Gaming - Page 1127

TweakTown recently spent a few days playing the preview build of Rebel Galaxy, a single-player spaceship combat action game from Double Damage Games. Rebel Galaxy will be released for the PC first, though it will be available for Mac, Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One. Admittedly, I called upon my 16-year-old brother for his gaming knowledge - and I am not a game reviewer, so here is the meat and potatoes about Rebel Galaxy.

A mouse and keyboard or gamepad work, with fully re-mappable controls for gamers - though it's worth pointing out that Double Damage recommends using a gamepad. Many PC gamers are used to relying on just the mouse and keyboard, which proved to be adequate. The keyboard is used to steer the ship, while the mouse is used to aim accurately and move camera angles.

If you're a fan of a game like Sid Meier's Pirates!, you should feel right at home with Rebel Galaxy. It's a similar type of fighting style, with broadside fighting - and there are turrets so you can blow stuff things up - while you're traveling around completing missions.

With E3 2015 just over a month away, the hype train is building for various game franchises, but one of the most exciting ones is going to be shown off at E3 this year: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

Naughty Dog, the developer behind the PlayStation 4 exclusive title, has said that it is in the last minute crunch time to get the game ready to show off at E3, where the developer has "all hands on deck" getting it ready. Community Manager for Naughty Dog, Eric Monacelli, said that the team is very capable when it comes to last minute crunch time, as the studio hit an achievement when making The Last of Us even work on the PS3.

Monacelli said: "Our team is just full of evil geniuses and wizards and they're just really good programmers. With a lot of dev teams - I worked in a few different places - it's the same sort of feel, but Naughty Dog has this sort of special magic that whenever we go into crunch it's just like, we all come together and we want the absolute best of everything. And it just somehow comes out and shines through, it's just incredible".

Sony expected big things from Bloodborne, an action role-playing video game that is a Sony PlayStation 4 exclusive, and the title has delivered.

Bloodborne topped 1 million units sold last month, reaching that point after being available for less than two weeks - with Sony thinking the exclusive title also launched at "just the right time."

"It did surprise us," said Fergal Gara, Managing Director of Sony UK, in a statement to MCV. "We had expectations to do well. We looked at the Souls series as a frame of reference, and we thought we could do better than that. We did - and then some. Relative to some of our sister territories, we were being quite ambitious, but even that proved to be conservative."

If you've been downloading mods for Grand Theft Auto V, we would suggest you take a break and look at which versions you've been downloading as they could contain some very nasty malware.

We've noticed on the GTA Forums that the "Angry Planes" and "NoClip" mods for GTA V have malware, and you could be at risk. The GTA Forums post notes that "The virus could have deleted itself after grabbing what it needed to cover its tracks". The post on the forums is quite detailed, with an 11-step list of instructions on how to remove the issue.

The post does note: "If you downloaded Angry Planes or NoClip and played GTA V with them, you were most likely hit with a keylogger or other methods of password grabbing, and I strongly suggest changing all passwords. Do the steps above first before changing them. Just because you don't see any of the files above, don't assume you weren't hit. The virus could have had a way of deleting itself from your computer to cover traces. I'd also suggest using something like Keepass in the future for keeping your passwords in an encrypted database, since browsers keep passwords in plain text".

Devil May Cry 4 fans should be excited about the imminent release of Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition, which is due out for release on June 23 in the United States and Europe.

Capcom has released a new launch trailer that shows off Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition running at 1080p 60FPS, which you can check out above. Be sure to use Chrome browser in order to get the full experience. The original Devil May Cry 4 was released in February 2008 on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and later in the year on the PC.

The new Special Edition version of Devil May Cry 4 is the same game, but it also adds three additional playable characters: Vergil, Trish and Lady. It also includes new difficulty modes, costumes, and more. Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition will cost $24.99 in the US, £19.99 in the U.K. and €24.99 in Europe and will arrive on the PS4, Xbox One and PC on June 23.

A game that has come out of nowhere but should be on your radar is Studio Wildcard's upcoming ARK: Survival Evolved, which is a multiplayer first-person survival game coming to Steam Early Access next month, and then onward to the PS4 and Xbox One in 2016.

ARK: Survival Evolved will be running a heavily modified version of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, with fully dynamic lighting and global illumination, dynamic weather systems that include rain, fog, snow and more, as well as true-to-life volumetric cloud simulation. Better yet, it will also be compatible with DirectX 12 when Microsoft launches Windows 10 later this year.

Not only will ARK: Survival Evolved be powered by the delicious Unreal Engine 4, and compatible with DX12, but it will also support VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, and Sony's Project Morpheus. There are also Mac and Linux versions being worked on, which will be announced at a later date.

During Nintendo's earnings report, the Japanese gaming giant revealed the overall Wii U sales figures, as well as updating its best-selling games list for its current generation console.

The company sold 3.38 million Wii U consoles during its last fiscal year, with the Wii U racking up a total of 9.54 million consoles as of March 31. If we compare this to its Japanese rival in Sony, which has shipped 22.3 million PlayStation 4 consoles. But when it comes to games, we finally find out which games Nintendo has been doing well on, with Mario Kart 8 being absolutely no surprise at all.

With 9.54 million Wii U consoles in the wild, Mario Kart 8 has sold 5.11 million units, meaning that over 50% of Wii U owners have purchased Mario Kart 8 which is quite big for Nintendo. New Super Mario Bros. U comes in second with 4.81 million units, while Nintendo Land comes in third with 4.68 million sales.

It was expected of Nintendo to talk about its next generation console at E3 2015 next month, but the company has confirmed that it will not be talking about its "NX" console at the show.

But, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata said that the Japanese company will be talking about its NX console sometime in 2016. The Nintendo boss teased that they are calling it a new concept, with the team not considering the NX console a replacement of the Wii U. At this point, there's no clue what Nintendo could be working on, but if it's anything like the Wii, we could expect a big change to the game console.

The new NX console will also reportedly not be held back by region locking, as the company has been listening to customer feedback and proposals from the market.

Both of the current generation consoles have 8GB of RAM, which "should be plenty for the remainder of this console generation" according to ex-Naughty Dog developer and founder of Filmic Worlds, John Hable.

During a recent interview with GamingBolt, Hable said: "In general, I would not worry about the consoles becoming outdated. Remember, the PS3 and Xbox 360 have only 512MB of RAM, but the PC versions of the same games usually require 2GB or more. On consoles you have more control over memory allocations. The 8GB of RAM in both the Xbox One and PS4 should be plenty for the remainder of this console generation".

When Hable was still with Naughty Dog, he was in control of the HDR lighting technology found in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Current generation games are now using much more complicated lighting technologies such as global illumination and physical-based rendering, so GamingBolt wanted to know where Hable thought lighting technology in games would be going next.

After hearing the rumors for Call of Duty: Black Ops III for what felt like months, it was made official last month with a release date of later this year. With three studios now developing games within the Call of Duty franchise, there must be a lot of brainpower going around.

Last year, Sledgehammer Games developed Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but this year the torch goes to Treyarch Studios for Black Ops III. Treyarch has come out and said that they communicate with the two other studios that develop Call of Duty games, with Mark Lamia from Treyarch talking with the Official PlayStation Magazine, saying: "From very early on we'll share stuff on all sides".

He continued: "I invited the other teams very early on in this development, as soon as I had what I considered a representative prototype. I shared it with the other studios, but it's up to them to come up with their own [creative ideas]". Lamia continued: "It was interesting to see that they had maybe some movements like ours, but the systems and focus they had was different from ours. I think that's important inside the franchise to have some differentiation for the players so that they can get a different experience every year".

With Project CARS now finally out, comparisons are being made between the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC versions of Slightly Mad Studios' very ambitious driving game.

The comparison we've embedded above is between the PS4 and PC versions of Project CARS, with both versions running at 1080p 60FPS. For the most part there's not much of a difference between the two, with some impressive performance coming out of the AMD APU-powered PS4. But, if you pause the video at any time, there's some very serious motion blur happening on the PS4 version of the game.

At 2:40 into the video, mountains completely disappear on the PS4 version of the game for some reason, which I'm sure is performance-related. As for the PC version, it was running on High texture resolution with AA on High, FXAA disabled, and most other settings on Ultra. Motion blur was set to High, with grass, particle levels and intensity set on Ultra.

Battlefield: Hardline is out and while most of the servers are empty, Battlefield 4 is still DICE's most-played first-person shooter. Well, the developer has said that all future DLC for Battlefield 4 will be free, and not just for Premium users, but for everybody.

DICE's David Sirland has confirmed that all future content for Battlefield 4 will be free, which includes the upcoming new maps and the new Gunmaster game mode and new weapons. With a Spring patch on its way, something that will bring on the new Gunmaster game mode, five new weapons, and more, this is great news for Battlefield 4 players.

Later in the year, DICE will release a new community map which only recently entered production. Not only that, but the developer has an unannounced map remake from a previous Battlefield game that is being worked on right now, something we should hear about in the near future.

Since its inception, The Division has had three studios working on it. Massive Entertainment are leading development, while Red Storm and Reflections have been putting their long weeks and months into the open world RPG. Massive Entertainment has now partnered up with a fourth studio, Ubisoft Annecy, which will help out on all things The Division.

Managing Director of Massive Entertainment, David Polfeldt, has talked about this collaboration, where he said: "We are very happy that Ubisoft Annecy is part of The Division's family. They are highly experienced and talented developers, adding much value to the project. Being able to work with other studios offers fantastic creative opportunities during development and, in the end, strongly benefits the overall quality of the game".

Studio Manager at Ubisoft Annecy, Rebecka Coutaz, said: "The team in Annecy is delighted to be collaborating with Massive, Red Storm and Reflections on Tom Clancy's The Division. We are bringing our previous experience in multiplayer online games and this project is allowing us to build our technical knowledge in other areas and become experts on this incredible brand. The collaboration with the other studios is going very smoothly, and we're working together to ensure we meet and exceed the high expectations players have for this new title".

After they said that it would be a PC exclusive feature, it looks as though Rockstar Games will be releasing the Rockstar Editor for Grand Theft Auto V on the consoles.

The Rockstar Editor will not be reaching the Xbox 360 or PS3 consoles, but it will be released for the Xbox One and PS4. Rockstar is hoping to have the Editor ready this summer, or as they've put it: "as soon as it is ready", which could mean 2018. Are you excited for the Rockstar Editor? Or have you been enjoying the PC version of the game, which has it baked in already.

One of my biggest memories of being a younger gamer was when Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was released on the Nintendo 64 and PC back in 1997, as it had some of the slickest graphics at the time, with a huge fog of war to hide it all and get the performance up to relatively normal numbers.

Well, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is being remade by Level Designer Samuel Villarreal. Villarreal has designed levels for games like FEAR: Perseus Mandate, Section 8, Aliens: Colonial Marines (I wouldn't want that on my resume...) and he has reportedly been working on rebuilding Turok: Dinosaur Hunter in his free time.

Villarreal talked with TechRaptor, where he said: "I was originally working on remaking N64 Turok (called Turok EX) but it got put off to the side. Since now Night Dive Studios has picked up the rights to re-release it, Turok EX will resume development later this year".

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata says his company plans to release five mobile games by March 2017, as Nintendo tries to expand its business operations.

There is no word what characters will be featured, or which titles gamers can expect, but Nintendo promised it wouldn't simply port content for smartphones and tablets.

"You may think it is a small number... but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all - and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business," Iwata said during a meeting with investors.

With Project CARS finally out, gamers across the world are beginning to feel the pain of owning an AMD Radeon video card. Some have started spreading rumors that developer Slightly Mad Studios were paid by NVIDIA to deliberately gimp the performance of AMD hardware, but this rumor is of course, very wrong.

Slightly Mad Studios boss Ian Bell has come out and talked about the performance of AMD owners in Project CARS, where he said: "We've provided AMD with 20 keys for game testing as they work on the driver side. But you only have to look at the lesser hardware in the consoles to see how optimized we are on AMD based chips".

"We're reaching out to AMD with all of our efforts. We've provided them 20 keys as I say. They were invited to work with us for years, looking through company mails the last I can see they (AMD) talked to us was October of last year". He continued: "Categorically, NVIDIA have not paid us a penny. They have though been very forthcoming with support and co-marketing work at their instigation. We've had emails back and forth with them yesterday also. I reiterate that this is mainly a driver issue but we'll obviously do anything we can from our side".

John Riccitiello, former CEO of Electronic Arts and current chief of Unity Technologies, believes the Sony PlayStation 4 has "f**king nailed it" and deserves its "victory" compared to the Microsoft Xbox One.

Sony took a "gamer-first" approach, while Microsoft tried to expand the Xbox One's possible user base with marketing towards a broad market.

"Microsoft was focused on the shot after the one they needed to make, putting the 7-ball in the corner pocket, but they missed the first shot and didn't get another shot at it," Riccitiello said during the GamesBeat Summit. "Sony focused on the shot they needed to make, which was win the hearts and minds of the gamer. The broader scope of entertainment might be a bigger idea, but not with an unfocused execution. A tight execution on the 50 million people that matter, which are the people currently lapping up consoles... Sony f**king nailed it, and they deserve the victory."

We've covered quite a lot here at TweakTown about the various match-fixing and betting ring scandals to hit the international CS:GO scene, with the first and most prominent scandal being that of some North American and Canadian pros being banned by Valve themselves for life due to their actions - we even wrapped up the international wrong-doings here in a mega-thread for you.

One of the highest profile players involved was Braxton 'swag' Pierce, a young teenage professional with many years of fragging to come ahead. Heartbroken by the ban, he announced on his public Facebook page that the ban was necessary to set a precedent and he regrets all actions.

In recent news, Swag has been kept around the gaming scene with professional North American organization 'Cloud9' announcing that it has offered him a position as their CS:GO team analyst. Yep, 'Swag analyst'.

Ubisoft has just announced Far Cry 4 Complete Edition, which will include Far Cry 4, and the Season Pass that comes with five DLC packs. This means that the Complete Edition will well and truly be the complete edition, with access to all of the missions, weapons and DLC. The Season Pass includes:

Strangely, Far Cry 4 Complete Edition will not be released on the Xbox One, and will only see the light of day on the PlayStation 4 and PC. Not only that, but it will also be limited to just a few countries: Europe, the Middle East and African territories. No release for the US, UK, or Australia.