Gaming - Page 1885

That Xbox One February update we were so patiently waiting to hear about? Well it seems that some details are now coming out thanks to the Preview Program. And the focus is going to be on adding more social features to the Xbox One.

The new social features should make it easier for you to know what's going on in the Xbox universe and to join your friends in the fun that they're having. So many games now have a cooperative or multiplayer element that it's only natural to make that more accessible.

Probably one of the most significant changes is the inclusion of the Avatar store, which lets you customize your digital self even more than before. It used to be a big part of the Xbox 360 experience, and they're moving back towards that trend. So now there's a better Xbox One news feed, a better ways to compare your Gamerscore. Check out the list of features appearing below.

Square Enix just entered into a partnership with an Italian company known as Milestone S.r.l, who specialize in bringing the joy of racing into the gaming world, in order to bring that racing genre goodness to more people around the world. The first game, Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO is coming March 15th on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and of course the PC.

They've entered a multi-game partnership where Square Enix will publish Milestone's games well into 2016 and will start that with Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO, which has earned a great reputation for how challenging and realistic it is. There seems to be a resurgence, or sorts in the various simulation genres, and Square Enix wants to be a part of that. You'll be able to drive over 50 different vehicles across more than 300km of simulated track. It stands to be a great entrant.

"Partnering with Square Enix, a world-renowned and respected industry leader with a vast wealth of expertise and resources will allow us to better reach our dedicated and enthusiastic fans and ensure a successful partnership," affirms Luisa Bixio V.P. Milestone. "We look sharing our passion for four and two wheels with a larger audience."

Space-sims are definitely coming back in full force. Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen and now another iconic yet little known title has been updated significantly, and was released under the radar. Evochron Legacy came out just yesterday, and it's the space-sim you're looking for if you're waiting for something like Star Citizen.

Evochron Legacy is a continuation of the fantastic game that was Evochron Mercenary. This is one of the original examples of how awesome procedural generation can be. The game itself is only a mere ~300mb, because everything is generated and created when you start it up. And the open-world is absolutely massive.

You can play different pre-made single-player missions, or you can go about your business and build an empire. The premise and gameplay is very similar to the X series of games, but you can be so much more involved in the economy and politics of the galaxy.

The smash indie hit Minecraft is more than just a game: it's a learning tool that's been used to teach Japanese and JavaScript code, but how about writing and executing programs while in-game? Yeah, that's possible, too.

Minecraft modder SethBling has built an interpreter in the BASIC programming language, which essentially lets gamers compile and run scripts while in-game. So you're using Minecraft's voxel world to make and run small, simple little programs. Users can do a variety of nifty things with SethBling's BASIC interpreter, including solving everyday calculations or counting prime numbers to infinity.

For a more practical solution, users can write simple scripts to programming automated mining turtles--basically little bots--to do various tasks. These mining turtles can dig holes and collect materials all day while you're AFK, making for a nifty little addition that can save you quite a bit of time.

Metal Gear Solid Online for PC is finally and officially here. And it's probably one of the better examples of small-unit team-work based online multiplayer shooters. Maybe.

The successful beta has concluded and now it's available for download for everyone. The development team at Konami plans on continually adding content and balancing gameplay to keep it interesting and exciting.

As an incentive, if you've played at least one game between January 19th and the 26th, then you'll be rewarded with a hefty sum of 3000 Gear Points to spend on character customization's.

Another classic Nintendo game is making its way over to the Virtual Console on the Wii U, further expanding a fantastic library of retro gaming experiences. Mario Kart 64 will be available on January 21st, which is just this Thursday.

And of course there're always caveats. In this case it's that Mario Kart 64 will only be available in Europe for the time being. But for those that have access to the European Virtual Console, you can pick up the classic kart adventure for only £8.99.

There's no word on whether there'll be a wider western release into North America quite yet, but that's still available through the original Wii's Virtual Console, which can actually be accessed through the Wii U regardless. This particualr version will support up to four separate players to help relive some of the best memories in Mario Kart history.

Metal and RPGs go together like wine and cheese, so it makes sense a mobile RPG "steeped in Iron Maiden mythology" is now in development. Named Legacy of the Beast, it will launch on both iOS and Android.

Vancouver-based studio Roadhouse Interactive and 50cc games are the folks developing the game; Roadhouse developed action RPG Warhammer 40,000: Carnage, which has great reviews on the Play Store. Iron Maiden's founding member and bassist Steve Harris will oversee the project, so you'll get the official touch.

The premise: you play as band mascot Eddie the Head and explore world's, travel through time, and fight various characters from the Iron Maiden lore. Naturally, the band's songs will serve as a soundtrack to the role playing. Some of the included tunes will consist of previously unheard live recordings, remastered specifically for the game with Harris looking on.

Some marketing and promotional stunts for video games are just over-the-top and insane. And this is no different. Ubisoft is going to give a way a prehistoric cave exploration package in Ouzous, France, to one lucky winner of their Twitter fueled contest. Entering is easy, winning isn't.

One lucky winner will have a chance to stay in a lavish hotel nearby while you explore the caves during the day, and perhaps even at night to highlight the challenges that humans during the prehistoric era had to go through in order to survive. The idea, I would think, is to check out how we lived so long ago while enjoying actual living in some of the finest accomodations around.

To win, you have to reside in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Belgium or The Netherlands and send a tweet to @FarCryGame with #caveBnB with some kind of message, gif or meme explaining your own motivation for entering the competition.

The rumor mill is responsible for churning out some pretty alarming stuff, and the recent gossip made us instantly grab our salt-shakers. Apparently, there's a rumor that Microsoft is going to shut off the Xbox 360's servers this November, forcing gamers over to Xbox One. This prompted the big-wigs at Redmond to step in and squash the hearsay once and for all.

In a recent Tweet, Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirms that Microsoft has absolutely no plans to shutter the Xbox 360's servers in 2016. The exec delivered a short but sweet "not true" in response to the allegations, smashing the fears of last-gen gamers. Additionally, we have to wonder why Microsoft would yank Xbox 360 online multiplayer considering its invested so much in the Xbox One's backward compatibility function.

Furthermore, the Xbox One's backward compatible games are cross-play. So if you fire up an Xbox 360 game on the Xbox One, you can play with other Xbox 360 players. Given this, it's extremely unlikely that Microsoft would be decided to abruptly shut off online play for last-gen systems. At this point, the Xbox 360 and its expansive library of games are bolstering the Xbox One and bear in mind that last-gen gamers are still out there (myself included).

Unreal Engine 4 is a very versatile and gorgeous game engine. And of course someone went and remade the first Metal Gear Solid and called it Shadow Moses. And it's just as spectacular as you'd expect.

This definitely isn't the Fox engine used in Metal Gear Solid V, but they've managed to take the very first game in the series and make bring it kicking and screaming back, but they've done an outstanding job capturing the essence that made it such a successful game that ended up launching the franchise. The best part was the skulking around inside the cardboard box in the background. The classic game mechanism that's survived today simply because of how absurd it is.

One can only imagine that Konami will eventually take issue with their IP so blatantly being used, and so this project, no matter how fantastic a showpiece it is, is likely going to be very short-lived. Regardless, the creator is concentrating on recreating the first level in it's exactness, and might even release it once they feel it's up to acceptable standards. Just don't expect it to live on the Internet (officially) for very long.