Gaming - Page 1084

Bungie recently announced a change in leadership, with Harold Ryan stepping down as the CEO and Pete Parsons taking on the newly vacant role. Parson's is determined not to sit idly by while their new franchise slowly dissipates. He's determined to make a change.

He's definitely dedicated to Destiny and bringing the actual game in-line with the vision they originally had for it. Initially Destiny seemed to be a little more disappointing than they liked when the newness wore off. It has been an uphill battle to retain players and to interest new gamers.

In a statement, Parsons said "To the players of Destiny, I want you to know that my number one priority, and Bungie's, is and always has been to deliver great games that we can all share together. I believe that Destiny is a one-of-a-kind experience. I also believe you have yet to see our studio's best work. My new role here at the studio will be entirely focused on fulfilling that promise." This confirms his commitment to the game that has so much potential.

Trucking actually can be an interesting and fun time in real-life, but American Truck Simulator (along with it's Euro counterpart) takes it to a whole 'nother level, something you wouldn't even expect. And it's a true simulation of what to expect.

The trailer shows off some of the long-distance hauling that you can do in-game, going through some of the impeccably detailed locations. The level of detail is actually pretty astonishing, considering the wide swathes of the country that have been rendered. But really, you're just cruising along, getting your cargo from point a to point b.

I'm curious how they're going to handle the loading and unloading of cargo. Or if you're able to work for real trucking companies and haul their respective industries stuff. Train Simulator and Farm Simulator definitely go to great lengths to give you the entire experience, boring and tedious bits and all. There's definitely a niche for this, and it could be a surprise game for nearly anyone.

Some great new screenshots of Dark Souls III have been released by Bandai Namco, showing off some of the finery you can adorn yourself, the characters and even some of the abyssal locations that you'll be able to visit in the game.

The new iteration of the PhyreEngine used in Dark Souls III makes good use of higher resolution textures, physically based lighting and more to make the environments look top notch, especially in these new in-game screenshots. It's turning out to be a beautiful looking game with the artistic direction they're taking. One thing they're showing off in these new screenshots is a new boss, whose named Ludex Gundyr. He's terrifyingly large, and you can see him to scale in the screenshot below.

Some of the areas shown are actually new, the Firelink Shrine, where something known as a Fire Keeper lives and can serve players in some capacity on your journey. This is apparently the starting position when you first begin the game. A lot of work is being done to incorporate physics, the Havok engine in this case, into more than just the character model and their clothing. You can't quite see it in these shots, but at least you can get a glimpse of the world you'll be able to explore. And it'll be quite the journey, they say.

Capcom's financial results for this past April to December were pretty strong, with a 19.3% increase over the same period in 2014. A substantial showing for a company who concentrated a significant amount of resources on mobile development last year.

But even then, there seemed to be an overall increase in interest across the board, probably due to a wider and diverse set of games and franchises they have available. Another factor that played into such a large increase was the way in which Capcom streamlined the development process, reducing overall costs and even the time it takes to release a game. Not the most encouraging reasons, but their products have been mostly solid so far with those new changes.

Monster Hunter in general was the big surprise of the year, selling far more than anticipated in North America and doing very strongly in Japan. The newest mobile game, Monster Hunter Explore surpassed a total of 3 billion downloads on Android and iOS.

During a recent technology research trip with Sony's Mark Cerny, the mind behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Hideo Kojima, visited Guerrilla Games.

Guerrilla Games being the developer of PlayStation exclusive franchise Killzone, based in Amsterdam. While he was there, we're sure he would've checked out Guerrilla Games' upcoming PS4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn. Since it was a technology research trip, and Hideo has signed a deal with Sony for a new exclusive, we should see the fruits of this labor in the years to come.

The Witness is a truly beautiful game that's riddled with mystery, secrets, and mind-bendingly hard puzzles. While the game has received critical acclaim, there are some gamers who are facing a basic roadblock that prevents them from enjoying the game: motion sickness.

Games with first-person FOVs like The Talos Principle and Skyrim have been known to trigger pretty rough nausea and motion sickness in specific players, the same way certain light-flashes can send some gamers into epileptic seizures. More than a few players have reported that Jonathan Blow's latest puzzler The Witness is making them feel sick and disorientated. Some suggest taping a crosshair on the screen to alleviate the nausea and help focus the eyes.

Luckily, Blow is already working on a fix to address the issue. "I will at least hack something in pretty soon and we will see how it helps," Blow said in a response to a motion-sick player on Twitter. The dev has spent the better part of eight years developing The Witness, so its fair to say that his commitment to the game--and all of his games, for that matter--is pretty intense.

Just in time for the beginning of the beta test for The Division, Ubisoft has released a list of all the known issues and bugs that plague the version of the game we'll be playing in the beta test. And quite frankly, it isn't so terrible, considering.

The known issues are relatively few and far between, though the slow loading textures and severe FPS drops if you use VSync seem to be the most relevant issues at the moment. Also keep in mind that NVIDIA users might experiene some visual graphics, even with the latest Game Ready driver specifically released for the beta.

