Grave Gamer News & Views — xbox one

343 Adding Halo 3: ODST Campaign to MCC for Free

343 Industries, the studio that brought you one of 2014’s higher profile video game related disasters, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, is looking to make amends with its community of fans (and ex-fans, as it were).

343’s own chief, Bonnie Ross, promised that the All-Halo, Only-Halo development house, in addition to fixing the staggering problems damaging the collection’s multiplayer suite, would find a way make things right between the studio and jilted fans.

At the forefront of that initiative is the remastering of Halo 3: ODST’s campaign, planned to be made available at no charge for players that have suffered through MCC’s failings during any date from its November launch through December 19th (anywhere outside that time slot and you’re likely paying to experience the Chief-less spin-off in full 1080p/60fps). Very unfortunately, 343 doesn’t plan on carrying over ODST’s highlight, the co-op Firefight mode, to MCC because fuck us, evidently.

Early-adopters can also look forward to an exclusive in-game nameplate and avatar to commemorate all the time wasted, fruitlessly staring at the matchmaking screen as it actively searched for games to not connect you to. Plus you get a free month of Xbox Live. So there’s that.

Halo 3: ODST, an entry best known as “Halo: Oddest” by clueless mothers shopping for their 12-year-olds circa 2009, will be yours all over again – in even HD-ier HD – sometime in the Spring. Let us not seem ungrateful, but let’s not allow 343 think it’s okay that this isn’t the vastly superior Halo: Reach. An oddest choice.

Put on Your Hater Blockers — DmC: Devil May Cry is Coming to PS4/Xbone

When Ninja Theory’s bold, stylish reworking of the Devil May Cry mythos released in 2013, there was an avalanche sized disparity between critical reception, which deemed the game a phenomenal treat for the hack n’ slash genre, and fan opinion, which assessed that Dante’s lack of white hair and excision of anime-flavored over-the-topness made DmC fucking trash, and NT the worst developer in the world.

If you let the haters dissuade you from this radical reboot last year, allow The Herb to set you straight: DmC is my favorite Devil May Cry game. I have played each and all, repeatedly. But I love this one the best. Maybe now you’ll get to see why in next-gen.

Releasing both digitally and retail-ally for PS4 and Xbox One (is everyone cool if we just start abbreviating that as ‘XO’?), DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition packs the original game, every piece of DLC from costumes to the trippy side-campaign, Vergil’s Downfall, and blends it with a shitload of new modes and features.

The already fluid game now runs at 60fps in 1080p. The gameplay has been tweaked and tinkered to max efficiency — bugs have been squashed, uneven AI has been rebalanced, the Style system can now be made harder to master, and thanks to player demand, a manual lock-on can be implemented a la DMC1.

A new Hardcore Mode has been added for those craving old school ass-walloping; Turbo Mode has returned, featuring 20% more speed; a new difficulty, Gods Must Die, starts enemies in Devil Trigger, gives them increased damage, and denies you item use (masochists wanted); and now Mr. Vergil has his own Bloody Palace to eviscerate demons in.

DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition re-drops March 17th, 2015. I’m hoping against all hope that a renewed interest in this reboot might push Capcom into greenlighting a direct sequel. It would be the ultimate crime if Ninja Theory’s vibrant, vivid world only gets one chance; a worse crime than no white hair.

(‘Course, if you’re really hard up for the two-dimensional, walked-straight-out-of-a-manga Dante, Capcom is also releasing a Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition onto next-gen platforms sometime in the summer.)

Official Trailer Hereabouts!

Xbox One Price Dropped by $50 for the Holidays

Ah, yes. Time to dust off that floating Xbone pic – the Big X has got some news.

Beginning next week and running all the way to January 3rd of 2015, you can snag a brand new Xbox One starting at $350. Now, that’s the price on the core model sans the Kinect. But fear not, purveyors of motion technology/accidentally broadcasting yourself nude. Every Xbox One bundle is getting $50 knocked off the price tag.

The offer is only good at participating retailers, but honestly, throw a dart and you’ll hit a store hosting the deal. Best Buy, Gamestop, Walmart, Target, Microsoft’s own Apple-a-like stores; even the brick n’ mortar-less Amazon is offering the deal.

The price drop, temporary as it may be, isn’t very surprising. The PlayStation 4, having taken advantage of Microsoft’s serious missteps even before next-gen’s launch last November, is killing it. Undercutting the PS4’s already attractive price – not just matching it – may be Microsoft’s best hope at filling homes with Xbox One’s.

The higher ground will be lost, however, if Sony announces a similar pricing initiative, but given the goodwill already earned for the console, we’re unlikely to see a massive upset this Holiday.

Batman: Arkham Knight Has a New Date, Some Swanky Collector’s Editions Too

Once set to patrol the night as soon as October 14th, Rocksteady’s final chapter of the Arkham series ends how it began: with a delay. Now True Bat-lievers will get their chance to don the cowl next year on June 2nd, 2015.

If spending $60 bucks on a box and a disc just isn’t your style, there’s two special editions of the game coming to save the day.

Behold the Limited Edition:For $99.99, this edition includes:

• A Steelbook case
• An 80-page art book
• #0 of DC’s Batman: Arkham Knight comic
• 3 Batman Skins based on The New 52
• A Batman “Memorial Statue”

Then there’s the real deal. The Batmobile Edition:For $199.99, this bundle includes everything within the Limited Edition but swaps out the ominously titled Batman “Memorial Statue” for a Triforce sculpted replica of the Batmobile from the game.

In North America, both editions will only be made available on PS4 and Xbox One… So. That “Memorial Statue.” It gets me thinking that perhaps Arkham Knight is going to end the way The Dark Knight Rises should have. Unfortunately, we have a helluva wait until we find out.

Mortal Kombat X Set to Knock Off Heads Spring 2015

The 22-year-old fighting institution that is Mortal Kombat, a torch now carried by NetherRealm Studios, headed by co-creator Ed Boon, is releasing its tenth installment – yes, goddamn tenth – on April 14th, 2015.

The date just so happens to land on yours truly’s birthday.

Impeccable timing, NetherRealm.

Preordering the game, the second most important metric to a publisher aside from selling the game, comes along with a quad-armed incentive: the inclusion of Goro, a character that’s only been playable in the series a handful of times.

For years, and for as much as loved Mortal Kombat’s style and lore, the series has slouched behind other competitive fighters in its gameplay. Its over-the-top bloodshed and signature finishing moves seemed to be its only defining feature as the games tried to reiterate themselves (the PS2 era was the darkest era).

But that all changed with 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot, a title that introduced an airtight fighting system that welcomed newcomers and kept veterans combo inputting for entire stretches of sleepless nights. If Mortal Kombat X can retain that magic, it’ll have no problem going toe-to-toe with its fighting game peers for another round.