Gaming - Page 1196

The sequel to Epic's massively popular Unreal Engine 3 is destined for machines that are yet unannounced. Unreal Engine 3 has had an incredible run. Featured at the heart of over 100 games, it runs said games on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, computer, and even the iPhone and Adobe Flash. The games range from massive, graphically incredible RPGs to lowly iPhone games.

Epic is still milking the last bit out of its aging engine, as demonstrated by the picture above. At the same time they are increasingly talking about their upcoming Unreal Engine 4. Epic has been developing Unreal Engine 4 since 2003 and says that it is still too early for a public demonstration. However, they are talking what machines it will be running on, and this includes unannounced machines!

"We've started a behind-closed-doors showing of the engine to developers; this is part of our very early ramp-up cycle," said Sweeney, "We went through this cycle with Unreal Engine 3 starting in 2003 and 2004. At some point we'll make public announcements and ramp up to the point where developers are shipping games, but it's very early right now. We're aiming very high, and the intended platforms this is aimed at haven't even been announced."

EA are looking to restructure themselves, where they've started their journey toward treating games as services, instead of packaged goods. EA chief executive, John Riccitiello said in today's earnings call that there would be layoffs, as EA increases production of online, mobile and social games.

While there'll be layoffs, there'll also be new job opportunities, thanks to the restructuring. Riccitiello added that the company are investing $80 million into fourth-generation console games, and from there, we should expect the number to swell as production of the games gets under way.

While he was at it, he teased that EA are planning to release a "big social title" this quarter. What could it be? Well, some are talking of a new version of SimCity that would possibly be released on Facebook, as SimCity for PC will be arriving later in the year. Currently, social gaming is only a blip on EA's revenue radar, but the company have made it clear during their earnings call that social gaming would be a bigger part of its strategy moving forward.

A very naughty Blockbuster UK employee has leaked out a screenshot that shows off the Nintendo Wii U launch title list. The screenshot is from the Blockbuster UK stock system search screen, where it shows a list of 25 games and 2 consoles when searching for the "WiiU" in their systems.

The full list of "launch titles" according to GoNintendo.com are:

Some of these titles have already been announced, with the full list expected to be announced during E3 in Los Angeles next month. We will be there, and will be reporting from the event as it happens. Until then, this list is a 'leak', and not confirmed.

EA and BioWare's MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic launched in late-2011 to surprisingly strong numbers, but EA have released an earnings report today that might shock you. EA have announced that the game currently has 1.3 million subscribers, which is down roughly 25-percent from its peak of 1.7 million subscribers in March.

During a conference call that went with the earnings report, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said that the subscriber drop was within the company's "original assumptions" about how the game would go post-launch. He added that the company "intends to increase subscribers" with continual upgrades, which include new guild features, players vs. player improvements, and "elder gameplay" that keeps SW:TOR appealing to high-level players.

Gibeau has said that the subscriber drop isn't from the "core MMO users", as they are sticking to the game in good numbers, but seems to be coming from the expanded audience of non-MMO-obsessed Star Wars fans attracted by a title like The Old Republic. Gibeau continues:

Max Payne 3 is nearly here and what better way to get back into the game than by watching a very well made fan film dubbed 'Max Payne: Valhalla". Max Payne: Valhalla is a non-profit fan film based on the original two Max Payne games.

It's a Zapruder Pictures production. Written and directed by Guillermo Fernández de Oliveira and Javier Esteban Loring. Starring Javier Esteban and Ignacio Sáez. Filmed in Madrid (Spain). The video above goes for a shave under 8 minutes, but is definitely worth those precious 8 minutes of your life.

There are some great sequences, the audio, music and acting is all well done. The bit with the load game after Max dies is just perfect, my hat goes off to the team!

As we reported yesterday, the studio behind The Elder Scrolls is looking to create an MMO based in the Elder Scrolls world. The game, which will be unveiled in more detail this June in the magazine Game Informer, features online social components, such as dungeons and PvP, as well as solo quests.

The video doesn't reveal much, if anything, that we don't already know about the game, but it does do a good job of perking viewers' interest in the game. I'm not a massive MMO player, Black Ops is about as good as it gets, but even I have some interest in the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online after watching the video.

Activision aren't letting themselves get kicked down by claims by EA that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 looks like a "tired" game, where they've promised it will be "groundbreaking and visceral" and will feature "disruptive innovation".

