Hasta La Gadget!

Skyrim‘s latest DLC, Hearthfire, launches on Xbox 360 today, and it seems to pack a lot into a tiny download. The DLC, which lets you collect raw materials to build your dream home and adopt children (among other things), weighs in at only 75MB, meaning that it should be a pretty quick download for most folks. The pack is budget-priced too as it costs a mere 400 MSP, leading us to believe that this is a tiny DLC bonus meant to tide us over while we wait for the next expansion-like Skyrim DLC pack.

After buying up a plot of land and gathering the raw materials needed to build a house, players get to choose from a variety of rooms for their home. These range from enchanter’s towers and stables to greenhouses and an armory, and once the house is finished, players will be tasked with defending it from the beasts of Skyrim. These features first made an appearance in the Skyrim Game Jam video Todd Howard showed off at DICE 2012, and at the time Howard said that some of the Game Jam content could make it into the actual game as DLC. Hearthfire was announced only last week, making the lead up to this DLC pleasantly short.

While PC players can probably expect this DLC to land in about a month – give or take a week or two – PS3 players may never see it. Bethesda is currently struggling with the PS3 release of Dawnguard, Skyrim‘s first DLC, telling us last week that it may not be able to fix the problems its facing. If that happens, then Dawnguard may not see a release on PS3, and since Bethesda seems to be expecting the same problems with the PS3 version of Hearthfire, it stands to reason that the home-building DLC might not either.

This, obviously, has some PS3 players up in arms while Bethesda works with Sony to try to come up with a solution. It would be a shame if the PS3 missed out on these two Skyrim DLC packs, but some argue that cancelling them outright would be preferable to releasing them full of bugs. Are you buying Hearthfire today? If you’re playing Skyrim on PS3, what’s your take on this whole DLC situation?

Hearthfire DLC for Skyrim available on Xbox 360 now is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It isn’t a good day for Capcom, as the publisher has confirmed that a small number of stolen copies of Resident Evil 6 have been sold in some Polish stores. These bum sales come almost exactly a month before the game was slated to hit shelves. The good news is that the early sales seem to be pretty small scale, but still, a situation like this is one that a publisher doesn’t want to find itself in.

In a statement to Eurogamer today, the company confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the sale of Resident Evil 6 after reports surfaced last week that claimed some retailers were selling the title early. Capcom then confirmed that at least a few copies of Resident Evil 6 had been sold, saying “At this time, all we can add is that it would appear this unfortunate incident is limited to a small quantity of stolen copies of the German USK PlayStation 3 version of the game.”

One of those copies popped up on eBay with a starting bid of €478.78 and a buyout price of €1,196.71. The auction has since been ended by the seller, and it seems that he or she didn’t know that the copy they had was stolen, as the description says that the game is “legit” and was purchased “legally from the store.” Just in case you were wondering, the seller wasn’t able to net any bids before they closed the auction.

Eurogamer says that its unknown how many stolen copies were sold, but since the reports only seem to be about one or two stores in Poland, it probably isn’t that many. Capcom’s investigation seems to be ongoing despite the fact that it can confirm that stolen copies have been sold, so we’ll probably be finding out more about this soon. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear, and in the meantime, tell us: do you like Resident Evil so much that you’d drop €1,200 to get RE 6 a month early?

Resident Evil 6 stolen copies sold in Poland, Capcom confirms is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Konami and Kojima Productions were on hand at PAX to show off the latest Metal Gear Solid title, Ground Zeroes. The companies gave the audience a 15-minute demo of the game, and have since put 11 minutes of that demo up on the Internet. In it, we get to see the Fox Engine in action, and it’s safe to say that the game looks pretty amazing.

Most of the trailer below is just one long cutscene, but toward the end we do get to see some actual gameplay footage. Big Boss appears to be taking center stage in this installment, which Kojima clarified is not Metal Gear Solid 5. Instead, Ground Zeroes will serve as something of a “prologue” to Metal Gear Solid 5, so it seems that MGS 5 will happen at some point down the road. Kojima also confirmed speculation that this is an open-world title, which is a pretty big shift in the Metal Gear formula.

This game will be coming to current generation consoles, despite the fact that the Fox Engine is meant to “scale up” to next generation hardware. The Fox Engine could turn out to be a lot like Frostbite 2.0 in its use, as Kojima mentioned that it could be used for other Konami titles, such as a new Silent Hill game. Ground Zeroes is confirmed for Xbox 360 and PS3, though Kojima also seemed to suggest that it could make an appearance on next-gen consoles as well. Have a look at the full trailer below:

As you can see, the trailer is pretty impressive, and it should do a lot to get the Metal Gear Solid fanbase pumped up. At this early stage there isn’t any word on a release, but judging from the trailer, the game seems pretty far along in development. When coupled with the fact that this game will be gracing current-gen consoles, that makes us think that its release isn’t too far off. What do you think of the trailer? Are you ready for more Metal Gear Solid?

[via Eurogamer]

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes gets first gameplay trailer is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

PS3 owners have been waiting, some more patiently than others, for their version of Dawnguard to arrive. Skyrim’s first DLC has been available on PC for a while now and Xbox 360 for even longer, but Bethesda delayed the PS3 version earlier this month because it wasn’t satisfied with the expansion’s performance. Unfortunately, it looks like those problems with Dawnguard on PS3 aren’t going away, and in a new statement, Bethesda seems to hint that the PS3 might miss out on a release entirely as a result.

Bethesda doesn’t say flat out in the statement that Dawnguard PS3 has been canceled, but it sure sounds like the studio is struggling in a big way. The studio also points out that even if it manages to get Dawnguard working properly, it will still probably go through this with future content releases such as Hearthfire, which heads to Xbox 360 next week. Have a look at Bethesda’s statement in full:

Earlier in the month, we provided an update on Dawnguard’s status for PS3.

It’s been a few weeks, and we wanted to make sure everyone knows where we’re at with Dawnguard. Skyrim is a massive and dynamic game that requires a lot of resources, and things get much more complex when you’re talking about sizable content like Dawnguard. We have tried a number of things, but none of them solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone. The PS3 is a powerful system, and we’re working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so the issues of adding content get even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content.

We wish we had a more definitive answer right now. We understand the frustration when the same content is not available on all platforms. When we have an update, we will certainly let you know. We deeply appreciate all the time and support you have given us, and we’ll keep doing our best to return that.

So, it appears that the fate of Dawnguard on PS3 is currently up in the air. There is some reason to hope though – when asked on Twitter if the expansion was playable in its current state on PS3, Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines responded by saying “Yes, it’s just doesn’t perform well in all scenarios. Some folks would be fine, some would not.” He followed up by pointing out that “every save game is different.” That’s been a big problem for Bethesda on PS3, so it isn’t a surprise that the studio is going through it again with Dawnguard.

Perhaps Bethesda will still get all of the kinks worked out? That’s what a lot of people are hoping for, but the studio has been trying to fix the PS3 version of Dawnguard for a number of weeks now, so things are starting to look a little bleak. Stay tuned to SlashGear for more information, as we’ll have it for you once Bethesda gives more details on the situation.

Dawnguard PS3 may not see release as problems persist is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As many of you already know, the Metal Gear franchise is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. What better way to celebrate than with a new game in the series? At the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary event in Tokyo, Konami and Kojima Productions announced the latest installment in the series, and they’re calling it Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

Not too much is known about this new game at the moment, and above you see the only screenshot that has been shared by Konami. GameSpot was there to see the game in action, and it’s reporting that Ground Zeroes brings a number of a changes to the famous stealth series. It would appear that Ground Zeroes is an open-world game, but it’s difficult to make that call with only one live demo on the books.

GameSpot also seems to think that Solid Snake is making a return in Ground Zeroes, but that’s also difficult to call as the character was only called “Snake.” Since there wasn’t any prefix mentioned, it could definitely be someone other than Solid Snake, so we’ll have to wait until Konami dishes new details to find out more about the game’s main character.

Whoever he is, he was shown summoning a helicopter for transportation and can drive a Jeep to his next objective, which lends to the belief that this will be an open-world title. It’s also worth noting that the game won’t end when you’re discovered. If such a thing happens, Snake will be able to use all of his equipment to attempt an escape, which is another new feature Ground Zeroes is bringing to the franchise.

One thing that was there in force was the Fox engine. The game apparently looks great with the Fox engine backing it up, but then it would have to be a solid engine as Kojima says that the possibility of next generation consoles was considered while building it. Speaking of gaming platforms – we don’t know which platforms Ground Zeroes will be gracing. Kojima played through the demo using an Xbox 360 controller on a PC, so it could be that PS3, Xbox 360, and PC will all be getting it. There hasn’t been any release date announced either, so it seems that we’ll be left waiting for a lot of new information. Still, for now at least, we imagine that Metal Gear Solid fans are happy with the knowledge that a new game is on the way. Click the thumbnail below to see the full first image for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes revealed, hints at open-world elements is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.