Gaming - Page 1097

Now that we know that the HTC Vive is dropping in April 2016, we have news of Ubisoft's first VR game 'Eagle Flight'. The name spoils what you'll be doing in the game, where you'll be an eagle flying over Paris, 50 years after humans have left the iconic city.

Ubisoft explains: "Nature and wildlife has taken back the city, creating a rich playground and offering an incredible experience of free flight and adventure". Ubisoft Montreal's Game Director, Olivier Palmieri said: "We're excited to make the dream of flying come true with Eagle Flight. Virtual reality has created new and amazing opportunities for game developers and we wanted to offer a full VR game that took full advantage of the technological advances. With the breakthrough we've been working on, we're confident Ubisoft's first game developed solely for VR will be a truly enjoyable experience for everyone who plays it".

Eagle Flight has been created specifically with VR in mind, so the developer has concentrated on accessibility and comfort. Ubisoft has developed its own VR control technology, a breakthrough that will reportedly allow players to enjoy Eagle Flight with intuitive and precise controls. Ubisoft's new VR control technology also reduces the chances of motion sickness but allows players to quickly hone their Eagle Flight controls to perform crazy stunts and experience the closest experience to true flight.

A new video for upcoming medieval RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance does a fine job of showing off the revered CryEngine and what it can do in the context of such a rare type of game.

While there are a lot of similarities to the excellent Mount and Blade series, the visuals are miles better and the combat appears more intricate, to a very impressive degree.

"We chose Cryengine mostly because of its capabilities for creating large, open worlds and great tools to do it," says Daniel Vávra of developer Warhorse Studios. "We could have dynamic lighting in a large, open world which was quite unique at the time. And now there's global illumination that looks awesome, and seems it could work in our game without large impact on the framerate, which is great."

With the mixed reception surrounding Star Wars Battlefront, so much so that the player base for Fallout 4 eclipses it, EA has come out talking about the game not being deep enough for some hardcore gamers.

During the European NASDAQ Investor Conference, EA's Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said that EA designed Battlefront to be a "much more accessible product to a wide age group". He added: "Star Wars Battlefront is a first-person shooter, but it is one of the only teen-rated first-person shooters. So, an 8-year-old could play with his father on the couch, as well as a teenager or 20-year-old could play the game and enjoy it. It is more accessible".

But it's the hardcore gamers who miss out, with Jorgensen saying: "And for the hardcore, it may not have the depth that they wanted in the game". EA COO Peter Moore, said during EA's recent earnings call, that the trailers for the game featured around Star Wars: The Force Awakens allowed EA "to be able to generate even more publicity for the game, as people start to anticipate the movie in mid-Dec".

Rolling off of the news that there's not just a spritual successor to Maniac Mansion coming, but Day of the Tentacle Remastered, we have some great news - Full Throttle Remastered is coming out for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and the PC in 2016.

Double Fine's Tim Schafer announced during the PlayStation Experience 2016 keynote that Full Throttle Remastered was indeed coming to Sony's platform, adding that the remastered edition would feature updated graphics, sound, developer commentary, and multiple control options. Full Throttle Remastered will also include the "complete, unaltered original" version of the game.

Just how much PC will you need for Elite Dangerous on the HTC Vive? Frontier Developments, the studio behind Elite Dangerous, have released the official Steam VR minimum requirements. This is what you'll need:

As for the Elite Dangerous universe in VR, CEO of the company Jonny Watts said back in September: "We're thrilled to announce SteamVR support as part of the ongoing expansion of Elite Dangerous. Back in December 2013 we were among the first to support virtual reality with a triple-A game, and for me, exploring, trading and fighting throughout Elite Dangerous' 1:1 scale Milky Way remains an unequaled virtual reality experience. We have been working closely with Valve to bring Elite Dangerous to HTC Vive, and we are delighted with the quality we have been able to achieve".

Ubisoft has announced that it has delayed The Division beta, something that was planned for this month, and has now been delayed until "early 2016".

The developer added that there will be an exclusive closed Xbox One alpha testing phase that will take place between December 9-12, and for those on the waiting list for the Xbox One alpha of The Division, you'll be "granted access on an as needed basis". Ubisoft added: "In addition, players who pre-ordered the Xbox One, PS4, or PC version of The Division will have access to a closed beta on their respective platforms in early 2016".

For the exclusive Xbox One alpha testing phase, Ubisoft says this is "the first time the public gets to play a version of The Division that includes more than the Dark Zone PvP enabled areas. This means the moment you and other players sign into the game, you'll be giving us valuable insight into how our infrastructure performs under pressure that we can't replicate internally or at a tradeshow. This process allows us to monitor and gather additional feedback on other aspects of The Division, as well. However, due to the early stage of this alpha, we ask that all participants do not share images, video, or descriptions of the game's content outside of the official Division alpha forum. Players will be prompted to accept a non-disclosure agreement before playing the alpha".

After years of waiting, Mojang's absurdly popular voxel-based block-building sim is finally making its way to Nintendo's beleaguered Wii U console.

When Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion, Nintendo gamers pretty much gave up hope on ever seeing Minecraft ported over to the Wii U. Today the Redmond-owned dev announced the impossible--well, the improbable given the long wait--news that the sandbox builder is indeed releasing for the Wii U, and it'll be available in 10 days time. The only caveat is the price, which is a pretty steep $29.99.

Unlike other ports of the game, the Minecraft Wii U Edition sports a feature that's unique to the Nintendo platform. Mojang notes that the Wii U flavor supports off-TV play on the Wii U gamepad, meaning players can continue playing the game even if someone else is watching the TV. The Lego-like sim also features multiplayer with up to four players in split-screen play and eight friends online.

With its decision to nix PS2 game playback on the PS4 and force gamers to re-buy PS2 games they already own, Sony has caught a lot of flak from the gaming community--and rightly so. Despite the stigma attached to Sony's nostalgia tax business model, the PS4's emulation does refresh old PS2 games to upscaled 1080p graphics, and it's interesting to see how well certain games have aged.

The PlayStation 2 era is filled with some of the most impressive titles in the history of video games, but it's fair to say that some of these experiences may not have aged well in the graphics department. One of the most universally lauded games of the PS2 era, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, goes under the microscope in a new side-by-side comparison that shows how impressive the PS4's upscaled emulation really is.

You'll notice right away that the graphics are indeed more crisp and defined, but also bear in mind that this is full emulation and not an HD remaster. They're no extra bells or whistles--the game is a 100% mirror reflection of its PS2 counterpart regarding content. Of course, this bit of footage is just a cinematic scene and doesn't show off any actual gameplay, but you'll still get the picture.

At this year's PlayStation Experience, Sony and Square Enix ignited a firestorm of hype, anticipation and excitement by showcasing the first-ever gameplay footage of the Final Fantasy VII Remake. The trailer created an explosion of activity on Twitter and Facebook, with millions of gamers ahh-ing in unison, making for a kind of universal celebration across the collective gaming world. However, a new development may extinguish that rampant hype-storm, and ensure gamers have to wait quite a bit before the game is released in its entirety.

Square Enix's own Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase confirm that Final Fantasy VII Remake will be split into multiple games rather than a final release. "If we tried to stuff the whole game into one release, some part of the game would have to appear as digests. We'd have to remove some contents from the game, and it would be difficult to add more to the game. Considering that a full remake of the original game must be achieved, we have decided to split the game into episodes," said Tetsuya Nomura in an interview with Famitsu.

"From the beginning, we have considered it impossible to remake FF7 into one single game," adds Square Enix's Yoshinori Kitase. "Taking the No.8 street shown in the video this time, even just this is already highly dense. If we are to remake the content of the original version at that quality, it would have been impossible to do with a single release."

Sony has just announced an unlimited streaming plan over 12 months for PlayStation Now, which is "less than half of what a subscriber would pay in month-to-month subscription fees alone", reports Polygon.

