HMV No Longer Selling Pre-Owned Games

UK entertainment retailer HMV has announced that it will no longer be selling pre-owned games, with a massive clearout on its current pre-owned stock currently underway.

The retailer will no longer purchase used video games from consumers, and all existing stock is being sold off at heavily discounted prices. If you're in the market for a pre-owned bargain, we suggest marching to your nearest branch on the double.

The move comes as HMV re-assesses its focus, moving away from video games and sinking its money into music and movies. It's not know whether HMV plans to cease selling pre-owned video games for the foreseeable future.

Titanfall Region Download Dates and Times

Titanfall comes out this week on Xbox One, with North America able to pick up a copy of the game from tomorrow.

Respawn has released a schedule listing the times and dates when you'll be able to start playing your digital version of Titanfall on Xbox One, starting tomorrow in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Titanfall will continue to be released across the globe during the week.

Xbox One: (Local Market Start Date / Time)

• United States: 3/11/14 – 12:00 AM PDT
• Canada: 3/11/14 – 12:00 AM PDT
• Mexico: 3/11/14 – 12:00 AM PST
• Brazil: 3/11/14 – 4:00 AM BRT
• Austria: 3/13/14 – 12:00 AM CET
• France: 3/13/14 – 12:00 AM CET
• Germany: 3/13/14 – 12:00 AM CET
• Ireland: 3/14/14 – 12:00 AM GMT
• Italy: 3/13/14 – 12:00 AM CET
• Spain: 3/13/14 – 12:00 AM CET
• United Kingdom: 3/14/14 – 12:00 AM GMT
• Australia: 3/13/14 – 12:00 AM AEDT
• New Zealand: 3/14/14 – 12:00 AM NZDT

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag "Jackdaw Edition" Announced

Ubisoft has revealed the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Jackdaw Edition, a Game of the Year version of the latest Assassin's Creed that includes the game and all of its DLC. 

Here's everything you receive in the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Jackdaw Edition slipcase package, coming later this month to Xbox One, PS4 and PC:

• Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag full game
• The following Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag Jackdaw Edition downloadable content -
  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag: Freedom Cry - Born a slave, Adewale found freedom as a pirate aboard the Jackdaw where he became Edward Kenway’s second-in-command. Now, 15 years later, Adewale has become a trained Assassin who finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue without weapons or crew. He starts to meet locals in an effort to assemble a crew and steal a ship. The more he helps, however, the more he is drawn into the Maroon slave community. Forced to face his past, Adewale sets out to free the slaves and bring death to their captors. Over 3 hours of new single-player gameplay!
  • Multiplayer #1 – Blackbeard’s Wrath - Blackbeard’s Wrath Pack extends the multiplayer experience with three new fearsome playable characters including the Orchid, Blackbeard himself and the Jaguar!
  • Multiplayer #2 – Guild of Rogues - The Guild of Rogues Pack extends the multiplayer experience with three additional playable characters including the Stowaway, the Shaman and the Siren! This pack also comes with new customization options, and new moves!
  • Illustrious Pirates Pack – This pack adds 3 new islands to explore with its hidden treasure chests, new outfits, weapons, ship items and more; ready to be discovered. Customize your multiplayer experience with new skins and items!
  • Death Vessel Pack - Show your enemies that you are ready to bring death upon them with the Death Vessel sails, figurehead and wheel.
  • Kraken Ship Pack - This pack includes a sail, wheel, and figurehead inspired by the legendary sea monster known for swallowing ships, men and whales.
  • Crusader & Florentine Pack - With these new cosmetic sets, sail with Altaïr or Ezio’s colors with 4 customization items for your ship and 2 new weapons for Edward.

You'll be able to pick up Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Jackdaw Edition on March 28th, bundling the game and all of its Season Pass content only on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. 

South Park: The Stick of Truth Delayed in Austria and Germany

The German and Austrian versions of South Park: The Stick of Truth have been delayed, due to the presence of swastikas in the game.

Such imagery is prohibited in both Germany and Austria, but it appears that the copies shipped to those countries still included the content. The most obvious validation of this was during the release of Black Ops when the swastikas got replaces with eagles. 

“The German and Austrian version of South Park: The Stick of Truth contains a symbol of an unconstitutional organization, whereupon we stopped the distribution of the game and unfortunately will not be able to release it as initially planned on March 6th 2014 on the German and Austrian market.

