Gaming - Page 1117

Netflix may have filmed the third season of House of Cards in 6K, but why do you need that huge resolution when you're hacking the video service to run on a NES? Yes, a Nintendo Entertainment System.

A trio of Netflix engineers has a semi-working version of Netflix working on the NES, something they hacked together for Netflix's recent winter hack day. The team managed to throw up some frames from the House of Cards intro, all on a "unmodified" NES, with "some assembly required". Not only that, but they managed to get a limited browsing interface, with the feed showing some of Netflix's upcoming original shows.

Microsoft has introduced a new Xbox One bundle, something that includes Halo: The Master Chief Collection, with a bundled price of $349. Inside of the new bundle, you get the Xbox One, with a download code for Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

The download is a huge 59.1GB, which includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary (both digital remasters), Halo 3, and Halo 4. The Master Chief Collection also provides gamers with access to the live-action Halo: Nightfall series which is available on Xbox LIve.

The biggest thing to take away from this is that there are still countless problems with Halo: The Master Chief Collection, with people reporting even with the latest patch, the game is still broken with matchmaking issues, and so much more.

We're beginning to see the first rumbles of a new Gears of War game from Microsoft, after the company acquired the rights to the franchise from its creators, Epic Games.

The previous Creative Director on Kinect, Kudo Tsunoda, has teased a new Gears of War game, where he revealed his new role within the software giant. Microsoft has talked about Tsunoda's new position: "While the Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Minecraft franchises will continue to report to Phil Spencer, Kudo will lead the vision and experience development of our other Microsoft Studios portfolio investments in the United States, Europe, and across our Global Publishing team".

What's more exciting, is that we could see the new Gears of War released on the PC for Windows 10, or even better - for HoloLens. We should see more news on the new Gears of War as we slide closer to E3 in June.

It's been causing some major confusion recently, did you know that Steam now blocks most major email address' in their chat program?

After talking to a friend of mine and asking for his email, I received a message from him saying "https://gmail.com." At first I thought he was trying to troll me so I went along with it, later on after some more frustration we realized that Steam chat was actually blocking what we were sending to each other.

As you can see above, on the left I sent him a few different test emails to check exactly what is blocked. His result is on the right, showing that all of these email address' have been effectively turned into URL's. For those who don't keep up with Steam updates and patch notes, this little bit of news may cause you some headaches in the future.

Blizzard has announced its plans for non-subscription-based options for its time-sucking game World of Warcraft, something the company is calling "WoW Tokens".

The way WoW Tokens work is that they can be purchased with real money, with players able to sell these Tokens within the World of Warcraft auction house. Other WoW players can then purchase these WoW Tokens from the auction house with their in-game gold, where they will have 30 days of game time attached to them.

Blizzard has developed a special formula to determine the price of these WoW Tokens in the store, where the developer will "take into account supply and demand for Tokens as well as other elements of the World of Warcraft economy in each region" reports Polygon. The Tokens are not resellable, because they are set at a gold price, so once you've purchased it from the auction house, the WoW Token is soulbound to your character, and must be redeemed by you, and you only.

We knew it was coming, but now it has been confirmed: Rock Band 4 is coming to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this year. Harmonix has also said it teamed up with hardware manufacturer Mad Catz for the accessories side of things.

This is great news, as the developer has said that Rock Band 4 will be backwards compatible with every single Rock Band guitar and drum et you have collected, all the way back to 2007. If you don't want to use your old instruments, the developer will be offering up some new instruments of course. But it's not just the instruments that will be backwards compatible, as all of the previous DLC will be carried over (platform dependant) which is great to see.

The backwards compatibility for both the hardware and DLC could be because Harmonix is no longer being published by EA, where Harmonix has partnered up with Mad Catz to manufacturer the new hardware, as well as distribute the new boxed game. Better yet, Rock Band 4 won't be superseded by another Rock Band game anytime soon, as Harmonix will be updating Rock Band 4 with new songs, modes and other community-driven content.

GDC 2015 - While the world thought that Bethesda would show off Fallout 4 at the Game Developers Conference, we didn't see it. Instead, they have just unveiled Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, with the first gameplay trailer available below.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is an "all-new standable prequel" to Wolfenstein: The New Order, and will be made available digitally on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on May 5, for just $19.99. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood has players taking their hero BJ Blazkowicz "back to the year 1946 in an adventure that spans eight chapters and two interconnected stories (released together) that will lead into the events you know and love from The New Order".

GDC 2015 - Sony has announced that it has sold over 20.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles at GDC 2015, with the 20 million plus consoles being sold up to March 1.

Sony notes that this is units sold through to customers, where in a press release the company added that the PS4 "continues to demonstrate the fastest and strongest growth in PlayStation hardware history". It wasn't too long ago that the company announced it had reached 18.5 million PS4s sold, back on January 4.

Sony Computer Entertainment's President and Global CEO, Andrew House, said: "We are so grateful for the enormous support from PlayStation fans worldwide, and we are truly humbled that gamers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as the best place to play".

GDC 2015 - Valve has just announced Steam Link, something that will be released later this year and will "extend your Steam experience to any room in the house". Steam Link will work with your PC, Mac, Steam Machines and even Linux-powered systems. It will stream content from Steam to the Steam Link device, with the only requirement is that they're on the same network.

Valve's new Steam Link will be capable of 1080p at 60Hz "with low latency", and will be made later this year in November for $49.99. The company also took the opportunity to announce its new Steam Controller, which will also be available in November.

Steam Link is "designed to take advantage of the PC horsepower you already have in your home, with In-Home Streaming" while the hardware includes three USB ports, and HDMI out. All you have to do is hook it up to your TV through HDMI, into your network, with Steam Link doing the rest of the work to detect any and all computers in your house running Steam.

GDC 2015 - Valve has announced Source 2, the graphics engine that will most likely power Half-Life 3, if it ever arrives. The new Source engine has been teased for a while now, we it appeared in some DOTA 2 code a while back.

The new Source 2 engine, according to Valve's Jay Stelly: "With Source 2 our focus is increasing creator productivity. Given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not just for the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favourite games".

Just like Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5, Valve's new Source 2 is also "free to content developers". Valve tease: "This combined with recent announcements from Epic and Unity will help continue the PC's dominance as the premiere content authoring platform".

Sony wants to cash in on the rising number of free-to-play game titles for the PlayStation 4 game console, with officials saying there has been continued growth of free-to-play.

"We're really looking at this as a significant part of our digital business," said Sara Thomson, senior account executive of the free-to-play business at Sony, during GDC. "I think that it's going to be a really big chunk of our revenues in the next few years; 3-5 years. And it's already growing at amazing rates that are really quite surprising."

The gaming market has changed and more free-to-play games helped cause a shift among game studios and console makers - with great long-term potential of free-to-play games on consoles, according to Sony.

Epic Games has moved away from its subscription model for Unreal Engine that it unveiled last year, where it has just announced that it is providing its graphics engine to developers for free. Yes, for nothing.

There is a slight catch, with Tim Sweeney explaining: "You can download the engine and use it for everything from game development, education, architecture, and visualization to VR, film and animation. When you ship a game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter. It's a simple arrangement in which we succeed only when you succeed".

This provides Epic Games with the great chance of helping the community grow, getting more and more developers to use Unreal Engine. Sweeney continues: "The past year has been a whirlwind for everyone at Epic Games. Our community has grown tremendously. The quality and variety of creative work being done has been breathtaking. When we asked people to submit their projects to be shown this year at GDC, we had the challenge of picking just 8 from over 100 finalists that were all good enough to show".

EA has officially announced Battlefield Hardline Premium, which is virtually identical to the other Premium services for the previous titles in the Battlefield franchise.

Battlefield Hardline Premium will cost $50, offering gamers four new "super features" which include: masks, gun bench, competitive play and legendary status. Not only that, but you'll get two weeks early access to the four story-themed DLC packs, as well as monthly rewards and access to "exclusive in-game events and items".

Here's a detailed list of what Battlefield Hardline Premium has on offer:

Ubisoft doesn't have much trust with gamers, especially PC gamers, but The Division is still continuing to shape up nicely - even if it looks like its graphics have been watered down over time. A closed beta of the game is currently active, with a bunch of people playing The Division and discussing specific gameplay details and more.

The participants have detailed the way players will enter 'Dark Zones' which are public combative spaces within The Division, which are both cooperative and competitive, filled with friendlies and enemies. Players must pass through a decontamination chamber when entering and leaving the Dark Zone. There are special weapons are gear that you can collect in the Dark Zones, but you must pass through the decontamination process in order to have these weapons and items become a permanent part of your kit.

These Dark Zones in The Division feature up to, or around 100 players. Other players in here can act as friendlies, but hostile players can be killed, which build up something called a reputation meter. Once your reputation meter begins to build, you become more visible on the in-game mini map. You and your team can choose to work together with another team, with alpha players saying that there have been scenarios where players hide on rooftops, scale up and down buildings with grappling hooks, and more.