The company announced the new plans at its PlayStation Experience event, with the new plan going on sale on Tuesday. Up until now, PlayStation Now has cost $19.99 per month or $44.99 for three months, so this new plan allows for a yearly subscription at a reduced cost. Sony adds that the annual subscription is a limited-time offer, but didn't state when the offer would expire.

PlayStation Now has been available since May on all PlayStation platforms, with the 2015 model Blu-ray player from Sony in the US, and select smart TV models from the company in the US and Canada. We suggest if you want to jump on this, you do it now, as the deal could stop at any time.

We've just heard that Ace Combat 7 will be a PlayStation VR exclusive, but there was an announcement trailer for something quite unique at PlayStation Experience; 100 Foot Robot Golf.

Yeah, it's a thing. 100 Foot Robot Golf has PlayStation VR gamers stepping into the cockpit of a massive mech, and well... playing golf. It looks crazy as hell, but you know what? This is the type of stuff I want to see on VR headsets - games and experiences you simply can't get anywhere else.

The one thing I have to criticize are the graphics, which look somewhere between PS2 and PS3 level, which I'm guessing is because the PS4 isn't capable of rendering 1080p+ at 90FPS for PlayStation VR...

While Rise of the Tomb Raider is a timed exclusive for the Xbox One for now, we're hearing more details on the DLC that will roll out for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions of the game throughout 2016.

Major Nelson posted some details on the DLC coming soon for Rise of the Tomb Raider, with the first DLC pack dropping on December 29. Endurance Mode will be the first DLC, where Lara must "scrounge, scavenge, craft and survive the harsh elements by day, as well as lethal threats from enemies, both man and beast, by night. This is her ultimate woman-versus-wild test to push the limits of how long she can survive on her own in sprawling, unforgiving landscapes. Fire takes fuel, cold kills the unprepared, food restores health, but everything must be caught, collected, or crafted. You start with nothing and must find everything. Challenge friends to your longest survival run and battle to the top of the leaderboards for the title of Ultimate Survivor. Includes a new outfit and weapon".

The other modes, we'll detail below:

Despite controversy and heating arguments, Microsoft and the Halo devs at 343 Industries are raking in serious cash with Halo 5's paid microtransactions. Since the game was released two months ago, gamers have now spent over $1 million on Halo 5's optional REQ packs, pretty much ensuring that microtransactions will be permanent fixtures in the Halo universe.

The official Halo website clearly stated the staggering REQ pack earnings in a recent post. A new Halo 5 update also revealed that the Halo Championship prize pool has reached $2 million and growing thanks to the in-game "crowd-funding" gleaned from REQ packs.

Apart from actual game sales, Halo 5 continues to generate huge cash flows at a rapid pace. The most current $1 million sales is up from $700,000 earned as of November 19, and the $500,000 earned in less than two weeks after the game's release.

Sony's PlayStation Experience event went live today, and the Japanese console-maker had a bevvy of new PS4 content to show off at the event. One of the main attractions was the first gameplay footage for Square Enix's mega-anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake, giving gamers the first look at how the PS4 exclusive compares to the 90's RPG classic.

The new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake purely exhibits the game's newly refined action-based combat system. In many ways, FF7 Remake is an extension of Final Fantasy 15's fluid drop-in drop-out combat and stands as a polar opposite to the turn-based combat found in the original Final Fantasy VII. Square Enix said right from the start that the FF7 Remake would have a "dramatically different" combat system.

I've always thought that Square Enix would never remake something like Final Fantasy VII. The game has such an incredibly devout following that it's taken on a kind of mythological scope; Final Fantasy VII is so revered that it transcends the traditional sense of gaming, and because it's such a powerful nostalgic force, I was sure that Square Enix wouldn't take the risk of ruining everything.

Day of the Tentacle was one of those games for me when I was growing up, that I remember so fondly - just like Maniac Mansion and Full Throttle. Well, Double Fine has just announced Day of the Tentacle Remastered Edition.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered Edition will include all new hand-drawn, high-resolution artwork, as well as remastered audio, music and sound effects. In the game itself, you'll be able to switch between classic and remastered modes, and mix and match around the audio, graphics and user interface, too.

