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Rise of the Tomb Raider Coming to PC on January 28

Rejoice, PC owners waiting to undertake Lara Croft’s new Crystal Dynamics developed adventure! According to a press release, Rise of the Tomb Raider will release for PC on Steam and Windows 10 (don’t worry it will still work on Windows 7) on January 28.

Modder Restores Watch Dogs to its E3 2012 Demo Glory

Between its debut at E3 2012 and its final release on May 27, Watch Dogs received a noticeable downgrade in the looks department. An intrepid modder over on Guru3D.com found some unused files in the games install folder that restores Watch Dogs to its former E3 2012 visual glory as well as fixing some of the console port-itis the PC version suffers from.

Dark Souls 2 DLC Announced, Will Continue to Ruin Your Life

From Software announced a three-part DLC campaign for Dark Souls 2 today. This is the first time a Souls game has received any kind of significant DLC, so that’s kind of exciting news, even though DS2 is my least favorite of the three games so far. I’ll probably still pick up the season pass, though, because I’m an addict.

The first Dark Souls did actually have DLC – included free with the “prepare to die” edition – but it was designed so that the mission unlocked once you were pretty far into the game and only if you had a particular item. I missed it during my first play through and didn’t make it far enough into NG+ to take a crack at it.

Anybody else besides myself and Anthony playing the newest entry in the Souls series?

Battlefield 4 Getting “Netcode” Patch on All Platforms

After weeks of testing in the CTE (Community Test Environment) the Battlefield 4 “netcode” improvements are being rolled out to every version of the game today in a patch according to a new post on Battlelog. The “netcode” patch improves (among other things) the server tick-rate, or how often you computer receives new information from the server. Battlefield 4 previously had a tick-rate of 10hz, or ten updates a second (industry standard for FPS games is 30-60).

Microsoft’s Answer to Siri is Named Cortana

cortana

Microsoft just announced their virtual assistant software for Windows Phones, and the connection to Halo isn’t just her name:

Cortana is named after a virtual character in Halo, Microsoft’s science-fiction video game series, that uses her encyclopedic knowledge about the universe to help the game’s protagonist, Master Chief. The actress, Jen Taylor, who does the voice for the character, also provided recordings for the phone assistant’s voice.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/meet-microsofts-cortana-a-more-personal-siri/

Respawn Releases Titanfall Matchmaking Update

If you’ve been playing Titanfall, you may have noticed that some of the matches can be a little one-sided at times, with opposing teams full of players several generations ahead of you. Most of the time this all comes out in the wash, but occasionally this results in a painful rout. Luckily Respawn is releasing an update that addresses a few of these concerns. This in particular caught my eye:

Rather than playing against the same opponents over and over, the game will periodically split the teams apart and search for new opponents for each team. This means if one team is dominating, we will update the skill for all of the players and then find each team a better suited match for the next round.

Read more here:
http://www.titanfall.com/news/titanfall-matchmaking-update

Alien: Isolation Sounds Like a Great Game I Will Never Play

Polygon has a fantastic write-up about Alien: Isolation, a first person horror attempt at bringing the Alien franchise back to its roots. While most games try to emulate the space marines feel of James Cameron flick, Isolation plays with your expectations and pits you against one single-minded killing xenomorph.

I will never play this game because I am a wuss, but it sounds awesome.

Uncharted Series Writer and Creative Director Amy Hennig Leaves Naughty Dog

Sony officially confirmed today that Amy Hennig, long-time Naughty Dog employee and the creative director and writer of the Uncharted series, has left that studio. Internet scuttlebutt reports that she was “forced out”, which Sony doesn’t comment on.