Haunted – Pokemon Snap

Take it as just another urban legend or the stuff of truth but one unfortunate player apparently found a haunted copy of Pokemon Snap. The N64 title saw players on-rails, taking pictures of Pokemon on Pokemon Island. It’s a generally happy game but this particular copy had odd purple streaks throughout. Professor Oak’s eyes were replaced with pitch-black voids and many of the lovable pocket monsters looked downright unsettling (according to the person in question that is). At some point, visiting the volcano stage would result in Pokemon screaming. Soon enough, the player saw himself submerged in lava. That’s several degrees of “yikes” right there.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/14-urban-legends-in-games-you-likely-believed/feed 0 380206 https://gamingbolt.com/titanfall-2-fifa-17-plants-vs-zombies-and-more-all-playable-for-free-until-june-18 https://gamingbolt.com/titanfall-2-fifa-17-plants-vs-zombies-and-more-all-playable-for-free-until-june-18#comments Sat, 10 Jun 2017 22:17:33 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=298084

Last week, EA’s Play to Give initiative raised $1 million from PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center and Ditch the Label. To celebrate this support, EA is making some of its biggest games from last year playable for free across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

“More than 5.7 million active players participated in the Play to Give in-game challenges from June 2-4,” said EA in a statement. “We were moved by your tremendous show of support.”

The games that will be playable across the three platforms are Madden NFL 17, FIFA 17, Titanfall 2, EA SPORTS UFC 2 and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2. There will be certain caveats in place- on the Xbox One, you need an EA Access account to access these games. Meanwhile, on the PS4, a PS Plus account will be needed to access the multiplayer features of all of these games. The Plants vs Zombies trial will be limited to 10 hours, The Journey in FIFA will be 2 hours only (no restrictions on the other modes), Titanfall 2 seems to be limited to Gauntlet and the Beacon single-player content plus multiplayer features only, and the EA Sports UFC 2 trial is limited to 5 hours.

Even with the restrictions in place, that’s not bad at all- good on EA for doing a good thing with its charitable initiative, and good on them for allowing their biggest games to be playable for free, even if with limitations in place.

The Vault for EA/Origin Access is set to grow by the end of the year. The publisher has announced that Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Star Wars Battlefront and EA Sports UFC 2 will be added to the Vault in the coming months. They haven’t been dated specifically however.

Being added to the Vault means anyone with an EA/Origin Access subscription can play these games indefinitely without fear of them being removed. There will be more games incoming though. EA also continues to offer free games through Origin with its On The House promotion, which recently brought Dungeon Keeper to the PC.

If you own EA Access, you can also play a number of Xbox Live Arcade titles like Heavy Weapon, Bejeweled 2/3, Feeding Frenzy 1/2 and Zuma.

What are your thoughts on EA/Origin Access and the games available? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information on when you can expect some of the bigger Vault additions.

EA Sports UFC 2, the admittedly fun MMA fighting title, has received a free trial on the Xbox One and PS4. Players can log on to the PlayStation Store or the Microsoft Store and download it today. Total download size is 20 GB.

This being a trial means there will be a time limit though. In this case, it’s five hours of total game time. If you decide to upgrade to the full version of the game, you can continue your progress and retain stats throughout. The good news is that EA Sports UFC 2 is also discounted by 50 percent on both PS4 and Xbox One.

The promotion will be available until August 22nd, 10 AM PST/1 PM EST/7 PM CEST so act now if you’re really anxious to punch virtual fighters in the face. If you’re keen to know more, then check out our review of the Xbox One version here (long story short: it’s much better than its predecessor).

After Fight Night Round, EA started taking interest in the UFC franchise and released EA Sports UFC on the PS4 and Xbox One back in 2014. It was somewhat of a mix bag but graphically it was a pleasant game to look at; and we are pleased to report that EA Canada has upped the ante with the sequel. Graphically speaking, EA Sports UFC 2 is an odd game to analyze. It doesn’t feature flashy visuals and it by no means is a system pusher since it only takes place in an octagon shaped stage. But what is there is truly special and it’s the attention to detail that really sets it apart from other fighters out there. Let me just get something out of the way, EA Sports UFC 2 is by far the most realistic looking fighting game we have ever played and we mean that not only in terms of visual aesthetics but the way each fighter has been animated.

Before we jump into what makes the game a visual stunner, it must be noted that the title is running on the Ignite Engine, an impressive framework of game development tools that has powered many of EA Sports’ games in the past. The engine has been improved in the last few years and its latest build integrates a full physical based rendering pipeline along with better lighting rendering and physics toolsets. The Ignite engine is compromised of several sub-frameworks which pertain to different sections of the game. One of the modules that is utilized by EA Sports UFC 2 is Human Intelligence which allows the AI opponent to make smart decisions based on how the player is performing. This enables the AI to take quicker judgment calls resulting into a realistic fighting experience. Secondly, the True Player Motion framework allows for various parts of the character’s body such as limbs, legs and even the clothes to simulate in a realistic manner.

So coming back to what we briefly mentioned before, the game is a unique fighter due to its attention to intricate details. The characters exhibit real world properties such as sweat being thrown off when they land a hard punch or the waves in their hair as they jump around or move around quickly. And did we mention how cool the blood effects are? During intense fights, character faces will have blood pouring from their forehead, nose and cheek; and during this moment if you are able to land a punch or two on the face, blood will fall and start spreading on the octagonal stage.

Furthermore, the character’s body and facial animations are a sight to behold at times. Usually most fighting games don’t have any issues in rendering the correct animations when the player lands a punch or a kick but in this title the developers have also added the correct facial and body animations for missed shots. Furthermore, whenever you land a shot, the muscle area of the impacted body will undergo a temporary displacement effect. This is a very subtle effect but you can clearly observe it in the slow motion replay.

Performance is pretty much identical. Both versions are capped at 30 frames per second and the game manages to keep it locked at almost all times with minimal drops. Now some may question the lack of 60fps in a fighting game but unlike other games in the genre such as Tekken, UFC isn’t a fast paced fighting game. Of course, we have always maintained that 60fps is a game changer but the 30fps doesn’t really hurt the experience here.

We also wanted to briefly talk about the AA solution the game integrates. EA Sports UFC 2 utilizes 4 X MSAA which helps the image quality to really stand out. We have mentioned the importance of MSAA in many of our previous analysis and how it helps reduce jaggies drastically. We witnessed next to no jaggies during gameplay as well as during the game’s cutscenes. Kudos to the developers for utilizing a resource intensive solution instead of using something simpler such as an FXAA solution. Other post processing effects such as the skin shaders, lighting tech, cinematic motion blur and depth of field are identical across both versions.

Other add on effects such as complex skin shaders, shadow quality, depth of field and others remain consistently similar across both platforms. In the end, EA Sports UFC 2 is a technically amazing fighter. The developer’s focus on attention to detail makes it a must play game. Now, only if there was a PC version to drool at as well.

Tom Clancy’s The Division had a strong debut in the UK, shattering an 11 year record that was set by Gran Turismo 4, and it continues to hold on to that in the latest sales data from Gfk Chart-Track.

EA Sports UFC 2 debuted at second place while Pokken Tournament on the Wii U managed to enter at third place but neither was quite enough to unseat The Division.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is in fourth place while Far Cry Primal is in fifth and FIFA 16 is in sixth place. Grand Theft Auto 5, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers and Forza Motorsport 6 make up the remainder of the top ten for the past week.

It should be interesting to see how The Division performs, especially since there aren’t any major competitors until Quantum Break debuts in April. Then again, it’s incredibly popular on the Xbox One as far as the Xbox Store goes so who knows? Stay tuned for more information on the same.

EA Sports UFC 2 has a lot of intricate game mechanics, as well as a whole host of different game modes- and while you can get a very good feel for the game simply by playing it, if you’re a newcomer who’s looking for some help and direction, you’ve come to the right place. This guide is for you. In this guide we are going to cover how you can earn coins/money faster, unlock some of the trophies and achievements in the game, learn every move in the game and know all about Ultimate Team.

GENERAL TIPS AND STRATEGIES

EA Sports UFC 2 is a highly nuanced game, and you need to have a feel for all of its mechanics and systems before you start doing well at it. Submissions, parries, weight classes, and more- you need to thoroughly understand them all. You also need to keep in mind that EA Sports UFC 2 is nothing like other fighting games you have played, so you need to unlearn a lot of what you know, and learn these new mechanics and systems.

Before you set out to play the game, you should probably take some time to familiarize yourself with the game’s intricacies and systems- even if you are an MMA fan. Understanding these techniques can mean the difference between a triumphant victory, and a crushing, humiliating defeat.

PARRIES

Parries are used to counter an opponent’s attack, and deal damage to them instead. A successful parry is a counterblow that deals a massive amount of damage and drains your opponent’s stamina. Parry if your opponent spams the Attack button, or if there is a pattern to their attack.

DEFENDING AND COUNTERING TAKEDOWNS

Of course, it can suck if you’ve got this perfect attack all lined up, and just as you are about to execute it? You get a takedown. Takedowns can be devastating, because they send you sprawled on the ground, and you lose health, stamina, and time- so knowing how to counter them is super important and super helpful.

POSTURING UP

Say that in spite of all of your best efforts, you got knocked down to the ground anyway. Well, as long as you know how to posture up, you should be back on your feet in no time.

SUBMISSIONS

Really, this is the meat of EA Sports UFC 2. If you know how to pull off submissions, you’re going to be winning fights like nobody else’s business- which is why it is so important that you know how to perform this technique, and when to perform it.

DEFENDING AGAINST SUBMISSIONS

Okay, but what if you find yourself on the receiving end of a submission? Never fear! It’s not the end for you. You can prevent a submission attempt from ever even happening- and worst come to worst, you can still escape a submission if you find yourself on the receiving end of one.

GET UPS AND CLINCH BREAKS

Master these techniques, and you’ve got a handle on some of the most basic of this game’s mechanics.

MODIFYING STRIKES

How much a strike hits you (or your opponent) depends on a lot of things- weight class, fighting style, discipline, stance, and more. Understand strikes, and you can score some truly spectacular KOs.

UNLOCKING FIGHTERS

Like a lot of fighting games, EA Sports UFC 2 also locks some characters- you need to meet specific in game conditions to be able to unlock them.

• Bruce Lee: If you pre-ordered the game, have a save file for EA Sports UFC, or purchased the Bruce Lee DLC, you should have him. If you do not, you can unlock Bruce Lee by completing the Career Mode on any difficulty.
• Mike Tyson: Similar to Bruce Lee, he should be available if you purchased him separately or if you pre-ordered the game. If not, you can unlock him by completing the Career mode.
• Bas Rutten: Same as the previous two- if you pre-ordered the game or purchased him separately, you have access to him. If not, just complete Career Mode.
• Kazushi Sakuraba: Just complete Career Mode to unlock him.

ULTIMATE TEAM

Is anyone surprised that EA Sports UFC 2 has Ultimate Team too? The mode has become a mainstay of most EA Sports games, and it has become the most popular game mode in the FIFA and Madden games.

Ultimate Team is like an entire game within a game- in it, you create a team of five fighters, train them, modify them, and try to win the most number of matches online with them. Think of it like a meta-Career mode.

Before you dive into Ultimate Team mode, here are some things you should know:

Your Team: Your team has up to five fighters- once your team is made, you participate in various fights with it, online and offline, to climb up through the ranks. You customize your team with Fight Packs.

Game Modes: There are three primary game modes for you to keep track of- 24 hour challenges, Singleplayer Champions, and the online Ultimate Championships. Playing these modes nets you coins. These coins are used to purchase more Fight Packs (though you can also use real world money to purchase Fight Packs if you so desire).

Fight Packs: Fight Packs are used to enhance your team- individual cards can be used to either grant a permanent bonus to a fighter, or a temporary boost. Upgrades are permanent, Boosts are temporary. Perks are powerful items that grant fighters passive gains. Items are ranked on a star rating- 5 star items are the very best ones. Make sure the item you want to use and the fighter you want to use it on are of the same weight class (unless the item is of a Universal Class).

EARNING COINS FASTER AND EASILY

When it comes to Ultimate Team, you want to earn as many coins as necessary- coins are the basic currency of the mode, and the more you have, the more you can do. The more coins you have, the less likely it is that you have to spend real money, and the more coins you have, the better your team can be.

With all of that said… how exactly do you farm coins? What is the best way to maximize your gain? In this section of the guide, we cover farming coins, and maximizing your earnings.

Sell your Fight Packs. A lot of the times, the Fight Packs you get have nothing useful, nothing that has any utility to you. In such a case, go to the Pack Rewards menu and sell your Fight Packs- you get some coins back this way. You can sell Packs individually, or all at once.

Create a full roster of Ultimate Team fighters. These fighters will fight other fighters even when you are not playing the game, and earn you coins. Their losses don’t count against your record, and you do not lose anything.

Play the Daily Challenges, well, daily. The Daily Challenges refresh every 24 hours, giving you five to play through every day. Playing through them nets you an assured supply of coins each day.

Prolong the fights. I understand the temptation to KO your opponent within the first half minute, inflicting a humiliating defeat, but resist that urge. Instead, prolong each fight as much as possible. You get more coins from longer fights.

ACHIEVEMENTS/TROPHIES

Of course, EA Sports UFC 2 has its own Achievements and Trophies, too. Some of these can be pretty hard to get- that’s where we come in.

It’s My First Day

Complete the UFC 189 Intro scenario.

Spin to Win

Score a knockout with any spinning attack.

Checkmate

Win a match using a submission chain.

Risky Business

Submit an opponent with a flying submission.

Better Late Than Never

Knockout or submit your opponent in the last ten seconds of the final round.

Throw It On The Ground

Knockout your opponent with a slam.

Not So Fast

Takedown an opponent using a Judo counter.

Strike First, Strike Hard

Knockout your opponent within the first thirty seconds of a match.

Don’t Talk The Talk…

Knockout your opponent within fifteen seconds of them taunting.

A Change of Pace

Mix up your match ups… (Career Mode)

I Got This

Take advantage of an opportunity… (Career Mode)

Surprise!

Have something interesting happen… (Career Mode)

Outmatched

Take on a daunting opponent… (Career Mode)

Push it to the Limit

Train your hardest… (Career Mode)

On the Rise

Earn your first major victory… (Career Mode)

Still Standing

Have a long lived career… (Career Mode)

The Champion

Chase the ultimate prize… (Career Mode)

Matchmaker

Create and play through an event in Custom Events with at least four fights.

Putting in the Time

Complete every Skill Challenge on every difficulty.

Work Ethic

Complete every Skill Challenge with an A Rank on every difficulty.

The Whole Crew

Complete a match with each of your featured fighters in Ranked Championships Mode in one day.

The Legend

Become a Champion in Ranked or Ultimate Championships.

Money Where Your Mouth Is

Submit your picks for every fight on a card in Live Events.

Bonus!

Submit a Play Bonus pick in Live Events.

The First Step

Open your first Fight Pack in UFC Ultimate Team.

Fully Loaded

Apply a Perk and a Move Item to a single fighter in UFC Ultimate Team.

All in a Day’s Work

Complete all of your objectives in UFC Ultimate Team in one day.

Stockpile

Have 200 total Items or more in your UFC Ultimate Team Collection at one time.

Blue Belt

Reach Team Level 6.

Brown Belt

Reach Team Level 16.