With both companies going head-to-head for the Christmas season sales, EA with their Medal of Honor: Warfighter launching weeks before COD:BLOPS 2, Activision is putting up a fight. Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision says:

It has been a long time coming, but we're finally hearing about The Elder Scrolls Online, which will be unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. The Elder Scrolls Online is being developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, where the game merges the exploration of rich worlds that the Elder Scrolls franchise is known for, with the scale and social aspects of an MMORPG.

The Elder Scrolls Online is set 1000 years before the events in Skyrim take place, as daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull of Tamriel into his demonic realm. Game director and MMO veteram Matt Firor says:

While there's been yet another Call of Duty announced in the form of Black Ops 2, but Battlefield 3 is still pumping away. We should receive Battlefield 3's first expansion in June which will begin an entire new world of Battlefield 3 fun.

During a recent interview, DICE's Patrick Bach said that the studio is focusing on giving players between 12 and 18 months of value in Battlefield 3 through DLC and expansions. Whilst speaking to VG24/7 regarding Battlefield 3's upcoming DLC, Close Quarters, Bach said:

Microsoft are reportedly set to release a $99 Xbox bundle which will include the 4GB-sporting Xbox 360, as well as their Kinect motion sensor device. The Xbox 360 won't be sold flat-out for $99, but will have a two-year $15 per month subscription attached to it.

At the end of the two-year period, customers would have paid slightly more for the bundle, compared to if they had dumped $299 down up-front. But, most people would rather pay a smaller monthly fee, then dump all of that money down at once. It's how smartphones are sold, in droves.

Included with the two-year subscription is a two-year warranty, membership to Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold service, and possible extra streaming material. If customers want to break the contract, they can do so by paying an early termination fee. This fee is currently unknown.

ValveTime are reporting that forum member "tabernumse" has posted the e-mail response he received from Gabe Newell in reference to their plans for E3, shown below:

Newell says:

Diablo III is nearly here, we've already hit May 1 which means there's only two weeks left to go until we can raid dungeons, and start using the new Auction House to sell our loot. Today, Blizzard released a full list of the region servers that will be available for Diablo III.

What this has also unleashed, is that we can play on any region's server in Diablo III, which is great. Game servers will come in three regions: The Americas, Europe, and Asia. Players can choose any server they want, but with caution: you won't be able to transfer characters, or items from server to server. But you can switch between servers as many times as you want. The list of servers is:

Another note is that Auction houses, stashes, and friends lists, as well as most other individual information is region-specific, and won't transfer when you switch regions. StarCraft II was worse, where it had quite a strict region-lock on most servers. If you wanted to play on multiple region's, you needed to have multiple copies of the game itself.

After weeks of teasing us about the upcoming DLC for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda has finally released more details about the coming DLC. First off, the name of the DLC is going to be 'Dawnguard.' I've never actually played Skyrim, so I can't say if that is some sort of reference to something in the game.

The marketing teaser image shows the usual hero. However, he has an unusual yellow glow in his eyes which could signal that the hero could be gaining some sort of new powers in the DLC. As we reported previously, gamers have dug around in a patch and found references to things that most likely will be showing up in the DLC.

Bethesda says that Dawnguard will debut on Xbox360 sometime this summer. In case you hadn't heard, the first two DLCs for Skyrim will be timed exclusives for Xbox 360. PS3 and PC gamers will have to wait at least an additional 30 days beyond the release. Technically, summer starts at the end of May, but it's doubtful that it will be that early. Bethesda says they are waiting for E3 in early June to release more details. I'll be attending E3, so I'll make sure to get the low down!

AMD cares about the customer. Today's announcement of GameFly and AMD teaming up is just another example of all the things they do for you, the customer. This time AMD would like to get you gaming for cheap, at least for a little while. AMD announced that GameFly and AMD had an agreement to bring easier access to GameFly's online PC game rental and PC download services for a limited time.

Gamers who purchase select AMD A-Series APUs, AMD Athlon II CPUs, AMD Phenom™ II CPUs or AMD FX Series CPUs in areas where GameFly is accessible will receive a free 30-day GameFly membership and a 20% discount on a new PC game purchase when bought via the GameFly PC store. I don't have a listing of which CPUs qualify, so if I find one, I will add it here.

"AMD draws inspiration from gamers, game developers and the PC gaming industry," said John Taylor, director of Global Product and Technology Marketing at AMD. "Hand-in-hand with the AMD Gaming Evolved program, we continue to listen to gamers and fulfill our 'Gamers Come First!' pledge. AMD‟s close affiliation with GameFly shows our gratitude to gamers and to GameFly for recognizing how AMD represents best-in-class PC gaming experiences."

