Gaming - Page 1181

According to Shuhei Yoshida, Sony's Worldwide Studios president, Sony never even considered putting always-on DRM in the upcoming PlayStation 4. "Did we consider it? No, we didn't consider it," Yoshida said.

His reasoning makes sense, but unfortunately doesn't preclude Sony from adding always-on DRM on a future console. "The main reason being that many countries don't have robust Internet connections. It makes sense for people to have Internet connections to play online games, but for offline games there are many countries that we saw [that] do not really have robust Internet."

While this is good news, some are still worried that the upcoming Xbox will feature always-on DRM. However, a leaked memo suggests otherwise. Microsoft would have issues if Sony's PlayStation didn't feature always-on DRM and theirs did. It seems as though these companies have learned their lessons from others that always-on DRM is not a good choice.

Players of Battlefield 3 might have noticed some outages earlier today. EA has confirmed that the Battlefield 3 and Battlelog servers were under an attack "aimed at overwhelming our back-end infrastructure." EA has not confirmed whether or not the attack has ended or who the responsible party is.

Upon logging into Battlelog, users are presented the following message: "The current BF3 and Battlelog outages are a result of activity that appears to be aimed at overwhelming our back-end infrastructure. We will provide up to date information on our official channels, including the Battlefield Twitter account. Thanks for your patience!"

Let us know if you experienced any trouble logging into or playing Battlefield 3 or using the Battelog system.

Grand Theft Auto V has been announced for consoles, but PC gamers have been left to the side with this game, or have they? We've heard the rumors before, but now there's a German retail that is listing the PC version of GTA V.

This could be a simple error, but both Amazon Germany and GamesOnly.at have listed the PC version of GTA V, with the latter actually displaying the Games for Windows box art for GTA V. GamesOnly.at has also listed the Special Edition of GTA V, but has been removed, someone on NeoGaf pulled the details, which should see the GTA V: Special Edition include:

In a move that will likely upset numerous Star Wars fans, Disney has entered into an exclusive, multi-year deal with Elextronic Arts. The deal provides EA exclusive rights to develop future Star Wars games based upon the franchise Disney acquired from LucasFilms for over $4 billion.

According to EA's Frank Gibeau, all of EA's future games will be "entirely original." They will feature new stories and gameplay, though they may occasionally borrow from the films Disney is working on. DICE, Visceral, and BioWare will be the game developers behind these new games.

Gibeau said that all future Star Wars games would be based upon the Frostbtie 3 engine, which will be powering Battlefield 4. Disney has retained the rights to publish titles in the "mobile, social, tablet, and online game categories."

If you still want to trade-in your aging PlayStation 2 game console, now would be the time to do it. Ahead of the PlayStation 4 launch, GameStop has confirmed that they will stop accepting PlayStation 2 games, accessories, or consoles for trade-in. The hard deadline is June 1, so you better get all your old gaming equipment to GameStop soon.

PlayStation 2 sales will end, according to the spokesperson's statement, several months after June 1. I imagine they'll keep selling PlayStation 2 equipment up until they are completely depleted of stock.

There has been more controversy and drama created over Microsoft's next-gen Xbox console featuring Always-On DRM. We have even seen one employee resign after he went on a ranting tirade on Twitter about the subject. Such a touchy topic has led to a lot of bad publicity for the Redmond, Washington based giant, and today we are finally hearing some official words on the topic from Microsoft.

In an internal Microsoft e-mail sent to all full-time employees working on the next-gen Xbox, the company has seemingly began shooting down the idea of always-on DRM for certain aspects of the system.

Ouya have pushed out 'Project Update #25' and included inside is an update on the shipping status of their Android-powered console. For the week just gone, they have "successfully eclipsed 50 percent of units shipped and remain ahead of schedule to complete all shipments by the end of May".

Because they are this far in the game now, Ouya have completed their first production run, with all of their tools operating as needed to get all of the Ouya units to consumers. Other events this week for Ouya include the Limited Edition consoles rolling off the production line. International shipments have been slowed down because of an issue with the power adapter, which was caught early enough to be rectified before units began shipping.