We are extremely sorry for the additional waiting time this will mean for the fans of the game. A new release date of South Park: The Stick of Truth for the German and Austrian market will be announced shortly. We invite customers who have pre-ordered the game to liaise directly with their retailers, who will keep them updated on the new release date.”

— Ubisoft

The game is still set for regular release everywhere else. You can pick yours up tomorrow in the UK and Ireland.

Titanfall Season Pass Details

EA and Respawn have detailed the recently confirmed Titanfall season pass. The season pass will allow access to three content packs. Each content pack will contain new Maps and all other content is still to be determined and will be announced as we get closer to their release.

The season pass will cost $24.99 in North America, which represents roughly a $5 saving over purchasing each content pack individually. European pricing is yet to be confirmed on Xbox platforms, but on PC it costs £19.99.

Users will be able to purchase the Titanfall season pass at participating retailers from March 11th for Xbox One and March 25 for Xbox 360.

“We plan to do DLC to support the game. We’re going to do paid DLC. We’re also going to do free updates. We’re going to add in - there’s things that we want in the game that we didn’t get to ship in the final game, so we’ll add private matches and things like that for free.

We’re going to do a season pass just because if you buy it up front, you get a deal. We’re not doing micro-transactions. So, you know, a season pass is just, buy it up front and get a better price.”

— Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella

Titanfall arrives on Xbox One on March 11th in North America and March 14th in Europe and Australia. The Xbox 360 version comes a couple of weeks later, on March 25th in North America and March 28th in Europe and Australia.

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Receives City Texture Pack

A creative texture set, ideal for building structures. Free your inner architect and shape the world around you. The perfect set for the focused builder!

This texture pack is coming out on Friday, March 7th for $1 / €0.95 / £0.65

Xbox One March System Update

The March system update for Xbox One is starting to roll out today, addressing some of the biggest issues with the Xbox One.

This significant update includes improved matchmaking, party char and friends features that will make gaming on Xbox One an experience like no other. This update means next week you’ll be able to enjoy Titanfall using a new headset or the one you already own, while live broadcasting your games on twitch (when the updated Twitch app arrives next week.)

FAQ: No, this update will not let you broadcast to Twitch yet...an update is coming to the Twitch app next week to enable that.

— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) March 5, 2014

How do you get the new update? For the vast majority of Xbox One owners who use “Instant On” (the low power state that allows you to instantly power up your console by saying “Xbox On”), the console automatically checks for updates when customers turn it off. This means that the next time you turn your console off it will take the update during off-peak hours in your local time. You’ll see it sometime in the next day or two. Here is a list of the features you’ll see in this update:

Improved Multiplayer & Party chat

• Cross title party chat
• Party chat on by default
• Easier multiplayer invites
• Easier multiplayer joining
• Ability to see what the people in your party are doing

Improved Friends List + Profile

• Improved friends list utility & speed of access
• Ability to see people you recently played games with
• See when friends are broadcasting, including live broadcast thumbnails in activity feed
• Get to a friend’s profile faster using type-ahead suggestions
• Contextual app menu actions on friends list and activity feed items
• Enabled more multiplayer (join and invite) actions on user profiles
• 54 new contest-winning gamerpics

Twitch TV live streaming support

• Broadcast gameplay on Twitch.TV through Xbox LIVE (When the updated Twitch app ships next week.)
• Voice support for starting and ending broadcast

Bringing out social in home

• See favorite friends currently online
• See friends broadcasting gameplay

Miscellaneous shell improvements

• Improved notification center experiences including “quiet mode”
• View Game Clips while in snap mode
• Protect user settings with passkey

Browser improvements

• Control Bing and Google maps with gesture and controller
• Quick search when highlighting a term on a page
• When searching from Bing search on the console, direct link to Internet Explorer in order to see additional web results.

New Devices – Driver and Firmware updates

• Firmware update to the Xbox One controller to support the Xbox One stereo headset adapter
• Support for 1st and 3rd party headsets
• Driver updates for the Xbox One Media Remote

SmartGlass Improvements

• Push notification to your device for Xbox Live messages
• Quickly see what a friend is doing including presence and recent
• Enhanced viewing of personal and a friend’s game progress and clips
• Ability to close snap from SmartGlass

Live TV

• 50Hz fix – users can set the Live TV app to display at 50Hz for full or fill modes
• Volume up/down adjustments – user can tailor the number of volume increments when using “volume up” or “volume down” commands
• IR blasting of power & volume to TVs/AVRs in all regions
• AVR setup maps to include model number for most sound bars or AVRs when setting up TV

Improved  Audio output support

• SPDIF (optical out) now supports 5.1 Dolby Digital – enabling devices such as sound bars with only Optical In to be able to receive 5.1 Dolby Digital from console over optical
• HDMI output now supports stereo uncompressed, 5.1 uncompressed, 7.1 uncompressed or 5.1 Dolby Digital live or 5.1 DTS

Here's a video to show you some of the new features coming to the Xbox One.

