Last day for GameStart Asia's Early Bird Tickets!

Today's the last day for Early Bird Ticket prices for GameStart Asia 2015!

Get a $2 discount on each day, if you purchase your tickets online by today.

There's also limited quantities of the VIP Tickets still up for sale.

It's a little strange that they are selling tickets when they have yet to even announce any substantial list of Exhibitors and Guests that we can expect. 

But yea, I did buy the VIP ticket, based on last year's showing. Also considering that they are using 2 halls instead of 1 this year, I think I have placed a safe bet on my ticket being worth the $58.

Besides, I have confidence that this event can keep improving each year, to be the region's answer to E3 and Gamescon.. So yea.. would definitely encourage you guys to come check it out.

For all the ticket details, check out the official site for GameStart Asia.

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Project TriForce new announcements & updates for collectibles

With New York Comic Con approaching, we can expect some new announcements and teasers from the various collectible companies.

One of whom will be.. Project TriForce who will also be at NYCC 2015.

To add to the excitement, they have revealed some new announcements exclusively to their newsletter subscribers.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate Jacob Statue! Woah, that's unexpected!

Project TriForce did post something AC-related sometime back but never officially announced a AC license as far as I know.. 

Looks like more companies are jumping on the AC wagon, though they don't seem to be consistent in their releases. (Hot Toys' Ezio, McFarlane's Edward Kenway)

Either way, it will be exciting to see Project TriForce's work. With POs open at NYCC2015, we should be seeing the completed prototype at their booth.

Evolve's Kraken statue!

This one was already listed sometime back on their site but then they took it down.. Not sure if they just wanted to change the timing of the release or if they have made significant changes to the model. You can check out pics of the previously released pics over here. 

Evolve's Goliath statue

In a previous email update, this release has been pushed back to late Q1 2016.. which is the 2nd time this piece has been delayed. However, TriForce has given a 15% off discount code to make up for the delay. 

I'm not liking the delay but the '15% off code' comes in handy for the next PO and with the above 2 statues in my sights, I'll be needing that code. It also frees up quite a bit of spending cash for the loaded Q4 2015 :P

Nah not this one.. but the one below..

  

There's also Halo, Borderlands, DC and Eve Online stuff as seen in the pic. Can't wait for NYCC 2015 to see them on display!

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Asia Playstation Store Sales for Multiplayer Games

The Asia Playstation Store is having a sale for some of their PS4 games, with Multiplayer features, from 24 Sep to 30 Sep.

Oh yea, come join me in Evolve and AC Unity! Still have Far Cry 4 and Watch_Dogs in my backlog, so I might want to play those as well.

PS Plus subscribers get an additional 10% off those prices, so definitely a good time to get these if you haven't!

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Mobile Monday (28 Sep 2015): Mortal Kombat X Mobile

The latest challenge is almost over.. Kold War Sonya Blade, so hurry if you haven't gotten it.

Not long left but it should be a breeze.

You will need a Kano for this challenge. There's a nice Kano Gold card that you purchase with koins, if you don't have a Kano yet.

Already have mine..

That's a cool (Forgive the pun) special ability to have!

Oh yea.. it looks like the developers finally listened to us.. Once you complete the entire challenge, you, can re-do the challenge at a higher difficulty to earn a duplicate card to fuse.

The challenge gets tougher in the second round but still no huge feat. You can only re-do the challenge once though... Come on guys! Where's the challenge?! Let us earn more cards with tougher difficulty levels!

That's it for now.. the Erron Black challenge should be out in a few days once the Sonya's one is over.

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Ubisoft Singapore's Charity Jam 2015 AC Syndicate Hands-on!

I had a lot of fun at Ubisoft Singapore's Charity Jam last week., as mentioned in my previous post, but let me share with you about Assassin's Creed Syndicate!

Collecting is a huge part of me and this blog but without the games, there isn't any collecting to do. So, yes.. I was excited when Ubisoft Singapore announced that a demo will be available to play at the event.

The demo that I got to try is the exact same one as the Gamescom Demo gameplay you see here..

And I was surprised to learn that this mission was developed by a Level Designer from Ubisoft Singapore! (Cool fact of the day!).

It was great to see that the gameplay was fluid and the combat is tough, similar to AC Unity. I couldn't jump into a group of guards and counter-kill all of them, like how it was in previous AC games. 

The rope launcher was fun to use. Very useful in fact, getting from 1 building to another, without getting back on the ground. Might be making things a bit too easy here but guards can still spot you when you are on the rope, if you get too close to them,

Throwing knives seem to be weaker. Couldn't do a 1-knife kill even when the guards weren't alerted.

Voltaic bombs came in real handy when I did get caught by a large group of guards, but with friendly-fire activated, I had to be careful.

Oh and I even tried hijacking a horse-carriage. Since the playable area had a constraint, I couldn't do much though..

Over the course of the 2 days, I tried many different approaches to the assassination. As seen in the demo above, there are 3 approaches to do it but..

Here's the fun part...

I could actually combine 2 or even all 3 approaches for my Assassination!

One of the approaches required you to free the constable who will allow you to recruit 4 of his subordinates to rush into the building and fight off the guards..

But. if I had helped the Allied Guard as well, I could have recruited him as well, bringing my total ally count to 5.  So yea, I leave it to your imagination and for you to try it for yourself, to see the different combinations that you can do.

Having seen Evie's 'Chameleon' ability, prior to the demo, I was concerned if it made things too easy. After trying it out, I noticed that the ability isn't fool proof. For instance, if the guards come too close, they can still spot Evie. The developers also assured me that this ability is only accessible in the later part of the game.

Disappointingly, there will be no co-op even with the 2 playable characters. So, I was curious about how the switching between the 2 characters will be like.

According to the developers, it will be something similar to GTA V, where certain missions are locked to either one twin. These missions can be done at anytime. So, I could complete certain Evie missions before I did Jacob's. There will be other missions that you can complete with either Evie or Jacob. 

A bit of freedom here I believe, and Ubisoft would probably be watching the stats to see players' preference of a male/female character. It's evident that Ubisoft teases new features in their AC games before introducing it in a much larger scale in a future AC game. (I'm referring to having a female protagonist n a AC game).

Anyway..  I thought the game's looking good. There isn't a whole load of change to the way the AC games feel and play, but I liked the more fluid movement that was in AC Unity, with the free-falling system coming back. However, there looks to be a bit more focus on the character development this time round. Hopefully, we will be able to say the same about the plot once the game releases.

A big thanks once again to Ubisoft Singapore and all the developers that made some time to answer our questions and talk about the game in general. So once again, I'm hoping that their doors will be open to the public next year again, with more games to try!

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Ubisoft Singapore's Charity Jam 2015 pics and loot!

Ubisoft Singapore opened their doors to the public, for the first time, for their Annual Charity Event!

There were plenty of games, fun, prizes and merchandise, all for a good cause. Funds were raised for Care Singapore and SPCA Singapore.

I was there early on the first day with a friend and we got a free AC Unity concept art print and some postcards as door gifts.

Love that art print! Beautiful concept art of The Bastille (I believe), having scaled it so many times in the game.

The art on the postcard above looked very familiar.. and when I opened them back at home..

Ahh yess... some of the concept art from the "Art in Video Games" exhibition by Ubisoft Singapore back in 2013.

If you click the link, you will see Kobe doing a live presentation and I was glad to be able to meet and have a small chat with him at the Charity Jam.

Here's Kobe, the Associate Art Director at Ubi SG, doing up a sketch for me of Edward Kenway. 

Who better to draw Edward Kenway, than the man himself?! 

While he was working on the sketch, we talked about how he joined the industry and Ubisoft Singapore and also found that he is a big fan of Prince of Persia as well and his wish is to be part of the team that reboots the franchise. Sir, I wholeheartedly wish you all the best in that!

Here's how the sketch turned out..

Amazing! Friendly peeps at the studio got it laminated for me and it's going to be a nice memory of my visit to the Studio.

Got another sketch done by Shamine, Concept Artist at the Studio.

She had a tougher challenge, drawing me as an Assassin and here how it turned out..

Wow.. I was blown away! I loved how she gave me that mean look under that hood.. I'm sure I was giving her that look so it was amazing how she imagined it on me. Another cool memory to take away!

Went on to try some games and played some AC Unity.

Less than a year, and I was so rusty already. Doesn't help that I was playing AC IV recently and the controls are quite different. Got the hang of it quick though and submitted my best score, out of 3 tries, for the challenge. Now to hope for the best..

There were other game challenges, Trials Fusion, Just Dance, ShapeUp. Honestly, not my type of interest.. I was more interested in something else..

I bought some merchandise, to do my part for charity, and to add to my collection.

The Rooks Flag and the AC Syndicate Top Hat

Rooks Flag, same one as the one from GamesCom 2015!

and the Top Hat!

Signed by several members of the team and some nice messages too!