The Limited Edition Ouya consoles should begin shipping in the coming days, meaning I should get mine in the next couple of weeks!

Nintendo has issued a statement regarding the story we ran yesterday about the Wii U being hacked so possibly pirated games could be played. According to Nintendo, they haven't seen any unauthorized applications running on a Wii U while in Wii U mode.

Not to be outdone, the makers of the Wiikey have posted a response to Nintendo's statement on their site. The response consists of four cryptic lines of what appears to be hexadecimal code:

According to a Joystiq report, Ubisoft's much-anticipated game Watch Dogs will be releasing in mid-November. The report says that North America will be getting the game on November 19 and the United Kingdom will be getting it on November 22.

Watch Dogs will be released on all current gaming systems, including the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U, as well as PC, the PlayStation 4, and next-generation consoles, such as the Xbox 720.

The UK version will reportedly be available in four different editions: Dedsec, Vigilante, Uplay, and Special Edition. Dedsec will come with a 23cm figurine, while the Vigilante will come with Aiden Pearce's cap and mask. Uplay, available through Ubisoft's digital distributioin network will reportedly come with a steelbook and the Special Edition will reportedly come with an extra single player mission. North American bundles are not currently known.

Nintendo has released an update for its Wii U gaming console. This update, claims Nintendo, brings with it better performance, decreased boot times, and decreased load times. The Wii U, while an innovative console, has failed to sell in quantities that Nintendo would be happy with.

Nintendo has published the following list of changes:

We encourage that Wii U user make sure to run the update process on a stable Internet connection and reduce their risk of losing power to avoid risking a bricked system.

This morning Sony has released a new video that shows off its DualShock 4 controller. Sony mentions that they worked tirelessly with developers to create a next-generation controller that is truly the best it can be.

While the DualShock 4 may look similar to its predecessor in form, the whole controller has been fine-tuned with improvements made to the analog sticks, the sensitivity of the triggers, as well as a new light bar on the front of the controller that tells the PS4 your position in the room and adjusts your split screen, relevant to your location.

A new touch pad has been added to the controller, as well. Sony says that this was a major request from game developers and features multi-touch sensitivity and is comfortable to use with your thumbs or fingertips. Additionally a speaker has been added to the controller that is said to bring forth a new dynamic of sound to gameplay.

PlayStation 4's lead architect, Mark Cerny, says that the PlayStation 4 launch will feature the strongest set of launch games in PlayStation 4. In an interview with Gamasutra, Cerny talks about the PlayStation 4 and how it is so easy to code for thanks to its unified architecture.

Most importantly, Cerny says, "The launch lineup for PlayStation 4 -- though I unfortunately can't give the title count -- is going to be stronger than any prior PlayStation hardware." Gamasutra has the full interview at source #1.

If you were hoping for some motion control in the upcoming first-person shooter from DICE, then you're out of luck. Battlefield 4 will not be featuring any motion control gameplay. Patrick Bach, executive producer of Battlefield 4 told Edge:

Bach also said that DICE are "extremely open to innovation", but they do not like gimmicks, adding that they do not add value to the player. Bach isn't completely against motion control, where he is open to the technology if it actually adds to the gameplay. Hopefully we see Oculus Rift support, DICE, don't disappoint me, okay?

Ouya developer James Coote ran the new 3DMark for Android benchmark on his Ouya game console, the video of which you can see embedded below. Interestingly enough, the Ouya is easily bested by current generation smartphones and even some previous generation smartphones.

In fact, the Ouya console is ranked 73 among all Android devices in Futuremark's database for the 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark. This doesn't exactly make me believe the Ouya will play host to graphically exciting games. The Samsung Galaxy S4 manages over double the score of the Ouya console.

This weak performance is likely the best the Ouya designers could manage while still staying within a $99 sticker price.

Project Unity is an interesting beast, a single, unified gaming console made by hardware hacker (among other things) 'Bacteria'. Project Unity crams in a bunch of the best consoles from the past couple of decades into a single gaming box.

Project Unity includes Sega Master System, Neo Geo MVS, GameCube, Dreamcast, Saturn, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 7800, Turbografx 16, PS1/PS2, Mega Drive, NES, Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 and Amstrad GX4000 games. The console was made out of authentic hardware and doesn't use any emulators of combo units. It does all of this from a single power supply, video output and custom-built controller - no matter the system selected at the time.

The developer behind the PlayStation 3-exclusive game Heavy Rain, is hiring staff for some upcoming multiplayer title(s). A job listing spotted by Kotaku states that the developer is looking for a "creative lead online programmer with a passion for online gaming in order to be with us for our future AAA projects."

Quantic Dream says they're looking for an experienced programmer with a "strong understanding of the multiplayer genre". Up until now, Quantic Dream's games have been single-player experiences, driven heavily by their story. Next-gen consoles might help all of this, where we might see some multiplayer elements.

The thing is, Quantic Dream are no normal developer - they don't just release a game, they invest so much time into the details within the game world, that this multiplayer news should excite all gamers. Multiplayer within a Quantic Dream game could see gamers playing characters, within the single-player world. What if it was your job to play a detective, and you could lie or tell the truth, kill the main character or not, and have multiple choices through an open-world game?

Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel, Arkham City, have been some of the most memorable, and most successful games of this generation. These games were developed by Rocksteady Studios - but there has now been a third game in the series announced today, Batman: Arkham Origins.

Batman: Arkham Origins will be released for the PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 - with no mention of next-generation consoles. It is being put together by WB Games Montreal, and has the game world of Origins set years before the events of the previous Arkham games. Players take control of a younger Batman, who meets many of the series' iconic characters for the very first time.

From my perspective, it looks like Warner Bros. are pulling an Activision here, with their Call of Duty series. Back in its hey day (I guess it's still there, isn't it?) it was being pushed between Infinity Ward and Treyarch - the former releasing the best COD titles, the latter selling the lesser quality titles. It made lots of money for Activision, but the entire series has been run into the ground (again, in my opinion).

It was only at the unveiling of Sony's PlayStation 4 that third-party developers discovered there was 8GB of GDDR5 RAM inside of the machine, as they were told that the PS4 would only come with 4GB of GDDR5 previously.

These developers even received development kits before the PS4 was announced, and were still not aware of the bump in RAM until the PS4 reveal. Just Add Water's CEO, Stewart Gilray, spoke with VideoGamer.com, teasing that they're working on a mystery title for the PS4, said that third-party developers were told that the PS4 would feature just 4GB of RAM, but were very surprised when the PS4 system lead architect, Mark Cerny, announced the 8GB of RAM cranking along inside of the PlayStation 4.

Gilray told VideoGamer.com:

What was originally thought of as a huge April Fool's Day joke has turned into an actual serious tease of the upcoming Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon from Ubisoft. A bunch of screenshots have made their way to the official Xbox.com website, which has gamers talking.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon goes down a very different path to the usual DLC, where we should expect some seriously fun first-person shooter fun. Here is the official synopsis from the game's website:

Microsoft's next generation Xbox has long been rumored to feature Always On DRM protection, and after recent events with SimCity and Diablo 3, many gamers are seeking to put an end to that sort of DRM. Yesterday Microsoft Employee Adam Orth took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the anti-DRM crowd.

Orth, a Creative Director at Microsoft, went on a tirade blasting opponents of Always On DRM saying "Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an "always on" console. Every device is now "always on" that is the world we live in, ending the tweet with the hashtag, #dealwithit. This led some people to point out the debacle that EA recently went through with SimCity and asking what happens when the internet goes out.

Orth replied, "Electricity goes out too." This led to a follow up reminding Orth that some locales such as rural areas are often not well connected and do not have internet connections at all. One tweeter said: "You've lived in LA, SF, Seattle... Very Connected places. Try living in Janesville, WI or Blackberg VA." This prompted a kind of insulting reply from Orth of, Why on earth would I live there? He then set his Twitter account to private.