.

SOURCE BATTLEFIELD

EA picks up Sea of Solitude for EA Originals program, and the game looks beautiful

“When humans get too lonely, they turn into monsters.” That’s how the first bit of text on the Sea of Solitude‘s official site reads.

It continues:

This adventure is about Kay, who has turned into a monster and her journey to find out what happened to her.

On her search to change, she soon finds out that her biggest enemies are not the huge monsters that she meets on her way through the Sea of Solitude, but something way more dangerous.

The game looks beautiful, and obviously, I’m not alone in thinking as much. EA has announced that they’ll help bring Sea of Solitude to the market with their EA Originals program.

EA sees something special in Sea of Solitude

Sea of Solitude does look pretty neat. In fact, EA Executive Vice President Patrick Söderlund had this to say about the game.

Like Fe, our first EA Originals title, Sea of Solitude captures the essence of the games we want players to discover through EA Originals. We are celebrating the passion and talent of the amazing creators in our industry, and enabling them to bring unique and memorable stories to the world. Often that’s brought to life in the narrative of a game, but sometimes, it’s the story of the individuals themselves. With Sea of Solitude, it was both – a story so personal and human, and one that carries a powerful message. Jo-Mei insisted it needed to be told, and I couldn’t agree more.

I’m in. It looks neat. Here’s a video from January of this year.

Sea of Solitude doesn’t have a release date or precise platforms yet, so far as we can find, but we’ll keep it on your radar.

SOURCE EA

Amazon Go store opens in Seattle; lets you take stuff of shelves and walk out

Amazon announced a new in-store shopping experience on Monday called “Amazon Go.” The idea is simple: it’s a store where you can walk in, take stuff and leave without ever visiting a checkout counter. Yes, you can pretend to be a shoplifter. Kind of.

You’ll need to have the Amazon app installed and, unlike a shoplifter, you’re actually paying for the goods you decide to take with you. Sorry, Winona Ryder. You’ll scan your phone as you walk in the store, according to the video above that demonstrates the technology, and Amazon will know what you’re picking up to take home.

“Our checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning,” Amazon explained. “Our Just Walk Out technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. When you’re done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we’ll charge yourAmazon account and send you a receipt.”

This sounds kind of tricky, and I wonder how many people might accidentally either get charged for something they didn’t buy, or make off with goods they thought they paid for. The former reminds me of a hotel minibar fridge that can automatically detect when beer is removed, sometimes charging the guest even if he or she places it back.

Kind of like shoplifting.. but legal

Amazon’s first store will take the form of a grocery market with pre-made breakfast, lunch and dinner options, in addition to snacks, chocolates, cheeses and other products. In other words, you’re not going to walk in and out with an $8,000 UHD just yet, which suggests perhaps Amazon is still just confident enough in its technology that it wants to beta test with food first.

The first location will open at 2131 7th Ave in Seattle, Washington ,on 7th Ave and Blanchard in early 2017, when the public can begin entering the store. It’s already open for Amazon employees.

SOURCE AMAZON

                         

Ace Combat 7 looks absolutely stunning, will save the series from itself

Ace Combat 7 is shaping up to be exactly the game I want it to be. I suppose the addition of optional VR support is nice, and the actual headlining news of this article, but I’m more excited about the series returning to form. This trailer from PlayStation Experience shows that’s just what’s happening.

Right off the bat, we hear about the Kingdom of Erusia starting a war, and my heart skips a beat. For those who don’t know, the first six Ace Combat games take place in a science fiction world called Strangereal. This alternate reality planet resembles Earth, but it’s also made up of fictional continents and countries. Strangereal was abandoned for a real-world setting in the previous generation’s Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, and it hasn’t been heard from since.

Basically, Ace Combat needed to catch up with Call of Duty’s sales figures, and gritty realism was Bandai Namco’s attempt to keep the series relevant.

However, gritty realism is a thing of the past, and the past is now the present thanks to the emergence of reboots. So many series have gone “back to their roots” over the last few years, and Ace Combat 7 is now about to do the game thing. With it, we get a slick aerial combat game that focuses on anti-war storytelling just as much as it does combat, and it does so with a much grander sense of purpose than a simple war game. Can’t wait!

