Gaming News - Page 1678

Ubisoft is claiming that people could potentially confuse Ghost Recon and EA's Ghost Games studio, setting up for a long legal trademark battle of the word "Ghost" in the context of games.

EA has apparently has the trademark for the use of the term "Ghost" in relation to video games, computer software or network and wireless devices. That is, it's been trademarked for one of their studios, Ghost Games. It makes sense to protect their brand identity, though that particular mark is likely to be diluted, and thus invalid, rather quickly considering the common use.

In the trademark application, the first use of the word "Ghost" in association with video games is presented as being in 2013, which is completely false give that Red Storm and Ubisoft published Ghost Recon in 2001. Though they can absolutely argue that to nullify the mark, and it could definitely be argued to be far too common, it'll likely be a long and fruitless battle.

Cloud Imperium Games is steadily increasing their production load to get the single-player Squadron 42 finished and out to fans as fast as possible, and with their latest update they've started another Free Fly program for all everyone. You just have to create a free account at RSI.

Star Citizen is a controversial game due to it's ever increasing scope and development time. But the open-communication CIG has been able to maintain has been second to none compared to previous development cycles. But to help allay the fears of some and encourage the curiosity of others, you can play everything that's available right now. For free.

All free play accounts can access the persistent universe and the Crusader space station, which lets you fly around and complete a plethora of mission available, engage in random encounters and just have fun. Just watch out for people trying to steal your ship. You can also enjoy the social module, which is a planetside location complete with a nice bar. And of course there's Arena Commander, which lets you fly your ships in combat against friends and random people.

ARK: Survival Evolved has received quite the following on the Xbox One, even though it seems to have been plagued by rather dissatisfactory performance when compared to its PC counterpart. The level of detail and framerate have a lot of catching up to do, and the next patch from Studio Wildcard should do just that.

On Twitter they gave us a little preview of what's to come with patch v732 for the Xbox One. And it looks like a lot of content is being brought over from the PC, with a lot of small insects and beer coming over. But one of the most important fixes for Xbox One players is the improvement of the framerate. Hopefully they've been able to better optimize for a smoother experience. The stuttering that occurs is frequent, and breaks the immersion.

And this is also the patch that's going to get old-school split-screen multiplayer support, for those times when you want to brave the wild and wonderful land with your friends literally sitting next to you. The patch, which should be out around the 10th of February, will fix more than just what's listed in the Tweet below.

Homefront's development has been filled with drama, but the game is getting closer to release with a new multiplayer beta headed to the Xbox One to prove it - kicking off on February 11, ending on February 14.

Some of the gaming media out there have had some hands-on time with the 'Resistance Mode' for Homefront: The Revolution, with Polygon getting some of that time with Homefront. Resistance Mode sees players enter a mission, with the one Polygon played called "Infiltration". Infiltration has players raiding an enemy outpost, looking its food and ammo, and escorting some stolen trucks from the station, back to safety.

Homefront is powered by Crytek's impressive CRYENGINE, allowing for huge environments with buildings that you can enter, and they seem "to be a major part of what could set this game apart", reports Polygon.

We all know Fable Legends is one beautiful game, with baked-in support for the Windows 10-exclusive DirectX 12 - but what about the performance side of things?

Well, according to a new interview with Lionhead Studios Director, Stuart Whyte with BidnessETC, anything that helps out with increasing the visual side of things in a game, is loved by developers and gamers alike. Lionhead is making great use of DirectX 12, with the development team able to achieve "a significant amount of horsepower - resulting in increased visual fidelity, higher frame rates, and improved shadows and effects".

Whyte added that Lionhead is setting a performance increase of "up to 40%" when using DX12, compared to DX11.

With thousands of gamers entering The Division beta, Ubisoft has taken to the official Twitter account of The Division, announcing that the beta has been extended until Tuesday, February 2 @ 12PM CET, or 6AM EST, or 3AM PST.

