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.

The release of the highly-anticipated Borderlands 2 is just two short weeks away, and it won’t be long after that September 18 release that the game gets its first DLC. We’ve known for a while that this DLC will add a new class – the Mechromancer – but what we didn’t know is when it will launch. This weekend at PAX Prime, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford finally gave an actual date, saying that the pack will be available “by October 16.”

That’s just about a month after the release of Borderlands 2, which is a lot sooner than what Gearbox had originally said – after the Mechromancer DLC was announced, Gearbox said that it should be available “60 to 90 days” after the release of the base game. Still, most will be happy that its arriving sooner rather than later, especially considering that it’s a free bonus for those who pre-ordered the game. For those who aren’t going to pre-order, the Mechromancer DLC will cost $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points.

After the Mechromancer DLC hits, Gearbox plans to deliver four more DLC packs for Borderlands 2, just like it did with the original Borderlands. Pitchford assured that these aren’t going to be paltry offerings either. “We have committed ourselves and are in pre-production on four campaign DLCs,” he said. “These are all big original, themed, fully built out campaign DLCs. This isn’t just ‘here have a couple of guns.” Pitchford also said that all four of these DLC packs will be similar to the scope of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, which is widely considered to be the best DLC released for the original game.

So, we’ve got the Mechromancer DLC about four weeks after release and four General Knoxx-sized DLC packs in the pipeline. This means that we’ll be getting a nice amount of additional content for Borderlands 2, which already seems to be a massive game. Are you excited about Gearbox’s DLC plan for Borderlands 2, or does it leave you feeling a little uneasy?

[via Polygon]

Borderlands 2 Mechromancer DLC release date outed by Gearbox 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.

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.

Yesterday, Bethesda announced Hearthfire, the latest DLC for Skyrim. It looks to be a charming little DLC pack, but there’s just one problem: Xbox 360 owners will be getting Hearthfire next week, but PS3 owners are still without Dawnguard, Skyrim‘s first DLC. This understandably has some PS3 players wondering if Bethesda delayed Dawnguard on PS3 so it could finish up work on Hearthfire and get it out the door quickly.

According to Bethesda’s VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines, that isn’t the case. When asked on Twitter if the delay of Dawnguard had something to do with the production of Hearthfire, Hines replied with “No, they are separate things.” When another fan expressed their disappointment in the fact that Xbox 360 players were getting their second DLC offering while PS3 owners have yet to receive their first, Hines said “We are working on multiple projects, even beyond those two things. The entire team doesn’t work on one thing at a time.”

So there you have it – multiple teams at Bethesda are working on both Dawnguard for PS3 and Hearthfire for Xbox 360. When the PC version of Dawnguard showed up a few weeks back, many were surprised to see that the PS3 version didn’t launch alongside it. At the time, Bethesda said that it wasn’t satisfied with the performance of the PS3 version, and wouldn’t be releasing it as expected. We’re still waiting for that PS3 release date, unfortunately, and Hines even said today that he didn’t have any new information to give.

Let’s take a step away from this Dawnguard debacle for a moment though and examine Hines’ words more closely. While he said that both Hearthfire and Dawnguard PS3 are in development at the moment, he also said that there are other projects in the works at Bethesda. We know that Bethesda isn’t developing the upcoming Elder Scrolls MMO, so Hines’ comments lead us to believe that Bethesda is also working on Fallout 4. DLC woes aside, that’s pretty exciting, wouldn’t you say? Keep it here at SlashGear, as we’ll update you once Bethesda spills more details on the missing PS3 version of Dawnguard.

Dawnguard PS3 wasn’t delayed because of Hearthfire, Bethesda assures is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.