Gaming - Page 1126

Popular Aussie tech evangelist to the 'mainstream', gamer and cosplayer, Rae Johnston has recently been snapped up by Allure Media - she's been seen around various media entities including being on TV shows such as 'Mornings' on free-to-air offerings, alongside writing for multiple tech websites scattered around the globe.

Johnston has just completed a TEDx talk about gaming and social media in TEDx Ultimo, claiming that "Avatars Are People Too" - touching on a few points of interest and giving her own impressions on them.

Allure media services large-scale Australian websites such as Kotaku, Gizmodo and more.

Often it's a pretty heated debate on the internet - "is competitive gaming a real sport?". Well, in more MLG news - they're bringing Valve's popular FPS title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to the public scene and the television via the X Games and ESPN. This comes to light after we've recently reported on MLG working behind the scenes to run the biggest Dota2 league in history.

Set for kickoff on the 23rd of January 2015, X Games Aspen will be looking for another sell-out audience - seeing eSports now added to the foray of hardcore high-adrenaline sports on offer. This partnership will see MLG.tv team up with the ESPN and ABC to bring this event to the wider audience.

Sundance DiGiovanni, Co-founder and CEO of MLG, commented that "2014 was a breakout year for eSports with the first ever MLG tournament at X Games Austin, millions watching competition on MLG.tv, and more than 71 million people competing in or watching eSports events around the globe," further adding "Our X Games debut was such a success we knew we had to continue the tradition. The MLG X Games Aspen Invitational will further elevate eSports placing our top competitors amongst the best winter athletes in the world and continues to solidify MLG.tv as the leading destination for premium eSports pro gaming."

Featuring a minimum prize pool of $475,000 alongside an offered $90,000 worth of player travel support, joinDOTA have teamed up with Major League Gaming (MLG) to build the world's largest Dota 2 league.

Coming off the back of an extremely successful 'International' held by the game developer Valve in 2014, seeing over $10m in prize money being given out to the competing teams alongside free travel and hotel arrangements, joinDOTA and MLG are trying to step up the game - offering a long-standing tournament for many teams to compete in.

Claimed to take "competitive Dota 2 to the next level," their recently issued press release states that this World Championship event follows on from the renewal of the joinDOTA league. Teams who competed in the last 'jDL Division 1' competition will be given the chance to qualify for a spot in the season finals, alongside multiple big-name entities being selected to attend.

While most news for Sony is about the hack against it by North Korea, or so the US government alleges, the Japanese giant is out there teasing its next-gen console. Yes, the PlayStation 5 has been mentioned, and it's about damn time.

Sony Computer Entertainment Executive Vice President, Masayasu Ito, talked with the online version of the Nikkei Shinbun, talked about his thoughts on the next generation PlayStation. He said that he thinks there will be a PlayStation 5, but he's not sure in what form it'll arrive. He teased that it could be a physical console in the form of the PS5, or it could be an even better device sitting in the cloud.

Ito said "I think there will be a PS5. However, I don't know what form it'll have. It could be a physical console, or it could be in the cloud. But even if the form might change, PS5 Games will be born. This is what we want." Now I'm two minds about this, especially with what has happened lately with Sony. On one hand, being in the cloud would stop a lot of the hardware issues holding us back, seeing a next-gen console barely do 1080p 30FPS would just be disastrous. On the other hand, if everything is in the cloud and Sony gets hacked... well, we know how that has turned out lately.

Kevin "Frank Underwood" Spacey may have been the big draw card for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare when it launched, but the latest DLC for Activision's super-popular first-person shooter has some massive stars lining up to lend their talent.

These stars include The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal, John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, and Rose McGowan. Why the new DLC? Exo Zombies, that's why. Also, probably lots, and lots of money being given to these stars for their time in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Just in time for the holidays, some star-studded Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare DLC.

When NVIDIA unveiled its Maxwell architecture in September, we were thoroughly impressed. Even the high-end GPUs were able to sip power, while providing an immense amount of power. Well, the time has come for the mid-range GPUs to come out and surprise with the rumors of a GeForce GTX 960 announcement continuing, something we should hear about next month.

The new Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 960 is reportedly set for an announcement on January 22, 2015 - a new GPU that would feature a single 6-pin PCIe connector. This means the GeForce GTX 960 would only consume a total of 150W, down from the 165W required on the high-end GeForce GTX 980. We should see third-party cards from the likes of ZOTAC, ASUS, GIGABYTE and others that will ramp things up with custom coolers and increased power requirements, but the reference GTX 960 will sip between 100-120W with a total TDP of 150W.

Where things will get interesting is how competitive NVIDIA prices the GTX 960 in the market, where we should expect a price in the US of between $200-$250, which should begin to push AMD up against the wall. AMD has plenty of cards in the mid-range GPU market, with the Radeon R9 285, R9 280, and then the slightly more expensive R9 280X and R9 290s, but NVIDIA could really start taking away some of those Radeon sales with this new GeForce GTX 960. Especially if it could release it at $199, it could be the card to buy for the first half of 2015.

Microsoft and Sony are clashing with their Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game consoles, while Nintendo quietly develops ideas for a new generation game console, according to Shigeru Miyamoto. It's not uncommon for companies to quickly begin development of a new game console while actively promoting its current offering - but plans typically remain quiet, with company executives not discussing anything with the media.

"For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems," Miyamoto said in an interview with the AP. "While we're busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be."

It's possible the next Mario game could be saved until the next Nintendo console platform is made available - but the gaming world will have to wait for confirmation.

It will be fun to see analyst sales figures for console sales after Christmas, as Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House admits the Xbox One is giving the PlayStation 4 a run for its money. Even though sales are described as "in line" with Sony's previous expectations, the cheaper price tag for the Xbox One has led to a significant sales bump for Microsoft.

The Xbox One starts at $350 in the United States, while the PS4 is available starting at $400. The $50 price cut was announced in November and will continue to January 3, 2015.

It appears to be a good time to be a console gamer, as both companies also have several appealing console/game bundles available. Expect continued price cuts and increased competition from both companies in 2015, while they try to woo gamers to their respective platforms.

Capcom has announced that the upcoming PlayStation 4 and PC exclusive Street Fighter 5 is being built around Epic Games' very gorgeous Unreal Engine 4 technology.

Bochan Kim, a Producer with Capcom said in a press release from Epic Games "Our goal with the next generation of Street Fighter is to take our beloved fighting game franchise and bring it to our fans in the best way possible. In order to fully deliver on that promise, we know we have to incorporate the latest and greatest technology available, which is why we partnered with Epic Games to power Street Fighter V using Unreal Engine 4." Territory Manager of Epic Games Japan, Taka Kawasaki said "This opportunity to help the development team using Unreal Engine 4 for the new title is a great honor for Epic, and I couldn't be more proud."

Fighting games seem to be adopting Unreal Engine 4 more, with Bandai Namco announcing back in July that Tekken 7 would be powered by Unreal Engine 4. Expect the Unreal Engine 4-powered Street Fighter 5 to hit the PS4 and PC sometime next year, which will support cross-platform play between the PS4 and PC.

Sony has been in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons in recent weeks, but at least the company's gaming unit has something to cheer about. The PlayStation 4 has seen such high demand in Europe, Sony reportedly has struggled to keep up with European demand.

"If I look at Europe I think it is potentially, for the second year running, going to be quite inventory challenged," said Andrew House, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO, in a statement to Reuters. "I'm not going to say you won't be able to find a PlayStation 4. I think it's going to be kind of hand to mouth in terms of that market."

In the United States market, however, Sony admitted to "tougher" competition due to Microsoft's aggressive Xbox One game console. However, Sony believes sales through Christmas are still in line with its preliminary expectations - and reports will likely be published in early 2015.

Busted! Oscar Ramirez, 48, was caught by Port Authority Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials trying to smuggle a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun inside of a Sony PlayStation 2 game console. Ramirez was attempting to fly from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Mexico City Mexico, but the Brooklyn man was caught before getting onboard.

Things didn't look right when the console went through x-ray, and officers found the weapon's hand grip and other parts inside of the bottom of the console housing. Ramirez now faces a weapons charge for trying to take the hand gun with him.

The TSA has found 2,100 weapons during airport checkpoints so far in 2013, a 16 percent increase year-over-year.

Since the dawn of eSports, poor old Oceania has been heavily neglected in receiving invites, qualifiers or any chances to enter global gaming competitions. In a move to capture a new audience, HiRez Studios have just announced that players from this region will now have the ability to qualify for the Smite world championships, season 2.

This free, Multilayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) 3rd-person game has begun a massive push into the Australian market - after a positive showing at PAX Australia 2014 and the recent acquisition of well-known fighting games player and organizer Daniel Chlebowczyk, they're looking to give the locals something that they've been wanting for ages - international exposure.

Australian and New Zealand-based teams will qualify through an online tournament, conducted on CyberGamer - leading to an Oceanic finals and then eventually the global event.

There have been a few videos floating around the Internet comparing Techland's upcoming zombie survival shooter, with claims that Dying Light has been graphically downgraded. We've seen it before with Ubisoft's titles, such as Watch Dogs and The Division, but now the claims of Dying Light have PC gamers in a fit, and rightly so.

