Gaming - Page 1053

Nintendo is gearing up for its next-gen console release, currently codenamed 'NX', but what launch titles can we expect? Early rumors are pointing to Zelda, which would be a huge start for the company and its next-gen console.

According to NintenGen, a source that works for Nintendo has said that the NX console would be released this year. Furthermore, Zelda NX would be released inside the launch window, meaning the new Zelda game would either launch with the NX console or very close to its launch. NintenGen reports: "The source at Nintendo is not able to give details on exactly what the NX is but since Zelda is definitely on the system it heavily indicates that it is a home console. Further information of the Nintendo NX functionality, specs and the controller interface are still secrets that are very deeply hidden within Nintendo".

Quantum Break has entered the time-honored state of matter known as "going gold" and we're now just waiting for it to hit physical and digital shelves. And of course, it's time to pop the cork on some expensive Champagne as well, because this release marks the banding together of the Xbox One and the PC in the gaming sphere.

If you haven't already you can pre-order the Xbox One digital version and receive the PC version plus a copy of Alan Wake and it's delightful DLC, American Nightmare, as a pre-order bonus.

The PC version is exclusive to the Windows Store, however, and won't be making an appearance on Steam. Thankfully, however, it'll be the first game that's DirectX 12 only as a result of only being available on Windows 10. Windows 7 users won't be able join in on the fun.

Master of Orion's voice cast has just been revealed by Wargaming.net, and it includes a whole lot of triple-A actors from a lot of different sci-fi franchises helping to bring it to life.

The full list is below but of note are Mark Hamill, Troy Baker, John de Lancie and Michael Dorn serving as your narrator. His deep, sharp yet refined voice is the perfect match for the futuristic space opera. He'll also fit in with the dry wit of the series.

"The original Master of Orion captured the hearts of gamers with solid gameplay and a rich, diverse universe where every choice makes a difference," Chris Keeling, Director of Product Vision at WG Labs, said in a statement. "Having some of the most iconic science fiction, horror and video game voice talent lending their skills to the game only helps us realize this amazing universe in even more exciting ways." The reboot of Master of Orion will be available in Early Access on Steam starting on February 26th.

Galactic Civilizations III: Mercenaries, the first full-blown expansion for its popular 4X space strategy game is now live on Steam. It adds a new campaign, Galactic Bazaars, new races, the ability to recruit elite units with special abilities, new ship parts, and much more.

In Mercenaries, you will be able to visit new Galactic Bazaars where you can hire mercenaries to assist in expanding across the galaxy. With several new mercenary ships and multiple Bazaars to discover on each map, the expansion offers hours of unique gameplay.

"Once they're gone, they're gone," said Paul Boyer, Lead Designer of Galactic Civilizations III. "When a mercenary is hired by a civilization in a game, it is no longer available to the others. You will need to act quickly and choose wisely in order to get the best mercenaries and leave your enemies without." The campaign for Mercenaries centers around the peaceful Torian race who have long been enslaved and farmed for their meat by the cruel Drengin. Explore and discover mercenaries, then hire them to aid in escaping the oppressors. Liberate the Torians and help them rebuild their shattered civilization while staying out of reach of the Drengin.

Roller Coaster Tycoon World is having the finishing touches put on it as it's successfully finished being beta tested by endearing fans. It's been a bumpy road as things haven't always had a positive impact on the community at large. There have been a few missteps, but the feedback gained is being take to heart and being taken very seriously.

We had a chance to ask a few questions with Matthew Labunka, a senior producer over at Atari whose working diligently on making sure Roller Coaster Tycoon World meets the expectations the series demands. They're very excited about the direction that it's taking and want it to be a game that everyone of every skill level can properly enjoy. You don't have to be a master architect or engineer to appreciate the complex tools, but if you want to make some intricate, physics-defying contraptions, you can do that too.

Let's delve into the conversation and see where this train (or roller coaster) is headed. The franchise is old, but there's plenty of innovation to be had.

It turns out that a proper Roller Coaster Tycoon game fits perfectly with VR. Just imagine creating your own rides and then putting on your headset to take them for a proper spin, literally. Roller Coaster Tycoon World will eventually incorporate VR into the game, though only when they can perfect the experience.

Speaking with Matthew Labunka, a Senior Producer at Atari, he told us that "VR does naturally lend itself to the simulation genre. We are working on designing the best experience for the platform. A solid VR experience takes time and we want to provide relevant game features that fit the platform." It really is a natural fit, because you can already take a ride on any ride you create, so why not make it more visceral. Even better would be the incorporation of a "4D" type of experience with a chair that moves with the ride.

We've seen the experience already with mobile games and other VR demos, but they were incomplete and didn't quite capture the full experience of speeding along a rickety track. Sound, too, is an important aspect of true immersion, and real VR audio solutions aren't quite among us yet, though those solutions are coming.

As Ubisoft shifts towards a new long-term player-engagement strategy, we may never see an annual Assassin's Creed release again.

