Gaming - Page 1127

During a recent interview with Bloomberg, 343 Industries' General Manager Bonnie Ross said that when the studio opened up seven years ago, her goal was to keep Microsoft's Halo franchise ticking along for 30... years. Ross said: "I wanted to make sure we were able to go another three decades."

Ross continued, talking about forming the studio itself, saying it was "the most challenging thing I've ever done." When it came to Halo, the 343 Industries boss said that she wanted the Halo games to have "characters that people can identify with" with both "heroic females and heroic males." Ross wanted to see more females in the games industry, where she added "It's really important for us to get young female talent, because they are the future. It's important to have leadership roles across the industry that people can aspire to."

When it comes to the Halo franchise, the next release will be in 2015 with Halo 5: Guardians. We also have Halo: Nightfall, which is the first live action TV show in the Halo franchise history. The last release, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, has been a broken mess since launch, with subsequent patches getting it into better working order, but it's not perfect yet.

Ubisoft had planned to release another patch for Assassin's Creed: Unity, which is still broken for some people, but the company has delayed the fourth patch to the game citing "additional issues that need to be corrected in the game before the update can be made available" reports Joystiq.

The company issued a community update, where it said "We are committed to delivering major performance improvements, which requires that we refurbish the Paris map and that will take a few more days to hit the high level of quality our players deserve." Ubisoft has been updating AC:U since its release, with various game-breaking bugs, performance-related issues and much more, with this latest patch being another notch in AC:U's troubled launch.

The latest version of the iCEnhancer for Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC is here, adding some very impressive in-game effects such as improved lighting, rain, color processing, texture detail, depth of field and much more. The gameplay and visual fidelity of GTA IV has been improved greatly, bringing it up to the next-gen version of GTA V on the Xbox One and PS4, and in some ways, surpassing it.

iCEnhancer is continuously updated, with the latest version dubbed iCEnhancer C, which promises a simplified system. We should expect improved stability, less fog effects, improved shaders, and much more. The modder behind iCEnhancer, Hayssam 'icelaglace' Keilany has said that the new GTA IV iCEnhancer C mod is based on two presets: the first of which is a less realistic one. The second on the other hand, adds some improved graphical effects that make the game look even better than some next-gen titles out today. A list of features, something that is quite long, can be found below:

4A Games has released both the Linux and SteamOS versions of its Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux games, with both versions featuring Steam Play support. This means that if you've already bought them, the Linux and SteamOS versions are automatically added to your Steam Library.

4A Games' Chief Technical Officer Oles Shishkovstov said: "Thanks to huge advances in driver support, the Metro Redux titles were developed for Linux using OpenGL 4.0. This has allowed us to deliver an experience that rivals the DX11 version for Windows in terms of graphical fidelity and performance - something that was just not possible when we ported the original Metro: Last Light to Linux a year ago".

Linux gamers will receive all of the graphical bells and whistles that the Windows version supports, something that includes SSAA, Motion Blur, NVIDIA's PhsyX technology, and more. 4A Games will be releasing an Open GL 4.0 version of the game that will be released for the Mac later this month. What will you need to run the game on Linux? Here are the minimum and recommended requirements:

Bungie issued a release this week, stating that "something else that deserves mention is that the BanHammer has been a-swingin'. A review of the bans applied over the last week shows that all of the affected accounts had logged into Destiny on a modified console at some point", asking their customers to "play nice! And use the boxes that your favorite retailer 'gave' you."

Given this quote they didn't outright tell consumers to only use non-modified consoles, but it's certainly heavily implied. They made sure to mention this console issue after commenting on their BanHammer, saying that "ninja Justice is always swift and final".

There have been multiple recorded cases online of in-game cheats being used through the utilization of modded consoles and it seems like Bungie have had enough. If you're running a custom previous, or next gen console, you might want to steer clear of this game.

The Capcom Pro Tour 2015 season is about to hit the big time as confirmed by Yoshinori Ono.

Next years tournament will feature a hefty $500,000 total prize pool as announced in this years live Capcom Cup finals which are currently being run live on stream. Yoshinori Ono took the stage, announcing that the Capcom Pro Tour 2015 would be going ahead once again, but with a slight difference thanks to a partnership with Sony.

He stated that the total prize pool will be 'at least' $500k, meaning that there is room for improvement. Usually when we see a big name sponsor jump on board like this, many others become interested in a slice of the exposure, meaning that there's no saying where this number could progress to. Hopefully sponsor bids haven't closed and we can see this prize pool elevate to much higher levels.

Mojang and Warner Bros. have been having discussions about a Minecraft movie, with Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy walking away from the project. Levy was brought on to work on a Minecraft movie, but Mojang didn't like the idea of an adventure movie similar to 1985's The Goonies.

Levy talked with The Wall Street Journal saying: "How might this ever be a story for a movie? Because it's not a narrative game. And we came up with an approach that felt good to us, and I discussed it with Mojang". Levy continued, saying that his idea wasn't exactly a comedy, but "It had a bit of a Goonies flair. ... It was an adventure movie, and I thought it could have been a lot of fun and fulfilled a lot of the qualities that people love about the game".

The director said that Mojang didn't see it that way, with Levy continuing: "And they're like, 'That doesn't sound like what we want. If we're going to see a movie get made, we don't know what we want, but that doesn't feel right". Levy had four other movies to work on going into the New Year, where he added: "The truth is there is a long history of trying to make great movies out of games, and they're rarely done well. Mojang is still figuring out what they want. We gave it a shot and it wasn't the right fit, so, these things happen".

You probably thought Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has been selling millions upon millions of games, and with it being better received than the last Call of Duty outing - Call of Duty: Ghosts - most would think the sales would've been beating Ghosts, but that's not the case.

When it comes to retail copies in the US, Advanced Warfare has sold around 27% less than Ghosts did last year. Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson has noticed the downward trend based on figures from stat-tracking firm NPD. According to NPD's November report, Activision sales were down 22% for the month, with Advanced Warfare seeing a 27% year-over-year decline in sales compared to Ghosts.

Olsen said: "This is disappointing data following first week Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sales showing a year-over-year increase. NPD data does not include digital copies or international sales, which, if included, would lessen the year-over-year decline, but we believe this data suggests potential for Q4 revenue upside is now very low". While a 27% drop might sound bad, consider that Advanced Warfare has been the best-selling retail game of the year in the US. Activision announced earlier today: "In only its first month of release, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is already the number one top-selling console game of the year through November in the U.S. overall, as well as individually on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3".

The Sony PlayStation 4 - and the company's overall gaming portfolio - has done well, while Sony struggles company-wide with six financial losses over the past seven years. Specifically, Sony looks to transition gamers to PlayStation Now, a streaming game service available for its consoles, and that has required large investments and careful preparation.

Sony has increased efforts to purchase surfers and investing more in cloud technology, so it will be able to increase stability of PlayStation Now. Even though Sony could cannibalize its own PS4 hardware - the company understands it should work towards embracing cloud-based gaming as soon as it feels ready to. Gamers only need game controllers and PS Now provides around 200 game titles that are sent directly to any high-definition TV.

"If you look at other forms of entertainment and the dramatic impact streaming has had on those, that says to us that there's clearly a strong consumer satisfaction with the instant gratification that's provided by streaming experiences," said Andrew House, Sony Computer Entertainment president, in a recent statement published by Bloomberg Businessweek. "We think that has a role to play in the future of games, as well."

Skyrim has seemingly become that game that will never stop evolving, but not in the way that most may think. There's games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and World of Warcraft that receive constant patch updates, content and special activities added by their original developers - but what if a game was kept afloat through mods from the community?

As first made aware to us by Kotaku, they quote this Enderal Skyrim mod as "a total conversion Skyrim mod that adds an entire new world to the game".

Looking at the trailer above, this mod can be described as nothing but stunning. Professional camera work and a vast world of content are displayed - looking something like a full expansion for this popular RPG title. Containing its own skill system, characters, locations and classes, you would be forgiven for thinking this is a complete stand-alone game title.

Nintendo will release Yoshi's Wooly World for the Wii U in early 2015, with the Good-Feel Company game developer firm providing assistance. Yoshi's Wooly World presents a unique gaming environment, featuring characters made of yarn, wool and other materials. The game was originally shown off during E3 2014 earlier this year, but Nintendo only confirmed it would be released sometime in 2015.

"We said we wanted to make a Yoshi game, but we asked them to use the yarn and fabric as materials for creating new gameplay mechanics to create a new kind of Yoshi game filled with those kinds of elements," said Takashi Tezuka, Nintendo video game designer, during a Nintendo Direct presentation.

It has been an extremely busy time for console manufacturers and game studios, and Nintendo has enjoyed recent success with the Wii U. The launch of Yoshi's Wooly World in early 2015 could help generate additional sales for the gaming unit.

Marking a turn of events, Microsoft has claimed that their Xbox One model has bested Sony's PlayStation 4 in monthly sales across the United States and the United Kingdom throughout the month of November, 2014.

Alongside this being a record month for Xbox, they've finally edged ahead of their main competition in two of their major countries. Mike Nichols, corporate vice president of Xbox marketing couldn't be happier with the reports, claiming the response to their holiday lineup of games as "incredible, with Xbox One fans buying more games in November in the U.S. than any other gen eight platform and enjoying over 357 million hours of gameplay globally".

Nichols added "In fact, more fans logged into Xbox Live across Xbox One and Xbox 360, and enjoyed more entertainment, than any other month in the history of Xbox".

The launch of Driveclub on the PlayStation 4 has been nothing but a mess, and even though Evolution Studios has been doing an amazing job patching up the game since its launch, Sony's UK Managing Director Fergal Gara, isn't happy.

Gara spoke with IGN, saying that he and the Driveclub team are "embarrassed" by the performance of the game so far. He continued: "It's a disappointment. When you lay your soul out as being '4ThePlayers', then what you certainly don't want is games that are not fully ready. It certainly wasn't any ill-intention on behalf of the team. It's ambitious as a game; they're as embarrassed as we are and all you can do in those situations is say sorry. We apologize to any players affected and are doing our damndest to make things right. So that's what we've been doing and the game is pretty near-complete now. We don't want to introduce the PS Plus Edition until we're confident the servers can take the load".

Evolution Studios have been patching up the game, with the latest update to Driveclub introducing some super impressive dynamic weather effects to the already very pretty driving title.

Valve has just given one of Counter-Strike's most famous maps a new look and feel, with Train being updated with new higher-end graphics and a bit of a tweak to the gameplay, too.

The company reworked the map from the ground up in order to "improve both the visual appearance and competitive gameplay balance of this iconic location" the company wrote on its Counter-Strike blog. Valve continued: "Our primary goals were to improve the gameplay balance of the map while simultaneously upgrading the overall visual experience. This meant making more intuitive layout changes, then re-interpreting large and small-scale environment elements to improve judgement of space and distance".

Valve have a before-and-after shot available on their Counter-Strike blog, which gives you a great look at just how much work they've done to Train. We've taken a screenshot of that above, to give you a quick look at what to expect. The company goes into great detail on the big, and subtle changes it has done to Train, so check out the full blog article here.

The creator of DayZ has officially announced his new studio, as he leaves his first job behind him at Bohemia Interactive. Dean Hall has promised to continue helping the team finish DayZ, which is preparing for a 2016 launch.

Hall spoke with Polygon, which asked if he was officially no longer with Bohemia Interactive, to which Hall replied "While my role as project lead officially winds up, my involvement continues as the creator. Bohemia are not only people I've worked with, but they're close friends. We have an ongoing relationship and I'm committed to providing whatever support and assistance that is appropriate and required for the title to continue to succeed. I'm excited by the continued progress of DayZ into a much more streamlined and traditional production development cycle".

There's not much known about Hall's new studio, but he did say "Not much to really say at the moment, the focus of the studio is to make games that we want to play. As a consumer I get quite frustrated when movies/games are announced very far in advance. I know why it's done but I don't like it and hopefully I can make games without having to resort to that. So for the moment I'm keeping quiet about what we are doing until I have something worthwhile to say".

The reclusive China regime, and its hordes of censors, have kept consoles out of the country for the last 14 years by instituting an all-encompassing ban. This draconian ban was lifted just a few short months ago, and Microsoft capitalized on the opportunity by quickly shipping units into the country. Now, four months later, Sony is following Microsoft's lead. The Sony PlayStation 4 will debut in China on January 11th.