Double Fine teased: "We've also included a concept art browser, and recorded a commentary track with the game's original creators Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Larry Ahern, Peter Chan, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian".

We saw the first official gameplay footage of Far Cry Primal at The Game Awards last week, but now Ubisoft is flashing around some new screenshots and some details on the Collector's Edition of the next installment of Far Cry.

As for the screenshots, they're looking mighty fine. But it's the Collector's Edition that people are going to want to know about. What do you get? Well, there's two versions; Far Cry Primal Collector's Edition, and Far Cry Primal Digital Apex Edition. First off, here's what you'll get with the Collector's Edition:

Physical Content

While The Witcher 3 has only been out for a few months, CD Projekt Red isn't stopping. The developer has been working on its most ambitious game yet, Cyberpunk 2077, for quite some time, and is now talking about the game in greater detail.

During an interview with Polish TV station TVN24 BiS, CD Projekt Red's CEO Adam Kicinski said: "The project is even more ambitious than we first planned (...) we need to create a game that will be even more successful. (...) We have a long way ahead of us to reach the biggest commercial successes in the world. Sure, many people consider The Witcher 3 to be the best game in the world this year, but this is not a game that broke any sales record".

If you are worried about The Witcher franchise now that CD Projekt Red has its hands full with Cyberpunk 2077, don't worry. Kicinski said that the team isn't leaving The Witcher behind, where he added: "It's too early to talk about it, but it's not like we're forgetting about this brand - that's understandable. (...) It wouldn't be fair towards the fans. We work within this universe for over a dozen years now and I don't think it's going to be the end of it".

In a not-so-surprising development, reports indicate that the PlayStation 4's backward compatibility with PS2 games only extends to the digital realm. PS2 game discs won't be playable on the PS4, which was pretty much a given from the start.

The revelation comes straight from a PS2 emulation video published on Sony's own PlayStation YouTube channel. Sony quickly deleted the video after they realized what they had done, but not before a sharp-eyed Twitter user immortalized the content via a quick screen capture. The video announced that the PS2 game Dark Cloud is coming to the PlayStation 4 by means of backward compatibility emulation, but the description clearly says that "PS2 Classics and PS2-formatted discs are incompatible with the PS4 system."

As soon as Sony officially announced PS2 backward compatibility was coming to the PS4, I predicted that Sony wouldn't follow in Microsoft's footsteps and allow PS2 game discs to be playable. I knew that Sony's PS2 emulation would be digital only, and for good reason. Sony spent $380 million to buy Gaikai, the cloud-based game-streaming infrastructure, in order to power its similar online streaming PlayStation Now venture.

Capcom's action RPG Dragon's Dogma is a little late to the party on PC, but by the looks of a PS3 versus PC graphics comparison by Candyland, it's going to make up for it plenty.

Among the differences shown: massively improved texture quality, the addition of bloom, miles more precise shadows, less aliasing, and the addition of tessellation and light shafts. As well, you can observe much higher framerate and lower frame time latency. I don't hesitate to say these changes bring the game at least a half generation forward and make it much more digestible by the standards of today's PC gamers.

Dragon's Dogma launches January 15, 2016 on Steam. Be sure to check out the game's video options below, and the PC version of Dragon's Dogma will support 4K resolution as well as a cap-less frame-rate.

The controversy between estranged Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and Japanese games publisher Konami continues to roil across the games industry, culminating in a new incident at this year's The Game Awards showcase.

Metal Gear Solid V won Best Action/Adventure game at The Game Awards 2015, but the celebration was short-lived when gamers realized that Hideo Kojima wasn't in attendance. According to TGA 2015 host Geoff Keighley, Kojima was advised not to attend the show or accept any on-stage awards at the behest of Konami's lawyers.

"As you noticed, Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I want to tell you a little about that," Keighley said after the winners were announced. "Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight, but unfortunately he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight's awards ceremony to accept any awards. He's still under an employment contract. And it's disappointing and it's inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates."