Gaming - Page 1177

It's no doubt that Sony's DualShock 4 controller is one of the most advanced gaming controllers of all time, and today were learning just how advanced Sony originally wanted it to be. In an interview with Stuff magazine, Sony's lead system architect Mark Cermu said that the company "looked at pretty much any idea it could think of."

One of the ideas developers came up with was to have the controller measure the galvanic response of your skin. This essentially means that it would measure the electrical conductivity of your skin to judge your sweat levels. Sony's plans for this was to detect a player's current stress level, which could then be incorporated into the game by making a player's avatar lose some of his accuracy or even become more fatigued.

After scrapping that idea, Sony says that they focused on improving the DualShock 4 for better first-person shooter performance as the older controllers were not ideal for games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. This is when they decided to include a touch-sensitive trackpad and the light bar. Sony was not the only company looking into bio feedback technology; earlier this year, Valve's resident psychologist said that the company had begun testing sweat-based experiments with the game Left for Dead which would adjust the player's gameplay according to his or her stress level.

This morning, Mad Catz announced a new addition of its Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2 controller for the Xbox One. Now featuring a fully licensed artwork skin from the game Killer Instinct, the Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2 has become even more intimidating for your opponents. Mad Catz says that the new controller will hit store shelves in time for the 2013 holiday season.

"E3 greeted us with a positive reaction to our Tournament Edition 2 FightStick and we're pleased that the controller will provide passionate fans of Killer Instinct with an even richer gaming experience," said Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. "We earlier commented how the enhanced performance of the Xbox One opens up additional scope for innovation and believe that the Killer Instinct Tournament Edition 2 FightStick perfectly illustrates our commitment to the next generation of entertainment."

Mad Catz says that the Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2 is expected to be the first fighting game controller for the Xbox One. It will feature arcade-perfect controls that have been extensively designed with the professional gamer in mind. The company says that the Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2 has been designed with a philosophy that will offer greater levels of customization and quality to the end-user.

Say what you want about some of the early gaming consoles but tread carefully when talking about Nintendo's Famicom. The Family Computer by Nintendo was the predecessor to Nintendo's NES system. While the company ceased to manufacturer the NES system in 1995, Nintendo continued to manufacture the Famicom well into the new millennium until production ceased in 2003.

The Famicom, which turned 30 years old today, was truly ahead of its time with its sleek red and tan exterior as well as its conveniently placed controller pockets. This 8-bit system was a monster at its time and still has an active following of developers who continue to create new games for the aging system. So today, we salute you Famicom. As someone who will soon enter their third decade of existence as well, I raise my glass to you and wish you another 30 years of sprite-based pixilated fun.

We're getting closer with each day to the release of the PlayStation 4, but now we have PS4 architect Mark Cerny weighing in. While speaking with Edge, the architect behind the PS4 said:

When Cerny was speaking at the Develop conference last week, he took a step back to the days of the 1990s, where he said: "There was no rulebook, teams were small, projects were cheap, you could make a game for just a couple of hundred thousand dollars," he said. "Some of these games that were made by these tiny teams with these tiny budgets went on to be phenomenally successful."

It appears that life for future PlayStation 4 owners just keeps getting better and better with every passing day. Today, a Sony official has confirmed that gamers will be able to access their entire PS4 game library from any PS4 console. Sony's R&D senior team leader Neil Brown confirmed that users will be up to log into their accounts from any PS4 console and start playing straight away thanks to the console's play as you download feature.

"You can visit your friends' house, you can log into your account and play any game from your digital library, which is good. But how useful is that if it takes half a day to download the game you want to play?" He went on to say that the system is quite similar to how Blu-ray technology works in that chunks of data are automatically copied over in the background leading to faster speeds after the first few minutes.

Pretty much every PC gamer on the planet was disappointed when they learned that Rockstar Games had no intentions of publishing its upcoming Grand Theft Auto V title on PC. The series began on the PC and has a following unlike any other game, not to mention an entire community based around modding the game on PC.

This morning it appears that there may be a little hope for those eagerly anticipating a GTA V PC launch. In a since-removed job advertisement, Rockstar appears to be seeking a graphics programmer to work at the company's Leeds studio "to help bring our latest titles to the PC platform." The advertisement was first spotted by fansite RockstarWatch.

The advertisement explained that the graphics programmer would be working with Rockstar Studios world-wide to port existing titles to the PC. With all of the company's previous titles being available on the PC, this can only mean that Grand Theft Auto as well as Red Dead Redemption will be coming to the PC in the future.

NVIDIA announced today its latest plans to compete in the ongoing bundling war with graphics rival AMD. The company has partnered with Ubisoft to bundle Splinter Cell Blacklist with the company's GeForce GTX graphics cards. Additionally, the company will include a bonus copy of the 2010 release of Splinter Cell Conviction.