Not the plastic one from the Rooks Initiation Kit, given out at SDCC 2015 but this is made of 100% Polyester. Really good quality stuff!

Also bought this Tshirt to pledge my allegiance to the Rooks! ;)

So, yes instead of playing games.. I was walking around meeting the developers and staff, to get some stuff signed, including the AC Rogue Collector's Edition.

The Naval battles from AC IV and AC Rogue were largely developed by the team, right here in Ubi SG, so these were my priority. Since, I already have my AC IV poster signed...

Had an amazing time, meeting many of the developers from the teams that worked on AC Rogue and AC Syndicate.. Some faces and names I remember.. Showed them some pics of my collection and they were impressed! 

And I was so lucky to meet the Producer, Justin Farren, who gave this to me personally!

Been hunting for this for quite a while now, so I was really lucky to receive this!

This was at the AC Syndicate booth, while we queuing to try out the game.

Will talk about my thoughts about the demo and some of the info I learnt from the developers in another blog post.

Time flew and before we knew it, it was almost over.. Not before the prizes were announced!

Met a friend from one of the Playtests I did with Ubisoft Singapore and he dominated with several wins on the Challenges.

I got 3rd in the AC Unity Challenge and snagged this awesome belt!

Cool stuff and that's all for Day One!

Had a lot of fun so I came back for Day Two! This time a bit later, after work.

Received another of that Concept Art print

I wasn't allowed to win the Challenge prizes, since I already won yesterday. Slightly disappointed but it was a fair decision (Coz I went home to practise! Muahahaha!)

Didn't play as much AC Syndicate as I would have liked to, on the first day, so I went all out this time. Tried all the different approaches and even some horse carriage-hijacking! (More on these on another post).

Another friend joined me later on, and I urged him to try AC Unity and he got 2nd prize on the Challenge! Congrats to him! 

Coincidentally, met another friend at the event and we talked a lot about our collections and Assassin's Creed in general. Nice to see you again Axley, and I love your passion for gaming & collecting!

That's all for Day 2 and the Charity Jam 2015! A quick pic of their Wall of Fame as we left..

Once again, all my loot!

Thank you Ubisoft Singapore for the wonderful time! Really hope to join you guys in 2016 again, with just as much games and not forgetting the merchandise. Plenty of gamers here, but don't forget the collectors!

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9th Platinum Trophy: AC IV Black Flag

Only my 9th Platinum Trophy, but here it is!

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag!

Been working on it, while helping my friend on his as well. Definitely, my favourite Assassin's Creed game, looking at all angles.

Not much of a trophy-whore these days but would like to get the plats on my favourite games, especially the AC ones.

Next up is 100% completion on AC IV with the Freedom Cry DLC, and then hopefully by the end of the year, GTA V (PS3).

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Finally.. Some updates for Payday players on the Consoles

Well.. after being forgotten, we Console players finally get some updates for Payday: Crimewave Edition.

On previous-gen consoles; PS3 and Xbox 360, apart from a few early DLC packs, none of the content that came to the PC appeared on the consoles. Basically, we gave up after a while.

Then, when Payday: Crimewave Edition was announced, Overkill Software promised us that the new consoles; PS4, XBox One will get all the content for PC players. 

It was promising at the start.. Crimewave Edition packed all the DLC from the start right up to the last DLC they released.. for free! And we were promised that future content on PC will also be appearing on consoles. 

They blamed technical issues for the inability to provide new content on the older console platforms and assured us that the new consoles don't have those technical limitations.

I was convinced.. So much so that even though common sense told me that PC would still be the better option, which I did buy on the Steam Sale, I also bought Payday for my PS4. 

Once again, I was fooled. There's been quite a number of new DLC packs for PC already since then, but no sign of those coming to the consoles. Kinda lost count already but I think there's 4 or 5 packs released after Crimewave Edition's release.

We kept getting, "Don't worry, it will come" answer but nothing up to now..

However, we have something now.. (Click image to expand)

Well.. there's still no concrete or even an estimated date on when we can expect the new content.. So, I dunno? Can we expect regular updates at least, for real this time? Let's see..

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Exclusive Leak from Ubisoft Singapore on their latest Major Assassin's Creed Project!

So, you guys knew I went to the Ubisoft Singapore Charity Event earlier this evening right?

What I didn't expect was to come across a huge leak. It wasn't meant to be shown to the fans but I saw it...

No way I could have sneaked it out.. but I took a pic of it. 

