Gaming - Page 1088

The smash indie hit Minecraft is more than just a game: it's a learning tool that's been used to teach Japanese and JavaScript code, but how about writing and executing programs while in-game? Yeah, that's possible, too.

Minecraft modder SethBling has built an interpreter in the BASIC programming language, which essentially lets gamers compile and run scripts while in-game. So you're using Minecraft's voxel world to make and run small, simple little programs. Users can do a variety of nifty things with SethBling's BASIC interpreter, including solving everyday calculations or counting prime numbers to infinity.

For a more practical solution, users can write simple scripts to programming automated mining turtles--basically little bots--to do various tasks. These mining turtles can dig holes and collect materials all day while you're AFK, making for a nifty little addition that can save you quite a bit of time.

Metal Gear Solid Online for PC is finally and officially here. And it's probably one of the better examples of small-unit team-work based online multiplayer shooters. Maybe.

The successful beta has concluded and now it's available for download for everyone. The development team at Konami plans on continually adding content and balancing gameplay to keep it interesting and exciting.

As an incentive, if you've played at least one game between January 19th and the 26th, then you'll be rewarded with a hefty sum of 3000 Gear Points to spend on character customization's.

Another classic Nintendo game is making its way over to the Virtual Console on the Wii U, further expanding a fantastic library of retro gaming experiences. Mario Kart 64 will be available on January 21st, which is just this Thursday.

And of course there're always caveats. In this case it's that Mario Kart 64 will only be available in Europe for the time being. But for those that have access to the European Virtual Console, you can pick up the classic kart adventure for only £8.99.

There's no word on whether there'll be a wider western release into North America quite yet, but that's still available through the original Wii's Virtual Console, which can actually be accessed through the Wii U regardless. This particualr version will support up to four separate players to help relive some of the best memories in Mario Kart history.

Metal and RPGs go together like wine and cheese, so it makes sense a mobile RPG "steeped in Iron Maiden mythology" is now in development. Named Legacy of the Beast, it will launch on both iOS and Android.

Vancouver-based studio Roadhouse Interactive and 50cc games are the folks developing the game; Roadhouse developed action RPG Warhammer 40,000: Carnage, which has great reviews on the Play Store. Iron Maiden's founding member and bassist Steve Harris will oversee the project, so you'll get the official touch.

The premise: you play as band mascot Eddie the Head and explore world's, travel through time, and fight various characters from the Iron Maiden lore. Naturally, the band's songs will serve as a soundtrack to the role playing. Some of the included tunes will consist of previously unheard live recordings, remastered specifically for the game with Harris looking on.

Some marketing and promotional stunts for video games are just over-the-top and insane. And this is no different. Ubisoft is going to give a way a prehistoric cave exploration package in Ouzous, France, to one lucky winner of their Twitter fueled contest. Entering is easy, winning isn't.

One lucky winner will have a chance to stay in a lavish hotel nearby while you explore the caves during the day, and perhaps even at night to highlight the challenges that humans during the prehistoric era had to go through in order to survive. The idea, I would think, is to check out how we lived so long ago while enjoying actual living in some of the finest accomodations around.

To win, you have to reside in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Belgium or The Netherlands and send a tweet to @FarCryGame with #caveBnB with some kind of message, gif or meme explaining your own motivation for entering the competition.

The rumor mill is responsible for churning out some pretty alarming stuff, and the recent gossip made us instantly grab our salt-shakers. Apparently, there's a rumor that Microsoft is going to shut off the Xbox 360's servers this November, forcing gamers over to Xbox One. This prompted the big-wigs at Redmond to step in and squash the hearsay once and for all.

In a recent Tweet, Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirms that Microsoft has absolutely no plans to shutter the Xbox 360's servers in 2016. The exec delivered a short but sweet "not true" in response to the allegations, smashing the fears of last-gen gamers. Additionally, we have to wonder why Microsoft would yank Xbox 360 online multiplayer considering its invested so much in the Xbox One's backward compatibility function.

Furthermore, the Xbox One's backward compatible games are cross-play. So if you fire up an Xbox 360 game on the Xbox One, you can play with other Xbox 360 players. Given this, it's extremely unlikely that Microsoft would be decided to abruptly shut off online play for last-gen systems. At this point, the Xbox 360 and its expansive library of games are bolstering the Xbox One and bear in mind that last-gen gamers are still out there (myself included).

Unreal Engine 4 is a very versatile and gorgeous game engine. And of course someone went and remade the first Metal Gear Solid and called it Shadow Moses. And it's just as spectacular as you'd expect.

This definitely isn't the Fox engine used in Metal Gear Solid V, but they've managed to take the very first game in the series and make bring it kicking and screaming back, but they've done an outstanding job capturing the essence that made it such a successful game that ended up launching the franchise. The best part was the skulking around inside the cardboard box in the background. The classic game mechanism that's survived today simply because of how absurd it is.

One can only imagine that Konami will eventually take issue with their IP so blatantly being used, and so this project, no matter how fantastic a showpiece it is, is likely going to be very short-lived. Regardless, the creator is concentrating on recreating the first level in it's exactness, and might even release it once they feel it's up to acceptable standards. Just don't expect it to live on the Internet (officially) for very long.

If it's frosty outside, there's a good chance a PC games sale going on! The Humble Store has opened up its annual Winter Sale, which discounts a broad range of games across the entire spectrum. There're sales on Steam Early Access games, yesteryear GOG greats, and even hit 2015 masterpieces like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

If you weren't able to snatch up some goodies during Steam's holiday sale, then the Humble Store has you covered with its new Winter Sale. The promo slices off some steep prices on a galaxy of titles and unlike Steam's rather annoying new sale policies, the Humble Store's deals will come in waves. Since every day opens a new wave of deals, the games can be discounted much more steeply.

A portion of the AAA sale games are carved up into publisher catalogs, which features an excellent array of games from each respective label. Notable publisher sales include Bethesda, SEGA, Capcom, Kalypso and Codemasters. There's also a huge offering of indies and old-school games, so be sure to drop by and scan the deals every day for some prospective goodies.

As The Division's release date nears, Ubisoft is forced to continue shaving off features of the game to ensure certain priorities are met for launch.

The devs at Ubisoft have been working on The Division for quite some time, for good reason: it's an ambitious game that aims to meld key elements from other games like Day Z, Gears of War, and Destiny, all while incorporating a unique story arc and present-apocalyptic presence. As with most of Ubisoft's more ambitious games, however, the company has delayed and even cut off key elements to preserve more important features. Player-to-player item trading has been delayed and won't be available when the game launches, and the entire region of Brooklyn has been cut out altogether, only to be re-released as possible DLC.

"It's the reality of production. Some features make it, some features don't," Ubisoft Associate creative director Julian Geright told GamesRadar. Julian said that player trading was delayed because it wasn't at the top "priority of different features", and isn't 100% sure that it'll be included in the future. "It's something that obviously some people are very passionate about. and [player trading] will maybe make an appearance in the future."

Evolution Studios went to Twitter to tell fans that they have a big update coming next month for Driveclub, though they were very coy about the details of the said update.

They released nothing but a short 8 second video embedded in Twitter that really doesn't explain much in the way of their thinking. The stylized black and white video races down a highway in a mountainous region. Perhaps new maps? New cars or even the inclusion of new physics is on the way?

Previously they've increased the visual fidelity, though slightly, by introducing one of the better rain weather effects in a console racing game. But it seems they've struggled from the beginning to make Driveclub even playable since it released with many different issues that affected playability. Regardless, it's sold over 2 million copies and continues to do quite well.

Careful scanning of Fallout 4's files have unearthed pieces of a game that almost was...or pieces of a game that will be. Modders have dug up key details on scrapped content, with the most famous case being the cut 20 Leagues Under the Sea quest, which apparently centered around a submerged vault, and explains the game's hidden harpoon gun. Users speculate that the underwater adventure could be part of a new aquatic DLC pack, and bring something I've wanted to see for a long time: Sealab-style undersea vaults.