But if you do run into any other issues, don't hesitate to submit a bug report so they can take an extensive look and make sure that this is fully fixed before its released. Unlike previous Ubisoft releases, this beta test is a step in a new direction towards releasing games with as few issues as possible. Full bug list is below.

The full line-up for Xbox Live's Games With Gold program has been announced, and though there isn't much, it's a strong inventory for both the Xbox One and the Xbox 360.

This month they're digging deep into their inventory with Gears of War 2 and Hand of Fate. Thankfully the games available for the Xbox 360 are also completely playable through backwards compatibility on the Xbox One, so if you've already upgraded, you can enjoy all the titles listed below. The first batch of games, Hand of Fate and Sacred Citadel, will be available on February 1st while Styx and Gears of War 2 will become available on February 16th. Happy hunting.

Electronic Arts won't be attending E3 in the usual fashion this year. Instead of the normal booth inside the expo hall in Los Angeles, they're hosting an off-site event that's more accessible to their fans, EA Play 2016.

EA Play is a departure from their usual expose at E3, where they generally have a large area reserved inside the Los Angeles Convention Center that's filled with their latest games. This year they'll have EA Play, which is a three-day event that'll be hosted off-site at Club Nokia which is near the Los Angeles Convention Center. Their fan-oriented event will run from June 12th through June 14th. At the same time, a similar event will occur in London on the 12th of June.

Another big change EA is making is moving their normal Monday press conference to the Sunday before E3, presumably to kick off their new event with their new game annoucements. This year we expect to see more information about Mass Effect: Andromeda, despite possible delays.

Fallout 4 battles never cease to amaze me, and this newest clip from Cosmic Contrarian is no exception: it's a 14-minute rendition of The Lord of the Rings' epic Helms Deep battle sequence set in Fallout 4.

At the behest of his fans, YouTuber has reenacted the Battle of Helms Deep in Fallout 4...and it's pretty epic.To ensure the battle maintained its authenticity, Cosmic Contrarian built his own version of Helms Deep with the game's settlement system, then proceeded to unleash a torrent of havoc and earth-quaking war on upon its walls.

The massive-scale battle sees tens of thousands of bloodthirsty Super Mutants up against a desperate division of Minutemen and Power-Armor-clad Brotherhood of Steel patriots. The horde of greenbacked Super Mutants eventually break into Helms Deep and bring head-smashing death to the humans, but the BoS paladins stand fast with their laser turrets at the ready. The carnage is so absolutely entertaining that it has a way of just mesmerizing viewers, just encapsulating you with fiery death-laden lasers.

Apparently an error in Walmart's website has led to the Shovel Knight Wii U and 3DS amiibo being categorized under gardening for some reason. At least it was temporarily.

Pixel Dynamo reported that the amiibo was supposedly categorized under Gardening & Tools in the Walmart directory, where it held the honor of being one of the best selling items in that category. Looking through the various categories, however, reveals that there is no "Gardening & Tools" category, and that the Shovel Knight amiibo is actually put under the correct category, Video Games.

Maybe this is a case of mistaken identity. And the search engine employed by Walmart might match the "shovel" in the name of the amiibo to any search for tools, so searching for "tools" could make it appear, though doesn't appear to be actually associated to any category other than video games. Curiouser and curiouser.

Flying Wild Hog, the studio that brought us the Shadow Warrior reboot, is working their same magic for Hard Reset, creating a remake of the over the top FPS.

They plan on using a completely new and upgraded graphics engine to better show off the gore and destruction that are the hallmark of the game. In addition, there'll be a re-balancing of the gameplay and plenty of new weapons to go forth and destroy the hive mind machines of The Sanctuary. There's talk of a cyber-katana for some close-in action too.

If you've never had a chance to play it, the original from 2011 is available on Steam and is still one of the most hilariously fantastic FPS games you can play. It's a little on the short side, but it's action packed with a very well done sci-fi story. You're a CLN soldier that's trudging through a vast, hostile wasteland decending the last human city, Bezoar, from gigantic robotic enemies.

Ever curious what Tyria looked like from above? Well now you can gently enjoy the landscape as you glide down towards the world in the latest Winder Update of 2016 for Guild Wars 2, which is live right now.

The major addition in this update is the addition of Gliding to the whole Tyria, something that was already available only in select parts of the world when Hearts of Thorns came out. So if you dare, you can enjoy a gorgeous view of Tyria and risk death as you speed towards the ground.

But that's not all in this substantial Winter update. The Lunar New Years is back and you can celebrate the year of the Monkey in Divinity's Reach, with all kinds of festivities and fireworks. Another great new addition is the Eldvin Monastery Brew of the Month Club, where you can collect 12 limited edition brews by visiting major cities. The reward for that is a unique title, a backpack skin and a guild decoration.

UPDATE: Sony has just announced the full PlayStation Plus lineup for PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, which can be found below.

Original story is as follows.

Sony has yet to reveal next month's free PlayStation Plus games, but the cat's out of the bag thanks to a leaked advertisement on Sony's PlayStation Store.

Gears of War 4 is a very well anticipated game, being one of the titular franchises of the Xbox consoles. The Unreal Engine games have never failed to at least provide hours of violent entertainment, and a good to boot. And thankfully the creator of the series is very satisfied with the direction the games writing is going in.

Unfortunately Cliff isn't exactly kept too much in the loop once the franchise was sold to Microsoft in 2014, but it seems that those working on Gears 4 are at least appreciating his creative genius enough to inform him of the progress they're making. And that's great news.

The first three games have done very well, featuring a harrowing story combined with a very well done cover system that evolved appreciably throughout. Gears of War 4 is riding on a wave of expectation from fans who want it to live up to the rough anticipation in their minds. And who wouldn't at least expect it to blow our minds a little bit. Graphically it should be a nice upgrade, considering Gears of War Ultimate Edition looks, and plays, quite nicely on the Xbox One.

This past December at The Game Awards we were delighted to hear that we'd be graced with another, modern Tron game from Disney. But only the PC was mentioned, leading some to believe that consoles, which would be a perfect medium for such a competitive game, were being overlooked.

Now we have confirmation that Tron will be released on the PS4 as well as the Xbox One. On February 16th Tron Run/r, as it's called, will be released on all platforms for $20. Right now it's currently in Early Access on Steam.

In Tron Run/r you'll get to customize your own avatar and participate in all the classic activities from both of the Tron movies, with a lot of the familiar neon environments being recreated. There'll be upwards of 30 different levels to play through. And there's even a Stream mode which remixes existing levels into far more difficult creations.

Microsoft and Sony have both opened up 7 out of the 8 CPU cores that power their respective consoles, giving devs a bit more processing power to play with. Now that developers are starting to harness the extra CPU power, it's time to put the extra boost into perspective to see if the added core will make a difference or not.

According to the devs at Techland, who used the extra cores while developing The Following DLC for Dying Light, the 7th core adds a "good reserve of CPU power" for demanding situations. Given the limited nature of both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, devs are keen to use any extra power they have access to.

"Dying Light was made and optimized to work on six cores since that's what was available when we made the game. So the opening up of the 7th core CPUs on both platforms simply gave us a good reserve of processing power. It essentially gave us a helping hand in dealing with more processor intensive situations, but given when Dying Light was developed, it simply means we use the additional CPU power as a nice to have and not something we need have to rely on," Techland dev Tymon Smektala told Gamingbolt.

Star Wars Battlefront just received it's January update and it brings a lot of changes to weapon and hero stats, finally bringing about the nerf we've been waiting for.

EA has also started to bring new content into the game with this update, keeping inline with their promise to add something each month. Private matches and daily challenges are added along with Hoth-themed skins for Luke and Han.

Also, no longer are Han Solo or Boba Fett quite as OP as they used to be. If you played smart, you could last for nearly half the match as either, even one-shotting people from a distance. But EA and DICE of made some much needed changes, lowering the damage they put out. The re-balancing of weapon stats has also commenced, something that has been requested for some time.

We only just reported that the Call of Duty franchise generated $570 million in digital revenue throughout 2015, but League of Legends made nearly 3x that money in the same period of time.

Riot Games and Tencent (the latter company purchased the former company late last year) made an insane $1.62 billion in digital revenue from League of Legends in 2015, eclipsing every other game on PC. The closest to League's $1.6 billion was CrossFire from SmileGate, which made $1.1 billion while Dungeon Fighter Online made $1.05 billion, according to digital games industry analyst firm Superdata.

Superdata CEO Joost van Dreunan said: "The top 10 PC games earn more than the top 10 mobile games. Despite a heavy industry focus on mobile gaming, the combined earnings of digital PC games for the top titles came in higher, totaling $6.3B in sales compared to $6.18B for mobile. PC-based gaming - consisting of free-to-play MMOs, subscription-based games like World of Warcraft, social games and PC downloadable games - earns over $32 billion annually, well above the $25.1 billion generated by mobile games. Three of the year's top five digital PC games (Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3) were released in 2015, indicating that PC gamers have made significant progress transitioning to purchasing games digitally".

With the Call of Duty franchise making $1.6 billion in revenue over 2015, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Activision made an insane $570 million in digital revenue for the year, just from COD.

Thanks to digital games industry analyst firm Superdata, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare pulled in $355 million in digital revenue while Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 made $224 million - a total of $579 million for the Call of Duty franchise in digital revenue, for 2015. FIFA 15 didn't do too bad, pulling in $332 million in digital revenue for EA, while Grand Theft Auto V made $322 million for Take-Two Interactive.

With Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare making $355 million in digital revenue for 2015 - you probably think that's a lot. Wrong. League of Legends made a whopping $1.6 billion in digital revenue for 2015, which overshadows anything COD did by a long shot. Even CrossFire made $1.1 billion, Dungeon Fighter Online pulled in $1.05 billion, World of Warcraft made $814 million and World of Tanks commanded $446 million in 2015.