Gaming - Page 1166

One of the things that makes the Forza franchise so popular is that the development for each version continues well after the game is introduced. That means that you get new cars and in the case of Forza Motorsport 5, you get new tracks as well.

The first track add-on for Forza Motorsport 5 has been announced. The track is one of the premier facilities in the US and is called Road America. The track is fully integrated into the Forza 5 experience. Players will get to drive the track at events in Career mode.

The player can also drive the virtual track in Career bonus events after the mini-Career series is complete. Players will also be able to play against each other on the track with availably in the Rivals Mode and multiplayer lobbies.

Earlier this month we reported that the update for the Xbox One that had been expected in February wouldn't land until March. Microsoft came back and changed that a bit when it made the update available last week. Many Xbox One owners installed the update straight away to get their hands on the new features it brought with it.

The update added in notable new features like a battery level indicator for the controller and the ability to access the device storage and delete things. The Xbox One update bought several other things that gamers will appreciate, but hit some with an issue no one wants.

The update has also resulted in a bug that is affecting some users. The bug manifests by presenting a black screen to the user when they power the console on. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and has offered a quick fix for the problem.

A couple days ago, we mentioned that the coming video game from Konami called Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was going to have a higher native resolution on the PS4 than the Xbox One. Konami tipped that on the PS4 the game would have a native resolution of 1080p at 60 fps. Xbox One gamers will have to get by with 720p at 60 fps.

Konami had also announced that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game would get by with 720p via upscaling and 30fps frame rates. If you wondered at the time what differences would be noticeable between the four versions, Konami has a new video you will like.

The new video has all four of the console versions put up side by side. It's clear from the video that the next generation consoles have much better lighting effects. Konami also notes that the PS4 and Xbox One also have larger texture maps giving extra detail. Objects on the screen in the PS4 and Xbox One version certainly look more realistic and three-dimensional.

A Reddit post in Counter-Strike: Global offensive thread caught many people's attention about Valve's Anti-cheat system. The post came with a screenshot and an explanation which claimed that VAC was collecting browser information and sending it back to Valve's servers. But Gabe Newell of Valve Software immediately made a post in Reddit to dismiss any such claims and set the record straight.

Gabe Newell explained that they do not talk about anti cheating or its counter hacking systems in the open because it creates more opportunities for cheaters to attack the system. But because of the heated discussion in Reddit, he had to make an exception.

Newell continued,"VAC checked for the presence of these cheats. If they were detected VAC then checked to see which cheat DRM server was being contacted. This second check was done by looking for a partial match to those (non-web) cheat DRM servers in the DNS cache. If found, then hashes of the matching DNS entries were sent to the VAC servers. The match was double checked on our servers and then that client was marked for a future ban. Less than a tenth of one percent of clients triggered the second check. 570 cheaters are being banned as a result."

In a weird turn of event's, the developer behind the Bioshock franchise has abruptly closed up shop and dissolved the company. Irrational Games has been around for almost two decades, and as of today, the company is no more. It's parent company, Take Two Interactive will form a new team around Irrational Games founder, Ken Levine, which will focus on a new genera of gaming with a much smaller development team.

"While I'm deeply proud of what we've accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we've done before. To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers," said Levine. "In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience."

Bioshock fans need not worry though, as Levine says that Irrational Games will release a the final DLC for Bioshock Infinite titled "Burial At Sea," but Levine will sever all ties with the Irrational team. Take Two says that those laid off from Irrational will have the opportunity to take on new opportunities within Take Two Interactive, and that Levine will aid in helping staff find jobs at other companies.

If you are a fan of music games, you probably played Rock Band at one time or another. This game was a competitor to Guitar Hero and added in drums and vocals on top of the guitar rhythm play. Rock Band isn't particularly popular any more.

Way back in 2010 Viacom sold off Harmonix and we haven't heard much form them in a while. Harmonix has now announced that it is working on a new video game. Like the other games that the company is known for, it will be music based.