Red Belt

Reach Team Level 26.

Heavy Purse

Earn 10,000 Coins as fight rewards.

Making Bank

Earn 100,000 Coins as fight rewards.

Master of the Octagon

Earn every other Trophy.

"hen there’s the new Knockout Mode which is tons of fun in its own right. Imagine UFC without the grappling and submissions. Five straight hits to the head and you’re down."

EA has been on a bit of a downturn in the past few years, especially following the first EA Sports UFC. While it introduced the Ignite engine to the franchise, its lack of options, laggy multiplayer and difficult learning curve were severely disappointing for fans of Undisputed 3. EA Sports UFC 2 immediately tries to address problems with the learning curve by throwing you into training from the outset. Select from over 250 fighters across a variety of weight classes, ranging from Vitor Belfort to CM Punk, and take to training against a free-style opponent. Tune your foe’s settings to improve your stand-up, grappling and blocking game.

How do you figure out the finer points of these mechanics? Aside from the game taking time to explain it in the middle of fights, you can head into the Challenges mode and complete a range of challenges, varying in difficulty, to properly hone your craft. Honestly, after Street Fighter 5, there was a small beat of terror as I thought this was all EA Sports UFC 2 had to offer. Thankfully, that’s far from the case.

Head to the Main Menu and you’ll be greeted with a wealth of options, from Live Events to Career Mode and Unranked Fights. Take part in online divisions to battle the best players in the world. Ultimate Team makes its debut for the first time in a UFC game, which allows you to create a roster of fighters (or select from the pre-existing batch) and lead your team to fame and fortune. Then there’s the new Knockout Mode which is tons of fun in its own right. Imagine UFC without the grappling and submissions. Five straight hits to the head and you’re down. Sounds boring? Maybe but the actual result is gripping, forcing you to duck and weave while carefully calculating your opponents mistakes. It’s an entertaining, if not overtly deep, diversion to the EA UFC formula.

"As it stands, Career Mode is a cut-and-dry approach to simulating the life of a UFC star. It’s nothing spectacular and gets the job done, offering plenty of fighting. One just wishes there was a lot more done, especially given the level of graphical fidelity and presentation."

The other modes are as touch-and-go as you’d expect. Live Events have a specified time and have you taking part in past UFC cards. The twist is you can bet on certain fighters and the outcome of matches in order to score currency. Say you think Mike Hunt goes down in the third round via Knockout. Play the match, make it happen and you’ll earn some currency, which goes into earning Card Packs in Ultimate Team mode. Then there’s Career Mode where you select your custom fighter (with the ability to create a female fighter for the first time) and work your way up the UFC ladder.

Career Mode is intriguing for all the nonsense that takes part before fights. This is best manifested in the so-called random events that can affect your performance. Maybe you’ll lose sleep one night and wake up late, cutting your training time down. Perhaps the gym picks up some new equipment, thus improving your overall training significantly. You can even sustain injuries from training too much but these don’t manifest in fights as much as we’d like. As it stands, Career Mode is a cut-and-dry approach to simulating the life of a UFC star. It’s nothing spectacular and gets the job done, offering plenty of fighting. One just wishes there was a lot more done, especially given the level of graphical fidelity and presentation.

Mechanically, EA Sports UFC 2 feels a lot better than its predecessor. Besides the hard-hitting stand-up game, which feels more physics and momentum-based while relying on tactics and placement, the grapple game has been significantly improved. You’re no longer left fumbling when your opponent takes you down. A list of commands will appear – hold the analog stick in a given direction and you can switch positions, effectively taking your opponent’s back and laying some serious ground and pound down. When coupled with the different styles of fighters and their skill with grappling and mat fighting, you’ll find an interesting range of options outside of pure striking. Pacing-wise, it can wear on your patience, especially when your opponent takes you down multiple times during a fight or when your attempt to change positions is countered but it’s still a welcome degree of control.

"EA Sports UFC 2 is a very good combat sports title that deserves your attention and improves on the weaknesses of its predecessor. The series still has a ways to go before coming across as championship material though."

Personally, submissions still took some getting used to, as did stuffing an opponent’s takedown and the game was a bit iffy when it came to explaining later. Nothing that some more hardcore training couldn’t correct but it was annoying in the early going.

Speaking of “pure striking”, there perhaps isn’t a more visceral looking fighting game on the market. EA Sports UFC 2 doesn’t have the most diverse range of visuals nor is it pushing the hardware for all its worth. However, the sheer detail on fighters – right down to their tattoos and skin textures – is amazing. You’ll be impressed from the opening prologue itself and the overall gameplay keeps delivering with realistic deformations on impact, impressive knockout animations that are unique for every instance and an incredible atmosphere that makes you actually believe you’re in the Octagon.

Gameplay-wise, it felt like some impact was missing at times, like blows weren’t connecting properly. Then again, on watching UFC for the first time, it’s easy to get that impression for even the most basic of hits. When the knockouts come or you’re busy pounding an opponent on the mat, then you’ll witness the brutality front and centre. Blood streaks cover the mat or paint the air and the cage is akin to an old-school battleground. It’s awesome, even if you’re submitted on the mat in the next ten seconds.

For all it has to offer though, EA Sports UFC 2 still feels like its missing something. The tactical nature of the combat, despite some hiccups in understanding all of its essentials, and the online play are solid, thus providing the best possible reason to hop in. It also helps that a large roster is on hand to offer a huge amount of variety, no matter which weight class you opt for. And yes, with the addition of training and Challenges, it’s easier than ever to learn game’s mechanics and pursue a career as a digital fighter. But even with Live Events, Ultimate Team and Knockout Mode, EA Sports UFC 2 could have used a more comprehensive and involving Career Mode to really suck players in. It’s a very good combat sports title that deserves your attention and improves on the weaknesses of its predecessor. The series still has a ways to go before coming across as championship material though.

While we’re still a few weeks away from UFC 2 releasing, EA is starting to give us a little bit of new information about the upcoming title. Electronic Arts has been shedding quite a bit of light about the game thanks to a series of gameplay videos and earlier this week the company released a brand new one. This particular video features the brand new game modes coming this year. It also shows off just how good looking this game actually is in the graphics department.

The video showed off all kinds of different ways to play, including the knockout mode that allows you to just go toe to toe with any of the fighters in the game and see who can take the most hits. The video even shows that one of the cool features is that you can actually ramp up your opponent by tweaking their health level. You can also just practice your technique by dialing their health down and ramping your own up.

Custom Events also looks a really interesting new mode, where you can act as though you are the top fight promoter in the UFC. You can set all kinds of different details about the matches that are going to be taking place in this event. You can set how many fights are going to be part of the Custom Event as well as who will be the headliners and then let the games begin. Check out the video below and see all the new game modes offered in UFC 2.

For EA Sports UFC 2, the sequel to the 2014 EA Sports UFC which gave EA a shot at the UFC license, EA have got a pretty good incentive to convince you to pre-order- if you pre-order the game, you can get yourself Mike Tyson unlocked from the get go in your copy.

Mike Tyson will be featuring in the game, and can be unlocked through other means too: just reaching the Hall of Fame in the Career mode should unlock him for you. If you have bought the Deluxe Edition, he’ll be made available to you as well.

“As a huge fan, I’m honored to be part of EA SportsThat and explore the world of mixed martial arts,” said Tyson. “I follow UFC very closely and it’s going to be very cool to see how I would stack up against these amazing MMA athletes.”

There will be two versions of Mike Tyson in the game- an 80s-version “Iron” Mike Tyson, and “Legacy” Mike Tyson based on his appearance at the end of his boxing career. Iron Mike will be the one that is made available available as a pre-order bonus, although both can be unlocked in game.

EA Sports UFC launches this Mach on PS4 and Xbox One.