Since Ubisoft Singapore is based in Singapore (Quite obviously..), and Singapore did celebrate it's Golden Jubilee this year.. Or in other words.. It's 50th anniversary, there's an upcoming project to showcase the history of Singapore in a new Assassin's Creed game.

We all know how the AC games like to do a twist on history while, still keeping it historically accurate. 

This project is still very, very early in development and is expected to be Assassin's Creed 10, or rather ACX. Details are still unclear but it will focus on the early days of Singapore, it gaining independence and other events that happened in that time period. 

However, I do have confirmation of the Assassin that will be in that game and the pic that I took was an early concept art of that Assassin..

I hope I don'get into too much trouble, because of this but I will still post it for you guys.. (Scroll all the way down please..)

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Personal Highlights from Tokyo Game Show 2015

Just some of the news from the Playstation Conference at Tokyo Game Show 2015 that caught my interest..

PS Vita New Colours

Different colours for the PS Vita will be released.. but once again, where are the games?! There's barely anything to play apart from the Japanese titles, which I'm not all interested in. :P

There was a rumour that the Assassin's Creed Chronicles games will be coming as a bundle to the PS Vita. I'm definitely hoping that will happen. Personally feel that side-scroller games are a lot more suited to the PS Vita.


Bloodborne

One of the games that I'm dying to play is Bloodborne. I was sold on this, in last year's GameStart Asia. But considering.. the difficulty level, though it would be better to put this on hold till I have finished some of my backlog.

New trailer for the Old Hunters Expansion Pack DLC (US Version)



Coming out on 24 Nov 2015, for US$19.99/€14.99/£11.99, the expansion will include new stages, weapons, magic & outfits.

Here's some gameplay of one of the new weapons.



There were actually 2 sets of DLC planned for Bloodborne, but they combined both in the end for a full-scale expansion. However, there isn't any plans, at the moment, for future DLC.

More details on the expansion in Eurogamer's interview with the Producer.

There will also be a Special Edition which will include both the Original game & the DLC.

Might be picking this one up!

For Honor

First saw this at E3 2015 and I was very excited for this. Combat looks excellent and if 'Art of Combat' plays as fun as it looks, it will be an amazing title. I have to admit, Creative Director Jason Vandenberghe's enthusiasm for the game is a huge seller.

But.. I'm worried about the longevity of the game. There's been several multiplayer games and I own quite a few. Within a month or two, no one's playing..

Even though the community is still alive, a lot of friends aren't playing anymore, and that just defeats the purpose. Can't really enjoy a multiplayer game if you are just playing with strangers eh?

Anyway, here's the TGS trailer featuring The Samurai faction's Oni.



I would love to get some hands-on time with this. Hopefully from the beta? (Oh yea, sign up for the beta if you haven't!).

More on For Honor and what is it about here.


Assassin's Creed Syndicate

First look and details of the Season Pass were revealed, including Jack the Ripper DLC.

Woah.. it's coming isn't it? Just over a month left for it's release. Strongly hoping that this game will revive the franchise, after last year's AC Unity wasn't well-received.

Playstation VR

Project Morpheus gets it's official name and is now known as Playstation VR.

Ok.. I am very interested in checking this one out. Many years ago, it was quite obvious that Virtual Reality would one day come to gaming.. and I can't believe that time has already come.

Release is expected in the first half of 2016, so I'm hoping this will be available to try in this year's GameStart Asia 2015.

Playstation 4

Price drop for Playstation 4! 

Great news for those planning to upgrade to the PS4. 

My GTA crew members are planning to migrate over, so this will come as good news for them.

HDD Bay Covers

Change up your PS4 colours with these coloured bay covers. Great if you are bored with your Black & White consoles!

New Dualshock 4 Controllers

Cool! New colours for the PS4 controllers.

I already own the original black, a red one and most recently, the 20th anniversary edition.. More colours for the collection then!

Yup pretty much that's all from the Press Conference for me. I was quietly hoping for a Remastered collection of the Ninja Gaiden titles, but that was not to be. Ni-Oh looks interesting though. 

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20th Anniversary Dualshock 4 Controller pics

Got this as a gift from my wife!

The 20th Anniversary Dualshock 4 PS4 controller! She knew I was looking to get this!

In the colours of the original Playstation console, where it all started.. 20 years of awesomeness!

A different design from the regular packaging as seen below..

Hmm.. Looks too nice to open it out of the packaging. Might just keep this sealed for now.

Well.. still no news about the 20th Anniversary Playstation Headset though.. Would make a nice combo!

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