NVIDIA had quite the day yesterday, with CEO Jen-Hsun Huang proudly announcing the kick-arse GEFORCE GTX 690, based on two Kepler GK104 GPUs. But, that wasn't the only big news, another thing Team Green announced was the 'GeForce Experience'.

What is that? It does sound like a trip in a fighter plane, or some really cheesy porno, but it's actually a cloud-based service with the promise of simplifying the configuration of games based on your hardware. This means that depending on your particular hardware configuration, including the CPU, RAM, storage speed and of course, the GPU, the NVIDIA tool will set the optimal in-game settings and resolution.

This is a huge step for NVIDIA, but they're confident that they have the personnel and testing systems in place to push this forward. How it'll work is pretty simple: when a user opens a game for the first time, they'll be prompted with a screen that shows the default of current game settings side-by-side with the settings recommended by NVIDIA's GeForce Experience.

Diablo III, sequel to Diablo II, has been in development for a long time now. Often when players are made to wait, their expectations grow larger and larger as time passes by. Often times it is hard to please the users who have waited in anticipation for the game to release. 300,000 simultaneous users logged into the game over the weekend to give it a test run.

While we don't know if everyone liked the game, from what I've heard from people who played it is that they loved it. Blizzard hasn't said how many total users logged in over the weekend beta, however, Blizzard community manager Bashiok said on Twitter that Blizzard's servers saw 300,000 simultaneous players.

The number could have been higher if Blizzard hadn't run into some problems over the weekend. But, then again, wasn't that the point of hosting this? Many beta players reported issues logging in. This could be due to the fact that Diablo III requires a constant internet connection to play the game. This is a sticking point between Blizzard and its audience. Hopefully Blizzard can work these problems out before the May 15 launch.

Crysis 3 will differ from Crysis 2 in that it won't be a console-port running on the PC. Rather it will be a PC-port running on consoles, including some of the graphical features that are available in DX11. The programmers at Crytek don't want the experience to differ between the PC version and the console versions of the game.

"We want to make sure as much as is humanly possible can translate from a DX11 variant into a DX9 variant, that will work almost as good on an Xbox console to whatever extent we can, because we don't want the experience to be different between the platforms," Rasmus Højengaard, director of creative development at Crytek, told Eurogamer.

"It is very, very difficult, but it is possible. It just requires a lot of effort. Some of the stuff these guys are making work on consoles now is absolutely amazing. It's render features that shouldn't theoretically work on consoles, but they've managed to construct code that can emulate a similar thing from a...hack and slash sounds wrong, but they don't have the same streamlined pipeline you would have with a DX11 structure, but they can get to a similar result just by experimenting and using tips and tricks."

Valve are successful because they don't run their company in a traditional sense, in more ways than one. Valve attract the best talent from across the world, and this talent produces some of the best product in the form of Steam, games and more.

A PDF of Valve's Handbook for New Employees has made its way onto the Internet, and you can take a read at just how awesome it is to work at the company. A traditional job would have you go in, take a job title, a desk and start your job. You work a normal 9-5, Mon-Fri, at your desk, with someone higher than you telling you what to do, and not do.

This can work well, if everyone is treated equally, but we all know this doesn't generally work. Valve's way is that they give you a desk, on wheels, so that if you're not liking the department, or area where you start, and you feel you'd be more efficient in another area, you can move freely. You're not stuck into a single "X" position. You're just 'working at Valve'.

EA has graced us with another Crysis trailer. This one is much longer than the teaser that was released last week and has actual gameplay included in it. We also learn some more of the backstory with this trailer and get to see that the graphics are as incredible as one would expect from the Crysis series.

As previously reported, the game will take place in New York City just like Crysis 2 did. However, this time the city has been covered by a Nanodome created by the now-corrupt Cell Corporation. Because of this Nanodome, the city will feature 7 unique districts which are called the Seven Wonders. Each will provide a different, treacherous environment.

Watch the video above and start to get excited like I am. I love the first Crysis game, so I'm excited to see it, at least somewhat, return to the jungle. Prophet will have an updated Nanosuit, composite bow, and alien tech to help him in his quest. The game will be released sometime in 2013 and be available on PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.

Batman: Arkham City has not only been popular with shipping numbers, but it now has confirmed DLC. Warner Bros. have confirmed that the Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC will add more than two hours of completely new gameplay to the campaign.

Also included on the disc are all five previously released DLC packs. Warner also added that anyone who already owns the game can download the Harley Quinn's Revenge Pack which will be available to all international markets starting on April 30 from the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace.

Warner Bros. also confirmed a Game of the Year Edition of Batman: Arkham City, which will sport: