Gaming News - Page 1803

Rumored to be due to either Black Friday sales, a DDoS attack succession or a combination of the two - Blizzard's Battle.net servers are reportedly experiencing major lag issues in several different forms.

You may have noticed that by trying to log in to the Battle.net client will you experience a wait of up to 25 minutes. Once you have finally managed to connect to their service, you'll likely see that not only are you unable to connect to view or chat to your friends, but you're unable to launch any games within.

Talking to some of my most loyal Blizzard friends, they have reported the ability to play games such as World of Warcraft as close as twenty minutes prior to the publishing of this article - however some reports claim up to 5 seconds of in-game delay (ping) among other technical glitches.

Telltale Games' upcoming Game of Thrones game is nearly here, with the first episode arriving on December 2 for PC, Mac, and the PS4. The next day, on December 3, it will arrive for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, while on December 4 it will arrive on iOS. PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until December 9.

The game itself takes place toward the end of season three in the HBO show, and before the start of season five. Gamers will be propelled into House Forrester, a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Players will be able to play through five different perspectives in the game, from servants to House members.

Some of the talent from the show are coming back to reprise their roles for Telltale's game, including Tyrion Lannister performed by Peter Dinklage, Cersei Lannister performed by Lena Headey, Margaery Tyrell performed by Natalie Dormer, and Ramsay Snow performed by Iwan Rheon.

Star Citizen is edging close to $64 million in crowdfunding, with the CryEngine-powered title sitting at just under $63.5 million at the time of writing. Roberts Space Industries has now announced that there will be a pet system introduced once the game hits $64 million.

RSI explains it as: "Pets - We have repair bots, we have fish... but we haven't implemented a traditional pet system in Star Citizen yet. At $64 million, that changes. From Jones the Cat in Alien to the Battlestar Galactica's Daggit, pets have a place onboard starships... and we want to give you that option in Star Citizen. Expect traditional terrestrial options, plus anything exotic we can dream up in the Star Citizen universe! (Those Torshu Grey crabs that keep escaping are just the start.) This stretch goal is in honor of Paddington, Strike Dog of the UEES Paul Steed. In one of our first videos Paddington helped us get to $4 million back in the initial campaign, and sadly passed away recently".

The Sony PlayStation 4 has enjoyed a significant sales lead over the Microsoft Xbox One throughout 2014, but after a price cut, Microsoft is reportedly closing the gap. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, now is the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to make the next-generation console market even more competitive.

The Xbox One has some major exclusive titles: Forza Motorsport 5, Forza Horizon, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Sunset Overdrive. Game titles such as Titanfall are available for the PC, but not on the PS4 - and only boost the Xbox One's catalog even further.

It will be telling to see how each company does after the holidays, with consumers expected to open up their wallets to spend on gaming hardware and software this year, analysts predict.

After 12 months on Steam's Early Access, DayZ is getting some much needed updates, with its developer finally coming clean on what's going on with the open-world game next year.

Bohemia Interactive have said that two very important things will happen for DayZ next year, with the first being it will reach beta in Q4 2015 - a year from now - and that the final version will launch in the first half of 2016. DayZ will continue to be $30 during the Steam Fall Sale, which starts today, but it will increase to $35, and then $44 when the launch of the beta kicks off. The final version of DayZ will be $50.

The developer is splitting the updates into quarterly released, where in Q1 2015, we will see DayZ updated with a new zombie AI, basic vehicles, diseases and more. Q2 will see advanced vehicles, advanced animals, a new UI, player stamina, and more. Q3 will have traps, barricading, aerial transport, and a console prototype. Then in Q4, we'll see the beta unleashed, as well as animal companions, base building and Steam community integration.

The launch of Assassin's Creed: Unity didn't go too well at all, with the game still experiencing teething problems. Ubisoft has now come out and apologized to everyone, announcing it will be providing its upcoming "Dead Kings" expansion pack for free, to all AC:U players, as a way of saying sorry for shipping a clearly, very broken game.