The new game won't have instruments that let you play as Rock Band did. Oddly, the new game is described as a musical FPS title. The game is called Chroma and it is being produced in cooperation with Hidden Path. If you are familiar with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you are familiar with Hidden Path's work.

When it came to sales numbers for the last generation of consoles, the PS3 was typically outsold by the Xbox 360. Things are looking much different for the latest generation of game consoles with the PS4 outselling the Xbox One. Not all has been perfect in the PS4 launch story though.

Some users had issues with their PS4 hardware early on and supply was so limited, they had to wait until 2014 to get replacement hardware. Sony PS4 developers are also having success with games for the PS4 console flying off the shelves with over 9.7 million games sold as of January.

Sony is taking the time to officially brag about the sales of the PS4. Sony has now sold over 5.3 million units globally. That number came in early February even though the console is not available in Japan yet. Japanese gamers have been waiting to get their hands on the console and that launch will certainly help sales.

It seems that Microsoft and Sony just keep exchanging blows over which console is better than the other. Today Konami released a statement confirming that its long awaited fifth installment to the famed Metal Gear Solid franchise will in fact run better on Sony's PlayStation 4 console. This is a major blow to Metal Gear Solid fans who bought the Xbox One awaiting the game.

Konami says that Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes will run at its native resolution of 1080p at 60fps on the PlayStation 4 while only running at 720p and 60fps on the Xbox One. To further pour salt on the wound, the games creator, Hideo Kojima, said that; "I think, between the home console available in the domestic market, the PS4 is the best. Since it does it a little better than other hardware, the image quality of the PS4 is the most beautiful. It's the closest to the photo-realistic quality we are aiming at." With many new games launching with native 1080p resolutions, it appears that Microsoft may be playing catch-up with the PS4 for quite some time to come.

One of the most anticipated games of 2014 is Titanfall . We mentioned late last month that the demo for the game was coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC gamers giving us all a chance to check to the game before the official launch.

The game beta is available now and some gamer geeks have already set about data mining the demo code looking for hints at what goodies we can expect in the final production version of the game. Among the details that data miner dug up are the names of all 13 maps the game will offer and a bunch of power ups.

The new maps include Boneyard, Smugglers Cove, Airbase, Colony, Corporate, Lagoon, Nexus, O2, Outpost 207, Overlook, Relic, Rise, and Training Ground. We also know a few of the game modes that will come in the full version, or at least we think we know. The game modes were in the form of abbreviations in the beta code and some educated guesses were made on what those abbreviations mean.

The next generation console wars are raging with the PS4 and Xbox One gathering diehard fans to each side. If you are a fan of the Metal Gear Solid franchise that likes high-resolution graphics, you probably want to get the coming title Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes on the PS4. Ground Zeroes is the prologue to the game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which is said to be much larger than Ground Zeroes.

Konami recently offered up some details on the Ground Zeroes games that will be available on game consoles. The publisher confirmed that Ground Zeroes would run natively at 1080p and 60 frames per second on the PS4.

Xbox One gamers on the other hand will be limited to a native resolution of 720p at 60 fps. Ground Zeroes will be offered on the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well with each of those versions running at 720p using internal scaling. However, the older consoles will only support 30 fps frame rates.

Many people will only know the infamous Kim Dotcom for his trouble with law enforcement over the file sharing website, MegaUpload, but Dotcom is actually most famous for being the best Call of Duty player in the world. For the past few years, Dotcom has dominated the world leader boards in several CoD games including Black Ops II as well as the recent title; Call of Duty: Ghosts, but all good things must come to an end.

Today Dotcom announced that he would be retiring from the Call of Duty franchise after becoming the first person in the world to reach 100,000 kills in Free-For-All mode in Call of Duty Ghost. A score of 5,000,000 accompany's that achievement, and to really put things into perspective, Dotcom managed to kill 100,000 players with only dying about 31,000 times himself, meaning for every time he died, he killed almost 3.5 people.

Dotcom's next goal is to become the best Titanfall player in the world, and with the game being developed by two past COD developers, there are a lot of similarities, making this the perfect game for Dotcom to dominate. With Betas active now, and the game officially releasing in March, we wont have very long to wait until we find out just how good Dotcom is at Titanfall either!

