Gaming - Page 1133

EA has officially announced Battlefield Hardline Premium, which is virtually identical to the other Premium services for the previous titles in the Battlefield franchise.

Battlefield Hardline Premium will cost $50, offering gamers four new "super features" which include: masks, gun bench, competitive play and legendary status. Not only that, but you'll get two weeks early access to the four story-themed DLC packs, as well as monthly rewards and access to "exclusive in-game events and items".

Here's a detailed list of what Battlefield Hardline Premium has on offer:

Ubisoft doesn't have much trust with gamers, especially PC gamers, but The Division is still continuing to shape up nicely - even if it looks like its graphics have been watered down over time. A closed beta of the game is currently active, with a bunch of people playing The Division and discussing specific gameplay details and more.

The participants have detailed the way players will enter 'Dark Zones' which are public combative spaces within The Division, which are both cooperative and competitive, filled with friendlies and enemies. Players must pass through a decontamination chamber when entering and leaving the Dark Zone. There are special weapons are gear that you can collect in the Dark Zones, but you must pass through the decontamination process in order to have these weapons and items become a permanent part of your kit.

These Dark Zones in The Division feature up to, or around 100 players. Other players in here can act as friendlies, but hostile players can be killed, which build up something called a reputation meter. Once your reputation meter begins to build, you become more visible on the in-game mini map. You and your team can choose to work together with another team, with alpha players saying that there have been scenarios where players hide on rooftops, scale up and down buildings with grappling hooks, and more.

As told to us by RagnarRox, Valve has set a press release aside for GDC at 3pm on the 3rd of march. Let me run that by you again - 3pm on 3/3.

What's even funnier? With GDC being held in San Francisco, San means three in Japanese - further adding to the madness of 3's. There has been numerous funny attempts to prove HL3's existence by the gaming public, becoming a meme-like process as seen with the popular Illuminati proof videos and articles you often see.

However this time the 3's have lined up in ridiculous fashion - could it be that Half-Life 3 is on the way?

Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a timed exclusive on the Xbox One, but what use is that tight relationship with Microsoft if you're not going to make the Xbox One version of the game stand out from the crowd?

Crystal Dynamics, the developer who rebooted the series with Tomb Raider a couple of years ago now, has said that they pushed the Xbox 360 development over to Nixxes Software, so that they could focus on "pushing the boundaries" on the Xbox One version of Rise of the Tomb Raider. During a recent interview with Game Informer, Rise of the Tomb Raider's Game Director, Brian Horton, said they outsourced the development of Rise of the Tomb Raider to Nixxes Software so that the studio could "concentrate 100% on the Xbox One version".

Horton said that the two versions of the game won't be all that different, but the Xbox 360 version of the game will obviously need to be modified as it doesn't have the graphical prowess that the Xbox One has access to. He said: "For us, of course, we are not limited at all, we are pushing the boundaries when it comes to what the Xbox One can do, and we are excited that we have such a talented group in Nixxes to bring the best 360 version to the market".

Joel "emilio" Mako was slapped with a Valve Anti-Cheat ban (VAC ban) whilst playing in a match against rival team HellRaisers in an online tournament match, which saw his gaming team releasing him immediately.

VAC ban's generally come in waves, with multiple players being banned in one go and this action happening often weeks after their cheating experience took place - this helps create confusion as to exactly what cheat program the hackers have used as they are not told exactly what got them banned.

Mako claimed he was not guilty and in an interview with HLTV he stated that "I am leaving this in Valve's hands. I cannot prove my innocence, but I know they can."

Battlefield Hardline isn't too far away now, so EA is getting down and dirty with getting the game out there, with Mike Gloseski from EA taking to the official Battlefield website to talk the game up.

Glosecki concentrated on the PC side of things, addressing the 'power of PCs', 'how stable will the game be on PC' and more. When talking about the power of PCs, Gloseski said that the PC "allows you to customize the experience to your liking" and that you can set specific graphical details in the game, compared to its console counterparts. He added: "You can adjust your field of view or run higher than 60 FPS if you choose. You can even play with a three monitor setup for an immersive experience. Lastly, you get to use a mouse and keyboard which gives you the best control setup for a first person shooter".

One of the better additions to this post was that he tackled a big question: "how stable will the game be on PC". Glosecki said: "I think we can all agree that Battlefield 4's stability at launch was less than stellar. In order to address stability for our game at launch, we've had the game up and running in the multiplayer environment for the last two years with both the development and quality assurance teams playing in daily matches". Another nice change is that the developer is "also making changes to Battlelog to include a new pop-up on how to activate the plugin in your browser since this was an issue for some of our players".

Overkill Software has announced that Payday 2: Crimewave Edition will be released for the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 this June. The game will run in 1080p, with the game studio also including enhanced textures, and faster frame rates for console players.

"We're relaunching Payday 2 for the new platforms," said Almir Listo, producer at Overkill Software, told Eurogamer. "You'll get a year's worth of post-launch updates for the PC version available from the get-go - that's both the paid-for and free content."

Payday 2 has racked up 9 million copies sold for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 after launching in August 2013.

Techland, the developer behind Dying Light, has announced a special edition of the game that costs an insane $386,000. Yes, nearly half a million dollars for a video game.

The My Apocalypse Collectors Edition costs $386,000 but includes a real-world zombie-proof shelter, a round trip package to visit the Techland studio in Poland, night vision goggles, parkour lessons, Razer Tiamat headphones, and much more. Techland will be offering up just a single version of the My Apocalypse Collectors Edition, which is available exclusively through UK retailer GAME.

At least for that $386,000 you're getting a real-world "zombie apocalypse-proofed house" that Tiger Log Cabins will build for you. The zombie-proof house will come with some bells and whistles, including live-in amenities, as well as a TV, Xbox One and a sound system.

Battlefield Hardline has a launch date of March 17, but it will release five days earlier for EA Access members, with those gamers able to play the cops-and-robbers first-person shooter from EA and Visceral Games on my birthday, March 12. EA Access is an exclusive to the Xbox One, which means no early play for PC or PlayStation gamers.

The five-day trial will allow EA Access members to play the full version of Battlefield Hardline, but for only 10 hours in total. EA Access normally offers six hours of trial before the game goes live, so this is a nice four hour addition. The entire game will be accessible: all maps and modes in Battlefield Hardline's multiplayer component will be playable. As for the single player side of the game, only the first chapter of the story and the prologue will be made available.

Any and all progress will be carried over to the full game when it launches on March 17, which is a nice touch. EA Access customers can purchase Battlefield Hardline from the Xbox Games Store with a 10% discount, dropping its $59.99 price down to $53.99.

Rocksteady Games has unveiled the official Batman: Arkham Knight trailer, dubbed "Gotham is Mine". The trailer shows off what we can expect from the epic conclusion to the Rocksteady Batman: Arkham trilogy.

The developer says: "As Scarecrow unites the Rogues Gallery, including Two-Face, The Penguin, the Riddler, the Arkham Knight, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, they bring all-out war as they try to take down The Dark Knight, and claim Gotham City as their own". The trailer doesn't show off much actual gameplay, but it does provide a great tease of all the characters and environments we'll get to see, and explore.

Batman: Arkham Knight will be released on June 2, 2015.

For fans of LittleBigPlanet on the PlayStation, you might be interested in taking a look at 'Hunger' from Tarsier. Tarsier was actually behind the PS Vita version of LittleBigPlanet, but their new game is shaping up to be something very special, exclusive to the PS4.

In Hunger you play a girl that is trapped in a beautiful labyrinth that is filled with monsters and all sorts of gorgeous environments with very realistic lighting, shadows and physics judging by the teaser video above. Tarsier is focusing on tactile controls, very unique camera perspectives, and characters with "soft, dark centers".

We should expect to see more of Hunger at GDC 2015, if not I'm sure we'll get more of a taste for the PS4 exclusive at E3 2015 in June.

Epic Games has released Unreal Engine 4.7, an update that it calls "our biggest yet" that has "the power to render huge numbers of instanced objects in large worlds, beautiful rendering of leaves and foliage, HDR texture support, in-editor animation editing, along with hundreds of optimizations and improvements". It was only yesterday that we teased what a fan-made video using Unreal Engine 4 was capable of.

One of the stand out features with Unreal Engine 4.7 is the addition of the new Foliage Shading Model, which allows for light to be transmitted through grass, leaves, paper, and other materials. The result, is super realistic lighting onto foliage, as you can see in the above shot. Epic Games explains that "diffuse lighting on the opposite side of the surface becomes transmissive lighting on the side being shaded". The latest update to Epic Games' graphics engine has its foliage system updated, which is now optimized for "huge, open environments".

There are various other new tweaks and additions baked into Unreal Engine 4.7, with another notable feature being HTML5 and WebGL support (for Windows only). This means that Unreal Engine 4.7 users can package and run their games in their Web browser using binary tools that you get through the Launcher.

EA and DICE are currently walking the minefield that is game development, where it has to be careful with its next release after the not-so-well received Battlefield: Hardline. Star Wars: Battlefront is that next release.

During Sony's reveal on its upcoming games for the PlayStation this year, the Japanese giant teased Star Wars: Battlefront for a Winter 2015 release. We are being told to expect a large and expansive single player experience, where Star Wars fans being in their element. As for the multiplayer side of things, we can expect the usual goodness from DICE, we hope. With the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015 right around the corner, we could see EA and DICE tease it there, but E3 2015 is also not that far away now.

Star Wars: Battlefront has a Winter 2015 release date, and will hit the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Microsoft and 343 Industries released Halo: The Master Chief Collection onto the Xbox One some four months ago now, but even to this day, the game is still broken. Matchmaking and lobby systems still don't work, and this is a serious problem.

There have been countless problems found in the game, various patches, and game breaking bugs that have plagued the game since launch. But don't worry, it gets better. 343 Industries has created an achievement in the game called "Stick With It" that awards players for sticking with the game. Except, this achievement is also buggy, and won't unlock.

Just in case you weren't sure if eSports and professional gaming is reaching the general public just yet, I want to remind you all about that one time this world-class CS:GO team got themselves their own chocolate bar.

Ninjas in Pajamas (NiP) previously played host to the best CS:GO team in the world - by far, still managing to place highly in events, they once won 10 tournaments in a row without losing a single series to any team. Later on they developed into a larger organization, seeing a foray into League of Legends and Dota 2 expand them further into the market.

On April 2, 2014, the news was broken on their website that NiP would be collaborating with Candy People in order to produce their own chocolate bar product. Originally released as an April Fools joke, it was re-released as fact the day after.

While Epic Games' founder Tim Sweeney is teasing that VR will be indistinguishable from real life within 10 years, the company has just announced its Unreal Dev Grants program that will see developers working in and around its powerful Unreal Engine 4.

Epic Games has placed $5 million into the kitty for Unreal Dev Grants, where the studio will award developers amounts between $5000 and $50,000. Better yet, the studio will not be attaching any strings to the project. Tim Sweeney has weighed into the chat about Unreal Dev Grants, where he said that in order to fund the release of his first game, Sweeney borrowed his father's tractor and spent two entire summers mowing lawns. He said that the cost of getting games from the prototype stage to finished projects takes much more than just a part-time summer job.

Sweeney spoke with Polygon, where he said: "There's absolutely no substitute for money because some of these things require real-world expenses and can't be solved just by creativity and motivation alone". He added: "It's really hard for an indie now, given how crowded the market is. Even if you're going to start a Kickstarter campaign, that takes a significant effort. And that's a big change from the original days. So we set up this grant program to help people make that first big leap, which we see pretty consistently now requires some financial resources".

Rock Band was a staple of parties and catch ups with friends, but with the PS4 and Xbox One now here, it's all but dried up. That is, until a new report from Bloomberg teased that Harmonix is working on a new Rock Band title for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles.

Harmonix was asked to comment on the news, with the developer telling Eurogamer: "We're excited by how enthusiastic our fans have been in regards to our most recent DLC releases, and we think it's awesome that people are speculating about the future of the franchise!" The developer continued: "While we don't have anything to announce, hundreds of thousands of unique users are still actively playing Rock Band games each month. This passion our fans have shown for Rock Band over the years suggests that rock truly hasn't died, and we've always been clear that we'd love to return to the franchise when the time is right".

Considering the last Rock Band game was released in 2012 as Rock Band Blitz, it's about damn time we see another Rock Band game, especially with the new consoles now here!

Set inside the 15,000-seat stadium called Lanxess Arena, the second largest multifunction arena in Europe, ESL has announced they will be running the "world's largest CS:GO event" on August 22 and 23, 2015.

This tournament marks the fourth time ESL has offered $250,000 on the table in only two years, however this event has been reported by HLTV to be financed and conducted directly by ESL - with no skin or sticker monetary support from the community.

The team qualification details have not yet been released, however we are told that there will be 16 teams in total fighting it out for the top spot. We also know that live spectator tickets will be available for purchase on February 23 through Eventim and various other ticketing agencies.

The gaming market is alive and well, with PC and console gamers both enjoying hardware and software titles available to them. Sony and Microsoft have a lot to be thankful for, as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox are enjoying appealing titles able to keep gamers interested.

Both saw strong year one shipments - and the global install base for both consoles has been extremely successful.

"Despite reports to the contrary, the game console market is not dead," said Eric Smith, senior analyst for connected home devices at Strategy Analytics, in a statement published by Venture Beat. "Core gamers have moved faster to this current generation than in any previous generation. The main difference in this generation is that casual gamers who bought a Wii are remaining largely on the sidelines as free-to-play casual games and mid-core games on tablets and smartphones have captured this segment of consumers."

With the total eSports revenues of 2014 said to equal $194 million, Newzoo's latest report claims that this figure will climb to a massive $465 million in 2017.

This report was conducted in conjunction with Repucom, a sports market research company. Their findings also state that the number of eSports enthusiasts is likely to climb from 89 million as seen in 2014 to 145 million in 2017 - with another 190 million said to be included as casual viewers. Relating this to the general (public) sporting field, this means that eSports will generate a similar fan base to the traditional sports of Volleyball, American Football and Ice Hockey.

ESL is one of the largest names in the eSports world, conducting numerous tournaments spanning many different titles each year - seeing tens of thousands of live spectators and hundreds of thousands of online fans watching their every move. Their global managing director, Heinrich Zetlmayer, is excited by this news, stating "Reading through the first, most extensive and comprehensive report that puts some realistic numbers on the esports industry was a pleasure. Especially the comparison to traditional sports is a valuable insight that will help everyone understand better what this business is about and the potential it has."