Fast-forwarding to the present, a new batch of cut audio files hints that Fallout 4 could be getting a Thunderdome-style arena where players duel to the death for cold, hard caps. Fallout 4's Combat Zone is the Commonwealth's answer to the Colosseum, sporting a metal cage where NPC's beat the snot out of each other. I have to admit that when I first saw the Combat Zone, I fully expected to put up some caps, crack my knuckles, and bare fist-fight a Super Mutant, but Bethesda had other plans. Sadly, the released version doesn't let you get in on the action, but at one point the Combat Zone was something more.

In a bit of cut dialogue, the arena's proprietor, Tommy Lonegan, clearly says that players can not only enter the ring to fight for caps, but will also earn rankings for their progress. "In case I'm not being clear, it's either fight in the cage, or face the collective wrath of my disappointed patrons. I'll pay you a little something for each fight. The hotter the fight, the bigger the pay; the prize will go up in size as you go up rank," the NPC says in the scrapped dialog.

Can you believe we're close to the release of The Division? After all this time, I can nearly smell it. Well, thanks to the PC beta now underway, we're seeing the graphical settings within The Division, which is exciting.

There are heaps of settings to play with, including 'wind-affected snow' which has me gasping. Not only that, but there are a huge amount of things you can change in the graphical settings of The Division, which is great to see from Ubisoft. The PC version looks much better than the Xbox One version - shock, horror - with the Xbox One version hitting less than 1080p at around 30FPS. During intensive scenes, the frame rate dips below 30FPS - but that's 'next-gen' consoles for you. As for the settings, here's what you can tweak on the PC version of The Division:

The Division drops on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on March 8, 2016.

With the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider right around the corner, Senior Art Director & Game Director on Rise of the Tomb Raider, Brian Horton, has left Crystal Dynamics for Infinity Ward.

Crystal Dynamics announced the news on official Tomb Raider Tumblr page, with Horton saying: "It's been a huge honor to be a part of the Tomb Raider franchise and the team at Crystal Dynamics. I've met fans from all over the world, both in person and online, to share in our love for the franchise and Lara Croft. After working on two amazing games, my family and I have decided to return to Southern California and start a new adventure. As sad as I am to leave the team at Crystal, I'm excited to play their future games as a fan. Thanks again for the years of support and feedback and I hope to stay in touch with you all online".

Horton will be working with Infinity Ward, the LA-based developer behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and COD: Ghosts. Horton joins IW as their Studio Art Director, according to his LinkedIn account. Before Crystal Dynamics, Horton worked with Disney Interactive, EA, Vivendi Universal, and DreamWorks Interactive on titles like Medal of Honor and F.E.A.R. 3.

The next update for Rocket League is coming in February and it's bringing with it some "uncommon" loot to be dropped. It'll also signal the end of the first competitive season, which was a huge success.

Rewards and item drops were all very similar throughout the courses, and they weren't differentiated very much. You knew what you were getting, and they were all fairly useful to at least some degree. That's going to change with some strange and funky things, like the above. This is part of their new item quality system, where you can find common items (marked in grey, premium items (marked in green) and limited items that will be orange. And now they're adding those uncommon items that'll be show in light blue. You'll only be able to get these after competing in online matches.

Psyonix is also adding in a rewards system for for dedicated players who reach the Bronze division in ranked play, or higher. You'll be able to win crowns that can be equipped to the top of your car, letting the world know your achievements. It's a very interesting system to keep players coming back for more, because you'll never know what kind of cool stuff you'll end up getting! Reward systems are good mechanisms for replayability.

Cyanide Studios and Game Workshop are hosting their World Cup for Blood Bowl 2 this year and registrations are now open. And to sweeten the deal, they've teamed with ASUS for some very interesting prizes.

