Gaming - Page 1129

It's been a heavy three days for Grand Theft Auto 5 and Rockstar Games in Australia. Firstly a petition was made by former sex workers claiming that this blockbuster game release "encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women", once this project had received around 40,000 supporters, Target Australia decided to remove the title from their shelves, seeing Kmart Australia follow suit less than 24 hours later.

This has sparked major outrage among many 'gamer' social circles, with people citing multiple games that are based around the beheading, maiming and/or murder of males - further claiming that this GTA V fight isn't so much about social justice, as it is about 'radical feminism'.

In order to fight back, one man named Stephen Ogden has opened up his own GoPetition, urging the large Australian retailers to remove other offensive content from their shelves, including some legitimate and also some very 'troll' requests.

Sony has pushed out another update for its PlayStation 4 console, with the 2.03 patch offering up some "system software stability during use of some features has been improved".

It was only three weeks ago that Sony updated the PS4 to version 2.02, with the previous patch offering pretty much the same thing the new patch is offering, system stability. In late October, Sony offered its major 2.00 update, but that update ushered in a smorgasbord of problems. The company quickly released the early November patch which put it on the path it is now.

Target Australia had only just announced they are pulling all copies of Rockstar games' GTA V off their shelves, now another Aussie retailer has joined the pledge. K-Mart has vowed to also remove all support for this controversial title, disclosing this information to Kotaku today over the phone.

As online activists gathered a 41,000 signature petition together, Australian retail giants have started to quiver. K-marts official statement on this matter was: "Following a significant review of all content in Grand Theft Auto Games Kmart has taken the decision to remove this product immediately, Kmart apologises for not being closer to the content of this game."

Reports have brought to light that both Target and K-Mart are owned by the same corporate group, Wesfarmers, so for those in the know - this shouldn't be a huge shock as we're sure the executives are covering their behinds against some kind of apparent public uproar. Who's going to fall next? In other news, this is great for online retailers as customers will now likely take their business to the internet in search for this massively popular title.

Just yesterday we wrote about a Change.org petition to remove Rockstar's controversial next-gen release, GTA V, off popular retail chain 'Target' shelves. The petition claimed that the game was sexist, containing misogynist values and promoted violence towards and rape of women.

Target has just pushed a media release, claiming that due to public outcry the game has now been pulled from all shelves.

Their statement claims that "Target Australia will stop selling the R-rated video game Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) following feedback

Social justice has been steadily creeping its way more and more into gaming culture, seeing many people fight back on social media and news outlets posting opinion articles damning certain games, developers and personalities who express views that are alleged as misogynist, promoting senseless violence and/or rape culture.

In recent news, since the next-gen and PC release of Rockstar Studio's latest hit, Grand Theft Auto 5, there has been a major public outcry globally against the game. This passionate dislike for the game and it's morals has seeing peoples social media feeds explode with petitions to take the game off the shelves, alongside many negative opinions of the game they have worked so hard to produce.

The latest group targeting this game is a group of former sex workers, who are spearheading a Change.org petition to remove this title from the popular Australian department store, named Target. Their allegations include the statement that it "encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women".

Reports have just come to light of an error code reading "160-0103" in-game which has been causing some users' Wii U systems to brick themselves or wipe their data fully off the console.

Gamnesia originally broke this news to the public, stating that the error is only applicable to one of the consoles latest releases and further issues appear when the user tries to enter their settings to figure out the source of the problem:

"It seems that this error only shows up with Super Smash Bros., and all other games and functions work fine until you play Smash Bros. or try to enter the Data Management page on the Wii U. When trying to enter the Data Management page, people have been receiving the error code 160-1710."

343 Industries is promising a patch for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, something that should fix the matchmaking issues that the reworked series of first-person shooters has been experiencing since it launched on the Xbox One a couple of weeks ago now.

The developer has said that "the next of which will specifically make improvements to the matchmaking system and flow". Not only that, but some gamers are peeved at Microsoft over one of their promotions, with the company teasing a deal that offered 15,000 credit bonus to any Xbox Live Rewards member who purchases Halo: The Master Chief Collection before December 31.

This means that $15 of credit is up for grabs within the Xbox Live Marketplace, with early adopters arguing that this is pretty much just a discount on the game itself. Considering the issues that the game has had since launch, this isn't too good at all for both Microsoft and 343 Industries.

Valve has launched Steam Broadcasting, which if you didn't guess is the company's own version of livestreaming, ala Twitch. You can watch gamers play games through the Steam Community, and stream games yourself, if you want to.

Steam Broadcasting also offers streaming games privately, as well as to the world, so if you want to have a private broadcast between friends, the option is still there. Gamers can set Steam Broadcasting to automatically stream games to your friends list on Steam if they want to watch it, or friends can alternatively send you a request to view your stream.

