Gaming - Page 1045

To curb the appeal of violent video games, Target stores in Australia has whitewashed the box art of all R 18+ rated games on its shelves.

An image posted on NeoGAF reveals the exact nature of Target Australia's censoring, showing a whole shelf of mature-rated games packed in Blockbuster-style plain packaging. Instead of the glamorous and colorful artwork that pulls the eye, the games are ensconced in ugly monochrome boxes that only show the rating, game name, and an age restricted warning.

This kind of censorship is nothing new for Target Australia; the chain's "war" against video games is notorious across the globe. The retailer even went so far as to pull all copies of Grand Theft Auto V from its shelves, citing a "significant level of concern" over the game's content.

Classic and indie games download service GOG.com gets more secure as of today: the powers that be have added an optional two-step login, much like what Steam has employed for years now.

As with Steam, it will prompt you to enter a code sent to your email when you attempt to login from a new browser or location, thus hacking into your account becomes that much more difficult. Additionally, you can clear all of your active GOG sessions across every device and browser to ensure nobody but you has access.

Taking it further, the HTTPS encryption supported by the GOG Galaxy client for awhile now is going to extend across the entire service: the store, forum, chat, downloads, and all of Galaxy. A slow rollout has already begun, and will be complete within the coming weeks.

Now that Microsoft is bringing its Xbox games lineup to the PC, console owners are worried that their Xbox Ones are now obsolete. As an Xbox One owner myself, I can definitely say I feel left behind, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer says we shouldn't be worried.

According to Xbox division head Phil Spencer, Microsoft isn't going to bring over every Xbox One game over to Windows 10 PCs. The console will still have its own unique platform exclusives and although the Xbox One is considered a Windows device, it'll still be at the forefront of Microsoft's gaming plans.

"The argument people give me is that 'hey, I'm just going to sell my Xbox One and play all these games on my PC'. I get the emotion around that argument. Frankly, from a financial standpoint, the most cost-effective way to play these games is to own an Xbox One," Spencer said in an interview with IGN. "We're committed to bringing our biggest franchises to both Xbox and Windows, but it doesn't necessarily mean that every game could end up on both platforms. There could be many differences in the play space and how the games play."

Despite the disastrous launch of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on PC, Microsoft is asserting that Gears of War 4 will be "mind-blowing".

Xbox marketing exec Aaron Greenberg was recently shown the most recent build of Gears of War 4, and publicly states that it was absolutely "mind blowing". Greenberg also affirmed that the Gears franchise is in "very good hands" with The Coalition (formerly known as Black Tusk Studios). After Microsoft had purchased the Gears of War series from Epic Games, the company handed off development to The Coalition.

The Xbox exec also revealed that a beta test for Gears of War 4 is coming up soon, so we'll be able to try it out and see if it's truly mind-blowing or not. The beta test will likely be gated off behind pre-order access, which is the norm for the industry these days.

UPDATE: Blizzard has officially confirmed Overwatch's release date on the game's official website, and a pre-order exclusive open beta will begin on May 3.

An advertisement featured on IGN has prematurely leaked the official release date for Overwatch, Blizzard's new arena-style FPS.

According to the ad (see above), Overwatch will release on May 24 across PS4, Xbox One, and PC. IGN has since pulled the ad from its website, but the evidence has been immortalized thanks to screen grabs. Apart from the release date, the promo revealed that another pre-order exclusive beta test for Blizzard's multiplayer shooter is set for May 4.

The E3 showfloor is getting increasingly lonely it seems, with Wargaming.net taking a page out of Activision and Disney's book. They too have abandoned the main floor and have instead opted to set-up shop elsewhere for more player-focused events.

They say that it doesn't really make sense considering their free-to-play business model. Speaking to VentureBeat, a representative said that "It's a show that is very centralized on retail product, and as a free-to-play digital download gaming company, we've realized that while the show may be a good fit for lots of other publishers and developers, it's currently not a great fit for us." They have a strong fan-base that is excited to see and hear about the franchises they have, but E3 might not be the venue to do it.

More personal and focused, off-site events might be a better way to show their appreciation. "From a company perspective, we're focusing a large majority of activities on events focused on our players and community," a representative from Wargaming told VentureBeat. Meaning that they want to keep the players at the forefront, giving them the attention they deserve for continuing to play their games.

Just today Microsoft announced something terribly worrying, that they're completely cancelling Fable Legends.

Fable has been one of the best franchises on the Xbox series of consoles, but the latest installment will no longer be developed. The developer, Lionhead Studios is being shut down completely, along with a few other of their own game studios in an effort to improve their profitability. But the decision to cancel the project does not come easily, either.