As told to us by RagnarRox, Valve has set a press release aside for GDC at 3pm on the 3rd of march. Let me run that by you again - 3pm on 3/3.

What's even funnier? With GDC being held in San Francisco, San means three in Japanese - further adding to the madness of 3's. There has been numerous funny attempts to prove HL3's existence by the gaming public, becoming a meme-like process as seen with the popular Illuminati proof videos and articles you often see.

However this time the 3's have lined up in ridiculous fashion - could it be that Half-Life 3 is on the way?

Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a timed exclusive on the Xbox One, but what use is that tight relationship with Microsoft if you're not going to make the Xbox One version of the game stand out from the crowd?

Crystal Dynamics, the developer who rebooted the series with Tomb Raider a couple of years ago now, has said that they pushed the Xbox 360 development over to Nixxes Software, so that they could focus on "pushing the boundaries" on the Xbox One version of Rise of the Tomb Raider. During a recent interview with Game Informer, Rise of the Tomb Raider's Game Director, Brian Horton, said they outsourced the development of Rise of the Tomb Raider to Nixxes Software so that the studio could "concentrate 100% on the Xbox One version".

Horton said that the two versions of the game won't be all that different, but the Xbox 360 version of the game will obviously need to be modified as it doesn't have the graphical prowess that the Xbox One has access to. He said: "For us, of course, we are not limited at all, we are pushing the boundaries when it comes to what the Xbox One can do, and we are excited that we have such a talented group in Nixxes to bring the best 360 version to the market".

Joel "emilio" Mako was slapped with a Valve Anti-Cheat ban (VAC ban) whilst playing in a match against rival team HellRaisers in an online tournament match, which saw his gaming team releasing him immediately.

VAC ban's generally come in waves, with multiple players being banned in one go and this action happening often weeks after their cheating experience took place - this helps create confusion as to exactly what cheat program the hackers have used as they are not told exactly what got them banned.

Mako claimed he was not guilty and in an interview with HLTV he stated that "I am leaving this in Valve's hands. I cannot prove my innocence, but I know they can."

Battlefield Hardline isn't too far away now, so EA is getting down and dirty with getting the game out there, with Mike Gloseski from EA taking to the official Battlefield website to talk the game up.

Glosecki concentrated on the PC side of things, addressing the 'power of PCs', 'how stable will the game be on PC' and more. When talking about the power of PCs, Gloseski said that the PC "allows you to customize the experience to your liking" and that you can set specific graphical details in the game, compared to its console counterparts. He added: "You can adjust your field of view or run higher than 60 FPS if you choose. You can even play with a three monitor setup for an immersive experience. Lastly, you get to use a mouse and keyboard which gives you the best control setup for a first person shooter".

One of the better additions to this post was that he tackled a big question: "how stable will the game be on PC". Glosecki said: "I think we can all agree that Battlefield 4's stability at launch was less than stellar. In order to address stability for our game at launch, we've had the game up and running in the multiplayer environment for the last two years with both the development and quality assurance teams playing in daily matches". Another nice change is that the developer is "also making changes to Battlelog to include a new pop-up on how to activate the plugin in your browser since this was an issue for some of our players".

Overkill Software has announced that Payday 2: Crimewave Edition will be released for the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 this June. The game will run in 1080p, with the game studio also including enhanced textures, and faster frame rates for console players.

"We're relaunching Payday 2 for the new platforms," said Almir Listo, producer at Overkill Software, told Eurogamer. "You'll get a year's worth of post-launch updates for the PC version available from the get-go - that's both the paid-for and free content."

Payday 2 has racked up 9 million copies sold for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 after launching in August 2013.

Techland, the developer behind Dying Light, has announced a special edition of the game that costs an insane $386,000. Yes, nearly half a million dollars for a video game.

The My Apocalypse Collectors Edition costs $386,000 but includes a real-world zombie-proof shelter, a round trip package to visit the Techland studio in Poland, night vision goggles, parkour lessons, Razer Tiamat headphones, and much more. Techland will be offering up just a single version of the My Apocalypse Collectors Edition, which is available exclusively through UK retailer GAME.

At least for that $386,000 you're getting a real-world "zombie apocalypse-proofed house" that Tiger Log Cabins will build for you. The zombie-proof house will come with some bells and whistles, including live-in amenities, as well as a TV, Xbox One and a sound system.