Gaming - Page 1125

Good Old Games (GOG) have been a great pillar in the PC community for offering those old games we used to absolutely love and adore, and selling them at a decent price with a no-fuss, DRM-free digital platform which is also set to get that much better.

GOG managing director Guillaume Rambourg revealed at the CD Projekt Red Investor's Day conference in Poland today that their business plans for 2012 and 2013 were to include the addition of not-so-dated games. GOG's goal is to become the number two digital game dealer. Did you notice EA's Origin wasn't even thought of there?

The new venture will include exclusive release opportunities with certain developers, but no names have been mentioned yet. The new initiative will start next year and while the low-priced classics enjoy low pricing, the new service with newer games will of course be a little more expensive. GOG have said they will continue to stick to their guns with DRM-free games and flat prices worldwide. GOG have also guaranteed they'll still bring the classic games that we've come to expect.

Cake smashes at kids birthday parties look so awesome. My daughter turns one in March next year and we're going to have one. I'm so excited. Why didn't Sony do this with the 5-year anniversary of the PS3? A giant PS3 cake and have various devs and management smash it up. I need to work for their PR department, ha. This week is definitely the week of anniversaries and birthdays! First up we had the Xbox's 10-year anniversary, and Intel's 40-year anniversary of their first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Today, Sony stands on the podium with the PlayStation 3 turning five today.

Five years since the PlayStation 3 launch. I still remember the pre-launch buzz, dual-HDMI, 1080p, this, that. Then it launched and people were selling PS3 consoles on eBay for ridiculous prices, or selling just the empty box and getting suckers to purchase it in the craze of the launch.

The PS3 did launch before this day five years ago, but in Japan. Today marks the release in the US. The PS3 ushered in some truly great things to the gaming world, it pushed forth today's standard for high-definition video, Blu-Ray. It introduced the great Sixaxis controller, introduced Move to the world, 3D is now available on it, great titles such as the Uncharted series and Killzone.

I know, I know. I've posted a few rumors on the next-gen Xbox a few times now, but it seems there's just more news on it lately and especially today. Today's rumor is a bit more specific, though. Ubisoft Montreal are reportedly hard at work on 'target boxes' based on the intended specifications of the next-generation Xbox from Microsoft.

Delivery of the first iteration of genuine devkits, running custom hardware, are expected to reach studios before Christmas, which is pointing to a finalized console arriving in late 2012. Ubisoft's teams are reportedly working on PCs containing off-the-shelf components provided by Microsoft, and several other major developers such as EA are also in possession of these target boxes.

AMD is rumored to be providing Microsoft with the GPU goodness inside of the new consoles (and their target boxes).

Another console game, port, rape of series has happened in front of our eyes. From Electronic Arts' and Black Box, we have Need for Speed: The Run. NFS: The Run is powered by Battlefield 3's gorgeous, pant-swellingly beautiful, make-you-call-out-mom-in-your-dreams amazing graphics engine, Frostbite 2.0.

Even though the game is powered by that amazing engine, the game is locked to 30fps. What? Am I joking? No. The Run is locked to just 30fps. Now, this may work for other titles, but for a game capable of oh-so-much more on the PC, it's still locked. Locked frame rates on consoles can work, but what if you've just dumped your hard earned cash on a new X79-based system with Quad SLI GeForce GTX 580's?

Well, you'd be cranking out those serious 30fps in style and nothing more. The system above would be capable of 1080p at max detail (including AA) at 150 - 200fps and above in Battlefield 3, so why not NFS: The Run? Black Box have obviously put an artificial limitation on The Run, now the question ins "why?".

Wow. It was 10 years ago today that Microsoft unleashed the Xbox onto the gaming world. 100,000 units were shipped to retailers in the first week after its launch, and 1.5 million were sold before the end of 2001. This made the Xbox the best-selling video game console launch on record, and quite the achievement [unlocked?] for Microsoft. The picture below shows Edward Glucksman, where Bill Gates hands over the very first Xbox video game system to him.

10 years later, Microsoft have quite the collection of additions to the Xbox brand such as the current Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE and Kinect for 360. Xbox LIVE boasts 35 million members worldwide who spend 2.1 billion hours per month on the service. Kinect for 360 set a Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling consumer electronic device, selling 8 million in just 60 days.

I still personally remember the original Xbox, Halo looked stunning. Absolutely stunning. Project Gotham Racing saw me pouring unlimited amounts of hours into it. Since then, Microsoft seem to have concentrated more on their Xbox products than PC, which is disappointing for PC owners, but great for console gamers. Let's hope we don't have to wait 3 - 4 more years for another Xbox, launch one next year, Microsoft. We all need the push for games.

We've had some truly amazing games over the last few months, and Skyrim is definitely one of the creme of the crop. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has sold over 3.4 million copies at retail in its first 2 days on sale. Keep in mind that this is without the inclusion of digital sales (Steam, etc).

This is an increase of over 600-percent on top of what Oblivion sold, with an opening of just 490,000 copies. Skyrim is set to outsell Oblivion in mere weeks. 59-percent of units sold were on the Xbox 360 (over 2 million copies) and 27-percent were on the PS3. The PC? Just 14-percent, again, without digital sales included.

2.5 million of the total 3.4 million sold were in the US, with the remaining 950,000 units in EMEAA. Skyrim has managed to slay Gears of War 3 and FIFA Soccer 12 for first week sales, is head-to-head with Battlefield 3 and the only thing stopping it from reaching the stars is Modern Warfare 3. But, Skyrim is an RPG, and 3.4 million copies in 48 hours for an RPG is damn impressive.

In the developmental stages, DICE had intentions of making Battlefield 3 a contendor in the e-Sports community. What happened? Origin and Battlelog happened, that's what. Battlelog is good, it allows you to support clans through "Platoons", which organizes squads, but its far from perfect.

There could be a future where Battlelog allows you to schedule events, formally and publicly challenge other platoons to a match or tournament, which would show up on the Battlefeed. If DICE introduced the Battlerecorder, that would be another huge tick in the e-Sports book of awesomeness. Spectator mode would also be a huge addition, allowing people to sit in on a live match being played.

Fans have been asking Global Community Manager, Daniel Matros, what DICE's plans are to bring Battlefield 3 up to par with other e-Sports titles. He didn't go into great detail, but he did mention that "we are hearing the competitive community...", he was asked if there is any way to hide the in-game HUD and weapon, where Matros responded "not right now but considering the post launch updates and plans we have, all feedback is considered to be very nice."

Sony are starting their gift-giving season right now with the introduction of a brand new PlayStation move bundle that includes two Move games, Sports Champions and Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest.

This bundle is set to hit retailers nationwide next week and contains everything you need to have a fun game night, the PlayStation Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera, and a copy of the greatest-selling PlayStation Move title Sports Champion and Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest for $99.99 MSRP!

Medieval Moves is a game specifically designed for PlayStation Move, where you use your PS Move motion controller to sword fight, shoot arrows, and fling throwing stars at your enemies. It also offers support for full stereoscopic 3D.

While we can get mixed up in the David vs Goliath battle that is Call of Duty vs Battlefield, we can forget another amazing open-world RPG launched from Bethesda. No, wait, no we can't. Skyrim has been getting its fair share of press too, and while it might be able to boast of nearly half a billion in first-day sales, it can boast with its near-perfect reviews.

It looks like its gotten 90-percent or higher in every review, without me over-exaggerating. I'll let a few quotes from some reviews convince you:

Guardian:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has done it again, it has become to biggest entertainment launch of all time, smashing the previous record set by... Call of Duty: Black Ops last year. MW3 took in over $400 million in revenue in just 24 hours, selling 6.5 million copies of the game across 3 platforms in the US and UK.

Black Ops pulled in $360 million on its opening day last year, with Modern Warfare 2 raking in $310 million in the first 24 hours. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotickt says:

My readers will know I'm a lover of FPS titles, and I used to be the biggest fanboy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I loved it. I must have played hundreds and hundreds of hours of multiplayer and just never got sick of it. Today, my good friend Sean posts a link to a YouTube video on my Facebook wall titled "Infinity Ward recycles buildings on MW3 straight from COD4."

I wasn't surprised by the title, but thought I'd take a look. I thought it would just be a building that some eagle-eyed gamer has noticed... but no, it's a massive building, from my favourite COD4 map: Pipeline. The entire building is copy/pasted directly into the single-player campaign of Modern Warfare 3.

How ridiculous can this be? Is it laziness? Is this how Activision pumps out yearly releases of COD? Surely with hundreds of millions in production budgets across multiple studios with one of the biggest game-related companies in the world, could hire some extra peons to code up a map in a 1 - 2 year development cycle. Take a look for yourself, I think it's a joke, personally. Not a funny-ha-ha joke, but a slap-in-your-face, joke.

This is something that isn't surprising, but EA president Frank Gibeau has been talking about Battlefield 4. Twitter user Brandon Winfrey posted that during a keynote at the University of Southern California, where Gibeau reportedly said "There is going to be a Battlefield 4."

This is pretty obvious considering the success the Battlefield franchise has had, and just how amazing Battlefield 3 has been. When Gibeau was asked about the statement, a rep for EA told IGN the following:

L.A. Noire has enjoyed high praise on the console, but now its time for the PC to get some of that 40s-themed goodness. L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition has either launched, or will launch within the next day or so (depending on region) and includes a bunch of additions and highlights over the console counterpart.