Convicted killer Anders Breivik is ready to go on a hunger strike of his self-proclaimed "torture" conditions at the Ila and Skien prisons in Norway. Breivik killed 77 people in a shooting and bombing rampage in 2011, and is now serving a 21-year sentence.

Breivik demanded the right to a newer PlayStation 3 game console "with access to more adult games that I get to choose myself," according to a letter he wrote to journalists. "Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is 'Rayman Revolution,' a game aimed at three year olds."

The game title in question received a 3+ rating in Europe, so it's suitable for gamers of all ages above three years old. The ESRB gave the same title E+10, which means any player 10 years of age or older.

The Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One are engaged in a fierce battle in the console market, though it looks like the PS4 outsold the Xbox One by a hefty 2-to-1 margin. The NPD Group didn't release specific sales figures, only saying that the PS4 led the market in hardware sales, but Sony executives claimed that its console "nearly doubled" that of the Xbox One.

Game hardware sales in January 2014 were down 21 percent compared to the same time last year, though January 2013 had five weeks. Microsoft's reliance on restrictive DRM - or gamer perception of intrusive anti-piracy efforts has caused gamers frustration. In addition, cross-platform gamers are playing better on the PS4 than the Xbox One, along with the lower price tag of the PS4.

"Overall retail video game sales would be down only 1 percent instead of down 21 percent, if sales were normalized to account for the five-week January 2013 compared to the four-week January 2014," said Liam Callahan, NPD analyst, in a statement.

This week was the week when Xbox One owners expected to get a major system update from Microsoft, but unfortunately that update will not be coming until March. This morning Microsoft announced that it was delaying the February Xbox One System update until March along side some new gaming accessories for the console.

The update will be centered around improving the multiplayer and party experience, and will make it easier for you to find your friends by bringing the Friends List front and center by clicking on the Social Tile. The update will also enable the Party Chat by default, and will allow friends to chat with other friends who are online and not just in the same game. Microsoft will also be adding an "Invite Friends to Game" option that will let users do just what it says; invite their friends into their game.

Along side the Xbox One system update, the company will release a few accessories including the official Xbox One Stereo Headset that will offer a "premium audio experience" for under $100. Additionally, Microsoft will launch the Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter, a device that allows users to connect existing stereo headsets to the Xbox One. So if you already have an expensive gaming headset that has a 3.5mm jack, you only need to purchase this $25 headset adapter to use it.

Batman: Arkham Origins has been plagued with issues since launch, and it appears that its developer, Warner Bros Montreal, has no plan on any further patches to fix the games remaining bugs. In a support post on the game's official forums, a developer revealed that the development studio is not planning any future patches to fix issues with the game. Instead, Warner Bros Montreal will focus on bringing new DLC to the game.

"Hi all, the team is currently working hard on the upcoming story DLC and there currently are no plans for releasing another patch to address the issues that have been reported on the forums," said the forum post. "If we do move forward with creating a new patch, it will try to address the progression blocking bugs for players, not the minor glitches that do not prevent one from continuing to play. The issues that are not progression blockers will unfortunately no longer be addressed. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused for some of you, and want to thank you for having been patient."

The thread was quickly inundated with post from angry gamers, and rightfully so. When you spend upwards of $60 on a game and commit to different DLC packs at additional cost, you expect that the game will work out of the box, and expect any issues that may arise to be taken care of swiftly. This is just a small segment in a long list of games that have been released with lots of bugs in recent years which have either taken quite a while to address of even be addressed at all.

Destiny was one of the most talked about next-gen games of 2013 and as the games launch draws closer, Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, is speaking out about how successful he feels the franchise will be. Bungie, the company actually developing Destiny is working hard behind the scenes fine tuning Destiny to be this years best MMORPG/FPS on the next-gen consoles, and if the company can mold it into anything like it did with Halo, then Destiny's destiny may very well be a billion dollar franchise.

