So Disney may be out of the game, recently announcing that their wildly successful Toys-2-Life video game series will soon be coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean that LEGO Dimensions fans out there need worry with plenty of fun LEGO Dimensions expansion packs already out there in the wild. From LEGO Dimensions Level packs that fully thrust you into the world of a hugely popular IP to Fun packs which make all of our favourite characters and vehicles playable in another licensed world or “Dimension” if you will, 5 waves of colourful brick-breaking fun are currently available to add to your LEGO collection. Here are 5 of the best LEGO Dimensions expansion packs that provide some of the best enjoyment and deliver the best bang for your buck (In no particular order). Worth noting that the majority of packs on this expansion packs list feature characters and worlds unavailable in any other video game! If you don’t have the LEGO Dimensions yet then you can get the LEGO Dimensions starter pack right here.
Truth be told, you can’t really go far wrong with any of the level packs available for LEGO Dimensions, but it is true that out of the level packs released so far some shine significantly more than others. One of the best level pack around is undoubtedly Portal 2. The LEGO Dimensions expansion pack not only is a way of proving that LEGO as a phenomenon perfectly transcends any age group, but also is the only way for fans of the Portal franchise to continue the story of Chell. The Portal 2 level pack contains Chell herself, a sentry turret vehicle and a trusty companion cube which no Aperture Science test subject should never find themselves without. Whilst playing the level pack, you’ll find yourself coming up against 5 simple if innovative test chambers which each provide their own unique LEGO spin on the puzzles Portal is now known for, before culminating in a boss battle with fan favourite villain GLaDOS that will once again test your wits. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to drive around the land of Oz or Gotham city in the one and only mystery machine?
Purchase the highly affordable Scooby-Doo team pack and you’ll be able to do just that. Although not gracing us with another story level which you are able to find in the main game, the team pack does provide an adventure world that gives players the opportunity to cruise around in one of the most iconic cartoon vehicles whilst making for some great dialogue between Shaggy and Scooby. Complete with Scooby snack, mystery machine, shaggy and Scooby, if there’s one thing this team pack nails perfectly, it’s world and characters from the show. From mid-air flutter jumps to the way Shaggy cautiously swings at enemies, your two new characters are perfectly realised within this LEGO world. What’s more, if this wasn’t enough, the entire aesthetic of the main game is overhauled in place of a cell-shaded setting to make it feel more like you’re in the Scooby Doo cartoon. Buy Stay Puft Fun Pack Whilst the main Ghostbusters level pack is somewhat marred by the canned dialogue that is haphazardly pulled from the original movie, it’s companion fun pack still allows for some great fun to be had.
Featured in the expansions pack is the formidable marshmallow villain himself Stay Puft, readily accompanied by the nightmare-inducing “Terror Dog” known in the movie as Gozer. Whether it’s the charming way Stay Puft is able to tower over any of the present AI characters around whilst leaving marshmallow footprints behind, or the way Gozer perfectly snarls whilst the Ghostbusters theme plays in the background, this Lego Dimensions fun pack fully commits to the campy if somewhat unnerving tone of the movie. Perfect for all the gamer dads out there, the Stay Puft version is one of the best fun packs around for LEGO Dimensions.The end of an era is upon us.Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 video game consoles are on their way out and the game industry appears ready to move on.That's according to the data in the latest report from industry tracker NPD Group. After more than a year and a half of fluctuations and uncertainty with the arrival of new hardware from Microsoft and Sony, the US retail game industry grew in July -- its second consecutive month of growth, according to NPD.
Overall sales of game hardware, software and accessories grew 6 percent while hardware sales rose 2 percent, despite a steep 56 percent dropoff in sales of the older Xbox 360 and PS3. Such a dropoff has in previous months dragged hardware sales down into double-digit declines on a percentage basis. But sales of the newer Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles are starting to offset those declines. The end of the Xbox 360 and PS3 has been a long time coming, with Microsoft publicly stating that support for its console will end next year, while Sony has hinted that it will follow suit. Meanwhile, many game makers have publicly dropped support for older consoles. For instance, Electronic Arts' upcoming Star Wars Battlefront space shooter with be available only for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The sharp dropoffs in older hardware sales reflect the lack of consumer enthusiasm for the near-decade-old devices. Since the introduction of new game hardware from Microsoft and Sony in November 2013, the retail game industry has been struggling to stabilize itself as it transitions away from old hardware, released almost 10 years ago, to new devices released in the past two years.
Sales of these upgraded consoles have been strong, but software sales have fluctuated. On the whole, game sales have tended to fall from year-ago comparisons as the industry waited for a larger number of consumers to upgrade to new hardware, which has been dependent on game makers offering compelling reasons to upgrade. That appears to be changing now, as both newer hardware and software sales for those devices begin taking up a larger chunk of the overall market. Last month, sales of software for the Xbox One and PS4 grew 63 percent year over year, NPD said. Software sales of games on discs on the whole remained flat at $184.4 million due to a lack of new games in the middle of the summer season. The best-selling retail game of the month was Warner Bros.' toy-film hybrid Lego: Jurassic World, followed by Warner Bros.' other big summer hit, the comic-inspired Batman: Arkham Knight in second. Microsoft's pixel-building game Minecraft came in third. Although overall game console sales rose only 2 percent in July to $202.1 million from this time a year ago, sales of newer hardware like the Xbox One grew 9 percent.
"After 21 months, combined Xbox One and PS4 hardware unit sales are close to 50 percent higher than the combined sales of Xbox 360 and PS3 after 21 months on the market," NPD analyst Liam Callahan wrote.Sony was pleased with the results in July thanks mostly to a special bundled version of its PlayStation 4 along with Batman: Arkham Knight. The PlayStation 4 was yet again the top seller last month, the company said in a statement. Sony expects the momentum to continue into the fall as it preps yet another hardware bundle with Activision Blizzard's space shooter Destiny, which releases a large update in September. Microsoft said sales of its Xbox One console were up 44 percent year over year in July, yet it still fell behind Sony, which has brokered deals with big-name game makers to get exclusive hardware bundles like Destiny and Batman. Microsoft, however, is gearing up for a hardware boost of its own with the release of the next installment in its acclaimed sci-fi shooter franchise Halo in October.