Gaming - Page 1144

Surrounded by a Steam-like frenzy, Australian game and accessory retailer EB Games has launched their 'Mad Monday' sales to a mixed reception.

Offering up some crazy discounts like last-gen consoles including the PS3 for $198 AUD with 8 pre-owned games, all the way to a massive $70 AUD discount on one model of Audio-Technica headphones throughout their one day sale, set to help you kick off your working week.

Overall these discounts were quite hefty and seemingly widespread through many different products, however there are quite a few consumers who aren't exactly pleased with the 'crazy deals' that EB Games have on offer. Taking a look through their #MadMonday trend on Twitter, some of these 'deals' aren't really deals at all.

The Sony PlayStation 4 has largely dominated the Microsoft Xbox One throughout 2014, but a recent price cut - and unbundling the Xbox One from the Kinect - has helped generate more interest in the Xbox One. The price cut helped spur sales for the Xbox One, with Microsoft trying to build on a strong end of 2014 leading into the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early 2015.

The Xbox One snatched up 53 percent of console sales on Black Friday, while the PS4 trailed with 31 percent - and both companies likely saw strong sales on Cyber Monday - as sales continue leading up to Christmas.

Microsoft added this tidbit: "Since the new Xbox One offering launched on June 9, we've seen sales of Xbox One more than double in the U.S., compared to sales in May."

Sony has shown off the first gameplay footage to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, which is an exclusive to the PlayStation 4, at its own PlayStation Experience event. The footage can be viewed in the video below.

As you can see, or might have noticed, it is running at Full HD (1920x1080, or 1080p) at a fluid 60FPS. There's an increase in visual effects and detail, such as Nathan Drake rustling up the foliage as he walks past it, or through it, and dust being flicked up when bullets start smashing into rocks and other parts of the environment.

Naughty Dog did promise us 1080p at 60FPS a little while ago, so it's good to see them mostly hitting the target here with Uncharted 4 on the PS4. For now, enjoy that nice, long 15-minute video of Uncharted 4 on the PlayStation 4.

According to "an insider" at Rockstar Games, there is a sequel in production to Red Dead Redemption 2. What's so special about RDR 2? According to the rumor, it will have a heavy emphasis on cooperative play, which would be a very, very big change.

The insider took to the NeoGAF forums, where they said: "So I spoke to an insider at Rockstar who confirmed that Rockstar is indeed developing a sequel to Red Dead Redemption for PS4/Xbox One. Don't have a lot of concrete details but expect co-op to be integrated and focused on".

We shouldn't be surprised that it is riding onto the Xbox One and PS4, but we should be surprised at the lack of a PC version. Considering the total craziness surrounding the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, you'd think Rockstar would've learned by now, that the PC audience is huge. Hopefully this changes closer to Red Dead Redemption 2's announcement, and release.

Update: Techland has reportedly updated the PC system requirements for Dying Light, which are much more tame than we reported. Instead of 8GB of RAM being required, and 16GB of RAM recommended, it is 4GB required and 8GB recommended. The GPU side of things is much better - with the required GeForce GTX 560 or Radeon HD 6870 versus the GTX 670 and Radeon HD 7870. The recommended GPU stays the same, with a GTX 780 or R9 290 recommended for Dying Light.

Techland has revealed the PC requirements for its upcoming zombie shooter, Dying Light. Dying Light will have PC gamers needing, at a minimum, an Intel Core i5-2500 at 3.3GHz, or an AMD FX-8320 at 3.5GHz. Not only that, but you'll need 8GB of RAM, 40GB of free HDD space, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7870.

If you want to run the game with Dying Light's recommended PC specifications, you'll need a Core i5-4670K at 3.4GHz, FX-8350 at 4GHz. Something that is surprising, is that Techland is recommending you have 16GB of RAM which isn't super crazy these days, but it's still a damn steep requirement for something that doesn't feature the most mind-blowing graphics. You'll still need 40GB of HDD space, with the GPU requirements scaling up to a GeForce GTX 780 or Radeon R9 290.

After a hectic week of Grand Theft Auto V being pulled from Target shelves, and then Kmart Australia following through with the same action, Australian gamers are now petitioning to have the Bible banned. Yes, that Bible.