Ace Combat 04 and Ace Combat 5 getting any love?

The series hit the peak of its popularity on the PlayStation 2 with Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. DualShockers approached Producer Kazutoki Kono about the chance of ever seeing a remake of those two, and his response is one that suggests it’s unlikely.

In terms of remakes, I’m very thankful that there are a lot of fans and voices saying “hey, we want to experience the story again.” Should the chance present itself, I would certainly like to examine it, but there are a lot of tricky issues that we took on with the past wars, thematically, so it would be a very tricky thing to navigate.

But if the chance presents itself, then I would like to explore it, absolutely.

So, yeah, the Ace Combat games tell great stories, but they are meant for a certain time and place. However, those that know me know I don’t subscribe to the silly idea of graphics needing to be updated for a game to be enjoyable to a modern audience. I remember both games being brilliant in spite of their limitations, and I bet you they would still hold up in their original forms.

Even if remakes aren’t possible, why not give the digital PlayStation 2 Classics line-up a try? Neither game has ever been released digitally through the PlayStation Store, and they are simply too excellent. This unfortunate situation should be fixed as quickly as possible.

How about using them as a lead up into Ace Combat 7, which will be released for the PlayStation 4 in 2017?

source: DUALSHOCKERS, DESTRUCTOID

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gets new footage, no release date

After debuting a trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild earlier tonight, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime took to the Game Awards stage to show off some new gameplay footage of the game running on Wii U. A short intro from director Eiji Aonuma then introduced a new area of the game, shown above.

We got a closer look tonight at how stealth will work in Breath of the Wild, and how different approaches to a given situation can be equally viable. Some of Link’s gadgets, lightning arrows and the lightning rod, featured in the video as well.

A short conversation with a bird-bard showed that, despite having some voice acting, fans who like their Zelda games text-heavy and talk-light don’t have much to worry about.

But when does it come out?

What was missing from the sequence, however, was any word on the release date. After suggesting a March 2017 release date, go coincide with the Nintendo Switch, tonight’s gameplay was accompanied by a more vague “2017” release date, suggesting the game might not make it until summer or fall.

We can expect to see the game running on the Nintendo Switch after the new year, when Nintendo holds its Switch event in January and then, maybe, we’ll get that release date, too.

                  

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailer debuts at start of Game Awards

 Before this year’s Game Awards officially started, Nintendo’s Bill Trinen took the stage to debut a new, brief trailer. The game in question? The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

You’ll find the clip above, including what looks like a female in garb similar to Link. She clenches her fist at the end, which implies some sort of aggression. Who knows?

Maybe we’re looking at Zelda for the first time. Nintendo will take the stage later in the show, too, and we’ll cover that when it happens.

Outlast 2 developer Red Barrel has a real Kickstarter for a “companion diaper”

When a game or movie is scary in that sudden, startling way, we tend to describe it how it affected us by saying that we’ve soiled ourselves, though we usually use less polite terms. Outlast and Outlast 2 developer Red Barrels has taken that literally and wants to help us. If they’re going to scare the crap out of us,  Red Barrel at least want us to be prepared. It has started a real, serious Kickstarter to that effect.

“After the release of Outlast 1, we received numerous reports of soiled undergarments and unprepared anuses,” the studio says on its Kickstarter. “So we, the team at Red Barrels, decided to come up with a solution … Fear for your underwear no more with Underscares.”

Red Barrels goes on to explain that it developed a “companion diaper” prototype with local designers that is wearable, comfortable, and washable so gamers “can experience abject terror without worrying about dirtying their egos (or their couches).”

This is a real Kickstarter for a real product, and Red Barrels has a goal of $40,000 to make Underscares happen. There are multiple product tiers to choose from on the Kickstarter page, most of which are accompanied by a key for the Outlast 2 game when it releases in 2017. The Deluxe Underscares come with a drink pocket and a nightlight, because why not? Red Barrels says the Kickstarter isn’t, in any way, meant to collect funds for the development of the game itself, as it was fully funded by their previous ventures. But at the very least, it’s a clever and memorable advertising campaign.