These have been tough decisions and we have not made them lightly, nor are they a reflection on these development teams - we are incredibly fortunate to have the talent, creativity and commitment of the people at these studios," Microsoft Studios Europe general manager Hanno Lemke said in a statement. So now the game, which was announced in 2013, is no longer being developed. We were supposed to see a beta sometime later this year, but that won't be happening. The future of the franchise is in trouble, and we may never see another Fable game again.

Microsoft may add a lion's head to its trophy collection: the tech giant could slay Lionhead Studios once and for all.

Microsoft has announced that Fable Legends has been cancelled, and the creative minds that built the iconic Fable franchise could soon be out of work. Lionhead Studios is being shut down for good and all, and it looks like this is the end to the Fable universe.

"After much consideration we have decided to cease development on Fable Legends and are in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios in the UK. Additionally, we will close Press Play Studios in Denmark, and sunset development on Project Knoxville," reads the official announcement.

If this new leak can be trusted, then a new Picross game could be coming very soon. And this time it's based on The Legend of Zelda, a perfect pairing.

The game was discovered by Cellenseners while looking through the Nintendo US and UK servers. Apparently he found more than just the above pictures. Being on the official servers lends more credence to their being real.

This version of Picross is going to be offered as part of Nintendo's new loyalty program that's scheduled to become fully active later this month. The idea is that you'll be able to get this game by redeeming any acquired My Nintendo points. It will be interesting to see how they integrate the new rewards program and whether or not other mobile games, and in-game purchases, will be part of that program.

If you're looking for yet another must-have Fallout 4 mod to add to your list, then you've come to the right place. Earlier this morning I found this little gem that allows you to launch deathclaws out of a rocket launcher--yes, really.

Thanks to pigeonmancer, the dastardly creative mind behind the Deathclaw Launcher, Fallout 4 gamers everywhere can now spice up their post-apocalyptic world's with some chaotic humor. The mod adds in a special rocket launcher that blasts deathclaw eggs that instantly hatch on impact, spawning a towering deathclaw to annihilate everything in sight.

The mod is very easy to install and won't conflict with any other weapon mods, but you'll need to do a quick console command 'help "deathclaw egg" 4 ammo' search to find the right ammo--normal deathclaw eggs don't do the trick.

Yahoo and ESL announced a partnership recently, with Yahoo promising to deliver eSports content to the globe on new gaming tournaments conducted by the world's largest eSports company.

This partnership kicked off at the recent Intel Extreme Masters competition in Katowice on March 4th to 6th, seeing Yahoo "provide ESL's audience a world class viewing experience, delivering HD video quality with its video technology that live streamed the NFL to over 15 million people around the world last October."

While Yahoo is said to be currently searching for a buyer, it seems that there are no plans to stop expansion.

It seems that the lead designer of Star Wars Battlefront, Dennis Brännvall, gave into his anger on Twitter after someone told him that he, and his development team, were lazy.

The Twitter comments come after a fan asked why Greedo and Nien Nunb were the two new hero characters in the upcoming Outer Rim expansion pack when those particular species that they represent are already playable. The designer replied that it would be a waste to not include those characters in the game, despite others thinking it might be an "easy" addition to the game, considering the models are already in the game.

Brännvall promptly apologized for his behavior, but his comments and the negative reaction from the community do highlight the disconnect between how we perceive game development to go, and how difficult it actually is. Making any asset in-game, regardless of whether the base model and textures already exist, isn't easy. Even though us gamers might be a bit salty regarding the staying power of Battlefront, the art and graphics are nothing short of stunning. It takes a lot of work to make it look that good. A lot.

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam's gameplay trailer is full of all of the cliche's you'd expect, but it's also a game that covers an often overlooked and ignored segment of our history.

Despite being in an alpha state, the look and feel, at the very least, looks accurate enough despite the overly played-out cliche's with music and actions. But it does look pretty good as far as a shooter goes. If it's more of an open-world type single-player experience, letting you use the jungle to your own advantage, then that might be compelling to take a look.

The game is coming out sometime this year without a concrete release date. If the trailer is anything to go by, then we're in for a treat. War games tend to center around the modern, future or WWII, and that's it. It's nice to see someone branch out and add to the small collection of Vietnam-era games.

The Coalition is hard at work, with the help of AMD, in fixing Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on the PC. One of the first items up for business that they want to add in is multi-GPU support, so you can strive for even more performance once the rest of the fixes come along.

Just recently they introduced a fix to the issues that caused graphics corruption to be prevalent with AMD GPU's as well as being one of the major causes of the performance issues that AMD users were seeing.

