Gaming - Page 1050

EA's Vault in their Origin Access program has just grown by one as they added Torchlight II to the family. That makes 16 games in total that can be played as part of the monthly subscription service.

Last month EA brought their Origin Access subscription service to the PC, something that was previously exclusive only to the Xbox One. You can pay $4.99 and get the privilege of being able to play all 16 of the games in the vault and you also get early access to EA games a few days before they're available to anyone else.

The full list of games that're now available in their EA Access program.

Armored Warfare lets you take command of a number of modern Main Battle Tanks and duke it out amongst your friends. The newest update puts in a number of great new features, a new intricate close-quarters map and new Chinese tanks, like the feared Type-98.

To sell you the new tanks there's a new Arms Dealer known as Zhang Feng who has some of the best deals on Chinese tanks around. His inventory is available to everyone who wishes to try out something new. A new Tier 5 premium tank has also been added, the WZ-1224, a 44-ton masterpiece with a 120mm smoothbore main gun.

The new Coastal Threat Map is a 1.2K square map with a mixture of open-spaces that allow for huge arcs of fire and a small city with its tight quarters to test your skills appropriately. For those that prefer PvE, the reward system has been modified so that it's almost as lucrative as playing strictly PvP. That way you'll be able to get some of the better loot while you practice and improve.

It's the weekend, there's a good chance that it'll be cold and dreadful outside in the majority of the world, so you might be looking for something new to play. And even though Call of Duty tends to get its fair share of criticism, Call of Duty: Black Ops III is having a free weekend. You can play the multiplayerr-centric Starter Pack for free until the 29th of February.

If you happen to get sucked in and enjoy the experience, Activision is selling the standard edition for 33% off the regular price, and the deluxe edition for 20% off. That's not a bad deal considering it unlocks the max level, which is capped at 55 in the starter pack, and gives access to the weapon paintshop, the gunsmith, emblem editor, arena, freerun mode, theater and the ubiquitous black market.

But you have only until the 29th at 1PM PST to try it out for yourself. Call of Duty has evolved considerably, making turns into new paths that some didn't quite like after Call of Duty 4, but Black Ops 3 might surprise you with the agile, fast-paced gameplay. Then again, you might completely hate it. But it's free.

You can already pre-order Battlefield 5, among other unreleased games, from an online retailer based in Switzerland already. On their site they've placed details that seem to presume what the game will be about, with no actual evidence to back up their claims.

While we know that that another Battlefield is coming this year, as sure as the wind blows in a storm, no details have been released and it's likely that this particular retailer doesn't actually have any real information from EA. Any details are assumptions based off of previous games. It's a safe bet to think that it's going to be an online, multiplayer shooter, and it's not a stretch to think that it could be set in an era we haven't visited in awhile, or at all, to keep it fresh.

Apparently the description has been changed since it was first reported by PCGamesN, and it no longer says anything about WW1. Though it would be quite refreshing to have something new, even if it isn't true to the actual combat style. Trench warfare, while deadly, frightful and not fun in real-life, probably wouldn't translate to a game very well. Verdun is a fascinating game, but it also takes some creative liberty to make it more interesting for gamers to play.

Ubisoft might be in financial danger, and in their weakest moment the French multimedia powerhouse, Vivendi, is attempting a hostile takeover to acquire the game company and add it to their extensive portfolio.

To stop the buyout from happening, Ubisoft is trying to appeal to the Quebec provincial government and even the national Canadian government to help keep from being absorbed. They're calling for investors around the world to help them in their endeavor.

"We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital. ... We feel it's a good defense." Yves Guillemot said in a statement about the current attempt by Vivendi to buyout their company.

DLC can be a precarious thing for all types of games, but it can be utterly terrible for those that focus on multiplayer and sharing the experience, tearing a rift in the community and causing a host of problems and issues that might push people away from the game, instead of drawing them in.

