Announcing 'Assassin's Creed Rogue'

This year Ubisoft will giving the gaming world a double dose of Assassin's Creed, hidden-blade stabby stabby. Earlier this week the "old gen." exclusive title, Assassin's Creed Rogue was confirmed, with a release date for November this year.

Rogue is said to include sailing (a popular feature from Black Flag), wrap-up the North American storyline, and tie-in with the "new gen." exclusive, Assassin's Creed: Unity.

While Rogue might sound a bit like a 're-skinned' version of Black Flag at first, after watching the trailer I'm sure the darker, potentially more interesting storyline will attract a lot of interest.

To be honest, based on the trailers alone, Rogue is a bit more appealing to me in terms of the story. Add the fact that I don't have a "new gen." console, and Rogue becomes the obvious choice for my next third-person, stealthy, stabbing, sailing game.

Unlike Unity, Rogue will not be getting a PC, or Wii U release.

Evolve delayed till February 2015

Evolve, the game that I was most looking forward to coming out this year, has had its release delayed until early next year.

I guess one of the advantages to the postponement, is that I'll now have more time to play Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Alien: Isolation, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Far Cry 4, etc.

The new release date is set for 10 February 2015, which means that it'll be out just before Valentine's Day. I've already been dropping my wife some massive hints about wanting this game, I hope she's been taking note...

Far Cry 4 will have honey badgers

You may be asking yourselves what's so special about a honey badger, well it's probably the most bad-ass animal of all time, Well at least according to this video:

I get the impression that the honey badger will take the role of the Komodo dragon from Far Cry 3, i.e. if there's long grass/ tall vegetation around, you're more likely to hear it than see it. And by the time you see the little blighter it'll be too late to run.

The distinctive 'hiss' of the Komodo dragon in Far Cry 3 is definitely what creeped me out the most while playing the game. I'd be aware of their proximity because of the hissing, but due to the vegetation I'd have no idea which direction the fast moving lizards would be attacking from. Even once located the buggers would absorb quite a bit of lead before dying mere metres from my feet. It seems I'm not the only one who felt this way about the Komodo dragons either.

I'm really looking forward to hearing more about Far Cry 4 before it's release, especially regarding how the "old gen." versions stack up against the "new gen.' versions with regard to gamelplay. I imagine there may be quite a bit of texture pop-ins, but if the PS3 version offers the same solid gaming experience, without the need to cut any content, then I'd consider a compromise in graphics acceptable. I mean both Borderlands and Rage (two of my favourite PS3 games) have noticeable texture pop-ins, but these don't have any negative effects on my gaming experience.

I'm still waiting to see whether I should consider placing a pre-order for Far Cry 4, especially since the Kyrat Edition looks pretty bad-ass itself, or wait for the first few reviews to come out.

New Track from Okujira

Okujira's second track, Sick of syncronicities* is even harder hitting than their first. Hopefully this will be made available for download in the future. Check below for the link to download Sick of syncronicities.

-- Updated 30 December 2014 --

* The track was originally spelt "Sick of syncranicitys" at the time of release. The track name has been edited on Soundcloud, but the downloaded file name still contains the original spelling.

The negative one video

Today saw the release of the video for Slipknot's latest single track The negative one. The video was directed by band member Shawn Crahan, and features 'naked' women, severed goat heads, chains, and flowers. I'm guessing the video is meant to depict a ritual of the occult, and get the impression this was done for no reason other than trying to shock the general public.

A double-headed goat icon (above) is shown briefly at the end of the video, which may be the new interpretation of the bands well known 'S' logo.

If you're wondering why I described the woman as 'naked,' it's because they were covered in body paint and the nipples blurred out in such a way that their breast look like prosthetic breasts Marilyn Manson used for the album cover of Mechanical Animals.

Coming soon: Dave Grohl's 'Sonic Highways'

New Slipknot - The negative one

After a slew of teaser videos from Slipknot, we finally get the first opportunity to hear some new material. The negative one can be streamed over at the band's website, with the video set to unlock on 5 August.

From The negative one it sounds like Slipknot have picked up from where they left off after the All Hope is Gone sessions, despite losing founding member Paul Grey, and the recent departure of Joey Jordison. After the announcement of Jordison's departure, many people began to write the band off. Fortunately, Slipknot seems to have found a more than capable replacement; if you didn't know better, you probably wouldn't even realise it wasn't Jordison drumming.

I'm intrigued to hear the rest of the album. I'm especially interested to know if the new drummer continued to emulate Jordison's playing style for the recording of the entire album, or if they brought something new to the mix. As yet, the new drummer has not been named, but I suspect Shawn 'Clown' Crahan has taken of the role, while various others have also been rumoured to have filled the position.