Entering the China market isn't easy. The games must make a run through the censor gauntlet, which routinely denies 'licenses' for many of today's top games. It's safe to say that Grand Theft Auto isn't going to make the cut. Microsoft's console is selling in China with only 10 games that passed muster with the censors, but Microsoft predominantly submitted sports games that faced little chance of being flagged by 'cultural censors'. Sony is being a bit more aggressive by applying for licences for 30 games, and several have already made it through. The Sony PS4 will go on sale for roughly 2,899 yuan ($468 USD), in comparison to the more pricey Xbox One at 3,699 yuan ($568 USD).

Entering the China market holds untold profits from a massive audience that doesn't have access to older platforms. Users in the US and other countries tend to hold off on upgrades, simply because they tend to have older units with an extensive amount of games and accessories. This makes upgrade cycles drag out over long periods of time. China has no existing console market, so every customer will pony up their hard earned yuans for the new consoles, accessories and games. China also has the largest pool of customers on the planet, so the earning potential is through the roof.

The Sony PlayStation 4 game console has continually outsold the rival Microsoft Xbox One since both were launched in late 2013 - and while the race is tightening - Sony believes year two will be a bigger success. Sony has learned it takes a bit of time for each new console platform to mature, which could open the floodgates even further.

"I really believe it's year two when you tend to see those titles come through that start to define the whole generation," said Fergai Gara, Sony UK executive. "The best is yet to come on PS4. We've seen a brilliant start with the mega-franchises, like the FIFAs, Call of Duties, and the Assassin's Creeds, but we've also seen some strong new IPs launch - the likes of Destiny and Watch Dogs. But I think that the ones that are truly to define the generation are probably still to come, to be honest."

Consumers are spending money on gaming hardware and video games, so both Sony and Microsoft should be able to enjoy success in 2015.

Microsoft really made a name for itself with the Flight Simulator games, but after last year's free-to-play Microsoft Flight, all has ended for the game.... until now. Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition is coming, thanks to Dovetail Games.

You've probably never heard of Dovetail Games, but they're the developer who released Train Simulator, and are now working on the re-release of FSX. The company secured the rights to develop games using Microsoft's flight simulator technology, with the deal including the rights to re-release FSX on Steam. You might think this is ages away, but Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition is coming soon, very soon: December 18, to be precise - or, a week from now.

Dovetail explains the game: "Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition delivers an authentically accurate aerial experience for simulation enthusiasts and those with a passion for all things flight. Pilots can climb into the cockpits of over twenty aircraft, from commercial and fighter jets to single-engine private planes and helicopters. More than 80 missions will test players in a variety of ways, including search and rescue challenges, test pilot scenarios, races and more. The game features updated multiplayer functionality, Windows 8.1 support and over 24,000 airports, delivering a beautiful, connected world and vast horizon begging to be explored".

According to an image posted on Instagram by Stephen Lunsford, who starred in MTV's 'Teen Wolf', he is working with Crystal Dynamics. Crystal Dynamics being the developer of the recent Tomb Raider reboot, and the upcoming Xbox One timed exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Lunsford explained that he "will be creating a [Tomb Raider] mini-series to be released with Rise of The Tomb Raider" that will be both a prequel to the upcoming Xbox One timed exclusive, and an "eventual" live-action feature. We don't know what capacity Lunsford plays in the live-action mini-series, but this is exciting news for Tomb Raider fans.

We know that The Witcher 3 has been delayed, and while that might disappoint most gamers it could be good for the game. A couple of days ago CD Projekt Red announced it had delayed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt until May 19, 2015.

Adam Kiciński, a member of the Board of CD Projekt Red talked with Eurogamer, talked about not wanting to release The Witcher 3 early. He said that gamers "took our decision very well. [The] market is afraid of badly polished games on next-gen platforms". He added: "We want to disarm the opinion that [The Witcher 3] doesn't exist. It will be closed by the end of the year in line with the schedule". Kiciński said that the Board agreed that the company set the February 2015 release date too early, he said: "We announced the release date very early and we're paying for it now".

Kiciński continued: "There's a lot of small errors though, because the game is huge. It's the only reason behind the delay. We didn't assume it will be this big. Only after putting all the pieces together it turned out it's bigger than the two first put together. Let me remind you: it's open and not linear. We are just learning how to play it and we have to catch the little pieces. We know what to do, we just have to do it. We don't want to release the game with bugs that undermine the gameplay".