That last part of his tweet refers to how the game doesn't really have a true unlocked framerate as of yet. If you turn off v-sync, it'll run only up to your monitors refresh rate, which is likely 60Hz for the majority of gamers. They are being quite open about the issues they're working on despite the fact that those issues shouldn't even be there to begin with.

The latest Tomb Raider games have been received incredibly well with gamers, with Rise of the Tomb Raider doing better on the PC than consoles - but did you know there's a new Tomb Raider movie on the way? Yeah, and it's a reboot from the Angelina Jolie movies from years ago.

Norwegian director Roar Uthaug is directing the new Tomb Raider movie reboot, with Transformer 5 writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet handling the script. Uthaug confirmed that the reboot of Tomb Raider will be an origin story, similar to the reboot of the game in 2013. He was asked if the new series of games would be an influence on the movie reboot, to which Uthaug praised Crystal Dynamics' ability to make Lara Croft a relatable character.

Uthaug said that the developer's take on Lara Croft will influence his movie, and that he will be taking a similar approach in his movie. Uthaug said: "I think making Lara Croft feel like a real human being, that's definitely something we want to bring to the big screen as well. I think we'll want to make people relate to Lara as a character. I'm hoping to bring some of my Norwegian sensibilities to the franchise".

Ubisoft has outlined its plan for DLC for The Division, with two free upgrades to hit gamers quite early. The first will be a team-based endgame mode (Incursions) which will drop in April, while in May we'll receive the Conflict update which will include the Columbus Circle event and a new Dark Zone feature.

Then the paid DLC will arrive in June, where we'll get battles in NYC underground tunnels, a new Survival expansion in the summer, and then a Last Stand scenario in the winter. At the same time, Ubisoft will bust out new missions daily and weekly, as well as periodic Dark Zone events. The developer notes that you can buy either the Season Pass, or one of the deluxe versions of the game (Gold or Collector's Edition), so that you'll receive as much The Division content as possible.

The Division launches on March 8 (wwhhhaaattt, so soon now) on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

The new Hitman launches on March 11, with the developer teasing that it will support DirectX 12 at launch - which is awesome. The news arrived from the PC Gamer Weekender event that took place over the weekend.

With Hitman having support for DX12, we can expect to see better performance, mostly thanks to the improved multithreaded support, and increased performance for CPU-bound instructions. PC Gamer's slide image said that DX12 will provide Hitman with:

The Witcher series of games have been widely successful on both the PC and various consoles over the years, but during a recent interview with CD Projekt Red (the developer behind The Witcher series), we've found out that the PC is the lead platform when it comes to sales.

CD Projekt Red's Marcin Iwinski explained during the interview: "Consoles began for real with PS2 from Sony, and then with X360. PS wasn't available for everyone. It was an expensive toy with expensive games. I was already distributing games at that time and I remember what was the expenditure for video games. PS was available for more affluent people and PS2 was available for the masses and started to develop this market. However, the PC still holds strong. Most of The Witcher sales are for the PC, though consoles started selling very well".

The Coalition and Microsoft have found themselves in a pretty insane position right now, launching Gears of War: Ultimate Edition onto the Windows Store. Windows Store-based games do not feature multi-GPU support, so with it being a DX12-powered game - those high-end GPUs in SLI or Crossfire are wasted on GoW: Ultimate Edition... for now.

According to Rod Fergusson, Studio Head of The Coalition, the developer is working on multi-GPU support. Fergusson fielded some questions on Twitter, where he said: "Microsoft working on multi-GPU and if you unlock framerate it runs at monitor framerate so may need to bump it up".

As for the general performance and stability of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on the PC, PezRader from The Coalition has said: "We do not have any news to share at this time for the PC version. I know some are worried but please don't fret. We are wanting to make sure polish and performance are prioritized on the PC version so that you all have a great experience".

Capcom is as tired of rage-quitters as you are, and they're going to implement some keen punishment for those that take advantage of the ability to quit mid-match in Street Fighter V.

The problem is that the system is far too lenient for those that wish to simply quit as opposed to suffer a loss. But Capcom will start resetting League Points, and thus their rank, for those players that tend to quit more than others after each week is up. And they have a lot of data points to work with to help make a permanent, automated solution to this. That permanent solution still hasn't been implemented, though.

To get to this point they've asked players from around the world to submit video, and other, proof to help them determine the when rage-quitters are at their worst, and cross-reference that with internal data so they can compile their solution. They want those occasional quitters to know that it's okay to be mad once in awhile, that they're targeting the absolute worst offenders of the lot. "The players who fit the criteria of what we would call a "Rage Quitter" typically have an 80-90% disconnect rate and their accounts sit far outside of the norm as compared to the majority of other players."