Major Nelson is no stranger to speaking his mind as part of his duties at Microsoft. DLC is a point of contention with many gamers, and he happens to agree that it isn't always a good idea. Particularly when it's paid. DLC, and Season Passes can be "really dangerous when it comes to multiplayer, because what happens is it fractures the community," he said during the latest Podcast Unlocked episode. "You have the maps, I don't have the maps, I didn't buy that map but you bought that map,' so when we all get together, 'Oh, you couldn't play the map."

It makes it difficult to have a coherent community that can actually enjoy the game together. And prohibiting those that already own the game from playing with their friends that own other parts that you don't have can potentially have the effect of diminishing the player-base completely. Free DLC, even if the content is small, can add significant value. A new map occasionally, new weapons, new skins. Those can bring people into the fold and keep them there, but making people pay for what might be considered (even though development time and cost of the items might be significant) trivial items can alienate users.

Although the recent leaks spoiled the surprise, The Pokemon Company proudly revealed the next generation of pocket monster action: Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon.

The latest Pokemon-centric Nintendo Direct didn't exactly reveal many details about Pokemon Sun and Moon, but we do know that the duo is slated to arrive in Holiday 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS. The reveal trailer (seen above) shows a few tidbits at the end, but we didn't get any new screens or actual in-game footage teases. Pokemon Sun and Moon will also feature online components across the 3DS like Pokemon X & Y.

Both games will be playable in nine different languages including English, Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, German, Japanese and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. "We hope that, through Pokemon, players can overcome langauge barriers and interact with other players from around the world," said Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO president of the Pokemon Company.

In its current state, Microsoft's Windows Store is terrible for PC gaming. The spirit of PC gaming has always been about freedom--the freedom to push your hardware to its limits, to mod games, customize settings, etc. By restricting major features, the Windows Store isn't just jeopardizing the platform's core tenants, but it feels like Redmond is trying to console-ize PC gaming.

The Windows Store peddles "apps" that are designed to work across all Windows platforms--but there's a huge difference between, say, a consumer laptop and a high-end gaming rig. Storefronts like Steam sell games as traditional Windows desktop applications; the .exe files that can be modified with third-party tools and the like. The Windows Store, however, only sells universal apps designed for cross-platform use.

Universal apps have limited functionality. As all games on the Windows Store are universal apps, that means they're extremely limited. Windows Store flavors of Rise of the Tomb Raider, for example, don't support multi-GPUs via Crossfire or SLI. That's a huge blow for enthusiast gamers who want to flex the power of their gaming hardware, especially for demanding new games. We're also starting to see Windows Store exclusives: if you want to play Quantum Break, you'll have to buy it from Microsoft's hampered storefront. It's not coming to Steam.

Microsoft's latest timed-exclusivity deal has backfired. Despite having a month-long head start, Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox One has been outpaced by its bigger PC sibling in the sales department by a pretty hefty margin.

According to Superdata's latest research, Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC tripled the sales of its Xbox One counterpart in its first month of availability. "The game sold almost three times as many units on PC than it did on console during its first month," reads the report.

Although this is a pretty staggering loss for Microsoft, the company says it's happy with Rise of the Tomb Raider's performance, affirming the Xbox One game sold "over 1 million units" over the holidays. But why where sales so low? Microsoft released the game alongside Bethesda's open-world juggernaut, Fallout 4. Not exactly a good idea, was it, Redmond?

Virtual Reality is quickly becoming a mainstay in our future, something that's inevitable that we can't ignore. This isn't the 3DTV revolution that tried so unsuccessfully hard to make the screen pop-out and touch us. This is an immersive experience that can actually be done, with the right hardware and the right games that actually make use of the novel ways in which we can now interact with the environment.

The HTC Vive seems to have the leg-up in interactivity at the moment with the ability to define a specific space to play in. Legend Studio is taking that and making a true room-scale first-person game inspired by some of the innate exploration and the hallmark rogue-like aspects of The Legend of Zelda. A Legend of Luca is what the new era of VR is made for.