"The goal is not to automatically come back to an annual cycle, but to come back on a regular basis. We can't say every year," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during a company investor's meeting.

Ubisoft recently announced that Assassin's Creed will skip 2016 so it could "re-examine the franchise". Instead of a constant string of game releases, the publisher is now pushing a "live operation" business model based on multi-year engagement.

The 19th annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences DICE awards were last night, honoring games and developers themselves in their quest to create the ultimate in gaming entertainment. The Game of the Year was naturally Fallout 4, celebrating the brave new world it explored, despite the graphical downgrade that seemed to be the ire of so many.

During the event, Hideo Kojima was inducted into the Hall of Fame while the late president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata was given a posthumous lifetime achievement award for his enthusiasm and dedication to the gaming community. The rest of the categories might surprise you with what came out on top. Perhaps not, however. You'll find the full list of nominees and their winners below.

As you might have heard, Hideo Kojima has signed up with Sony to make a PS4 exclusive. Details on the game have been few and far between, but the Metal Gear alum offered some teases during a DICE 2016 panel with Guillermo Del Toro.

Kojima started the discussion by saying he feels "extremely free" about the project, and after the year he's had with Konami, I'm not surprised. The beloved Japanese mastermind went on to say that the PS4 exclusive will be "big and extremely edgy", and promises he won't let the project become constrained by corporate overlords, a la Konami.

"I have no intentions of ever changing anything I do in order for it to be a hit, to sell more. That's something that I would want never do and I'm not going do," Kojima said, likely jabbing at Konami. "So I have to create something that I want to play, something that people want to play and, within that, figure out ways that it will be appealing to market, that it will be a successful game. But I can make those adjustments, I chose them so I feel extremely free."

Team Fortress 2 is finally getting the competitive matchmaking services that it rightfully deserves.

Valve has put together a plan and shared it with fans on how they're going to implement matchmaking, and when it'll arrive. It'll be a slow rollout and the beta testing will be limited to those that have purchased the now free-to-play game. If you bought it rior to June 23rd 2011 or bought it from Mann Co. Store, have Steam Guard enabled and have a phone number assoiciated with your account, then you're likely to be invited quite soon.

The almost ancient competitive multiplayer, class-based shooter is finally getting something that it's needed since it was first introduced in 2007. Like many other competitive games, finding a server to play in put you in an open-slot based on availability, and not rank or ability (such as with CS:GO).

Guillermo del Toro recently reunited with Hideo Kojima to hold a "creative visions" talk at DICE 2016. During the talk, the famed director had some pretty strong words about the current state of the gaming industry, loosely hinting at the reasons why Silent Hills was cancelled.

The director says that games, like movies, are involved in a restrictive and tense marriage between creativity and finances. As a result, certain games that take a risk are deemed "unsafe", and are ultimately cancelled--not unlike Silent Hills. "We all belong in industries that are a marriage of creativity and finances. In that way, both movies and games are very similarly restricted. It's a pity, but it's a marriage that happens to every big industry."

"The storytellers look ahead to see what they can discover, and the money people are always looking back. The investors are looking backward and thinking 'where are we going? this isn't the safe route'. So there's a natural tension. [Gaming's creativity] is only limited by the bastards with the money."

The Make War Not Love 3 bundle just got a little larger. Now the free prize bundle of classic SEGA games includes a few more titular titles to get your retro juices flowing.

Now through the following website, you can grab another three great games absolutely for free. But of course it's for a limited time only and the offer will eventually expire. Once redeemed, however, those games are yours forever. In the bundle are Streets of Rage II, Binary Domain and Condemned: Criminal Origins.

Aside from the free games, it seems that they're offering a significant amount of other SEGA titles for hugely discounted prices. Alpha Protocol (a surprisingly in-depth and fun game) is 80% off while several others enjoy similar discounts. The more you play, the site says, the more you win. This is being offered by SEGA and Creative Assembly with Relix Entertainment also helping gamers enjoy more games for cheap.

IO Interactive is making Hitman a more interactive experience, adding in a "live" component to the mix that makes the game more true to live than any game has ever attempted in the past.

But just how are they going to incorporate live events into a video game that isn't a persistent MMO? One way is the addition of what they're calling "Elusive Targets" which are contracts for custom-made characters that are only in an existing location for a limited time, and in real-time. So you only have one chance to complete the contract, and if you don't, then you'll never have another chance.

Each Elusive Target will have a custom briefing video, a backstory and a unique reason for being in that location. When you're actually playing in the location, the Elusive Target will not appear on the map and will not appear in Instinct. Meaning you've got to use actual skill to find and eliminate the target. There's no help here. And the save game mechanism will be turned off, so you won't have any second chances. It's all or nothing. There'll be exclusive prizes and rewards for completing these most difficult contracts.

Bethesda is cooking up something special for the future of its IPs. How special? According to the studio's exec wizard Todd Howard, these new games will not only be "big and crazy", but they're unlike anything we've ever seen before from the studio.