Everyone who enjoys Blood Bowl 2 can participate but only the top 64 players will be able to move forward to the play off's. It's easy to enter, just register on the public league or join a private league that's governed by the official Blood Bowl 2 community.

The grand prize is $10,000 worth of cold hard cash, probably even in the gold depicted in the photo. But aside from that there are actually some good gaming related prizes. Three gaming PC's, of which two are laptops and enough accessories to replace everything you have. And you might be one of the lucky fellows to win a few good Steam games too.

Chinese gaming giant - which now happens to own League of Legends - will have AMD's TressFX technology powering Monster Hunter Online.

Not only that, but AMD will be bringing over a number of performance optimizations, too. Tencent Games will release a patch later this month for Monster Hunter Online, injecting AMD's TressFX technology. According to AMD, there are a bunch of new features headed to Monster Hunter Online, including TressFX, Eyefinity, Radeon Software updates, and more. Here's the full list:

The 2016 roadmap for Space Engineers and Medieval Engineers has been released by the developer, and they plan on adding a lot of cool stuff by the end of the year. Mostly, though, they want to concentrate on making it as playable and awesome an experience as possible.

What's on the roadmap? Improving the underlying netcode, decreasing lag, putting in a new animation system, speeding up rendering, create a new and better soundscape, put in better physics, and FPS element and a whole lot more. There's a long laundry list of what they want to do. Just keep in mind that this is a roadmap, and not everything is magically going to be implemented at the snap of a finger. Game development, especially in such a fantastic environment, takes time to do correctly.

My favorite feature they're adding is physically based rendering into the engine. That means more realistic looking lighting that shouldn't take too big of a GPU hit. The worst feature? Perhaps that they're considering using NVIDIA's GameWorks. Well, it's only a bad idea if it's implemented poorly. If they take the code and customize and execute it properly, then it could potentially be a good thing. Potentially.

When the first trailer for The Division came out at E3 in 2014 it was a spectacular example of the future of graphics. But just like Watch Dogs before it, the graphical fidelity slowly declined in quality as more trailers and gameplay snippets were released.

But now we're closer to release than ever, with the closed beta happening at the end of the month, which means a lot of hands-on time for various publications out there. Thankfully some astute gamers have taken the time to compare, as best as possible, the graphics between the original trailer and what's playable now.

The original showed us some very fantastic dynamic scenery with snow that melted over time and particle and weather effects that were just stunning. Models were full of polygons and textures were extremely sharp. Supposedly Ubisoft did downgrade the graphics slightly in order to make sure it ran at smoother framerates. But just how bad is the downgrade? Not terrible, actually.

We might not be getting Half-Life 3 at any point in the near or far future, but at least Valve has officially sanctioned a new expansion pack that's going to tell the story of what happened after the events in Half-Life: Opposing Force.

The story goes that the creators of Propekt took a huge risk and actually sent a copy of their concept to Valve, specifically to Gabe Newell himself. And once the included demo and the artistic direction and majesty was actually seen, then it was only natural to give the go-ahead. And now Valve is letting Richard Seabrook sell the expansion pack on Steam for $9.99.

The expansion is more than just the typical modification, and adds a significant amount of story, and back-story, to the universe. Gordon Freeman is being overwhelmed in Nova Prospekt and likely won't last long, until at the last minute you, Adrian Shepherd, get transported by the mighty Vortigaunt to save the future savior of mankind.

The latest patch for Diablo III on consoles was released four days ago that included a lot of new content and enhancements. What also seemed to tag along were issues of micro-stutter and menu-lag that have been simply incorrigible.

But Blizzard is aware of the issue and is asking everyone who experiences the problem to head on over to their forum to fill out a bit of information to help them track down the particular issue. At the moment the folks from Blizzard can't quite replicate the problems, and that's why they need your help.

So head on over to the forum and answer the following questions to help them. Diablo III is still one of the better ARPG's to grace consoles in a long time, despite its relative age.