NVIDIA engineers are working closely with the Ubisoft Toronto development team to incorporate an array of cutting-edge gaming technologies for Splinter Cell Blacklist including DirectX tessellation, NVIDIA HBAO+, TXAA antialiasing, and surround technologies to ensure gamers can experience smooth frame rates and awesome visuals in all of their covert missions.

Due to launch on the August 23, the game is to be made free to anyone buying an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, GTX 660 Ti, GTX 670, GTX 680, GTX 760, GTX 770 or GTX 780 from the usual participating retail partners from now until December 31. In Splinter Cell Blacklist, Sam Fisher returns as leader of 4th Echelon, an elite counter-terrorism unit armed with a new mandate to hunt down the masterminds behind The Blacklist, a series of deadly escalating attacks on U.S. interests. To stop the Blacklist countdown, gamers will choose the best way to face any challenge by tapping into Sam's arsenal of lethal skills and training.

Earlier today, Steam updated the page for Dota 2 to reflect that its beta program has finally come to a close. The page directed players to check out various links which did not work and featured a graphic stating "The Beta Is Over." Also listed is a launch date of July 9 for the production version of the game.

Unfortunately, Steam has since removed the page but according to Valve, the disappearing act is the result of some technical difficulties. Below is a quote that can be found on the new Steam page:

Over the last month or so, we have seen a wealth of new games announced. While they are all quite spectacular in their own right, none of them come as highly anticipated as Grand Theft Auto V. GTA V has to be the most talked about game of the year and RockStar is doing a good job at keeping the anticipation levels high.

This morning, RockStar Games released a new trailer video of actual in-game footage that takes us on a more in-depth look at the reimagined San Andreas. We learn more about the game's three leading characters, which are all playable on-the-fly during gameplay. This means that you can switch to each of the three during missions to provide new vantage points to shoot from, or even to handle different parts of the mission such as flying the escape helicopter while the other two characters hang onto a rope.

The video also shows off old and new features such as the ability to deeply customize vehicles in customization shops, a playable stock market system, investing in and selling real estate, and even playing a round of golf. Traditional features such as getting a tattoo, buying clothing, and flying planes also make a comeback for what is almost guaranteed to be the most thrilling GTA ever.

According to Frank Gibeau of EA Labels, the next-gen tablets will get to see some of EA's PS3 and Xbox 360 classics. Gibeau says that the next-gen tablets and mobile devices will feature roughly the same graphical fidelity as the current PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

But it's not just about graphics capabilities. Gibeau notes that games can't just be ported over. Instead, the games have to be redesigned for the new interfaces.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is nearly here, but it looks like PS3 and Xbox 360 owners are going to have to do some spring cleaning on their consoles before installation, as it will require an 8GB installation before you can get into the game.

This is going to take quite sometime to get installed, more so on the Xbox 360 which will have GTA V arriving on two DVDs. The PS3 version will come on a single Blu-ray disc, which will make things a little easier. Xbox 360 owners with just 4GB or 8GB are going to be in trouble, where they'll need external storage before they even consider purchasing Rockstar Games' latest open-world title. Rockstar are already on damage control, preparing gamers to install GTA V so that they avoid disappointment.

Rockstar Games have said:

The upcoming Microsoft Xbox One will introduce a new Xbox Live Gold reputation system. This system is designed to rank players so mean or undesirable players are matched with other mean or undesirable players. The system will use player reports, moderator actions, mutes, and other reporting systems to rank players. The system may eventually take Xbox Live Arcade purchases and other participation things into account.

"There'll be very good things that happen to people that just play their games and are good participants," said Microsoft senior product manager Mike Lavin. "And you'll start to see some effects if you continue to play bad or, or harass other people en masse. You'll probably end up starting to play more with other people that are more similar to you."

The system will come with protections so a person's reputation won't be unduly affected by an angry mob. It will take into account factors such as whether or not the reporting player actually played a match with person being reported. If the player didn't, the report will carry much less weight than a report from someone who actually played a match with the player. It will also decline over time so that a single bad day won't affect your reputation by too much.

We have a full review of OUYA that will come in around a week, as I'd like a few good nights with it, and a few social nights with friends, in order to get a good look at the OUYA console.

For now, we have an unboxing video and a few teaser photos that you can enjoy.

Before we dive into our quick look at the Android-powered console, just how do you pronounce "OUYA". I have always thought it was "you-ah", but it is actually "ooh-AH". So let's take a quick dive into the OUYA.

For those of you who have a PlayStation 3, don't fret, Sony will continue to support their current money-maker once the PS4 launches later in the year for $399.

