The Weekly Roundup

Welcome to our new regular news feature, the Weekly Roundup, in which we dig into the bigger stories of the past seven days and look at their impact on the industry.

Talking Point: Call of Duty: Ghosts launches

The week was dominated by one game - Call of Duty: Ghosts. It's always a big deal when Activision releases a new entry in the series, and this year was no different. The verdict on the game from the press was divided, with a lower range of scores than previous iterations. Opinion was even split across the Gamereactor network. Our reviewer, Christian Gaca, awarded the game a 9 in his glowing verdict, calling it "the complete package" - yet elsewhere on the network, others weren't so enamoured.

However, despite selling a shedload of copies, Ghosts wasn't as popular when compared to year-on-year sales. Activision are blaming the "console transition", but we suspect there might be a bit of fatigue to factor in to that as well. We'll have a better idea once the next-gen sales can be included in the overall picture, but perhaps we won't know for sure whether the series is in decline until next year's entry has been released (which was confirmed within what felt like minutes of the release of Ghosts - to absolutely no-one's surprise).

And a nice little aside - The Legend of Zelda was referenced in Ghosts, with Infinity Ward paying homage to Nintendo's classic IP.

Talking Point: SteamOS Rising

There's more and more information emerging regarding Valve's plans for SteamOS. This week the world got to take a first look at one of the prototype Steam Machines that are being sent out to lucky gamers in the near future. The lucky 300 will also be getting a copy of Metro: Last Light, which was confirmed as heading to Linux this week.

Slightly Mad Studios added Project CARS to the list of games set to appear on SteamOS (as well as Xbox One and PS4). Total War: Rome II is also making its way over to the platform, with CA going as far as saying that playing the game on a Steam Controller "could be a more compelling experience than playing with keyboard and mouse." Given that Rome II was pretty compelling with the old mouse/keyboard combo, those are some pretty bold words.

Valve has gone on record twice this week to say that they're not going to be making exclusive titles for SteamOS. Greg Coomer said: "You won't see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us. We're not going to be doing that kind of thing." Then, in a separate interview, Doug Lombardi said: "It's against our philosophy to put a game in jail and say it only works on Steam Machines." They didn't mention it, but from that we're taking their collective meaning as being: Half-Life 3 will be available on every next-gen platform. We can dream, can't we?

Talking Point: Next-Gen Looming

It's been a rocky few days for Microsoft, after Mark Rubin went on the record regarding Call of Duty: Ghosts running at 720p. While that in itself isn't a major issue, the fact that Rubin states that Ghosts, Battlefield 4 and next year's Titanfall are all running in 720p might be of some concern to gamers still undecided about which way they're going to go when they finally get around to embracing the next-gen. Sports titles and such like don't seem to be affected in the same way, but no doubt the shooter crowd is taking note.

It turns out that one game we thought was going to be a launch title for Xbox One actually isn't, after it was revealed that Peggle 2 is "launch timeframe" title, not actually a launch title. Nuance. While we're talking launch day, Xbox One will do very little without the planned Day One update, Microsoft has confirmed. Make of that what you will. The entertainment Apps you'll be able to get on the console have also been detailed.

Ryse: Son of Rome is set to launch in a couple of weeks, but apparently it's going to have an incomplete feature-set. On the plus side, selected gamers are being emailed and offered free stuff. Copies of FIFA 14 and Killer Instinct are being given to lucky gamers based on Live tenure and Gamerscore. Time to check your emails.

On the other side of the console fence, PlayStation 4 owners will be able to play in harmony with their counterparts on PlayStation 3, after it was confirmed that there'll be cross-generational play on DC Universe Online.

Presumably to fill the void left by Watch Dogs after it was delayed until next year, Ubisoft has announced a new PS4 bundle that stars Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. We've also got photos of the final PS4 hardware for you to ogle (as well as these trailers that showcase the console). Finally, there's the news that PS3 has sold over 80 million units, the announcement coming just weeks after MS announced the same thing. One wonders if this next console war is going to be as close...

This week on GRTV...

This week has seen GRTV offer up plenty of gameplay for your viewing pleasure, but before we get into that here's Games to Look For in November. If you think current-gen titles are sooo last season, there'll be next-gen versions of the show with you soon enough.

We take a closer look at the PS4 Hardware, and there's gameplay footage of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Driveclub, Killzone: Shadow Fall, and Knack. There's plenty more on GRTV if that lot doesn't satisfy your lust for off-screen gameplay.

This weekend we're at BlizzCon. The two updates we've already filmed should whet your appetite for the content coming to the site in the next few days. Even better, here's the latest of Blizzard's cinematic trailers (they do like a good cinematic). There's our live streams - recorded for posterity - of Call of Duty: Ghosts and WWE 2K14, and if you're bored of CoD you can check out the first 20 minutes of Battlefield 4.

We'd also like to draw your attention to one of our favourite trailers of the week. It's a little out of left field, but the Enter the Brotrix trailer for Broforce will surely bring a smile to your face if you either remember the Matrix films fondly, or love 80-90s action films in general. The game itself is rather lovely too (in a bloody, bullet-filled kind of way).

Deal of the Week

There's a couple of new Humble Bundle sales to tell you about this week. Daedalic Entertainment are the focus of the Weekly Sale, while Warner Brothers are offering bargain basement prices on Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Asylum and more in their Humble Bundle. Another noteworthy sale sprang up on the PS Store. The Sci-fi Sale features a nice selection of (yes, you guessed it) sci-fi themed games, and runs until November 20. Finally, Devolver Digital are on Steam for a couple of days, so if you fancy a bit of Hotline Miami then nows the time.

Also in the News this week...

Long after we'd left the office on Friday night, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor was officially announced. We've got screens, trailers, all that jazz. Also, the absurdly popular card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is heading into open beta next month. Given that it's Blizzard, they're happy to admit that it might end up being January. We applaud their honesty.

A CV on Linkedin has hinted at a release date for Mad Max. More exciting is the possibility that Avalanche Studios are sitting on an announcement for Just Cause 3.

Rockstar has finally released the Stimulus Package; a compensation package designed to appease irate gamers who struggled to get to grips with GTA Online when it was launched at the start of last month.

Fans of Battlefield 3 who are already starting to feel nostalgic whilst playing Battlefield 4 will be able rejoice and revel in the news that select BF3 maps are heading to BF4.

Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel might be about to play Kane & Lynch in a new movie adaptation.

For the first time in the history of the series, the crowd-funded Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse is going to be split in two. The first part's coming next month.

Fresh light has been thrown on Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. It's to act as a prologue to The Phantom Pain, introducing players to the new open world mechanics.

Call the police because it's been a 999 week for gamers, with three of the reviewed games scoring very well indeed. We've already mentioned Ghosts, but there's also reviews for The Stanley Parable and Rayman Fiesta Run that demand your attention. It might not have hit the high scores managed by the other titles, but WWE 2K14 is worth a look if you're a fan of the series (current or lapsed).

From time to time we like to take a gander at the world of crowd-funding. This weekend Gamereactor's Bengt Lemne brings us another instalment of Crowdfund Watch. If you're one of those who likes to get involved with projects early, it's essential reading.

And finally, this week saw the anniversary of the release of Halo 4. We take a look at the state of the game, and consider the long-term fortunes of the series in Breaking the Halo.