The petition has reached Change.org, where it has secured itself over 35,070 votes, with 14,930 more required. The petition states that the Bible "encourages readers to murder women for entertainment" by "commit(ting) sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'god' points".

It continues, adding: "Target, you pride yourself on being a family company, caring for local communities, and have a strong ethical sourcing policy. How can you do this while contributing to hostile and callous attitudes toward victims of violence and, more broadly, to all women?". The petition finishes by asking: "Please put ethics before profits and make a strong statement that you do not condone sexual violence, sexual exploitation or the abuse of women as 'entertainment'".

Azubu TV has been on a mission, hiring a plethora of new staff over the past four months in different roles ranging from a Chief Technology Officer to Creative Directors and Social Media Marketing Managers.

As according to their press-release issued just a few days ago, Azubu are aiming to expand "with a clear goal in mind: to be the standout destination to watch, play, and engage in all things eSports."

They've been picking and choosing their staff, bragging acquisitions of people who have worked for big-name studios such as NBC Universal and Warner Bros. This is all in a plight to capture some market share of the now-dominant streaming platform Twitch.TV.

The 4th of December marks Sony's 20-year birthday in the technology market. It's hard to believe that the PSone was released that long ago, seeing a decrease in school children's homework activity and birthing absolute classics like Crash Bandicoot.

To celebrate this milestone, instead of moving out of home, Sony have released their very own PSone-themed PlayStation 4 console. This 20th Anniversary edition console will only be available through special means, not your general retail stores. In total there will be 12,300 made worldwide, this is to signify the original amount of PSone products that were built on their first production run. If you're wanting to get your hands-on one of these consoles you're going to have to wait as Sony hasn't seemed to release this information as of yet.

Sony's president of Worldwide Studios, Shuei Yoshida, reminisced on a PlayStation Blog, saying that "In 1994, many outsiders thought that Sony was slightly crazy to launch the original PlayStation into an incredibly competitive gaming market. Who could blame them?"

The final nail in the Aussie retail coffin has been hammered, big-name retailer Kmart had only just joined its brother Target in removing the latest Rockstar Games release, GTA V, off their shelves. But wait, there's more!

In the latest breaking news, GTA IV has fallen victim to the wide sweep against the apparent misogynist, sexist and rape culture values that GTA are allegedly demonstrating through their campaign and free play modes. This was all started through a Change.org petition by former sex workers, claiming that GTA V was "sickening" which brought people to ask - why have you waited until now to protest and why only this singular game?

If GTA V has been removed, what is to say for GTA IV? Well, it's now off the shelves too.

Some months ago, pornography website 'YouPorn' teased that they were interested in entering the wide world of eSports - speaking publicly on their Twitter about this topic which urged multiple big name players, commentators and personalities throughout various gaming scenes to reply in haste, asking for their game of choice to be supported.

Well it's finally happening as YouPorn has just announced their sponsorship of a Spanish competitive gaming team team named Play2Win.

Although it's always nice to see more sponsors entering the scene, many people have expressed negative opinions on this matter - explaining that although having these kind of sponsors in the gaming world may help provide teams with funding in flights and accommodation, having these companies names associated with gaming might further perpetuate the 'basement nerd' stereotype and also bar competitive gaming from different kinds of A-grade sponsors such as seen in the 'real-world' sporting scene.

The 'Glacier 2' engine that powered Hitman: Absolution has been modified, with a new version being rolled out dubbed Dawn Engine. Dawn Engine will be powering the upcoming Deus Ex title, which still doesn't have a name.

The demo screenshot looks like it will be an incredibly perfect fit for the Deus Ex world, but I think we're seeing an incredible amount of detail that will be watered down before it makes it into the game. Eidos Montreal has teased: "We wanted to share a first glimpse of what we aim to achieve, with a screenshot taken directly from the Dawn Engine. Keep in mind - despite any hints you may pick up from this image, this screenshot was only taken in order to display the level of detail and artistic fidelity that is possible with the Dawn Engine".

After looking at the 2.3MB image in full quality, it looks absolutely incredible; a truly next-gen Deus Ex game could be upon us. But, as I said above, I think we'll see it watered down considerably, to be run on the consoles. We've seen virtually every other game debut this year running at much less than 1080p, closer to 720p, with nowhere near the level of intricate detail we see in the screenshot for the Dawn Engine. It's a shame.

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.