Gaming News - Page 1801

Here we are, folks. The beginning of next-gen gaming, hopefully. Epic have taken the curtains down from the first screenshots of the upcoming Unreal Engine 4, and boy do they look freakin' insane. Epic have also spoke of their "responsibility" to make sure next-gen consoles from both Microsoft and Sony can support the kind of eye candy that UE4 can push out.

Epic ran the Unreal Engine 4 demo on a PC, cough, with a single NVIDIA Kepler-based GEFORCE GTX 680. Epic design director Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski has said:

There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of our engine team and our studio to drag this industry into the next generation. It is up to Epic ... to motivate Sony and Microsoft not to phone in what these next consoles are going to be. It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render Avatar in real time, because I want it and gamers want it--even if they don't know they want it.

DICE's Frostbite 2 is still to this day one of the best game engines on the market, but it looks like the developer is ready to amp things up a bit. DICE posted a tweet earlier today where they've teased that they will have Frostbite-powered games in 2013 that will only work on a 64-bit operating system.

DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson is the man behind the tweet, and has recommended that Windows 8 would be a great upgrade when it arrives if they're still running a 32-bit version of Windows. This is only for those who have a 64-bit CPU, some people rock a 32-bit OS with a 64-bit CPU, which of course you'd need both a 64-bit OS and CPU to run the 64-bit-only Frostbite games.

At the moment, it's hard to know which upcoming game could use the 64-bit-only Frostbite engine. Could it be Battlefield 4? Mirror's Edge 2? Battlefield: Bad Company 3? It could be any of those games. Right now, the only 2013 Frostbite title confirmed is Command & Conquer: Generals 2.

The upcoming Nintendo WiiU will feature an innovative tablet controller as the primary input for the gaming console. A picture has surfaced of a new revision of the controller and shows some tweaks from previous versions. The picture is courtesy of a QA tester at gaming firm Traveller's Tales who Tweeted the picture.

The picture and Twitter account have since been removed, and I imagine the Tweeter has received quite the reprimand from his boss(es). What the picture shows is that the overall device form remains the same as previously seen. However, now the device features full analog sticks similar to a PS3 or Xbox controller as opposed to the flattened circle present on the 3DS. The new picture is above with the older released picture below.

Additionally, the start and select buttons have been relocated to the right-hand side and a new button appears to have shown up next to the power button. Another button appears to be present under the D-pad. They are unlabeled and there use is not apparent at this time. The picture also shows that the tablet has the WiiU logo on it, which should confirm Nintento's name along with the logo. The device is expected to be featured at E3 where we will get the full scoop.

Nearly a year ago, EA Games President, Frank Gibeau, teased that EA were "actively looking at how to bring [Mirror's Edge] back in the right way", this was in a discussion with GameTrailers. But, now there's some more concrete, well, kinda, information available on this news.

GamerZines reports that judging from two former EA employee's LinkedIn profiles tease they've worked on a Mirror's Edge sequel. According to GamerZines, the profile of an ex-EA Software Engineer has said that he's worked on Mirror's Edge 2 between July and August of 2009, where he was implementing "the wandering of crowd system within Unreal3 engine".

Another ex-employee had a different task, where was implementing "new gadgets and interactive features" into Mirror's Edge 2, including "leaderboards" and a mini-game embedded into Mirror's Edge game story". If development started on Unreal Engine 3, EA must've switches engines mid-development to Frostbite 2, the engine that powers the beautiful first-person shooter that is Battlefield 3.

Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have announced that their reboot of Tomb Raider has been delayed until 2013. Head of Crystal Dynamics, Darrell Gallagher, said that the studio had two aims when it decided to make a new Lara Croft title, firstly to create a "modern" Tomb Raider, and secondly, to make the "best game of our careers".

It's the second goal that has caused them to delay the reboot, from its original Autumn release date, to sometime in Q1 of 2013. This delay will fly right past the lucrative Christmas shopping season. Gallagher adds:

We're doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. believe that this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can't wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

One of my favorite series ever is Max Payne, and the third outing, this time by Rockstar, is nearly here. The game releases later this week on the consoles, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with the PC release slated for two weeks from now.

Whilst that's bad news for PC gamers, the game itself seems to be getting quite positive reviews. Ranging from 90- to 100-percent. There's a few niggly reviews where they've reviewed them at lower scores, but the positive reviews far outweigh the negative ones. G4TV smashes out of the gate with a 5/5 review, so I'm guessing they loved it.

G4TV's final words:

We here at TweakTown hope to really embrace Diablo III, so you should see some more Diablo III-related content over the coming months, and more. But for now, you should be preparing for the release, if you haven't already purchased it!

If you haven't, then head down to your local retailer now, or if you're like me and love digital games, then you should scoop up the game directly from Blizzard as a digital pre-sale. Next up, you will need to create your BattleTag. This is a requirement of Diablo III, and displays both in-game and on the website, so choose wisely.

Next up we have launch times! The launch time of Diablo III has had Blizzard break down the launch time of the game per region. The Americas (US, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia) servers all open at 12:01am PDT, May 15.

Let's talk some Call of Duty numbers, shall we? The first-person shooter launched its Elite service to mixed opinions, but it now sports over 10 million registered users, with two million of these paid-up premium subscribers.

As of March 31, COD has 40 million monthly active users, with players logging in a total of 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay in Modern Warfare 3 alone. These numbers were released alongside Activision's quarterly financial report. On top of this Elite news, there's also talk that the COD: Modern Warfare 3 sales have been quite a bit lower than the Black Ops at equivalent times in their respective life cycles.

But, Infinity Ward's Mark Rubin has told Eurogamer that the way people are buying COD is changing. MW3 has a shorter tale than its predecessors because sales of new COD launches are now more front-loaded than ever. He explains:

Activision are already enjoying the (probably) comfortable seats in court with ex-Infinity Ward's Jason West and Vince Zampella over their dismissal from Infinity Ward back in 2009, but, a clause in a Memorandum of Understanding filed with the lost wages and royalties suit in 2010 could shake up the recently announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

According to Game Informer, Activision still holds the rights to the Call of Duty franchise, but any Call of Duty games set in "modern day (post-Vietnam), the near future or distant future" would be retained by Infinity Ward. Considering that the upcoming Black Ops 2 is based in 2025, Treyarch have put a fair amount of thought into their futuristic setting. One would think Activision would know this, too.

An intellectual property attorney has said that if West and Zampella win their suit, Activision could be forced to pull the game. Yes, not release it, period. But, we're most likely going to see a fair amount of $$$ enter the bank accounts of West and Zampella in damages if the court awards them so. But, there's always a but, remember. Clause 4(D) at the end of the memorandum specifically states that if Infinity Ward management, Ward and Zampella in this case, are no longer employed by Activision, then the terms of the memorandum are no longer in effect.

I don't have the spare time these days to really sit down and finish games, but one series I've thoroughly loved is the Dead Space series. The third outing is currently being worked on and IGN is reporting that Dead Space 3 will feature drop-in, drop-out co-op!

In Dead Space 3 you play as Isaac Clarke, just like the previous two games, and if players choose, you can fight alongside a man with a scar on his face, an engineering RIG of his own, and glowing red eyes glaring at you from his helmet. Oh yeah. During the single-player campaign this character acts as Isaac's guide.

Do you think it sounds like a simple tack-on? Nope. The cooperative mode mirrors the single-player campaign, but Isaac's story changes to accommodate it. In one sequence within Dead Space 3, Isaac and this new character stumble, wounded, bloody, and missing chunks of armor, out of burnt wreckage together. If you were playing by yourself, this scene happens the same, but without the other character there.