"We actually have three kind of longer term projects we're doing that are all-we'll talk about them at a future date-but they're different than anything we've done before, while also being a Bethesda-style game," Howard said during a talk at DICE 2016. "Big and crazy, but in many ways different than things we've done before. It's an exciting time."

As a die-hard Bethesda RPG fan, this is huge news. The Fallout and Elder Scrolls series are some of my favorite games, but let's face it, they have problems, and the studio's oldish game engine could use a refresh. I love it when games studios tease ambitious new projects--that goes double for Bethsoft--and we can pretty much bet that one of these "crazy" games will be Elder Scrolls VI. Or maybe a Fallout MMO. Hey, it could happen--Elder Scrolls Online is proof of that.

The PC requirements for Need for Speed have been released, with Ghost Games' take on the iconic driving franchise requiring modest hardware - if you want to game at 720p @ 30FPS, that is. You'll require:

Minimum Requirements for 720p30 at low settings:

Recommended Requirements for 1080p60 at high settings:

Ubisoft has had a tumultuous couple of years, with the completely botched launch of Watch Dogs, and we all know how bad Assassin's Creed has been for the last few years. But The Division is shaping up nicely, and while its graphics have been downgraded, it still looks great.

During Ubisoft's recent Investor Day, the company provided a bunch of slides and figures to its investors. The company has said that open world games are a major growth driver for the industry, saying that open world games have increased from 7% in fiscal year 2008 to 33% in fiscal year 2015. Ubisoft says that they're the only developer that can 'regularly deliver open world's', and with big IP like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and The Division - it's kinda true... kinda.

Ubisoft has a record 9000+ employees working for the company, something that allows them to bring open world games to market quicker than other developers (including many GB day one patches, broken games, watered down graphics, and so on). 2/3 of production takes place in competitive countries, with material costs estimated to be lower than direct peers.

League of Legends fans will be happy to know that the 2016 World Championships will take place across the United States, later this year.

The 2016 World Championships will start with the Group Stages, which kicks off on September 29, and runs through to October 2. It starts back up on October 6, running through to October 9 at hte Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California. The Quarterfinals will run from October 13-16 at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. From there, four qualifying teams will participate in the semifinals, which takes place October 21-22 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

After that, the final two teams will battle on October 29 at the Staples Center in LA, California. Riot Games adds that more information on ticket sales for the huge eSports event will be coming soon.

In an interview with 20 Minuten, John Romero revealed that he's working on a new FPS game, but of course he didn't want to give any details away quite yet.

While at the Zürich Game Festival, Ludicious, John Romero was asked about what game designers and developers, such as him, do when they become a bit older and more wise with experience. Of course he opened up a school to help teach prospective students the need for good level design, he also, surprisingly, opened up and confirmed that he's working on a new project. An as of yet unnamed FPS that has no details. I am currently also working on a new FPS, Romero said.

The new level he created for Doom might have just been a warm-up for his new project, or projects, that he's working on. The veteran game designer knows the intricacies of what a good game is, and hopefully whatever he churns out follows the same principles as some of his more successful titles, and not that of Daikatana.

VR has lot of possibilities, and can help us experience things we never could, like actually engaging in pitched sword-fights in the tight confines of a dungeon. This trailer for A Legend of Luca shows us precisely why that would be a great game idea. Just imagine using an actual (though not sharp or dangerous) sword-like controller to swing and destroy your enemies?

This FPS is inspired by The Legend of Zelda and takes the dungeon crawling aspect and puts you square in the middle of it. Smash through your enemies, shoot lighting from your sword and bash those pots to find precious Rupees.

The game will be available on Steam on April 29th and makes use of the HTC Vive's ability to let you use an entire room. There're multiple rooms that you can wander around in with smooth transitions so you don't end up walking into a wall. How they're doing that is likely a procedural technological marvel. Multiple weapon types will make their way into the game, potentially even with dual-wield capabilities. Earlier videos showed the use of a staff, while this lets you slash your enemies to bits with a lightning shooting sword.

The Xbox app on PC is getting a nice little update today with the Xbox One February update following on sometime tomorrow. The update focuses on the social aspect of gaming, connecting PC and Xbox gamers through Xbox Live.

The app update on PC, and on the console, adds the new Avatar Store to help you personalize your virtual self, a more organized Xbox News feed for getting the latest gaming related news and a better "suggested friends" algorithm to help you expand that social circle. In addition, there's a new Xbox Accessories App that lets you configure your Elite controller more easily, even going so far as to letting you change the sensitivity curve of the thumbsticks.

On the Xbox One side, the coming update allows you to see who's in a particular party before you join in on the chat. It also adds a new Gamerscore leader-board, adding another competitive element that was missing. We earned those points, but there was no point if we can't compare to others, friends or otherwise. Sometimes it's nice to know if there's someone you hate in the group, so you can prepare those "mom" jokes in advance.