Paragon Essentials Edition announced for PS4, get F2P for $60

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 5:09 PM CDT

Epic games has revealed today that there is definitely going to be a retail release of their free-to-play MOBA hybrid and that they're going to sell a premium, or Essentials, version on the PlayStation 4 version that should add some starting value to those wishing to hit the ground running.

The game itself is completely free-to-play, aside from the in-game currency that can be used to purchase skins, rep boosts and XP boosts. The Paragon Essentials Edition will cost $60 on launch and include what Epic Games is saying is a total of $160 of value. You'll have 6000 Paragon coins, five hero master challenges that will unlock challenger skins and XP boosts. And as an added bonus, if you pre-order this Essentials edition, then you'll receive an extra 1000 Paragon coins thrown in for good measure. Alongside the in-game currency, you'll get five skins, one of which is a launch-exclusive, five rep boosts and a rep speed boost.

You'll be able to find that new paid edition inside the PlayStation store starting on June 7th with a full release of the game slated for sometime later in 2016 on the PS4 and PC. MOBA's and any game with its own economy tend to have micro-transactions of these tyeps that might at first feel like a pay-to-win situation. Epic has been adamant that you can play, win and achieve all in-game items without paying anything, however.

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Driveclub VR has been rated by the ESRB, could be a PSVR launch title

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 4:00 PM CDT

A very interesting revelation has appeared as thanks to the ESRB. Driveclub VR has officially been rated by the US's game rating organization, which means that it's that much closer to launch. Theoretically.

The ESRB is generally very good about not releasing information, the rating or the synopsis and explanation of their rating, until very close to the actual release date. They generally follow NDA's or are careful about leaks. Thus, Driveclub VR could very well be ready for download very soon, and certainly a launch game for the PS VR.

Evolution Studios, who has since had their doors shuttered, had teased off a 360-degree video of Driveclub that was a precursor to the official game that's being reported here. Despite the closure of the studio, Sony is still committed to supporting the game and even adding new content and experiences. Driving games are perfect for VR, and this might be enough to lead more players back to the game.

Continue reading: Driveclub VR has been rated by the ESRB, could be a PSVR launch title (full post)

Blackroom is the new shooter from Quake and Doom veteran John Romero

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 2:54 PM CDT

John Romero has been teasing his re-entry into triple-A gaming for some time, reiterating his dedication to his original genre and that he's going to introduce something "soon." Blackroom is the name of his new game which is being developed by him and his new studio, Night Works Games. It's classic FPS at it's heart, but with a great overarching story might actually make you feel something for the characters.

John Romero is intent on recapturing the fun and excitement that we had with some of his earlier projects, such as Quake, where the story is the driving force of the action, and the action surrounding that story is brutal and exciting. It's not easy to bring back those nostalgic feels in such a way, as the recent DOOM beta has attested to. But damned if Romero and crew aren't going to give it a try.

In Blackroom, the story revolves around a new immersive holographic simulation technology, known as Blackroom. That technology has been developed to help create better training experiences for the military and much more. The tech, like anything as new, has it's share of bugs and glitches the just might be very deadly, and it's up to you as the chief engineer to fid those problems and fix them by traveling through different simulations. There's a huge focus on the narrative, with Romero wanting to integrate it into the gameplay.

Continue reading: Blackroom is the new shooter from Quake and Doom veteran John Romero (full post)

Facing heavy streaming music competition, Rhapsody appoints first CEO

Sean Ridgeley | Business, Financial & Legal | Apr 25, 2016 2:04 PM CDT

Rhapsody International -- parent company of streaming music companies Rhapsody and Napster -- has appointed Mike Davis (pictured here) as its first CEO. Until now, the company has been led by executive committee.

Davis' background lies in private equity; he recently served as a "growth adviser" and senior operating consultant to LA firm The Gores Group.

The move seems to be a response to the intense competition seen from Spotify and Apple Music, as has recent feature additions to the Rhapsody client in recent months.

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Exclusive PS4 HITMAN contracts get an action-packed trailer

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 12:07 PM CDT

The PlayStation 4 gets to have some exclusive content in HITMAN. Not just a unique skin or costume that you can unlock, but an entire sub-set of stories that are completely self-contained and should provide a few more hours of content within each new episode. A new trailer for these Sarajevo Six missions has just been released, and it's quite entertaining.

Exclusive PS4 HITMAN contracts get an action-packed trailer

The Sarajevo Six are a set of missions where you have the option of pursuing and finding members of a paramilitary unit known as CICADA. In Sapienza you'll have the pleasure of finding a Gary Lunn, who is apparently working at a bio lab developing any number of devious substances, or rather enforcing the wrath of his superiors instead. He's rumored to be in the Villa Caruso, and should prove to be quite the worthy opponent. And I'm sure there are some very hilarious way that you can set up his ultimate end. You're limited only by your imagination, after all.

Of course these particular missions are only available to those on the PS4 and will be ready to go once the second season is available to play.

Continue reading: Exclusive PS4 HITMAN contracts get an action-packed trailer (full post)

AMD looking to move to smaller HQ in Silicon Valley, sources say

Sean Ridgeley | Business, Financial & Legal | Apr 25, 2016 11:08 AM CDT

AMD's longstanding residence of the Sunnyvale campus will be no more before long, rumor has it; The Irvine Company is set to buy it from New York real estate investment trust W.P. Carey, according to real estate sources. Irvine Company is known to raze offices and R&D campuses, so it makes sense that we're hearing AMD is consequently seeking another headquarters in Silicon Valley.

While the company forecast for AMD has been looking increasingly better in recent times, it's still 2,000 employees shy of what it was in 2011, and so it's said to be looking at properties with a 35 to 40 percent footprint reduction, or about 175,000 - 225,000 square feet versus the 319,000 square feet of its current location.

AMD's has resided at the Sunnyvale campus since 1977; its lease ends December 2018.

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Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch released, fixes hundreds of bugs

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 9:59 AM CDT

The team behind the very successful Unofficial Oblivion Patch and Unofficial Skyrim Patch is at it again with Fallout 4.

The Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch, as it's known, has the ambitious goal of fixing every bug in the game not fixed by Bethesda; it currently boasts hundreds of fixes, touching on gameplay, quests, items, perks, stats, settlements, and more. For the full details on what's been changed, head here.

The patch is said to be mod friendly. When installing, ensure your load order is as follows: Fallout4.esm, [Official DLCs], [Other ESM Files], Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp, [The rest of your mods]. As well, use LOOT to set load order when using other mods.

Continue reading: Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch released, fixes hundreds of bugs (full post)

Operation Dust Line, the next Rainbow Six Siege DLC pack gets a date

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 9:02 AM CDT

Rainbow Six Siege's next content drop, Operation Dust Line, is going to be available on May 9th for season pass holders and sometime shortly after that for those haven't elected to buy into the entire season of DLC in one go around.

Following the previous DLC that was released in February, Operation Dust Line will include two new operators to choose from as well as a new as-of-yet unannounced map. Both the new operators have Navy SEAL backgrounds, with Valkyrie being a more defensive addition with the ability to deploy sticky cameras to help observe the battlefield as you make preparations. Blackbeard is an offensive character, being equipped with a rifle and shield. More info about Valkyrie and Blackbeard will be coming on May 7th following the Rainbow Six Pro League Finals that'll be taking place.

This is the second of four planned content drops that are coming to the game. The first added one new map and two characters, and that trend is looking to continue for the last three. Rainbow Six Siege started off a bit rough after the beta test had issues with network connectivity and rampant cheating has been off-putting to the legitimate players of the new game. Ubisoft has since fixed a great deal of the latent bugs and is hoping their anti-cheating measures are enough to bring back in the audience it may have lost.

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Remedy is planning a big update for Quantum Break this week

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 7:46 AM CDT

Quantum Break for the PC, and even the Xbox One for that matter, wasn't quite one of the smoothest of launches on a technical scale. On the PC side, there've been rampant performance issues and other visual oddities that make it a strange game to play. Remedy is working on a sizable patch that should be available sometime by the end of the week.

According to the head of PR at Remedy, Thomas Puha, both the Xbox One and the PC version of the patch are currently in the certification process with small bugs within the update being stamped out as quickly as possible. There's no word on what changes are actually inside due to the contents of it being subject to change. It's large and a sign that they're definitely committed to fixing any transgressions that happened as result of Remedy releasing perhaps a bit too early.

The PC version suffers from some fairly frequent framerate stuttering and generally poor performance on a variety of hardware, including a Titan X. Even being a fully DX12 title, it doesn't make use of the compute queue at all, for anything. The new patch should, hopefully, resolve some performance-based issues.

Continue reading: Remedy is planning a big update for Quantum Break this week (full post)

ARK: Survival Evolved mods will be pushed into the main game

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 25, 2016 4:37 AM CDT

ARK: Survival Evolved continues to grow, with developer Studio Wildcard announcing that it's kicking off an Official Mods Program that will see user-made mods become part of the main game.

The user-made mods being folded into the main game will take place not only on the PC but the Xbox One version of the game. It'll be starting off with The Center, a fantasy-themed map that will drop next month, while Primitive Plus, which makes you rely on wood and stone, will be released in the summer.

Studio Wildcard hasn't added whether mod creators will receive compensation ($$$) for their work, but it's great to see the developer moving in this direction - and including console gamers in on the modding fun.

Continue reading: ARK: Survival Evolved mods will be pushed into the main game (full post)