This is where Valve is making it different to Twitch, which requires software to get it up and running. Steam doing it natively, and very easily, is definitely the way to go. Valve obviously has the game library to back it up, as well as a few exclusives of their own like DOTA2 and CS:GO.

Riot Games has announced that over 27 million tuned into the League of Legends finals, and even with that astonishing number of people checking in, it is still down from the 32 million the developer saw tuning in last year.

The drop is a 15% dip in viewership, but for those who did tune into the finals, they stayed around longer. Riot noted that fans averaged around 67 minutes, while last year the average was just 42 minutes. The developer also saw a larger peak, with 11.2 million people watching at a single time during the showdown between Samsung White and Royal Club, compared to the peak of 8.7 million in 2013.

Over the entire Season Three World Championship, over 70 million hours were watched online, which spanned stages from Taipei to Seoul. Riot streamed over 100 hours of live content across 15 days, in 19 languages through 40 broadcast partners.

It doesn't look like Ubisoft has learned anything from the recent release of Assassin's Creed: Unity and all of its issues, as rumors are now arriving about the next game in the series, Assassin's Creed: Victory.

The story came from Kotaku reporting that the new game would be set in 19th century London during the Victorian era, according to "a person familiar with the game" reported Kotaku, a game that would arrive in fall 2015 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Ubisoft Quebec is the studio working on the game, unlike Ubisoft Montreal which worked on the currently still a work-in-progress Assassin's Creed: Unity.

There was also seven minutes of "target gameplay footage" which was shown, which was being rendered in real-time by the Assassin's Creed engine, and not pre-rendered. Personally, I think Ubisoft needs to be very, very cautious with this release. I think we should see a demo of the game released, so that the faith can be restored into the series, as I think over half the audience of the series would be very unsure of trusting Ubisoft again with another Assassin's Creed game following the recent train wreck that was the AC:U launch.

It appears the Microsoft Xbox One carried its recent momentum into Black Friday, outselling the Sony PlayStation 4 in the United States, according to a report from InfoScout. Sixty-six percent of consumers purchased a console for their children, with 92 percent of Nintendo Wii U buyers reporting a purchase for their kids - while 66 percent of Xbox One and 50 percent of PS4 buyers making a purchase for someone else.

Microsoft sold several appealing game console bundles, including its Assassin's Creed Unity Xbox One bundle - and a recent price drop - also seemed to help Microsoft.

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo prepared for what they hoped would be a busy 2014 holiday shopping season, and it seems to be off to a great start.

We've been told not to read early reviews of The Crew, as Ubisoft couldn't provide game reviewers with the right situation to play in. But now the Lead Game Designer of The Crew, Serkan Hasan, has said that the upcoming game should have no problems at launch.

Hasan talked with The Metropolist, where he said that the Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions of The Crew will be working at 1080p at 30FPS at launch. He also said that he had faith in the game's online functionality, explaining that he has confidence in The Crew, as it has "reaped the benefits of a long term beta program, designed specifically to push our infrastructure as far as possible in real-world situations, with thousands of players from all over the world playing the game at the same time".

This news is coming after Ubisoft stated that copies of The Crew were not sent out to the press in advance, like they normally are. The reason behind this is that the press couldn't review a driving game that is primarily an online, social title, without ripping apart these functions in their review. The Crew requires "thousands and thousands and thousands of players - something that can't be simulated with a handful of devs playing alongside the press".

Rocksteady Studios is back in the driving seat of the Batman series, with Batman: Arkham Knight being revealed during their recent AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit (with some spoilers for Batman: Arkham City, so if you haven't played that, turn your eyes off).

The studio revealed that Arkham Knight will continue right after the Joker's death, with the studio adding that the Joker's death is the point we jump off, asking "what happens when Joker is removed from Gotham" and then looking at the fallout from this event. Batman's suit also mirrors the Batmobile in many ways, with Rocksteady adding that the new suit "impacts gameplay as well, as it enhances some of Batman's abilities, particularly in the way the Batman and the car work together".

When it comes to the Batmobile, this is the biggest addition to the Arkham Knight, with Rocksteady teasing that there will be some missions that require the Batmobile in order to complete them. Rocksteady said: "When we added the Batmobile to the game, we wanted to make sure it's a fun, meaningful addition to every part of the game. Batman wouldn't use it if he didn't need it. So there will be points in the main story where you will need to use the Batmobile to progress, and if you're anything like me, there will be points where you can't use the Batmobile and wish it was there!".

Rumored to be due to either Black Friday sales, a DDoS attack succession or a combination of the two - Blizzard's Battle.net servers are reportedly experiencing major lag issues in several different forms.

You may have noticed that by trying to log in to the Battle.net client will you experience a wait of up to 25 minutes. Once you have finally managed to connect to their service, you'll likely see that not only are you unable to connect to view or chat to your friends, but you're unable to launch any games within.