Seriously. It uses the HTC Vive to its fullest, being almost the perfect example of how to integrate room-scale gaming into your life. Haven't you ever wanted to be somebody else? And not just vicariously through a 1-dimensional screen in front of you, but instead nearly being able to feel what it's like to be Link (or Luca in this guise) and actually take a romp through dangerous dungeons? That's what A Legend of Luca is aiming to do, and it's one of the first of its kind by an indie developer. And we had a chance to sit down and speak with them about their hopes, dreams and where they wish to take this grand idea of theirs in the future.

I fondly remember the days of id Software dominating the graphics engine market, where their competition became Epic Games when they released the original Unreal. The idTech engine was a tour de force of graphical power, which continued to evolve through new games like Quake II, Quake III and so on.

Well, id Software wants to bring those days back with the Doom reboot, with the company hiring several Crytek staff over the last few years. One of those acquisitions was Lead Rendering Programmer, Tiago Sousa. Sousa recently talked about the new Doom, and his goals with the new engine, where he said: "My hope is not a very humble one, but I'd like to help bring idTech back to the forefront of technology once again".

Lead Project Progammer at id Software, Billy Khan, said that the team is geared to make Doom the best looking game running at 1080p 60FPS - where we reiterate that's for consoles, where the PC version should run at 4K 60FPS and beyond if you've got the hardware to drive it. Khan said: "We want players to wonder how DOOM and idTech 6 games can be so visually stunning at 60 frames-per-second at 1080p on all platforms, when other titles cannot even achieve a similar look at 30 frames-per-second. Our goal is to be the best-looking game at 1080p at 60fps".

With the release of Far Cry Primal this week on consoles, PC gamers are itching to not only play the game but find out what the performance is like - and if we're going to see a decent jump in graphics over the potato boxes. Well, now we know what hardware you're going to need to game at 1080p @ 75-90FPS.

According to TotalBiscuit's stream on Far Cry Primal for the PC, he reported that his NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X at 1080p and a custom graphics quality setting performed at around 75-90FPS. Increasing it to 2560x1440 saw 60FPS or so, and at 4K he reported only 30FPS. The game doesn't stutter, so there's that - but 30FPS at 4K on a freakin' Titan X? Far Cry Primal better look damn good.

Far Cry Primal drops on the PC on March 1.

The PC port of JRPG Disgaea is seeing some concerning reports across the web, both from users and reviewers (most notable is this scathing Destructoid article).

Developer NIS has responded quickly to the issues in a Steam forums news post, defending its hard work but also acknowledging what's happening.

"We spent a total of ten months on researching and developing this game for PC users, two months of which were spent on rigorous testing," it writes. "However, we have been made aware of the fact that some of our customers have been experiencing issues when playing the game."

Warren Spector, the mind behind the original System Shock and Deus Ex, is making his way back into the game industry but he isn't too impressed with the progress he's seen since he made his exit so many years ago.

He left the University of Texas to get back into an industry that he says changes constantly, but even that change seems to be just putting a facade over the same wall. Putting a new coat of paint on the same thing. "I can't believe I'm about to say this -- I'll never work in this industry again -- but in the mainstream space I really haven't seen a whole lot of progress. It seems like we're getting more finely-tuned, prettier versions of games we've been playing for years."

Spector sees a stagnant industry that's being held back by a number of different factors, but he's confident that better AI, non-combat related AI specifically, could help revitalize and breath new ideas into games. "What I want to do, is I see a variety of places where we could make some strides that would help take games to the next level. The biggest one, for me, is more robust characters and character AI. We've gotten very good at combat AI, we've made great strides there, but I don't think we've done much in the world of non-combat AI and interacting with people -- human or otherwise."

Following its trend of re-releases, Capcom today announced a new trio of remasters set in its landmark zombie outbreak franchise: Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 will be released on PS4 and Xbox One.

The Japanese games-maker broke the news in a recent Capcom Unity blog post, and honestly we're mostly excited for RE4 making the jump to current gen. It's the best out of the bunch, and is arguably the best Resident Evil game of them all.

Sadly, Capcom has a disjointed release schedule for the remasters. Each game will be released separately for $20, and instead of going in order, RE6 will be released first on March 29, followed by RE5 in Summer 2016, and RE4 in Fall 2016. Each game will be available digitally or on physical discs in North and South America. Be sure to check out the screens below, and the reveal trailer above.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate just got a new patch that seems to focus the most on improving performance all around. It wasn't the worst performing AC game on release, but it also wasn't the smoothest experience from a new game either.

Unlike the misstep that was the release of Assassin's Creed Unity, Syndicate had fewer bugs and game-breaking glitches when it became available. The crowd density was reduced in order to help alleviate some of the issues regarding framerate while walking around the bustling city. That helped, but the increased environmental geometry, improved ambient occlusion along with increased shadow map rendering quality has made for quite the resource hungry game.

SLI in particular scaled horribly in the beginning, though it works quite well now. Ubisoft has been very quick to react to player feedback this time around putting out patches that have solved nearly all the issues and glitches that did, unfortunately, happen to make it into the final release of Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Curious if your system is any better, download the patch and let us know!

It seems that the cat is out of the bag a little early on this one. Once again the trademark system has helped to uncover and confirm two upcoming Pokemon games for the 3DS before the big Nintendo Direct anniversary celebration tomorrow. Though nothing has actually been confirmed (aside from a fake parody account doing so) officially as of yet. The filings, however, are indeed real.

According to OHIM website, Nintendo put in an application to trademark Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon just earlier today. This corresponds to the surprise that Nintendo was teasing just yesterday for the 20th anniversary. More info will likely be available tomorrow during the Nintendo Direct, an we'll be watching along side you for all the juicy bits of info.

Nintendo has a great opportunity in front of them to leap head-first into the market, delighting with their upcoming console with a lineup of games that show just why they should be chosen over all others. The secrecy around their new console, even among developers, might hurt Nintendo's chance at making the substantial wave their business needs.

The CEO of Moon Studios, the developer of Ori and the Blind Forest, sees the folly in keeping their plans so secretive and said as much on NeoGaf. He was very critical of all console makers and how they tend to even keep developer kits until the last minute to prevent leaks from happening.

"This is actually the single most annoying thing for every dev out there," Thomas Mahler wrote, "Every hardware manufacturer is treating their dev kits and unreleased consoles like they're the second coming and are insanely secretive about it to a stupid degree in today's time." And really, he's right. Without those developers being able to actually make their games and optimize as far out as possible, then the starting line-up can diminish the initial value.

If this list of leaked features is genuine, Fallout 4's new Survival Mode overhaul is going to be pretty punishing.

Players aren't too impressed with Fallout 4's so-called Survival Mode. There's really not much to say about the game's hardest of hard mode other than increased enemy health and damage output. Bethesda has heard our cries and is preparing to add some serious bite to the Commonwealth. Along with its huge Fallout 4 DLC roadmap, the studio plans to completely tweak Survival Mode to keep endgame players busy and add new depth to the experience.

According to data found in the game's code, the new Survival Mode changes include weighted ammunition, disabled fast travel, and the need to eat, drink, and sleep. Running around while over-encumbered drains Agility and Endurance, and you can also get infected with diseases like the Elder Scrolls universe. I'm hoping one of these diseases turns you into a fully-fledged ghoul if left untreated. Check below for the full list of details uncovered by dedicated dataminers.

Rockstar Games and 2K Games are headed to E3 this year "in a big way", the CEO of 2K, Strauss Zelnick told MCV. That means newly announced IP's or a huge celebration of what we know is coming.

Probably not the announcement we'll actually see

And they already have some good titles on the way. Battleborn is an exciting new addition from 2K's own Gearbox, though they've been featuring that quite a bit lately, so it logically doesn't make sense to see that at the forefront. It was last year. So perhaps they'll have a number of other new and interesting working titles to talk about, things we may haven't seen yet, or at least in full form.