The Sims 4 release date & gameplay

That the The Sims 4 would be available in 2014 was already known, but yesterday Electronic Arts has announced that the game will be available somewhere in the fall of next year. Basically The Sims 4 will be the same game as its predecessors, but as with every new installment of the franchise the game will bring forward a few new features and of course the graphics and animations will be improved.

Two of the basic elements of the game have been redone and tweaked: the way you create your character and the way you build your house. In previous games you could play with sliders to shape your Sim and make it bigger or thinner, but in The Sims 4 you will be able to change the shape of your characters by simply selecting the body part and making it bigger or smaller by dragging your mouse. This way you can easily shape your Sims nose or mouth to your liking, or give your Sim wide hips or broad shoulders. Want to recreate yourself or a famous person? It will be a lot easier in The Sims 4.

Making rooms has also been simplified: where you previously had to drag the walls, you now create a square and you can easily shape it to be bigger in width and length. Another new feature in the creation mode of homes is that you can now easily merge rooms together. As an example you have a small room that isn't connected to your main house, you can now simply pick it up and merge the walls together. After that all you have to do is place a door or remove the walls in between, and the rooms are perfectly merged together. 

Electronic Arts has also improved the way Sims behave the game, giving them more emotions that can get influenced in various ways. Think about music, television, books and of course other Sims that will influence the mood of your Sim. But also the furniture of your room will have an impact on the mood, although that is something we kind of already saw in the previous games.

The game is ready for pre-order on the website of The Sims, where you can buy a Limited Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition. The Limited Edition is available for $59,99 and the Digital Deluxe will cost $69,99. The Deluxe Edition will feature 'bonus content' called Life of the Party and Up All Night. Whether this bonus content will be ti be sold as DLC is unknown so far. Chances are high that there will be coming a lot of DLC / expansion packs for The Sims 4, just like all the previous games in the series. The franchise stays the biggest milk-cow of EA and is one most profitable franchises. 

Back in May of 2013 EA announced that the game would be available for both Windows and OS X in 2014, but there was only word of the Windows versions in yesterday's announcement. If the version of OS X will be scrapped completely is unsure, and it may get released later in 2014 or even 2015. More news and an exact release date will follow in the months ahead, so we might be hearing more about the OS X version later!

Europe: PS+ November

It’s that time of the month again: the games that will be free to download for PlayStation Plus members have been announced. Normally as a PlayStation Plus member you would get three PlayStation 3 games, but this month you will (only) get two games. Don’t get frustrated yet, since there is some good news: a free game every month for the PlayStation 4. The first game that will be free to download for PS+ members that are getting a PlayStation 4 is the game Drive Club.

Below is a list of the games that will be free to download starting October 23rd.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3) Ready for some real action on your screen? In that case you shouldn't be  skipping this game this month. It definitely isn't a game you would expect from the Metal Gear franchise, and Revengeance gives the player a whole new experience. If you are a fan of the franchise, you should definitely give this refreshing game a chance.

Remember Me (PS3) While most critics did not like this game and the metascore is pretty low as well, a lot of people are still eager to try it out. The game takes place in the year 2084 and in this time personal memories no longer belong just to yourself. They are now being sold, traded, gifted and stolen. In the game you play Nilin, a memory huntress that escaped from jail. With the help of her only friend she tries to recover her identity.

Oddworld Stranger's Wrath (PS Vita) In the HD remake of this classic game, you take the role of a mysterious bounty hunter. For unknown reasons, you are trying to collect enough money for a surgery that he needs to survive. The game combines first-person shooting with platforming and puzzling, a silly but surprisingly awesome trio. The original game got praised a lot, and the remake of the game makes sure that the game still feels up-to-date (for all the graphics lovers out there).

Motorstorm RC (PS Vita)
If you own a PlayStation you have probably ever heard of the Motorstorm games. Motorstorm RC is a racing game just like the other games in the series, but there is something that makes it different: radio-controlled cars. Instead of the original games, this game is played from a somewhat top-down angled camera, which doesn't disturb the gameplay. The game features 16 different tracks and 24 different cars, and the game has little to no loading time. Spin-offs of big games don't have to necessarily be bad, and Motorstorm RC proves this. 

With PlayStation Plus becoming mandatory for online multiplayer on the PlayStation 4, it is obvious that a lot of new people will become PlayStation Plus members. Will this affect the games that are free every month in a good or a bad way, or will nothing change? With Drive Club being the first free game for PlayStation Plus members with a PlayStation 4 it is looking good so far, so let's hope that the future has a lot more cool stuff in store for us!

Thief Trailer & Preview

 It has been almost 15 years since the first game in the Thief series, that is back in the days you were still gaming on Windows 98. Since the last game that dates back to 2004, it has been scaringly silent around the Thief franchise. Finally we are getting a fourth game, which already has been announced back in March this year. Although it has been quite some years since the last game, that does not mean that Garrett's skills got rusty.

When you watch the trailer, you should get a good idea of what the game is about. Since the other games in the series are pretty old, there is chance that you don't know what the games are like. The game mainly focusses on sneaking through the shadows and not getting spotted, and the game actually expects you to follow these points or you won't get very far. As Garrett you aren't the strongest or must muscular person in the city, and if you get spotted first there is quite a chance that you won't survive if you can't manage to escape.

Thief producer Stephane Roy is also claiming that Thief is focussing on more stealth-like gameplay, and that an aggressive way of playing won't get you very far. "If you are aggressive like a soldier, you will probably die because the mechanics of the game don't want to see you going into the light." And that is also what the Thief series stand for: stealth gameplay. If you played Dishonored and you just ran through levels while shooting everyone in your path, then this game might not be your thing. If you really enjoyed the stealth gameplay in Dishonored, then there is a big chance that you will also like the next Thief game.

A lot of gamers have been looking forward to a new Thief game, but there has also been a lot fear that the game might get casualized too much. Gamers are also afraid that the reboot won't be like the older Thief games.  Joe Khoury, producer of the game, is trying to reassure these gamers and promises that they have listened to the feedback of gamers and that they have also looked at the older games. 

The trailer also shows us how great the game is looking so far, the lightning effects in the game are simply looking amazing. Buildings and props are looking good and detailed, and the textures of the game make everything feel like a whole. The graphics freaks that weren't satisfied with the graphics of Dishonored, will probably not have a problem with Thief. 

But we will only know what the game will be like when the game finally gets released, which will be released on February the 25th in North America. The PAL and European versions will be released 3 days later, on February the 28th. So, will you be getting the new Thief game or will you be passing this one? Check out the gameplay trailer below and decide for yourself!

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus Preview

If you enjoy platformers and you have ever owned a PlayStation 2 or 3, there is quite a chance that you have ever played a game from the Ratchet & Clank Series. But lately our furry Lombax and shiny metal friend haven't had a lot of old-school adventures. With All 4 One being a 4 player co-op game and QForce being more of a tower-defense styled game, it feels like the series has lost it's sense of traditional gameplay. The exploring and free-roaming that made the earlier games in the series so great, has made place for newer types of gameplay. Luckily a new game has been announced by Insomniac Games and it should feel like the older games.

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus will be released on the PlayStation 3 and should bring the old-school gameplay back. This means that there will be lots of crazy weapons, heaps of bolts, a lot of jokes and of course there will be platforming. A new addition to the gameplay will be gravity, which will be an important aspect of the game. 

Ratchet's trusty gravity boots will be returning, making it possible to make huge jumps between platforms. The Swingshot will be returning as well, so get ready for grappling from platform to platform. But like every Ratchet & Clank game, there will be new gadgets: the Gravity Tether will allow a bunch of new cool puzzles, which is always a fun thing to do between the shooting and smacking.

The semi open world has always been one of the factors that made the series great, and it looks like Insomniac has found a way to perfect the series. There will be multiple paths to complete missions as the planets don't have just one way to get to the end. As always, there will be lots of funky and deadly weapons that you will be able to purchase and upgrade. As always this will all be accompanied by the classic humor the series is known for, together with an entertaining story. You might think it's more of the same, but it's something we have learned to love. 

And the art style of the game remains the same, but the graphics have been slightly upgraded. The particle system has been upgraded, and it gives the environment the feeling it's more alive. The lightning system helps the graphics as well, it just feels right and makes the movement of the characters look fluid. 

It's everything that the fans of the series have been waiting for, and it might be Ratchet's last adventure on the PlayStation 3. For those that have been disappointed by the last two games, Into the Nexus might be the game that will restore the faith in the series.

Destiny beta announced and new trailer

Most people know Bungie from the Halo series, but as we know they have been working hard on their brand new game Destiny. While there are still a lot things we don't know yet and we still have to learn about, there are a few things that we know so far.

The game is classed as a MMOFPS, which means the world will be massive and open, and the combat will be first person. At E3 we have seen a little bit from the world of Destiny, but a recent trailer shows part of the world of Destiny we haven’t seen before.

In the trailer we get a glimpse of Earth’s moon, but it’s a very different version of what the moon looks like now. Instead of an empty gray planet, the moon has got enormous structures on it. A new race called the Hive has also been revealed, an alien race that tries to harvest what’s left of Earth.

The game that has been planned for a release in 2014, will also be getting a beta and information about the beta got announced by Activision. The beta is planned to start in “early 2014”, which could mean that the game gets launched in the 2nd quarter of 2014.

To participate in the beta of Destiny you will need to have or make a pre-order on the game, and the pre-order has made at one of the participating partners, and an international list of participating retailers can be found here.

We think Destiny will be one of the games that a lot of people will embrace. It has a combat system that feels a bit like Halo, and that’s something a lot of people got used to over the past years and it may draw a lot customers to the game. With the game also having MMO aspects, it might merge the worlds of two different kind of gamers together and that’s a great thing.

But is Activision giving themselves and other big companies a new competitor? Will it keep gamers away from buying games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, or will gamers just buy both? We will see it in the future, and let’s hope Destiny won’t be a letdown!