Talking to some of my most loyal Blizzard friends, they have reported the ability to play games such as World of Warcraft as close as twenty minutes prior to the publishing of this article - however some reports claim up to 5 seconds of in-game delay (ping) among other technical glitches.

Telltale Games' upcoming Game of Thrones game is nearly here, with the first episode arriving on December 2 for PC, Mac, and the PS4. The next day, on December 3, it will arrive for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, while on December 4 it will arrive on iOS. PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until December 9.

The game itself takes place toward the end of season three in the HBO show, and before the start of season five. Gamers will be propelled into House Forrester, a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Players will be able to play through five different perspectives in the game, from servants to House members.

Some of the talent from the show are coming back to reprise their roles for Telltale's game, including Tyrion Lannister performed by Peter Dinklage, Cersei Lannister performed by Lena Headey, Margaery Tyrell performed by Natalie Dormer, and Ramsay Snow performed by Iwan Rheon.

Star Citizen is edging close to $64 million in crowdfunding, with the CryEngine-powered title sitting at just under $63.5 million at the time of writing. Roberts Space Industries has now announced that there will be a pet system introduced once the game hits $64 million.

RSI explains it as: "Pets - We have repair bots, we have fish... but we haven't implemented a traditional pet system in Star Citizen yet. At $64 million, that changes. From Jones the Cat in Alien to the Battlestar Galactica's Daggit, pets have a place onboard starships... and we want to give you that option in Star Citizen. Expect traditional terrestrial options, plus anything exotic we can dream up in the Star Citizen universe! (Those Torshu Grey crabs that keep escaping are just the start.) This stretch goal is in honor of Paddington, Strike Dog of the UEES Paul Steed. In one of our first videos Paddington helped us get to $4 million back in the initial campaign, and sadly passed away recently".

The Sony PlayStation 4 has enjoyed a significant sales lead over the Microsoft Xbox One throughout 2014, but after a price cut, Microsoft is reportedly closing the gap. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, now is the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to make the next-generation console market even more competitive.

The Xbox One has some major exclusive titles: Forza Motorsport 5, Forza Horizon, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Sunset Overdrive. Game titles such as Titanfall are available for the PC, but not on the PS4 - and only boost the Xbox One's catalog even further.

It will be telling to see how each company does after the holidays, with consumers expected to open up their wallets to spend on gaming hardware and software this year, analysts predict.

After 12 months on Steam's Early Access, DayZ is getting some much needed updates, with its developer finally coming clean on what's going on with the open-world game next year.

Bohemia Interactive have said that two very important things will happen for DayZ next year, with the first being it will reach beta in Q4 2015 - a year from now - and that the final version will launch in the first half of 2016. DayZ will continue to be $30 during the Steam Fall Sale, which starts today, but it will increase to $35, and then $44 when the launch of the beta kicks off. The final version of DayZ will be $50.

The developer is splitting the updates into quarterly released, where in Q1 2015, we will see DayZ updated with a new zombie AI, basic vehicles, diseases and more. Q2 will see advanced vehicles, advanced animals, a new UI, player stamina, and more. Q3 will have traps, barricading, aerial transport, and a console prototype. Then in Q4, we'll see the beta unleashed, as well as animal companions, base building and Steam community integration.

The launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity didn't go too well at all, with the game still experiencing teething problems. Ubisoft has now come out and apologized to everyone, announcing it will be providing its upcoming "Dead Kings" expansion pack for free, to all AC:U players, as a way of saying sorry for shipping a clearly, very broken game.

Ubisoft Montreal boss, Yannis Mallat, took to a blog writing: "Unfortunately, at launch, the overall quality of the game was diminished by bugs and unexpected technical issues. I want to sincerely apologise on behalf of Ubisoft and the entire Assassin's Creed team. These problems took away from your enjoyment of the game, and kept many of you from experiencing the game at its fullest potential".

For those who purchased the season pass or Gold edition of Assassin's Creed: Unity will get the DLC for 'free' anyway, so these people will be offered a free game. You can choose from Far Cry 4, The Crew, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 2015.

Last week we reported on Thimbleweed Park, the "true spiritual successor" to the super-awesome Maniac Mansion, which hit Kickstarter with a funding goal of $375,000. Well, one week later, it has been met, and isn't stopping.

At the time of writing, they had $407,384 raised, with 22 days to go. If funding keeps up at this pace, they'll have a couple of million dollars to play with. Stretch Goals are now within reach, with $525,000 unlocking an iOS and Android version of the game. If the team reaches $625,000 they will provide "Talkies" with the team explaining "considered witchcraft and a fantasy of crazy people back in 1987, we'll be adding full voice acting to the English version of Thimbleweed Park. Hmmm... that's good thespian".

It'll be interesting to see backers flying past that $625,000 stretch goal soon, and even more interesting if we see new stretch goals introduced, or additional funding on their website ala Star Citizen.