The long awaited forth coming Grand Theft Auto V is set to be released in the UK on 17th September 2013 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and Rockstar games have announced the special and collectors editions. 

The special edition is available to pre order given the price of around £80 and set to include the following:

• Collectable Steelbook with exclusive artwork of the main characters Michael, Trevor and Franklin.
• Blue print poster map (21.5” x 26.75”) of Los Santos and Blaine County showing locations for fast cash and other points of interest.

Digital content

• Stunt plane trials - Play additional single player aerial challenges
• Special ability boost - Each character will have a unique special ability which will also generate 25% faster.
• Bonus outfits, tattoos & more - More outfits to pick from, character specific tattoos at parlours and special deals from shops for various goods.
• Additional Weapons - Get weapons for free in ammunition stores including the Pistol .50, Bullpup Shotgun and Melee Hammer.

The Collectors edition is available to pre order given the price of around £120 and will include all of the above plus:

• An exclusive Black New Era 9FIFTY adjustable snapback cap embroided with the Los Santos logo on the front, stitched Rock star logo to the back and a GTA V logo on the side.
• Custom GTA V security deposit bag and logo key.

Digital content

• Unique vehicles and garage - Instanty get a garage to store vehicles. Single player will come with a ‘Hotknife Hotrod’ and ‘CarbonRS’ sports bike whilst in Multiplayer you’ll get a Khamelion electric car parked inside.
• Custom characters for GTA Online - Get all the classic characters to use within the online GTA character creation system.

If you pre order either of these packs or the standard game you’ll also receive the ‘Blimp’ vehicle to use in game, how very exciting!…

Get over to the official Rockstar games website to take a closer look or pre order now!

What’s you’re thoughts on this? Is it worth £80 for a steelbook, wall map and a few in game extras? I personally think the Collectors Edition at £120 is way over priced and who is going to use a leather lockable bag and cap? Please let us know if you are…..From my knowledge most GTA’s always included a wall map even with the standard edition and this has always been a useful feature but I guess this is being aimed at the GTA fan boys, we’ll wait and see!

Cheers 

Team BeardedNinja.co.uk

During the hugely anticipated Xbox live online stream reveal, various games were shown that are currently being developed for the Xbox One. This seems to be great news as 15 exclusives will be coming to the ‘One’ during the first year of it coming to our homes with 8 of the 15 being completely new franchises! Simply put, WOW!

Something not made completely clear though was that the games will be ‘cloud powered’. To me this means they will be downloaded or played via an internet connection so will this bring an end to buying and storing discs? We’ll update you as soon as we find out a definate answer…..it has though been confirmed that the Xbox One does not require an internet connection to play but perhaps there’s an option to download?

Here’s the big five which were announced - 

Forza Motorsport 5 - Forza Official Website

Forza 5 was the first big name game to be announced for the new console. Little detail was given other than it will be available from the launch of the Xbox One which I’m sure life long Xbox fans will be extremely excited about. More information is set to be available at E3. Check out the stunning screen taken from the preview below:

EA Sports - EA Sports Official Website

EA presented footage of their new game engine ‘EA IGNITE’ which is currently being used to develop FIFA, MADDEN, NBA LIVE and UFC. These are almost a certain to be available on the ‘One’ during it’s first 12 months on sale. Some footage was shown but this was a bit of a let down seen as it was not actual gameplay but it did look seriously slick and smooth. I feel EA were holding back whilst still trying to tease the huge following they always have had, being pretty much one of the biggest sporting game developers across all platforms

Remedy - Remedy Official Website

The award winning story telling developer who brought us ‘Max Payne’ and ‘Alan Wake’ return with another blockbuster called ‘Quantum Break’. This is an impressive and unique type of game combining intense gameplay with sequences of real life footage. Will this shoot to stardom or slide to shi*? 

Halo TV Series

Don’t get too excited, well not yet! There was no mention of an actual game being developed for the immense series of Halo but instead, a TV Series brought to you by no one other than Mr Steven Speilberg. At a guess I would say this will probably be exclusive to the Xbox One and act as part of the library of TV Series set to be coming for your personal satisfaction and entertainment. Personally I think this is just something to keep the universe of Halo fans happy whilst a game for the next generation is being developed…you heard it here first!

Call of Duty Ghosts - Call of Duty Official Website

Well I suppose they left the best til last, as they say…The Call of Duty franchise is returning again (yes, again…god!) with the new game titled ‘Ghosts’ brought to us by in my opinion the best developers of the Call of Duty series, Infinity Ward. Ghosts is a specailist unit of soldiers highly trained to basically be ‘Ghosts’ going mainly unseen whilst battling through masses of enemies to save the world, sound familiar? Of course this is Call of Duty!

This will be exclusive to the Xbox but I feel only for a limited time due to the franchise being pretty much the biggest in the world. Being exclusive to the Xbox would potentially lose them big big bucks! ‘Ghosts’ is to be built on a brand new engine, allowing Infinity Ward to produce some of the smoothest models and most dynamic levels ever (in the COD series that is!). Lean is back, allowing you to lean slightly left or right round walls which I’m sure will please the hardcore COD following (me included!) and character customization allowing you to change everything from your players helmet to what equipment is being carried. Story mode includes a trusty companion by way of Dog, oh yes you have your own Navy Seals German Shepherd on board for the ride, hopefully nothing bad happens to him?!

Finally a comparison was shown between Modern Warfare 3 and Ghosts showing various game aspects and the difference was definately what I would like to call ‘Next gen’.

Post Xbox One Reveal

• Ubisoft announced on their site that Assassins Creed 4:Black Flag and Watch Dogs will be coming to the Xbox One.
• EA/DICE announced Battlefield 4 to be released for the Xbox One
• Bungies ‘Destiny’ confirmed for the ‘One’.

Let us know what you thought of the reveal guys, did it live up to your expectations? Will you be pre ordering the Xbox One? Get in touch here, Facebook or our Twitter page!

#BeardedNinjaOut

So the world was fixated to their screens tonight/this morning (dependant on where you are in the world), as Microsoft unveiled their next gen console as the Xbox One.

The Console has a new sleeker look, with a disc drive instead of a tray system. The rounded look the 360 had has gone, with a more rectangular look, kind of like a mix between a black Wii, Slim PS2 and  DVD player!

Boasting some ridiculous specs for a console: 8 Core CPU, 8GB of ram, 500GB hard drive, Blu ray drive (FINALLY!), 802.11n Wifi including Wifi Direct, HDMI In/Out and the new USB 3.0. The console is looking in top shape to contend with Sony’s Playstation 4.

There was alot of talk in the presentation about cloud service, which brings us to believe that the console may need a 24/7 internet connection to fully function, but that is still speculation at the moment. 

Microsoft are really pushing an “all in one” entertainment system now, with full television service capability, on demand music and film, integration of game/tv/internet/music etc, with full Kinect control. Even using the Kinect to actually turn the console on.

The Kinect now boasts a full 1080p camera, with the ability to instantly stream Skype calls.

The new dashboard is looking fairly similar to the current one we have, but more Windows 8-like. The Xbox now remembers what you were last doing when you last used the console, with the ability to instantly continue from where you left off, whether it be a game, TV, music, film, anything! We also now have a full integration with Smartglass, which is now native to the Console. Tablets, Smartphones and such devices can control and communicate with the Xbox through the app.

Instant switching will also allow, as it says in the title, instant switching between all Xbox services in an instant through voice commands. Kinect will also allow us to switch between the consoles THREE built in operating systems. One focused on gaming and allowing developers to create dynamic and life like engines, one to control TV channels and connect to networks, and the third to switch between both at a phenomenal speed. Gestures are also an integral part of Xbox interactivity, with the ability of the user to grab the screen, and shrink it back to the Dashboard, or bring it back full screen!

The new Snap mode will allow all this easy multitasking between services very, very quickly. 

Now, onto the new controller. It has a very familiar setup to the original, with a sleeker look, redesigned D-pad, and feedback to the triggers, giving a more precise gaming experience.

We’d love to know what you guys think, so feel free to get in touch with us on here or on our Twitter page! Do you love it, hate it? Share your thoughts!