Ubisoft opened up The Division beta for the PS4 and PC last week, with those who pre-ordered getting access, and those who were lucky enough to score a key from somewhere else. NVIDIA released their new GeForce 361.75 drivers for both Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Division, while Jeff gave his thoughts after his first day in the post-apocalyptic New York setting in The Division.

Let's face it: campaign modes in modern shooters are dying. But why would studios avoid the opportunity to flex their creative muscles and tell a riveting singleplayer story? Well, it's pretty expensive to make campaign modes, and coupled with the fact that most people just play multiplayer anyway, studios are moving towards MP-only releases.

According to FPS guru Cliff Bleszinski, the push away from singleplayer is simple: "campaigns cost the most money." But how much money does it cost to make a campaign? Sometimes more than half of the entire budget. "[Campaigns] usually cost 75% of the budget," Cliffy B said in a recent interview with PC Gamer. "And you burn through the campaign in a weekend, and then [players] go to multiplayer."

Cliffy B makes a good point, even if it is disappointing for campaign-lovers like myself. At the same time, however, there's a reason most people skip the campaign: they just don't care about it and want to get in on the action right away. What if devs put more effort into making the campaigns last longer? That would likely cost even more, so it's not bound to happen, but we know that the standard three-act story arc is antiquated in our age of constantly-evolving digital consumption.

Final Fantasy XV is looking outright incredible. Square Enix showcased a bunch of new content in its latest Active Time Report, including an interesting three-minute combat sequence, new story info, new details on magic, and confirmation that the game's release date will be revealed in March. We also have the final progress report for the game that details new changes and features.

The combat footage introduces a surprising mashup of Metal Gear Solid with modern Final Fantasy. Noctis and co. sneak into a nefarious Niflheim base, espionage style, and then go up against a hulking Magitek mech straight out of Kojima's imagination. We get to see how stealth will work in the game: users can warp from place to place without blowing their cover, and even stealthily warp-kill enemies.

The real fun happens once the all-out brawl begins, and once again we get a hefty glimpse at the svelte, almost beatific fluid grace of FF15's combat. We get to see Noctis perform some aerial warp combos that underline the potential and magic of the game's Active Cross Battle system. Gladius swipes his mighty blade to smash a whole line of soldiers, and the whole time the group works together in tandem with devastating results.

The Ghostbusters franchise is no stranger to huge merchandising deals--Paul Feig's new all-female Ghostbusters has already lined up action figures from Mattel, and it looks like the reboot will be getting its own video game, too.

According to Retail Merchandiser, the new Ghostbusters is a "fully-fledged" game from Activision that will release alongside the movie in July of this year. The publication also says that the upcoming Ghostbusters game will be a movie tie-in, so the all-female cast will obviously reprise their ghost-busting roles, and it'll be available on PS4 and Xbox One.

But why is Sony taking this route? It all goes back to the 25th anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise. To celebrate 25 years of the iconic paranormal investigators, Sony helped make the successful Ghostbusters: The Video Game in 2009. The game, which was written by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis, featured voice acting from the original cast and was a big hit. Arkoyd said that the video game was "essentially the third movie."

In the games industry, delays are commonplace. When Platinum Games' Xbox One exclusive Scalebound was delayed into 2017, Xbox One gamers were of course let down, but Microsoft reminded us it's important to give devs the time they need for their projects.

Xbox One Marketing guru Aaron Greenberg recently sat down with IGN to talk about Xbox marketing strategies. At 32:17 Greenberg was asked about Scalebound's delay, and he revealed that it's both a marketing and development decision whenever a game is delayed.

"We were looking at our lineup for this year, and where [Platinum Games] is with Scalebound...that game is super aspirational and huge, and we want to give them enough time and resources to make their vision. From the production standpoint, it makes sense to delay the game. Strategically we think just give it time to breathe and let's make sure we give it enough space to ensure the game is great. First we have to make sure the game is ready, second we have to figure out when's the best time to launch it. Given our 2016 lineup, we decided Scalebound will launch in 2017--a timeframe that'll give it better success."