Gaming - Page 1141

The misery for console gamers stretched into a second day, following a suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by the Lizard Squad hacking group. Microsoft Xbox Live is working, sort of, with some gaming functionality still limited - and Sony PlayStation's online service is still reportedly down.

As frustration continues to mount, especially towards Sony, it would appear the Lizard Squad's efforts to disrupt Christmas - with millions of console gamers expected to boot up their Xbox One or PS4 consoles for the first time, or load new games - was a success for the hacker group.

Despite Kim Dotcom providing lifetime vouchers to his MegaPrivacy cloud storage service to Lizard Squad members, Microsoft and Sony still struggled to resolve network problems following the DDoS attacks.

Techland was aiming for 1080p 60FPS for their upcoming zombie survival shooter 'Dying Light' but the developer has locked things in at 30FPS instead, something that the developer says will provide a "perfectly smooth, gameplay-tailored performance."

The developer has said that a stable 30FPS is better than a varying frame rate, especially for a game where you jump between rooftops, climb buildings and more. Techland has said that the development team considers a consistent frame rate is better for the in-game environments of Dying Light. When talking with GamingBolt, the Lead Game Designer of Dying Light, Maciej Binkowski, would be 1080p 30FPS for both the PS4 and Xbox One.

He reiterated the fact that Dying Light is 30FPS on both consoles, saying "Yes. They're both locked at 30 FPS. We did so much testing and optimizing and eventually came to the conclusion that we needed to lock at 30 FPS to ensure a smooth, fluid experience." Binkowski also mentioned that Dying Light will feature a Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing (SMAA) T2X solution, something that will smooth out the graphics in the game, which should hide the various jaggies. He added "We're using SMAA T2X according to our super brainy hardware guys. That's all I know."

The Xbox One is one of the hottest consoles on the market, and Kinect technology is one of the best features. The Kinect, which comes standard with Xbox One, has many more applications than just gaming. In fact, it's being used for some amazing things. Here are just a few of its additional capabilities.

With the use of Kinect recognition, Microsoft has revolutionized the way people exercise. Taking advantage of all the amazing fitness programs available on the Xbox, you can train and exercise right at home with the help of some amazing professionals; and the Kinect can help you with everything from making sure you have the right posture and form during your workout, to monitoring your pulse, temperature and other vital statistics. It can even help you record how many calories you have burned by tracking the movement of your body and temperature change on your skin. In a Samsung article, Santa Barbara fitness instructor Alexandra Williams advises taking a minimalist approach to your workout gear and equipment. So, by using the Kinect as your overall tracking device, it is easy to keep track of your overall health and fitness program.

Hospital professionals are always looking for ways to improve the health, safety and efficiency of their employees when doing delicate medical procedures. Now, with the addition of a Kinect system in the operating rooms, doctors can use hand motions to manipulate and refer to images that they use when performing an operation rather than trying to use a remote or keyboard. This not only gives them more freedom and precise detail, it helps keep the room sterile and safe for the patients.

The dawn of the new era of gaming is breaking on the horizon. The rise of cloud gaming has promised a future where all game rendering and processing is handled in a remote datacenter and merely streamed to the user. The new consoles have started a partial transition to this future of gaming, but it seems that the future is now. Samsung's newest 2015 TV's will feature an integrated app that will allow users to play games from the PlayStation Now service, but without a console.

All the viewer needs is a DualShock controller and the app. An initial library of 200 PS3 games will be available. Integrating this service into smart TV's could foreshadow a world without consoles, but there are a few caveats. Streaming high-quality content always comes with bandwidth and latency concerns, making a solid internet connection a must. Any loss of internet will end the gaming session, but the game will be saved to the cloud.

It will be interesting to see how the systems operate when hundreds of thousands, and millions, begin to use these new TV's. The early games are notably from the PS3, and not the PS4. There are likely a few reasons. PS4 games require more computation and have better graphics, so it might not be feasible at this point to process all of the data for millions of users at a remote location, let alone provide the bandwidth to stream it with acceptable performance.

CD Projekt Red is pretty much finished on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with the developer prepared for its May 19, 2015 release. The developer has said that it has had more time since delaying the game from its original February 25, 2015 release date to the new May 19, 2015 date to get the game in much better working order.

When talking about the additional development time during an interview with Nerdacy, CD Projekt Red co-founder and CEO Marcin Iwinski said "We are removing the final bugs and still running optimization in various areas. What it will result in is a smoother and more engaging experience and, yes, the game looking better across all platforms. The content is locked, so no content changes are being made at this point. The scale of the open world in the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is unprecedented, so fear not - there is enough gameplay to keep you playing for weeks."

There was also talk of a second playable character in the form of Ciri, to which Iwinski replied "Ciri is this living weapon everyone wants to get a piece of. She has this inner power that is key to stopping the Wild Hunt, but she also has some of her own demons to handle, so she won't allow to be controlled by anyone. We decided to introduce her as a playable character because it adds a lot to the narrative, and offers gamers a unique perspective on the story." He continued, adding "Having said that, Geralt is the main character whom you will be playing most of the time and he is the guy. We think that the introduction of Ciri as a playable character is a great way to allow gamers to see parts of the story from her perspective and make it even more personal."

Valve's new End of the Line update for Team Fortress 2 has just evolved, with the latest Smissmas update. The Smissmas update includes a new mode called Mannpower, with some awesome new features in the form of nine power-up items that any class can use.The new update provides users with a grappling hook, which looks like it can be some serious fun. Check out the video below.

How does Mannpower work? Here's an explanation "It's an in-beta CTF-like game mode with grappling hooks and nine different types of powerups. Mannpower alters a few game rules. For one, random critical hits have been disabled. Additionally, teams won't be able to capture the enemy flag unless your flag is at your base. (When your flag is away from your base, you can touch it to instantly return it to base.) Mannpowers exist in the world and can be picked up by all classes. When picked up they add abilities and enhancements to the player carrying it. Mannpowers can be dropped at any time by hitting your dropitem key, and will drop automatically when the player carrying it is killed. Note that you can only carry one at a time, and that you can't take powerups into respawn rooms."

The video above shows off all of the new weapons that you have to choose from. Let us know what you think! It makes me want to get back into TF2.

The remaster of one of the best, if not the best Resident Evil game is coming out next year, a game that will have support for Sony's cross-buy platform. This means that if you purchase the game on your PS3, you can play it on your PS4 without having to buy another version.

The listing of Resident Evil on Sony's PlayStation Store says that if you pre-order the game, it "entitles you to both the PS4 and PS3 versions." Pre-orders also gain an exclusive PS3 theme, too. This cross-buy platform is only available as an incentive to those who pre-order it, but I don't know why Sony would lock it to pre-orders only.

The Resident Evil remaster comes out on January 20, 2015 for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

Evolution Studios has taken to Facebook to thank its consumers for the "overwhelming" support for Driveclub's initial launch, and in the months of the game being broken in various parts. Even after the boss of Sony UK came out and said he was embarrassed by the launch of Driveclub on the PS4.

The studio has said that there are some new updates coming next month that should have gamers excited. Evolution Studios wrote "Everyone here at Evolution Studios wants to say thank you for the truly overwhelming level of support from you this year, especially in the time since DRIVECLUB launched in October. Your messages, your feedback, your hot lap videos on YouTube and all of the absolutely amazing screenshots you've shared have all been a huge source of inspiration for the team." The team added "You've all been amazing and we're extremely thankful for your continued support."

"We have many more updates in the works, for the servers and for the game, which we're looking forward to sharing with you in the new year. In the mean time, please don't forget to claim all of the free DRIVECLUB downloads from PlayStation Store if you haven't already and please keep sharing your thoughts and feedback with us, so that DRIVECLUB can continue to evolve around you in 2015," they continued. Evolution Studios finished their pledge to fans with "Thank you all again - we really are uplifted by you on a daily basis. We hope that you all have a great holiday season and we wish you a very Happy New Year!"

Most people might have forgotten about STALKER, as it was one of the most interesting and different games of its time, long before Skyrim came in and scooped up the title of 'most awesome RPG ever' title. Well, GSC Gameworld, the original developers of STALKER, are back and teasing their latest secret project.

Valentine Yeltyshev who was part of the original GSC Gameworld crew and now the "spokesperson for the studio's return" has said "The market we're in is quite old fashioned. They're not 16 year olds, they're 25-40 years old. We don't think free-to-play is the right model for the game we want to make. So we're making an old-fashioned, full price game, we think our audience will be happy about that. We're expecting a lot of our old audience!"

He talked with Gamesindustry.biz, spilling the beans on GSC Gameworld's closure back in 2011, to the fact that West Games is trying to fund a successor to STALKER through Kickstarter. Talking about West Games' title, he said "I don't really know enough about them, but the story is quite funny. These guys were basically promoting themselves as being the STALKER team, that they were working on STALKER, but that's not true. When we were working on STALKER 2, we were also planning on releasing a browser game based on STALKER so we could keep the audience engaged until released." He continued, saying "That project was never finished. There were mistakes. But the guys at West Games, that was the STALKER project they were working on - a Flash game. So when they promoted themselves as having worked on STALKER, I was quite surprised."

Bungie has released some end of the year numbers for Destiny, showing off just how many gamers have pumped countless hours into the console exclusive. The developer has said "Staggering statistics aside. Destiny is more than a game of numbers. it's a world made of people... It's the human stories that lodge in our void-stained memories."

Over the course of its launch, nearly 13 million players have played Destiny, for a total of 22.9 million guardians. When it comes to in-game time, Destiny gamers have spent an insane 875 million hours playing the game, a number that translates to 99,523 years. The developer has released some other bullet-pointed numbers, too:

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.