L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition includes all previously released DLC for the console versions (including additional outfits, weapons, and cases such as "Nicholson Electroplating", "Reefer Madness", "Naked City", "Slip of the Tongue", "Consul's Car" and more) and makes them available to players from the start.

New for the PC version is, support for NVIDIA's 3D Vision, enhanced resolutions and graphical performance, keyboard mapping and gamepad support. You can grab it from the Steam Store.

Ah, RumorTT time, and today we have some news of the next-generation [gaming] console from Microsoft. Why did I put [gaming] in and not the actual word? Well, it might not be a hardcore gaming console after all. The Xbox 720 as its most commonly referred to, is reportedly codenamed "Loop".

Loop is said to be much smaller than the Xbox 360, will reportedly cost less to produce in the hopes of achieving higher Kinect adoption according to Microsoft leak blogger MS Nerd. The next-generation Xbox is also said to be based on a modified version of the yet-to-be-announced Windows 9.

Yep! Windows 9! MS Nerd also said that:

Rainbow 6 series' new title has been confirmed today called Rainbow 6 Patriots and is the latest Tom Clancy first-person shooter which won't see the light of day until 2013. This marks a five-year gap in between Rainbow Six console releases as the most recent of them was Vegas 2 in March 2008.

The wait is possibly at the fault of Vegas 2, which was criticized at the time for being too similar to the original Rainbow Six: Vegas, released in November 2006. The setting for Patriots hasn't been confirmed with the only nugget of information to go on is that it "captures the reality of modern-day terrorism". The game is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, "with the support of" Ubisoft Toronto and Ubisoft Red Storm.

The single-player portion of the game is said to sport a dynamic storyline with multiple playable characters with the franchise doing a GTA V and apparently going in a "bold new direction". Ubisoft creative director David Sears says:

You would think that a company the size of Activision would not let this happen so close to launch, especially since Elite was announced so long ago now. Alas, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Elite will not launch on PC with the game, and will be released sometime after the game itself.

This is due to the developers saying the PC is "insecure", where they're worried people will hack the system. Those statistics can't be hacked, it would cause the world to implode and would be equal to the consequences of dividing by zero! Beachhead Studio head Chacko Sonny says:

If the TweakTown powers that be would allow me to do it, this post would simply say "Wow" followed by the trailer... but, we'll discuss it is a bit first. Battlefield 3 is obviously out and the first DLC Pack for it comes in the form of Back to Karkand. Back to Karkand features four of the most loved maps from Battlefield 2: Strike at Karkand, Sharqi Peninsula, Gulf of Oman and my personal favorite, Wake Island.

The expansion pack also sports new weapons, vehicles, persistence, and the return of the classic Conquest Assault. Better yet, those who pre-ordered will get Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand for free... yep, no extra charge. Those of you who didn't pre-order can purchase it on the same day for $14.99/1200 Microsoft Points.

The trailer is just awesome, I really wish the Battlefield 3 trailers were done in that way, it just looks... amazing. What I'd like to know is what is this "enhanced destruction" about, is it more than what we experience in Battlefield 3? If so, why? Is this something they'll switch on with an update to BF3? I hope so.

If you read my mini Editorial yesterday, you'd see that I'm not happy with the state of the gaming industry right now. Today is another day, and with it brings the news that Valve has delayed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta, after feedback given by professional Counter-Strike 1.6 players. The closed beta was planned for last month, and now has no start date.

Professional CS 1.6 players were invited by Valve to come and play the game and offer their thoughts. Valve's Chet Faliszek explained that their early access was granted because they could "talk intelligently about the game", versus the masses where constructive feedback can be quite hard to come by.

Faliszek didn't say when the closed beta will begin, but when it does begin, around 10,000 people will be invited to participate. "After that we'll grow it in steps as we get a test server infrastructure and scalability," he explained. For a full read of this news, where there are lots of quotes and snippets of news, check out the source.

If you think back to 2009, you may remember a teaser trailer from Piranha Games for a new MechWarrior title. But recently, they announced MechWarrior Online, a free-to-play multiplayer mech simulator set in the Battletech universe.

In a dev blog, Creative Director of Piranha, Bryan Ekman, explained how the company's attempts to secure a publishing deal redefined and ultimately derailed the MechWarrior project they had planned. The original game was pitched as an Xbox 360/PC release, but "the scope and budget required to develop a console reboot needed the support of a PS3 SKU and we just couldn't convince publishers to take risk."

Now we have MechWarrior as a PC-exclusive, it will feature a first-person cockpit view, and Ekman hopes to include joystick support. Ekman has also bragged of urban combat zones and "information warfare" as MechWarrior Online's two big design pillars.

DICE GM Karl-Magnus Troedsson has confirmed that development for Battlefield 3 switched from lead platform on PC to consoles half way through the development "in order to meet release on time". Troedsson elaborates:

Executive producer Patrick Bach chimes in: