Gaming News: 25th October to 31st October 2014 – Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween! It’s been a busy week in gaming with the usual Halloween themed sales and updates happening recently to most games. There is also plenty of Halloween related gaming events to take part in and a few interesting games have been released plus much more.

25th October to 31st October 2014:

Saturday

Nothing interesting.

Sunday

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Released

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rockstar Games have released an updated version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox 360. This version removes the original Xbox version from the marketplace but it still downloadable if you have purchased it in the past.

“Five years ago, Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas, a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption. Where film stars and millionaires do their best to avoid the dealers and gangbangers. Now, it’s the early 90’s. Carl’s got to go home. His mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster. On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.”

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Giant Bomb Quick Look.

The new version costs £2.99 and feature achievements, improved visuals and longer draw distances. The game still looks and play as fun as ever.

Monday

Payday 2 Update 44

Overkill Software released the final day of Crimefest content with update 44. This day brings with it the a new heist, character and some new achievements:

• Added the Hoxton Breakout Heist.
• Added the Gauntlet song.
• Added the Something Wicked This Way Comes song.
• Added the Old Hoxton Playable Character.
• Added the Fugitive Skill Tree.
• Added the Crook Perk Deck.
• Added the Hoxton Reborn mask.
• Added the Nova’s Shank melee weapon.
• Added 4 new achievements.
• Added the Hoxton Breakout Trailer as an intro.

Crimefest was 12 day event held by Overkill to celebrate the two year anniversary of the Payday franchise and the one year anniversary of Payday 2. It was an interesting experiment which required people joining their Payday 2 community group on Steam to unlock various new updates and content for the game. The Payday 2 Steam group currently has about 1,897,000 members and must be one of the biggest on the Steam service.

Whether the whole thing was simply a marketing trick by Overkill is obvious with them partnering with the makers of the upcoming John Wick movie to make it possible for him to be a playable character while also promoting the film. John Wick apparently saved Chains from some trouble. It now means that John Wick is part of the Payday 2 cannon (story) and its pretty bizarre. Luckily the film is actually good but its going to be one hell of a legacy for the game.

Payday 2 John Wick Trailer.

Payday 2 John Wick Introduction Trailer.

I will probably go into more detail and analyse the Payday 2 Crimefest in a post sometime.

Tuesday

Lucasfilm Games

GOG.com have a new game publisher catalogue under their wing. The iconic Lucasfilm games from Disney Interactive will now be DRM free on their site:

• Star Wars: X-Wing Special Edition.
• Star Wars: TIE Fighter Special Edition.
• Sam & Max Hit the Road.
• The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.
• Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis.
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Expect more games to come in the future. Hopefully they can get some of the classic LucasArts adventure games such as Grim Fandango and The Curse of Monkey Island.

Humble Bundle

The Humble Bundle have started the Humble Indie Bundle 13 with quite a few cool indie games on sale with more being added next week. The average price is currently $7.01.

Humble Indie Bundle 13 Trailer.

You can also get Teleglitch: Die More Edition for free.

The Bundle is available until Tuesday, 11 November.

Grand Theft Auto V News

Rockstar Games have release more details on the exclusive content for returning Grand Theft Auto V players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC:

• New Events & Rewards.
• Murder Mystery.
• Weapons: The Rail Gun & Hatchet.
• Wildlife Photography Challenge.
• Stock Car Races.
• Monkey Mosaics.
• New Vehicles and More.
• Preorders get GTA$1M ($500k for Story Mode and $500k for use in Grand Theft Auto Online).

The game will be out on current generation consoles in November.

Wednesday

Team Fortress 2 Halloween Event

Valve Software have returned once again with their Halloween themed event for Team Fortress 2 and is called “Scream Fortress VI”:

• Help Merasmus with his carnival.
• Added new Halloween map Carnival of Carnage.
  – Merasmus will spread misfortune with server wide curses.
  – Added a Strongmann Test-Your-Strength machine which is in no way an eldritch portal to Bumper Car Madness.
• Added bumper car minigames. Win by completely ghostifying the other team or by completing the objective.
• Alt-fire to speed boost your bumper car.
• Cast spells while driving.
• The collision force a bumper car receives increases as the car takes damage.
• Force is displayed in the bumper car HUD as a percentage.
• Ghosts can come back to life by touching a friendly bumper car.
• 50 new Halloween-themed community cosmetics.
• 6 new achievements.

During the event:

• A Halloween Gift Cauldron is granted to all players who play during the event.
• Added Halloween crates to the Mann Co. Store. These crates do not require a key to open.
• All Unusual hats and taunts that are unboxed during the event will receive Halloween-themed Unusual effects.
• Previous Scream Fortress content is available in the Mann Co. Store.

Scream Fortress VI lasts until Wednesday, 12th November.

Humble Book Bundle

The Humble Bundle have started a new Humble Horror Book Bundle with some horror themed book. The average price is currently $8.73.

This Bundle is available until Tuesday, 11 November.

Thursday

Payday 2 Update 45

Overkill Software to celebrate Halloween have returned with their Halloween event with update 45 and its called “The Headless Titandozer From Hell”. This event brings with it the Halloween heist, Halloween enemies, a new weapon, masks and a new achievement:

• Brought back the Halloween heist.
• Added the Headless Titandozer From Hell.
• Added the “Psycho Knife” melee weapon for free to all community members.
• Added an additional 36 mask slots for you to use, expanding total mask slots by 100%.
• Brought back the Halloween masks and patterns.
• Added two new Halloween masks, “The One Below” and “Lycanwulf“, exclusively received for free through the Humble Halloweekly Bundle.
• Added a new song called “This Is Our Time” as a selectable track in the Jukebox.
• Added a new song called “Clowns Are Scary” as a selectable track in the Jukebox.
• Added a new achievement called “Fifth Nightmare“.

The Headless Titandozer From Hell lasts until Tuesday, 4th November.

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Released

Steam and GOG.com have released Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition from Beamdog. The developers are the same people who recently made the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition games.

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Announcement Trailer.

All the enhanced editions have been mostly faithfully recreations of the original games with all the good and bad things that come with it.

Majestic Nights Released