Ubisoft Montreal boss, Yannis Mallat, took to a blog writing: "Unfortunately, at launch, the overall quality of the game was diminished by bugs and unexpected technical issues. I want to sincerely apologise on behalf of Ubisoft and the entire Assassin's Creed team. These problems took away from your enjoyment of the game, and kept many of you from experiencing the game at its fullest potential".

For those who purchased the season pass or Gold edition of Assassin's Creed: Unity will get the DLC for 'free' anyway, so these people will be offered a free game. You can choose from Far Cry 4, The Crew, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 2015.

Last week we reported on Thimbleweed Park, the "true spiritual successor" to the super-awesome Maniac Mansion, which hit Kickstarter with a funding goal of $375,000. Well, one week later, it has been met, and isn't stopping.

At the time of writing, they had $407,384 raised, with 22 days to go. If funding keeps up at this pace, they'll have a couple of million dollars to play with. Stretch Goals are now within reach, with $525,000 unlocking an iOS and Android version of the game. If the team reaches $625,000 they will provide "Talkies" with the team explaining "considered witchcraft and a fantasy of crazy people back in 1987, we'll be adding full voice acting to the English version of Thimbleweed Park. Hmmm... that's good thespian".

It'll be interesting to see backers flying past that $625,000 stretch goal soon, and even more interesting if we see new stretch goals introduced, or additional funding on their website ala Star Citizen.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has launched with its fair share of problems, which doesn't seem to be any different to all the other games launching in the last month, with developer 343 Industries pledging to make it right.

After two weeks of multiplayer matchmaking problems, 343 Industries boss Bonnie Ross took to a letter to fans, writing: "On November 11 we released Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The goal being to create a tribute to Halo fans around the world, and to celebrate the Master Chief's debut on Xbox One. With the initial release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, however, we have not delivered the experience you deserve. I personally apologize for this on behalf of us all at 343 Industries. Our team is committed to working around the clock until these issues are resolved".

"While our team works on continual improvements and towards solutions, my commitment to you is that we will take care of all owners of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Our primary and continued focus is first on fixing the issues at hand. Once we've done that, we will detail how we will make this right with our fans," she continued. She closed her letter with: "Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the delay and for the negative aspects of your experience to date. We're doing everything in our power to resolve it as quickly as possible".

Public service announcement: Ubisoft doesn't want you trusting day one reviews of The Crew, with the company taking to its official blog to warn gamers that they should wait a while before reading, or trusting reviews.

Ubisoft said: "While we fully anticipate that you might see some reviews immediately at launch - largely built around the preview sessions we facilitated during the past months or the limited content of the closed and open betas - they won't be based on optimal conditions or reflect the finished game". The company continued, adding: "We sincerely hope everyone will take the time to customize their ride as they progress through all five regions, explore every corner of the map solo and with friends, dive into our competitive and cooperative mechanics, race to the end of the main campaign, choose a Faction and compete with your crew in Factions Wars, and so much more".

The company added that The Crew is a social game, which requires servers full of gamers to enjoy the game at its best. Ubisoft added: "The Crew was built from the beginning to be a living playground full of driving fans, so it's only possible to assess our game in its entirety with other real players in the world. And by other, we mean thousands and thousands and thousands of players - something that can't be simulated with a handful of devs playing alongside the press".

The Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles are selling extremely well - but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone is happy. Carl Ledbetter, who was project manager behind the Xbox One's physical design, recently responded against criticism of the Xbox One's bulkiness.

While the Xbox One is heavier and bigger than the Xbox 360 - at a time when consumers seemingly want to see more hardware packed into streamlined designs - Ledbetter understands not everyone will be happy when a console is released. He explained the growing pains - and what is done to overcome certain hardware design barriers that many people seem to take for granted.

"Everybody gets frustrated, because what we want is for everything to be wafer thin, not get hot and just be a snap to put together," Ledbetter said. "But the reality is that there are very real issues around cooling when you're pushing some number of watts in the processor, therefore the thing has to have some size to it. There's always an interesting dynamic between engineering and design, and constraints around performance.