Manchester Play Expo 2014

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Jade Raymond Leaves Ubisoft

Jade Raymond - famous for working on games such as Assassins Creed and Splinter Cell has left Ubisoft after 10 years. Most recently she was Managing Director at Ubisoft Montreal. Raymond will be replaced by Alexandre Parizeau, a founding member of Ubisoft Toronto.

"I've spent 10 extraordinary years at Ubisoft, and I am proud to have been part of many of the best teams in the industry making truly remarkable games," Raymond said. "This is one of the hardest decisions of my career, but the Toronto studio is strong and on a solid path. I'm confident that now is a good time for me to transition leadership of the studio to Alex and to pursue my other ambitions and new opportunities.

"Stay tuned for more on what's next for me, but for now, I'd like to thank Ubisoft for its partnership through the years, and I wish them the very best in all their next endeavors," she added.

Toronto CEO Yannis Mallat had this to say "On behalf of Ubisoft, I'd like to thank Jade for her leadership and many contributions over the years, and wish her all the best in her next adventures. The Toronto studio is a key part of the Ubisoft global network, and Alex has been at the heart of the studio's growth over the years. He was the obvious choice to lead this talented group of people as they continue to develop amazing games."

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Bloodborne "Graphics off the Charts!"

PlayStation exec Scott Rohde claims Bloodborne is "off the charts" graphically. Speaking during a PlayStation Blogcast he said what he enjoys so much is the way the game feels "wet".

"The way it looks; just off the charts to me, I've said this before ... there's a certain, like, wetness to that game. I don't know what other word to use. It just feels like everything is dripping and oozing with whatever it is--it's water, it's blood, it's whatever it is; and it just looks gorgeous." 

Bloodborne is aiming to run at 1080p and at 30 frames per second. From Software is developing the game of course these are the creators of the Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. The game launches on February 6, 2015.

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Latest Destiny Update

Bungie has again released a new patch which applies numerous tweaks the gameplay, along with closing a loot cave and removing a trick that grants easy progress in the Vault of Glass raid.  Bungie has also said that it is working on a future update that "will address under-performing Exotics and overall class balance". You can check out the full list below.

Summary

The most recent hotfix (1.0.2.2) for Destiny goes live on October 14th. This hotfix includes a number of changes to weapon balance across archetypes (e.g., lowering Auto Rifle effectiveness and increasing Scout Rifle damage output), specific weapons (Vex Mythoclast and Pocket Infinity) and includes a number of fixes to issues with the Templar encounter in the Vault of Glass.

We're still working on a larger update which will address under-performing Exotics and overall class balance.

General

Fixed a bug where the Valkyrie-O5X Ship was the same as the Aurora Lance

Classes

Titan
Unbreakable: Fixed an issue with the perk granting more agility than intended

Warlock
Brimstone: Perk can now activate if player is airborne

Weapons

General
Fixed some issues related to quick weapon swapping

Auto Rifles
Base Damage decreased by 2%
Reduced Precision Damage multiplier from 1.50 -> 1.25 (head shot bonus)
Stability decreased by 4% - 17% (driven by stat value)

Hand Cannons
In-air accuracy now increased

Scout Rifles
Base damage increased by 6%
Damage vs. Combatants increased by 6% - 25% (based on tier)
Improved target acquisition, plus additional recoil tuning.

Shotguns
Decreased base damage at maximum range (falloff) by 20%
Shot Package Perk now has a slightly wider cone of fire
The Rangefinder and Shot Package perks are now mutually exclusive

Exotic Weapons

Vex Mythoclast
Base Damage decreased by 34%
Increased Precision Damage multiplier from 1.25 -> 1.50 (headshot bonus)

Pocket Infinity
Enhanced Battery Perk has now been replaced with the Speed Reload Perk

Perks
Metal Detector: Fixed a bug that prevents this perk from actually providing additional ammo
Lightweight: Fixed a bug that allowed additional agility to apply even when a weapon was stowed

Activities

Strikes
Engram rewards from strikes now appear in the post-game Activity Summary

Raid - Vault of Glass

Templar Encounter

Kill volume added to sniper platforms to prevent players from sitting on top of them
Relic is now removed and respawned if the holder leaves the playable area

Destinations
The Fallen have also retreated from their hold over the Rocket Yard to discuss a new takeover plan

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New Features Coming To Xbox One

Dashboard themes and the ability to take screenshots will be coming to Xbox One in the future, according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer. During an interview recently, Spencer was asked if background customization and themes would be coming to Xbox One in the future.

"You will see it, I was told that themes and background pics are something that we're working on. And screenshots, I know people beat me up about screenshots. These are things that we're working on, the team's done a great job with the monthly updates, some of the things are just down to prioritization or the time of development. But I know people like to customize the look of their dash and I think both themes/backgrounds and screenshots are things that I know people will want so we're going to deliver on them. I can't give you a 'when' yet, but people should know that they are coming."

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Uncharted 4 Reveal Coming Soon

Naughty Dog looks set to showcase more of the eagerly anticipated Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Studio co-president Evan Wells told GameCrate: "It's coming along nicely. We've been hard at work since E3 and all I can say is that we'll be having some stuff to show you very soon." The PS4 game stars an older Nathan Drake who has been out of the fortune hunting game for several years. Forced back into the world of thieves, he sets out on a globetrotting adventure in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is set for release some time in 2015.

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