SOURCE KICKSTARTER

Final Fantasy 15 PS4 and Xbox One File Sizes Revealed

Square Enix's long-awaited RPG finally comes out on Tuesday.

With Final Fantasy XV's release coming up very soon, the long-in-development RPG's file sizes for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have been revealed.

DualShockers reports that the file size is 50.698 on PS4, with 6.593 GB required to install before you can play the first part of the game. The Xbox One's file size, as revealed earlier this month, is apparently 50.94 GB, according to DualShockers.

The PlayStation Store page mentions a 40.5 GB install size for Final Fantasy XV, while the Xbox Store shows a 51.82 GB install size. Those may not be entirely accurate, as it sometimes the case with pre-release listings.

Final Fantasy XV will have a significant day one patch, called the "Crown" update, that includes a "variety of updates, minor bug fixes, and new features to greatly enhance the overall story and gameplay experience." Read GameSpot's previous coverage to see the patch notes.

After years of development and multiple delays, Final Fantasy XV finally comes out on November 29.

                   

Final Fantasy XV coming to Hollywood for an “astral-nomic” launch

Final Fantasy XV’s release date is now a week away, and Square Enix needs to have the largest celebration imaginable to make up for its decade of development. As it turns out, the celebration isn’t just going to be huge, it’s going to be “astral-nomic,” according to the company.

Please forgive the pun.

Summon monsters over Sunset Boulevard

For what it’s worth, the traditional Final Fantasy summon monsters such as Shiva, Titan, and Ramuh are referred to in Final Fantasy XV as “astrals,” and yes, they are enormous. If we are taking this Twitter post as more than just a joke your nerdy dad might come up with, then I would guess it means Square Enix has some exceptionally large statues or balloons of these monsters prepared.

People of Los Angeles might wake up to the sight of a giant thunder god looming in the sky. That would be “astral-nomic.” Final Fantasy XV will launch for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Nov. 29.

ORDER THIS FROM AMAZON

SOURCE TWITTER

Pokémon Sun and Moon coming to the Nintendo Switch, report

Eurogamer has made a bold claim, pointing towards multiple sources that state Pokémon Sun and Moon will be coming to the Nintendo Switch.

Development has been underway at GameFreak for quite some time, and it is being worked on under the codename Pokémon Stars. If Nintendo sticks with the name, that sounds like it would fall in line as this generation’s solitary entry, similar to Emerald, Crystal, and Platinum from generations past.

Currently, the project is on hold so the studio could polish up the Nintendo 3DS releases of Pokémon Sun and Moon, but since those are available today, work can reportedly begin on the project once again.

Pokémon finally comes to home consoles

If Eurogamer’s sources prove to be correct, the main Pokémon franchise will finally find a home on consoles in summer of 2017, a full 20 years after the series came to be.

Pokémon Sun and Moon recently broke the record as the biggest launch in the Nintendo 3DS’ history, and it is one of the best-received games from the franchise is a very long time. Fans are excited to be playing again, and Nintendo made the right choice if this is the game it wants to bring to a home console.

SOURCE EUROGAMER

                             

Final Fantasy XV trailer – Closing out the latest demo

The latest trailer for Final Fantasy XV is waiting to greet players when they come to the end of the most recent “Judgement Disc” demo. While it doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting this demo through the North American PlayStation Store, those who have seen it graciously uploaded it to the Internet for the rest of the world.

It starts off with Noctis and Lunafreya as kids making kiddy promises while petting a dog and dancing perilously close to the edge of the uncanny valley. Oh, how creepy! From there, many characters monologue as the tension slowly escalates into an explosive ending. You’ll need to understand Japanese to get everything, but I would actually caution against seeking out too much.

These lines seem a bit more spoilerific than usual. Looks like Square Enix is struggling to keep in its excitement at this point.

Two weeks until Final Fantasy XV launches

My blood is boiling and my food tastes different all of a sudden. I haven’t been this excited for a Final Fantasy game in a decade, and I’m hoping beyond hope that it lives up to expectations. My initial revulsion to the characters and the battle system have all since been quelled, and I am on board with the game that Square Enix has made.

All that remains is for me to finally play it! I’ll get the chance to Nov. 29 when it launches for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

source: NOVACRYSTALLIS