Gaming - Page 1160

When Activision rolled out Skylanders and it was a smash hit and generated big money in recurring sales for the action figures in addition to software sales, competitors were certain to try to get in on that action. Disney stepped up not long after with its Disney Infinity game that let gamers put their favorite Disney characters into a game.

Disney is now getting ready to launch a new version of its game called Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes. The game will have over 20 new interactive figures and the Avengers are part of the crew. The game itself will have original storylines written by comic book author Brian Michael Bendis.

The game will also have a toy box mode that lets players create and share custom levels. Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, and Hawkeye will debut this fall along with the game. Additional characters will come later. Versions for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One will be offered when the game launches this fall.

From today onwards, those who now purchase selected NVIDIA GTX desktop video cards can now get a copy of Watch Dogs. The video cards that qualify for this game are NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, 780 Ti, 780, 770, 760, 690, 680, 670, 660 Ti and 660 desktop GPUs.

The promotion has started from today onwards, and will be available for a limited time through retailers like Amazon and NewEgg. Once you receive the code, you can redeem it via Ubisoft's Uplay digital store. However, you can only start playing the game on May 27th.

Its not really surprising to see Watch Dogs being bundled with newer video cards. Watch Dogs is optimized keeping NVIDIA in mind as it includes certain enhancements such as TXAA and HBAO+, similar to what was found in games such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Back in February PopCap announced that the third person shooter Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare was available on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 Game console. That game now has an official launch date for the PC. PopCap says that Garden Warfare will roll onto the PC platform as a digital download from Origin on June 24.

It will also be available on that day from retailers around the country. Players will get to play as a plant of a zombie and the game has a number of multiplayer modes. 12v12 competitive multiplayer combat is supported with Gardens & Graveyards and Team Vanquish modes.

The game also has an 8v8 Gnome Bomb mode and a cooperative play mode where four players can team up called Garden ops. PC gamers will get the new content made available after launch for box players with their purchase. That includes the Garden Variety pack and Zomboss Down. A digital per-order pack is available via Origin for $39.99.

Microsoft made an announcement that it will start selling its Xbox One console in China from September onwards. Microsoft CVP of devices and studios Yusuf Mehdi said,"In China, there are over half a billion gamers, so the opportunity to create globally and locally created content to delight millions and millions of of gaming families everywhere is something that we're really passionate about.".

In January 2013, news started to come in that China may lift its ban on sales of gaming consoles, and later in September, it was confirmed that China will lift the ban on foreign-origin gaming consoles.

The video was posted in Xbox One's official YouTube channel where the announcement was made, but for some reason the video is now marked as 'private'.

Sony has confirmed the list of features that will be present in PlayStation 4's 1.7 firmware update. The biggest feature is the introduction of SHAREFactory.

SHAREFactory is a free video editing suite that will allow PS4 console gamers to edit their gameplay video recordings. Sony released a video to explain how SHAREFactory works.

The 1.70 update also allows more flexible gameplay captures by giving an option to turn off HDCP. According to the list, this was one of the most highly request features that users wanted in PS4. The console now allows you to disable High-bandwidth Digital copy protection for games which would enable its users to record games via HDMI through an external capture device for longer recordings and even live streaming.

DRIVECLUB was one of the most talked about games during Sony's announcement and buildup to its PlayStation 4 launch, and now its release is getting close. Today the games developer, Evolution Studios has announced the official launch date for the game. As expected, DRIVECLUB will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive, and will launch for purchase on October 7, 2014.

While the game was expected to launch earlier this year, it appears that some issues arose during development, that caused developers to push back the launch date to ensure the best product possible was available on day one. "We planned for the game to be ready for early 2014 and are committed to delivering on our ambitious promise of creating a truly innovative, socially connected racing game," said Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios. "The problem with being ambitious is you have to be prepared to accept there will be challenges along the way. What DRIVECLUB offers has not been previously achieved in this category, and, because of this, the team needed more time to give you the game you're waiting for."

According to the latest report by DFC, its now known that the PC games market generates more revenue in comparison with console games counterpart worldwide.

DFC Intelligence's David Cole revealed this finding to PCR during an interview. He also added that PC gaming's dominance will still continue. He said,"On a global basis PC games have surpassed console games but the new console systems means consoles should show an increase."

He continued,"Among core gamers there is a heavy overlap with most console gamers also playing on a PC. The big difference is that consoles are now the luxury item and PCs are the necessity. Just a few years ago the reverse was true. This means PCs have the broader audience."

EA and DICE are finally getting around to solving the rubber-banding issues that have plagued Battlefield 4 since its launch. DICE said at the beginning of the month that it had plans to upgrade the BF4 servers as the developer was "unhappy" with the performance when rubber-banding came into play.

When DICE released the latest Naval Strike DLC, the problem was even more apparent, where DICE said the issue stemmed from "a configuration of certain hardware types dedicated to 64-player matches". DICE has reportedly done considerable testing on the new hardware to make sure the rubber-banding issues were fixed, and that performance is already better on the new servers.

DICE's VIce President and General Manager, Karl Magnus Troedsson said: "While the process took longer than we would've liked, we wanted to be 100 percent sure it was done right and that the long-term solution was properly in place".

Epic Games recently released its 4.1 update where it provided details of its plans that will help any independent game developers who wish to make a game using Unreal Engine 4.

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4.1 is now available to the public and indie developers, provided they're signed up in its $19/mo subscription plan. The company also said that the designers could be eligible for some free tools for indie developers to make games.

They've also mentioned in its notes that it will be providing full support for SteamOS and Linux, therefore giving more choice and platform options for indie developers. This move made by Epic will provide easy options for those game developers who wish to have their games powered by Unreal Engine 4 beyond Windows powered PCs, and even for Sony PS4 and Xbox One.

Two people from the Danish Geodata Agency have created a 1:1 model of Denmark in the most popular indie game, Minecraft.

This project was made by the agency's Simon Kokkendoft and Thorbjørn Nielsen who built the entire country using virtual block. The two used the data from their Geodata Agency to make an accurate 'block' version of Denmark.

The duo planned this project keeping environment and education in mind. According to the news report by Danish's news agency, the duo hopes that this Minecraft version of Denmark will be introduced in local schools so that students can learn everything from urban planning to environment preservation.

Skylanders has been around for several years and was the first game to allow the player to take real-world action figures into the video game to play. The player could buy a number of Skylanders action figures, set them on a portal device, and play them in the video game. Activision has turned Skylanders into one of its most profitable franchises.

A new Skylanders game will land this fall called Skylanders Trap Team. It will have the normal ability to let gamers place an action figure on the portal and play the character in the game. It will also have another interesting feature that is a first for the franchise.

Players will be able to defeat digital enemies and bring them into the real-world using special traps. Once the enemy is defeated in the game, inserting a trap allows the gamer to catch the bad guy and turn it into a playable character. Somehow, the bad guy can be heard inside the trap. Since the traps are physical items, the player can take them to a friend's house to play on another system just as they do with the action figures. The game launches October 5 and will cost about $75 for a starter kit.

Watch Dogs isn't even out yet - and doesn't arrive until May 27 - but Watch Dogs' Creative Director, Jonathan Morin, is already teasing us about the sequel. Not directly, but he talked to Eurogamer saying "Right now there is no such thing as a Watch Dogs 2".

Morin continued: "It's certainly not going to be the same amount of time if we ever embark on such a journey. A big part of it was defining whatever Watch Dogs is. Once you have that starting point, then what becomes interesting is what players want more of - what comes next?". He also mentioned the delay that Watch Dogs required, suggesting the commitment to Watch Dogs' long-term potential. He said that Ubisoft wanted to get the game right, as the future of Watch Dogs is important to them.

He added: "Especially with the delay we have just been really concentrating on getting it [the original Watch Dogs] launched. After that we'll see where it goes - I think Ubisoft is showing more and more that they're willing to take the time for it to be right". When it came to talk of a sequel, Morin suggested that the decision for Watch Dogs 2 isn't going to necessarily be greenlit on sales numbers alone, but more the critical reception of the game would be important to the company, too.

Rumours of NVIDIA's sequel to its Shield handheld gaming console seem to be confirmed as a new test model of NVIDIA Shield was spotted in AnTuTu's website which contained specifications.

NVIDIA's first gen shield was released in July 2014 and was a console game controller with 5" touchscreen where you can play Android games and stream PC games. Recently it also received a huge update which provided an out-of-home game steaming, enhanced functions in Gamepad mapper tool, support for Bluetooth keyboard and mouse in console mode, followed by Android KitKat 4.4.2.

However according to the recent news, it seems that NVIDIA wishes to up the hardware specifications.

Codemasters announced Grid Autosport and is all for release on 27th June for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, along with a teaser video of its upcoming game. The games designer wanted to produce a more authentic motorsport racing game, and emphasized that they have made implementations based on the feedback received by fans for Grid 2.

The cars will be ranging from Indycars to supercars, and will be bringing back drift. The game brings back a lot of content from the original Grid as the in-game campaign will lets you acquire sponsors and teammates.

The game will also be bringing back cockpit view. There are two options within cockpit view- view with driver's hands and another will be closer to the track.

Twenty-five years ago today, Nintendo released a handheld gaming unit that would change the world and drive AA battery sales through the roof. The Nintendo Game Boy first launched in Japan today back in 1989, and its dull green and grey display amazed gamers and techies of the day. Retailing for $89.99 the Game Boy required four AA batteries and provided more than 10-hours of game-play before needing to change batteries.

The Game Boy saw more than 300,000 sales in Japan in just two weeks after its launch, and more than 40,000 on the first day of sales in the US. Over the next decade and a half, the Nintendo Game Boy line of handheld gaming units sold more than 118.69 million units total. Today those numbers are still massive when compared to smartphone sales, and are a testament to how much love the Nintendo Game Boy received in the 90s and early 2000's.

AMD has refreshed its 'Never Settle Forever' game bundles which includes games for AMD Radeon R7 Series to even AMD Radeon R9 295 x2. At the same time, AMD will also be including entry-level GPUs for its game bundle programs: R7 250x, R7 250 and R7 240 GPUs.

The newer buyers of AMD Radeon cards can receive up to three free games that AMD provides via the card's AMD Radeon Reward Coupon. As they have done so in the past, the choices of games paired with the respective video cards are divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze.

One of the games that will be added is Square Enix's upcoming title 'Murdered: Soul Suspect'.

Sony Online Entertainment President, John Smedley, participated in a Reddit AMA, where he talked about the similarities between the upcoming MMO from the company H1Z1, and the already popular DayZ.

He said: "Not going to give some politically correct dodgy b.s. answer. H1Z1 is a survival in a Zombie Apocalypse game. So is DayZ. They have made a brilliant game (first I might add). So sure. We're another Zombie Apocalypse game. Call it what it is. But our goal is to make ours fun, accessible, hard core and super, super deep".

Smedley continued: "This is our take on the Zombie Apocalypse with a lot of friends and hopefully some great enemies both living and dead. We're proud to be up front and say we love DayZ and the job they've done and we hope they enjoy what we make, too". H1Z1 does have quite a big difference when held up against DayZ, where it will allow gamers to create "structures, forts and towns" to stop the zombies from coming in. H1Z1 will also feature "a deep in-game economy that is heavily dependent on crafting. Players will be able to become manufacturers ... sell bullets, arrows ... etc. The in-game economy will be entirely player driven".

If you are a fan of Minecraft, you may be familiar with some of the mods out there that turn the game into a shooter of sorts. Atari is getting a game ready called Minimum that reminds me a lot of Minecraft focusing heavily on crafting, but having a lot of third-person shooter aspects as well.

In Minimum, players will use blueprints and acquire the materials needed to build their own weapons and armor. Once those weapons and armor are done, players will wear it into combat. As you kill more enemy players, the armor and weapons power up making the character more powerful.

Minimum was created by TimeGame Studios. When the company went bankrupt, Atari stepped in and kept this interesting game from failing. The game will launch for early access this spring and you can sign up at the source below for more details on the game.

Sony and Nissan have announced that they have teamed up again to bring another season of the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy to gamers around the world. The 2014 season will be the sixth and for the first time Canada will get to participate.

Qualifying will begin online using Gran Turismo 6 and the PS3 on April 21. Participants will compete in virtual races to see who gets the chance to move forward into the real-world competition to see if they can put virtual racing skills to work on a real race track.

Qualifying for the season will run from April 21 to June 16. Participation is open to anyone with a PSN ID and a copy of Gran Turismo 6. One catch is that the region of Quebec isn't included in the opportunity to participate.

Call of Duty: Ghosts' upcoming DLC will see Snoop Dogg as the announcer for multiplayer matches of Infinity Ward's first-person shooter. Snoop Dogg didn't write the lines, but he seems like a natural at speaking them.

The new Snoop Dogg-enabled Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC drops on April 22 for the Xbox, with other platforms receiving it shortly after. The Snoop Dogg Voice Pack will cost $2.99, but it isn't the only one that will be made available. There will be the Drill Instructor Voice Pack that is voiced by the infamous R. Lee Emery, known as The Gunny, also for $2.99.

Does this make you want to play COD: Ghosts more? I'm sure there will be a large number of people who will be in love with this news.