Techland's Paul Milewski spoke with GamingBolt, where he said "If you compare the 2103 footage to any of the material released lately, you can clearly see major improvements. Downgraded? Not a chance. Just look at the latest interactive footage released by us a couple of days ago." Milewski added "Also, consider that most of the recent media and YouTuber gameplay that's out there is all on PCs that we have no idea what's in them. And yet they all look better compared to the 2013 promo material which was recorded on a high-end PC at the time."

Dying Light hits the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC next month.

Valve has just kickstarted its annual Steam Holiday Sale, which will run all the way through to January 2, 2015. There are countless games on sale, all of which will change every 12 hours.

Right now, the current sales include:

There are many more games on sale, so go and check them all out!

Love it or hate it, the Call of Duty series still pulls massive numbers. According to a recently issued release, the latest game in this long-standing series has been named the top-selling console game of the year in America.

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing announced that "to date, 2014 has been a series of number ones for Activision Publishing: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the #1 top-selling game of the year, Skylanders is the #1 kids video game franchise of the year, and Destiny is the #1 top-selling new video game franchise of the year", with Hirshberg further commenting that "we are excited about how fans have responded to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny and Skylanders Trap Team, and have even more great new content in store in 2015."

According to NPD, Activision has won big throughout the 2014 calendar year - pulling numerous title wins and achievements including:

According to the latest rumors from various sources, Rockstar is working on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2. The sequel to the popular GTA: San Andreas will be dropping on the PS4 and Xbox One sometime in 2015.

Rockstar reportedly "confirmed" that it was working on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 at the PlayStation Experience event recently. According to the rumors, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 will take place in 1999, some seven years after the events in the original game. CJ will return as the protagonist, which will be voiced by Young Maylay once again.

Many have claimed the news is fake, which is why we're putting a very big 'rumor' stamp on this one. With the news of Online Heists coming to GTA V next year, and GTA V reaching the #pcmasterrace on January 27, 2015, the world of Grand Theft Auto seems to be truly opening up for 2015.

Capcom has announced that there will be a re-release of the reboot of Devil May Cry, with DmC hitting the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with 1080p and 60FPS goodness.

DmC: Definitive Edition will feature better visuals and graphical detail than the original release, with all of the DLC that has been released since the original game hit the previous generation consoles. The game will run at 1080p at 60FPS, even with the increased graphical bells and whistles. The re-release includes:

60 fps and 1080p resolution - It looks and feels super smooth to play.

Rockstar is finally teasing Grand Theft Auto V's online heists mode, something it will update for gamers in early 2015. The online heists mode adds four-player missions to the multiplayer side of GTA V, where gamers can plan, prep and pull off a big heist.

The developer has delayed the online heists mode multiple times now, promising that it would be released with the re-release of GTA V on the PS4 and Xbox One last month, but missed that too. Producer and Lead Mission Designer on GTA V, Imran Sarwar, explained that Rockstar delays its content when it's "not at the level we expect of ourselves."

The new mode will launch with "five unique strands" that will feature over 20 missions, and around 20 hours of gameplay. Sarwar added that the heists mode has taken so long to get out because they were much harder to build than the team originally thought. The idea behind the new mode was to create "multi-tiered missions in which players would work cooperatively with their individual strengths - ensuring that each player was important" reports Polygon.

343 Industries has released another patch for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which promises to fix various issues found within the first-person shooter extravaganza.

The update will improve the "reliability" of matchmaking, while ensuring the split-screen, local multiplayer friends are always-on the same team when playing Halo 2. Microsoft has chimed in, saying that TMCC's new update should also improve the stability across the game's menus, campaign playlists, matchmaking and custom games.

If Halo is going to be around for another 30 years, they might want to get their games a little more stable, instead of taking weeks upon weeks of updates to even get them up to release worthy.

Ubisoft only delayed the patch yesterday, but the company has announced that the forthcoming patch for the still broken Assassin's Creed: Unity weighs in at a huge 6.7GB.

The massive patch is currently being pushed out to Xbox One and PS4 users, while the PC version of the patch is coming soon. Ubisoft has explained the patch on the website for Assassin's Creed as "Part of the team's effort to enhance frame rate for players involves replacing and updating portions of the Paris city map where we are seeing issues. This explains the large size of this title update (6.7 GB). However, since a large portion of the patch replaces existing files the net increase to the game's overall size will be less than 6.7 GB."

So the developer is trying to say that they've replaced large chunks of the map where there are various performance issues, which to me, would mean the game is broken? It's not a patch that fixes various problems, but replacing physical parts of the map to help performance? What the hell happened, Ubisoft? The patch notes are quite large, but you can check them out here.