Welcome to this week’s late edition round-up where my firstt ask to remind you why you shouldn’t trust rumors? You may recall I tried to start one about Telltale’s “The Wolf Among Us” on Tuesday. I thought my evidence was sound and I’m well-versed enough in the industry to make educated guesses. I was immediately shouted down with an official announcement. Episode Two is coming the first week of February. Finally! The official word from Kevin on their community page is
We are working hard with all of our partners (Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Apple) to coordinate everything, but we’re confident enough to announce [the date] here. The episode is looking really good (as is the rest of the season!). We are very concerned about the long delay for this episode, but this is one of those occasions where several things conspired against us (not to mention the additional delays due to the holidays).
I won’t dive into the details, but it’s been an unusual and specific set of circumstances and we do not anticipate it happening again as we go forward with the rest of the season.
Not sure how excited anyone is for XBox One’s second screen functionality on “Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes” but Kojima has tweeted a few pictures of it in action. It seems to confirm this will work on both a smart phone and a tablet. Basically it just looks like a mini-map, but maybe that will be useful. I haven’t seen confirmation of second screen working for Vita, but there are also pictures of the PS4 version running via remote play, which is exciting. The game is scheduled for March 18, 2014.
Microsoft’s Games with Gold was updated yesterday. Your new free game is “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.” It’s not your typical “Tomb Raider” fare, but it does share some lore and the same interesting world.
IO Interactive has sent an open letter to fans with announcements regarding their next “Hitman” game. I could try summarizing it, or you could just read it:
Dear Hitman fans,
We wanted to share this open letter with all of you out there eagerly awaiting more news about what’s happening next in the franchise.
At Io-Interactive right now, we are building the next AAA Hitman game for PC and next-gen consoles. It has our total focus and we wanted to take a moment to tell you a few things about it.
In the next game you will experience a globetrotting Agent 47 at the prime of his career – the apex predator stalking his prey across the world, with the support of his long-term handler Diana Burnwood and the whole of the ICA.
The game concentrates on the core Hitman fantasy of using a wide range of tools to take out a diverse group of targets across expansive, exotic locations around the world. We are building this game on the backbone of the Glacier 2 engine, using the best parts and what we have learnt through Hitman: Absolution and drawing inspiration from past titles like Contracts and Blood Money to fulfil the core Hitman fantasy. That means we’re packing in an extreme level of detail on the largest levels we have ever built for a Hitman game. We’ve adopted an open, non-linear level design approach to the game, ensuring the game will play out across huge, checkpoint-free, sandbox levels. Our aim is to create living, breathing and believable levels which will allow gamers to play around with the AI to create those unique moments every fan of the Hitman franchise loves.
Contracts Mode is back – you will be able to create and build challenges by experimenting with the large levels and possibilities within them. And of course, you can share them with the world and challenge your friends or foes to complete your hits. Your rules, your Contracts.
You will also be glad to hear that we have removed 47’s magic pockets. We believe that’s all we need to say about that subject.
As we get further into 2014, we will reveal more and get into much closer contact with all of you. There are so many things we have planned and we are extremely excited for the future of Hitman.
Thank you all for your dedication. We will share much, much more in the coming months.
The Io-Interactive Team
Evolution’s PS4-exclusive “Driveclub” has been delayed again. You’ll recall it missed the PS4 launch, when it was originally scheduled as the first PS4 freebie on PS Plus. At that time it was pushed to the Japanese console release of February 22, 2014. It’s now been pushed to an unspecified date in 2014. It would be nice to have assurances it’s still in “early 2014” but that’s far from guaranteed with this latest development.
The Left Behind DLC for “The Last of Us” has finally been given a confirmed release date. It may make for a depressing date, but the $15 add-on is coming February 14, 2014.
The highly anticipated, though ridiculously absurd, ”Octodad: Dadliest Catch” now has an official target release for PS4. It’s coming to Mac, PC, and Linux on January 30th. When queried on Twitter when we’d see the console version, the official account replied “March is the target.” I feel like I could make a fishermen are liars joke here, but it would be stretch so I’ll pass. In the meantime, you have a focus for your anticipation.