Gaming News - Page 1776

The next generation of consoles are just right around the corner. Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot comments that the PlayStation 4 is doing better in pre-orders than the Xbox One. Guillemot is not worried though, and says the Xbox One is improving in pre-orders. Guillemot was asked if he was worried about a lack in demand for The Xbox One's pre-orders.

Guillemot comments: "What we see is that there is a good pre-order list on that machine. Even if the PS4 is in front in terms of pre-orders, we see lots of improvement in the pre-orders that are coming on Xbox One. So no, we are not worried at all. We think it will be a big seller as well."

Guillemot is also not worried about the short term transition the consoles bring. Guillemot says, "The PS4 and Xbox One will be released in a few days' time and will be a new driving force for the industry,"

Its no secret that I am one of the biggest fans of Valves Steam platform in the world, and to back that claim up, I have almost 200 games in my Steam Library. One of my biggest gripes about Steam has always been that it will not allow users to download games while they are playing other games, but today Valve has changed that.

Earlier today, Valve began releasing an update to Steam that now enables background downloading. This means that Steam customers can now download and install games while they play other games. This feature can be turned off and back on at any time by the user too, which will be good for games that require high-bandwidth for online play. A full list of the new features and fixes that this latest update brings is listed below.

• Added ability to limit what time of day Steam is allowed to automatically update apps.
• Added option to allow other games to download while a game is running.
• Added download regions for Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa in Canada.
• Added 'Copy all text to clipboard' context menu option in system information dialogue.
• Improved downloading status text at the bottom of the main window.

Big picture got some updates too:

• Added ability to opt in to game betas and edit launch options.
• Added Inbox item under Linux if your machine requires a reboot due to OS level updates.
• Fix infinite loop of Cloud sync error dialogs on game launch.
• Fixed mouse cursor being visible during startup animation even if it hadn't moved.

For those who play Diablo 3 on PC, which is most Diablo 3 players, the mouse and keyboard combination is something that shouldn't be messed with - right? Well, Blizzard has considered building in gamepad support, to bring it in line with the consoles, but this won't be happening.

Senior Level Designer, Matthew Berger, has said: "The rhythm on PC is tactactactactactac - you're clicking the mouse, you're telling your character where to go. On console, the rhythm is very different. It flows more, because you're constantly repositioning your character with the thumbstick; you're really never stationary on console, whereas on PC you're a lot more stationary ... When you're playing on the PC, you're not really looking at your character as much, you're kind of focusing on the cursor. Whereas on console it's the exact opposite, you're drawn in."

Berger continued: "[I]f I let you use the controller on the PC, then I have to let you use the user interface that goes with it, and if I give you the roll and I haven't throttled the number of enemies attacking you because the mouse-and-keyboard players can handle all those enemies, but with a controller you have too many guys ... The games have really been structured to take advantage of their environment and their ecosystem, so in the same way it would not be a good fit to put a mouse and keyboard on the console."

We are hours away from the next-gen consoles launching, and an interesting statistic has hit my inbox from Amazon. An Amazon spokesperson has said that if you were to combine the pre-order sales of the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, "it would make up the largest product release in Amazon history for all categories worldwide".

This is a seriously strong statement, and goes to show the kind of money that is rolling around with these next-gen consoles launching right now. Amazon is one of the biggest retailers shipping and selling the PS4 and Xbox One, but those numbers above are just gigantic. The company with the biggest smile on their face? AMD. AMD have APUs in the PS4 and Xbox One, and they must be laughing all the way to the bank, or at least to the Kaveri APU.

Sony mentioned a just a couple weeks in their FAQ that the PlayStation 4 will not play MP3 or CDs, which was a huge disappointment from fans. Most people where thinking it was a way to push out their Music Unlimited service. Sony says that was never their intention. So they have decided they will push out a update after the PlayStation 4 launches.

Sony's Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida comments on an episode of Giant Bomb's Interview Dumptruck: "The biggest surprise for us all internally at Sony was there are so many people who passionately reacted to our announcement that there's no MP3 support or CD support on day one," he says. "It's not like we actively decided 'let's not do this feature so people will have to subscribe to Music Unlimited."

Yoshida continues: "The focus has been more on the game features. Some of the features we wanted but we couldn't get in on day one. We didn't really think about MP3 or CD. We thought 'we're going to do that eventually.'... It caught us off-guard. People don't really talk about these features, right? Some people get really mad and [say] 'I'll cancel my pre-order!' So as we speak, people in Japan - the system guys - are discussing when we can put these features in."

The PlayStation 4 is pushing all controller-based gameplay, as you'd expect from a console, but there will be one mouse and keyboard driven title. War Thunder is currently on the PC, with over 5 million gamers in the open beta.

The PS4 version of War Thunder will let you play like you do on the PC, as it supports mouse and keyboard gameplay. Oh, and flight sticks. Better yet, War Thunder will also pit PS4 gamers against PC gamers, which is something we should see more of. War Thunder will also support the PlayStation Eye camera, which will feature head-tracking, letting you change the viewpoint in the game by just turning your face.

War Thunder is coming, soon, with the game launching across Europe on the 29th of this month.

The minutes are counting down until the next-gen consoles launch from Microsoft and Sony, with the latter updating its PlayStation 4 Software Usage Terms today, stating that it may monitor and record PSN activity, including content of voice and text communications.

Sony has said that is cannot monitor "all PSN activity" and that it makes "no commitment to do so." But, Sony's statement does say: "However, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to monitor and record any or all of your PSN activity and to remove any of your UGM at our sole discretion, without further notice to you." It goes on to state:

Your use of PSN and our community features may be recorded and collected by us or sent to us by other users as described in 13.1. Any information collected in this way, for example, your UGM, the content of your voice and text communications, video of your gameplay, the time and location of your activities, and your name, your PSN Online ID and IP address, may be used by us or our affiliated companies to enforce these Terms and the SEN Terms of Service, to comply with the law, to protect our rights and those of our licensors and users, and to protect the personal safety of our employees and users. This information may be passed to the police or other appropriate authorities. By accepting these Software Usage Terms, you expressly consent to this.

I have to give props to KitGuru, who have called this huge resolution debacle surrounding the Xbox One "resolution-gate" and I'm going to use it from now on, too. We have yet another game that has joined the "we can only pump 720p out on next-gen consoles" club, Dead Rising 3.

The Xbox One exclusive title will not run at 1080p, and just 720p, but the more disappointing part of this, is that it's 720p, at just 30FPS. Executive Producer at Capcom Vancouver said during an interview with Eurogamer that 1080p wasn't their main target, he continued: "It was not really something we actually set as a mantra. When we first started there was no platform, it was PC and we were just targeting next-gen. It's more important that the end image looks awesome - look at how much stuff is on screen, that's always been a Dead Rising sort of brand. That still looks really good, and that's been our goal. I hope it shows - just look at how much insane stuff is going on screen."

This starts to beg the question, where did the resources go into, if Dead Rising 3 can't run at 1080p, or even 720p at 60FPS? Well, it looks like improved AI, and more on-screen actions in terms of the number of on-screen zombies, and objects.

André Weingarten is one lucky guy, who received an Xbox One weeks early, and is known online as the "Moonlight Swami" who unleashed a bunch of content from the Xbox One onto the Internet, but got into trouble with Major Nelson after playing six hours of Xbox One games.

We reported this yesterday, but one of the more interesting facts I found while reading about it, is that Call of Duty: Ghosts takes around 30 minutes to install. This isn't too bad, considering its a 39GB installation, but you can't play the game for 15 minutes (or around half way through the installation). I find this quite the point, as you can't just plug-and-play - by inserting the Blu-ray disc and playing right away.

This is one of the major points in the whole console vs. PC battle, that PC's require an installation of games. But, pre-loading games through Steam is much easier, and with an SSD system and a backup of your games on another SSD or a HDD, you can transfer your games at 100MB/sec+ without a problem. 15 minutes to begin playing the game seems like a long time, or is that just me? I'd expect 'next-gen' consoles to have gotten you into the game quicker - or are my expectations too high? What do you think?

While the PS4 version of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls will reportedly render everything at 1080p at the fluid 60 frames per second, it should also feature touchpad support and shorter load times. Polygon is reporting that one of the bigger features to the PS4 version will be something called "Avenger Kills."

In the "Ultimate Evil" edition of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls for the PS4, "Avenger Kills" will see a player die after being killed by a monster, that monster could level up and jump through a special portal. Once through the portal, the monster will target a player on your friends list. Once your friend comes online, that monster will appear during a special event, where the skies will darken and the player will receive a warning, such as "Matthew's Bane" - a special title - is hunting them. If this monster is successful in killing the player, it will level up once more, becoming the "Bane" of that character, and receiving a new target to kill.

There are other gameplay additions, which are built around a shared experience for the player, even if they're not all playing the game at the same time, like Avenger Kills, above. Senior Level Designer, Matthew Berger, has said: "I'm going to be running around, killing monsters and a Legendary will drop," he said, "and then - cue awesome sound, column of light - a box, a gift will pop off that Legendary. It's going to say 'Gift for Michael.' I'm going to pick it up and send it to you."