"We expect Bungie's Destiny, an innovative shared-world, first-person action game to be Activision Publishing's next billion dollar franchise," said Kotick. "As we look to 2014 and beyond, we have the strongest and most diverse pipeline of games in our history." From the trailers, screen shots, and information I have seen on Destiny, I have to agree with Kotick. With Halo stalling out there is a huge gap to fill for the sci-fi shooter genera and I think Destiny can do it.

World of Warcraft still holds the title of most popular MMORPG despite the game itself being a decade old, and today fans are getting a glimpse of what the next expansion will bring. Titled Warlords of Draenor, the fourth expansion takes WoW to the next level with upgrades in graphics in the form of much more detail being added to the character models as well as the actual game world.

Unfortunately, Blizzard has decided to keep the same game engine it has been using for years, and while the improvements will make the game look much better, its graphics will still lag behind current gaming standards by a few years. In the image below, you can see some of the new facial expressions and overall added detail to the Orc model for Warlords of Draenor.

As far as things go on the actual game-play side, this new expansion will be returning to WoW's roots and diving heavily into dungeon content to allow players to easily level up, and gearing up for those long raid sessions you have scheduled for Thursday night at 9pm. Additionally, a new Raid finder engine will be utilized so that raids can scale in difficulty based on the raids group size. Furthermore, a new Mythic level difficulty will be added which raids can participate in if they have 20 members.

This morning, Sony announced that the next system software update for the PlayStation 4 will be available late tonight. The update will bring the PS4's system software up to version 1.60 and will bring in support for the PULSE and PULSE-Elite Edition, Sonys official wireless headsets for the PS4.

Alongside the update announcement, Sony unveiled the latest member in its wireless headset lineup. The Gold Wireless Headset is a 7.1 virtual surround headset that features dynamic profiles that can be tuned by game developers to get the most out of their games audio. The Gold Wireless Headset will retail for $99 when it goes on sale early this month. Sony says the Gold Wireless Headset is compatible with its PS3 and PS4 consoles, and it will even work with your Mac or PC.

Ever since its GPU2013 event in Hawaii, AMD enthusiast have been chomping at the bits waiting to get their hands on the Mantle drivers for Battlefield 4, and today the patch finally came through. The update is here, and AMD has released the 14.1 Beta drivers for its GPUs for 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 8.

At the moment, Mantle support for Battlefield 4 is only available on the R9 290X, R9 290, R7 260X and the latest AMD Kaveri APU's. Support for other cards and APUs will come as AMD works the bugs out of the system. Along with today's release, DICE has released the first performance numbers from Battlefield 4 running on Mantle. The first test was ran on a AMD A10-7850K APU with the game set to 720p at medium settings. Mantle gave the game a 14-percent boost in frame rates from 39fps to 43fps on the Singapore Beach map.

Up next DICE tested Battlefield 4 running an AMD FX-8350 CPU paired with a Radeon HD7970 at 1080p with settings set to ultra and MSAA set to 1x. While playing at these settings on Siege of Shanghai, Mantle increased performance by 25.1-percent taking the frame rate up from 53fps to 67fps. Finally, DICE tested the game on a Intel Core i7-3970x Extreme CPU paired with two R9 290X video cards, and the game set to 1080p ultra settings and MSAA set to 4x this time. Mantle increased performance again this time in the single player level, South China Sea, with frame rates being increased by a whopping 58-percent, going from 78fps to 116fps.

Greenheart Games ran an interesting test last year, where the indie developer released its very first game, Game Dev Tycoon, into the world. What the team did, was release a cracked version of the game, minutes after upcoming up their Store.

Where it gets interesting, is that Game Dev Tycoon is about, well, you guessed it - a simulation of being a game developer. What the pirated version of the game does is let players spend hours and hours building up their studio, but messages begin to pop up, warning the player that piracy is causing their studio to lose money, and sales.

Over time, players' studios begin to bleed money, with newly created games having a high chance of being pirated. Greenheart Games had some hilarious responses that they found online, with gamers asking for help. One of them even said "why are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me!" Obviously this gamer means it ruins his game studio, within the game - all from a pirated copy of the game itself. Alanis Morisette would even be proud of this one, folks.