The confidence in the PS3 comes directly from Sony Japan President, Hiroshi Kawano and Sony Worldwide President, Shuhei Yoshida, when they spoke during an interview with Japanese gaming magazine, Weekly Famitsu. They said that support for the PS3 will continue indefinitely, and that the company has "no intention of immediately shifting from the PS3 to the PS4."

Kawano also noted that after seven years since the PS3 launched, it continues to "sell at a constant pace" and that there are countless titles headed to the PS3 in the future. Kawano added: "With the 2014 launch of our cloud service in the US allowing users to play PS3 games on the PS4, some people may switch consoles from the PS3 to the PS4. But that'll be a gradual process, and to say 'we're releasing a new console, so trade in your old ones for it' would be a maker's ego talking, plain and simple."

Alienware are still here, making some seriously high-end gaming PC's and notebooks, and their General Manager, Frank Azon, has some harsh words for Microsoft and Sony's next-gen consoles.

He said that the Xbox One and PS4 are just becoming more and more like the PC, stating that the PC is the ultimate gaming platform, and that Microsoft and Sony are just borrowing concepts from the PC and putting them into a flashy-looking box that sits in your living room.

Azon isn't just talking fluff either, as we know that the next-gen consoles are powered by x86 architectures, which is what the PC is built upon. On top of that we have AMD building them, which are a PC company. We have digital downloads, streaming TV and movies, which have been staples of the PC industry for years now.

Saints Row IV has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board, and one of the reasons for its ban is quite hilarious - that reason? It includes an "alien anal probe".

Saints Row IV was refused classification for "interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context" and "elements of illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards." What does the alien anal probe do exactly? Well, for the curious:

I voiced my opinion a few days ago about backing the OUYA console on Kickstarter and not receiving my console yet, but now we're at the stage of it hitting retail shelves - and getting to the point of selling out at a few of them.

OUYA founder, Julia Uhrman, is "pissed" because some of the Kickstarter backers haven't received their consoles yet, as she promised they would all receive their consoles before OUYA went to retail. Uhrman writes in a Kickstarter update that only the backers received: "I am pissed. Some of you have not yet received your OUYA -- and, to you, I apologize. I did not promise to ship to *most* of you before we hit store shelves. I promised to ship to *all* of you. I've been reading your comments, and we are working to solve this."

I'm still waiting - and my shipping notifications haven't changed. I e-mailed OUYA about changing my address (I moved a month ago) and it feels like I got an automated response, here is what I got told this morning:

Sony has announced pre-order details for the upcoming Gran Turismo 6 on it's PlayStation blog this morning. The company is offering a unique car pack with four cars to all who pre-order the game and has detailed out some pretty sweet exclusive pre-order packs from GameStop and Amazon.com.

Up first, GameStop is offering not only the four cars pictured above, but for $59.99 gamers can pre-order the exclusive GT6 15th Anniversary Edition and get an additional 16 exclusive cars with exclusive paint jobs, race suits, helmets, and a PSN Avatar. Also included is a free copy of the Beyond the Apex II app. Other features are said to be included but will not be disclosed until closer to launch. Check out the awesome list of exclusive cars that come with the GameStop pre-order below.

Finally, Amazon.com is offering their own exclusive pre-order deal which includes the original four cars pictured above but also includes $1,000,000 in in-game credit. This will allow gamers to build their ultimate garage straight out of the box, and will solidify them as becoming master of their GT6 universe. The credit can be used to unlock multiple aspects of the game, purchase vehicles, upgrades, and other in-game features. The pre-order at Amazon is also about $60, so the decision on which to buy will be a tough one.

Earlier this year, Valve announced a new rewards system that awards you virtual trading cards based on the games you play, with additional cards being obtained through trading with friends. That service is set to launch just two days from now on the 26th and the company has just teased that "an event we think everyone can be excited about," will also begin on the 26th.

Chances are that this "event" will be the highly anticipated Steam Summer Sale, which begins every year around this time. In the event that you are new to PC gaming, the Steam Summer Sale is a week's long sale in which Steam puts top titles on sale for as much as 70% off with different games being added every day.

While almost everyone looks forward to the Summer Sale, I usually get pretty nervous when it arrives. Last year I bought a total of 13 games and spent roughly $100 total. Of those 13 games I think I have installed and played maybe 6, and with so many great titles out right now, I am sure I will buy many more this year.

This is something that has been discussed for quite sometime, that The Last Of Us' character 'Ellie' looks scarily like the real-life actress Ellen Page. She even sounded like her, shared mannerisms, and delivered dialogue in a scary mimic of the actress in the game's first trailer.

Naughty Dog made some changes to Ellie's facial features, making her look a little less like Page. But now Ellen Page has taken to Reddit for an Ask Me Anything (AMA), where someone asked what she thought of the character Ellie in The Last Of Us: