Gaming - Page 1142

Busted! Oscar Ramirez, 48, was caught by Port Authority Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials trying to smuggle a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun inside of a Sony PlayStation 2 game console. Ramirez was attempting to fly from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Mexico City Mexico, but the Brooklyn man was caught before getting onboard.

Things didn't look right when the console went through x-ray, and officers found the weapon's hand grip and other parts inside of the bottom of the console housing. Ramirez now faces a weapons charge for trying to take the hand gun with him.

The TSA has found 2,100 weapons during airport checkpoints so far in 2013, a 16 percent increase year-over-year.

Since the dawn of eSports, poor old Oceania has been heavily neglected in receiving invites, qualifiers or any chances to enter global gaming competitions. In a move to capture a new audience, HiRez Studios have just announced that players from this region will now have the ability to qualify for the Smite world championships, season 2.

This free, Multilayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) 3rd-person game has begun a massive push into the Australian market - after a positive showing at PAX Australia 2014 and the recent acquisition of well-known fighting games player and organizer Daniel Chlebowczyk, they're looking to give the locals something that they've been wanting for ages - international exposure.

Australian and New Zealand-based teams will qualify through an online tournament, conducted on CyberGamer - leading to an Oceanic finals and then eventually the global event.

There have been a few videos floating around the Internet comparing Techland's upcoming zombie survival shooter, with claims that Dying Light has been graphically downgraded. We've seen it before with Ubisoft's titles, such as Watch Dogs and The Division, but now the claims of Dying Light have PC gamers in a fit, and rightly so.

Techland's Paul Milewski spoke with GamingBolt, where he said "If you compare the 2103 footage to any of the material released lately, you can clearly see major improvements. Downgraded? Not a chance. Just look at the latest interactive footage released by us a couple of days ago." Milewski added "Also, consider that most of the recent media and YouTuber gameplay that's out there is all on PCs that we have no idea what's in them. And yet they all look better compared to the 2013 promo material which was recorded on a high-end PC at the time."

Dying Light hits the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC next month.

Valve has just kickstarted its annual Steam Holiday Sale, which will run all the way through to January 2, 2015. There are countless games on sale, all of which will change every 12 hours.

Right now, the current sales include:

There are many more games on sale, so go and check them all out!

Love it or hate it, the Call of Duty series still pulls massive numbers. According to a recently issued release, the latest game in this long-standing series has been named the top-selling console game of the year in America.

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing announced that "to date, 2014 has been a series of number ones for Activision Publishing: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the #1 top-selling game of the year, Skylanders is the #1 kids video game franchise of the year, and Destiny is the #1 top-selling new video game franchise of the year", with Hirshberg further commenting that "we are excited about how fans have responded to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny and Skylanders Trap Team, and have even more great new content in store in 2015."

According to NPD, Activision has won big throughout the 2014 calendar year - pulling numerous title wins and achievements including:

According to the latest rumors from various sources, Rockstar is working on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2. The sequel to the popular GTA: San Andreas will be dropping on the PS4 and Xbox One sometime in 2015.

Rockstar reportedly "confirmed" that it was working on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 at the PlayStation Experience event recently. According to the rumors, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 will take place in 1999, some seven years after the events in the original game. CJ will return as the protagonist, which will be voiced by Young Maylay once again.

Many have claimed the news is fake, which is why we're putting a very big 'rumor' stamp on this one. With the news of Online Heists coming to GTA V next year, and GTA V reaching the #pcmasterrace on January 27, 2015, the world of Grand Theft Auto seems to be truly opening up for 2015.

Capcom has announced that there will be a re-release of the reboot of Devil May Cry, with DmC hitting the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with 1080p and 60FPS goodness.

DmC: Definitive Edition will feature better visuals and graphical detail than the original release, with all of the DLC that has been released since the original game hit the previous generation consoles. The game will run at 1080p at 60FPS, even with the increased graphical bells and whistles. The re-release includes:

60 fps and 1080p resolution - It looks and feels super smooth to play.

Rockstar is finally teasing Grand Theft Auto V's online heists mode, something it will update for gamers in early 2015. The online heists mode adds four-player missions to the multiplayer side of GTA V, where gamers can plan, prep and pull off a big heist.

The developer has delayed the online heists mode multiple times now, promising that it would be released with the re-release of GTA V on the PS4 and Xbox One last month, but missed that too. Producer and Lead Mission Designer on GTA V, Imran Sarwar, explained that Rockstar delays its content when it's "not at the level we expect of ourselves."

The new mode will launch with "five unique strands" that will feature over 20 missions, and around 20 hours of gameplay. Sarwar added that the heists mode has taken so long to get out because they were much harder to build than the team originally thought. The idea behind the new mode was to create "multi-tiered missions in which players would work cooperatively with their individual strengths - ensuring that each player was important" reports Polygon.

343 Industries has released another patch for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which promises to fix various issues found within the first-person shooter extravaganza.

The update will improve the "reliability" of matchmaking, while ensuring the split-screen, local multiplayer friends are always-on the same team when playing Halo 2. Microsoft has chimed in, saying that TMCC's new update should also improve the stability across the game's menus, campaign playlists, matchmaking and custom games.

If Halo is going to be around for another 30 years, they might want to get their games a little more stable, instead of taking weeks upon weeks of updates to even get them up to release worthy.

Ubisoft only delayed the patch yesterday, but the company has announced that the forthcoming patch for the still broken Assassin's Creed: Unity weighs in at a huge 6.7GB.

The massive patch is currently being pushed out to Xbox One and PS4 users, while the PC version of the patch is coming soon. Ubisoft has explained the patch on the website for Assassin's Creed as "Part of the team's effort to enhance frame rate for players involves replacing and updating portions of the Paris city map where we are seeing issues. This explains the large size of this title update (6.7 GB). However, since a large portion of the patch replaces existing files the net increase to the game's overall size will be less than 6.7 GB."

So the developer is trying to say that they've replaced large chunks of the map where there are various performance issues, which to me, would mean the game is broken? It's not a patch that fixes various problems, but replacing physical parts of the map to help performance? What the hell happened, Ubisoft? The patch notes are quite large, but you can check them out here.

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.