Rome: Total War - Alexander Now Available on Mac

Rome: Total War – Alexander is available on Mac now in North America for US $6.99, £4.99 in the UK and €5.99 throughout Europe. Rome: Total War – Alexander is also available online for direct download from a variety of digital partner sites worldwide including the Feral Interactive Store and the Mac App Store.

Developed by Creative Assembly and published by SEGA for Windows PC and now adapted for Mac by Feral Interactive, this grand expansion pack for Rome: Total War – Gold Edition (required for play) challenges you to recreate the extraordinary military conquests of Alexander the Great himself.

In a fast-paced single-player campaign of 100 turns, players are challenged to match Alexander’s ferocious speed of thought and action. Just as he conquered the known world in 13 short years, players must rapidly capture a multitude of territories from Europe to India while regularly outnumbered by hostile armies.

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark Announced

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, a video game complement to Paramount Pictures' upcoming film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, set to release this June. This third-person action adventure video game goes beyond the movie by uniting the universe of director Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS movies with the ever-popular Cybertron universe. Players will choose from over 40 playable characters from the two different universes as they battle to secure the Dark Spark. The Dark Spark will be releasing on Xbox One, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, The Wii U, the 3DS and Windows PC.

“TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE DARK SPARK is an arc between the Cybertron and Earth based worlds of this popular franchise. This year marks 30 incredible years of TRANSFORMERS. This game tells another chapter in the TRANSFORMERS story that all fans will love.”

— Mark Blecher, SVP Digital Gaming & Corporate Development at Hasbro, Inc.

Serving as a follow-up to both the upcoming Transformers live-action film and Activision's War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron titles, this game jumps worlds and factions as it weaves the tale of the hunt for an ancient relic as powerful as the Matrix of Leadership - the Dark Spark. Players will be able to switch between the heroes of the noble A and the nefarious Decepticons throughout the single-player campaign. Similar to High Moon Studios' CYBERTRON entries in the highly regarded series, gameplay features nimble, fast-paced running-and-gunning combat paired with traversal and vehicle action across open battlefields for large-scale, dynamic conflicts.

Players will also see the return of the fan-favorite multiplayer mode, Escalation, which delivers wave-based, survival-style gameplay for up to four players online cooperatively. It features new, upgradeable defense systems, recognizable adversaries from the lore, and an expanded roster of playable characters from past and present. Additionally, an exciting new leveling system transforms single-player and multiplayer into one unified, persistent character development path. Experience earned in any part of the game unlocks potent awards and tactical loadout choices - including new characters, stronger weapons, special abilities and consumable bonuses - for use throughout the entire game.

Peggle 2 Coming to Xbox 360

PopCap Games, creator of some of the world’s most beloved video game franchises, today announced that Peggle 2 is coming for the Xbox 360, videogame and entertainment system on May 7 worldwide. Not only will the game include the lovable Peggle Masters that players have gotten a chance to work alongside, but the Xbox 360 version will have multiplayer Duel Mode so players can challenge their friends on the couch or online.

Peggle 2 has become more magical with the first instalment of downloadable content available today for Xbox One, the all-in-one games entertainment system from Microsoft, which features the awesome multiplayer Duel Mode – a profound new experience that’s completely and utterly free. In a smart match, a private match or just relaxing on the couch, players can now compete against each other on the same board and take turns shooting pegs and demolishing bricks in an ultimate test of Peggle skill. Which mighty Peggle Master will you pick? And who will reach the heights of Extreme Fever first? You’ll have to play Duel Mode to find out!

“With all the excitement from our fans in December at launch we knew we wanted to continue growing the Peggle universe starting with more content and then expand onto the Xbox 360. By offering the addition of Duel Mode, our fans will be able to challenge their friends continuously to find out who is ultimate ‘Peggle Master’.”

— John Vechey, General Manager at PopCap Games

Just as in the classic original, Peggle 2 combines elements of pinball, pachinko and billiards and adds liberal doses of whimsy, fun, excitement and challenge – not to mention rainbows and a fifth of Beethoven.

Peggle 2 will be available for Xbox 360 starting on May 7 in North America and in Europe.