Gaming - Page 892

Following up the recent announcement of a new champion for Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard have released a Hero Spotlight for Blaze, the upcoming new hero who is burning his way through the Public Test Realm until January 8th.

Blaze will be joining Heroes of the Storm as ranged warrior tank, his abilities range from slowing down enemies with an oil spill, calling in a defensive bunker for himself and allies and of course burning his opponents to an absolute crisp with his double flamethrowers.

Blaze has strengths in area effect control, where he will be able to zone off enemies using his flame stream and passive damage. Another strength is his sustain, when fighting Blaze opponents will have to be mindful of the healing Blaze gets when he is standing in his flaming oil spill, not only is he tank character with crowd control and armor but he also heals quite rapidly if left in his healing zone long enough.

Mario games have classically been one of the main choices of game for speed-running, so it's no surprise that Super Mario Odyssey has now taken first place for speedrun submissions, clocking just over a 1,000 recorded times just within 2 months.

On the Speedrun website Super Mario Odyssey leads the pack of games that people are speed-running, Super Metroid, Monster Hunter: World (Beta), Cuphead and of course Super Mario 64 are also within the top 5. Super Mario 64, according to the Speedrun website has been speedrun a massive 6,741 times at the time of writing this article, Super Mario Odyssey lacks behind first place for total run count but keep in mind that the game was only released in October and has already gotten over a 1,000 submissions.

Super Mario Odyssey does take first place in active player count by a long shot coming in with a massive 573 active players, second place being of course the classic Super Mario 64 with 141 active players. These numbers will fluctuate as different parts of the world wake up/go to sleep but what is very interesting here is the percentage difference between that of first place and second.

Blizzard has released a new video on their Overwatch channel covering the updates that were released in 2017, and the expectations for the game for 2018. Jeff Kaplan, vice president of Blizzard Entertainment this time instead of staring blankly into the camera for hours on end, discusses in detail the direction of Overwatch and what players should be excited for coming into the new season.

Kaplan explains that there is many new maps in the works and also indicates that the anticipated Blizzard World Map will be released "very soon." He explains further that the map will be containing "tons of great Easter eggs" from other Blizzard franchises and will also be one of the best Overwatch maps to date.

Not only are many maps in the works but Kaplan explains that new heroes are also in the pipeline for release. Kaplan mentions a new character called Hero 27 and continues by saying the hero is already within internal testing, sadly there was no information given regarding a release date but Kaplan did say that this new hero is "very needed." Overwatch, and more specifically Blizzard are concentrating on getting this new hero correct and balanced before announcing any dates for its release as well as already thinking and brainstorming new ideas for future characters.

Epic Games has updated their Battle Royale shooter Fortnite with a new strategic game mode called Sneaky Silencers. As you can guess from the title of the game mode, players will be running around only being able to use silenced weapons, forcing a more strategic style of gameplay rather than brute force tactics to secure the win.

The new game mode will be rolled out on January 5 and will be available to play until January 8. Epic Games has said that players will not have to update their clients as there will be no downtime when this game mode hits the live severs.

To go with this new limited time game mode, Epic Games has released a new silenced pistol which will be found in chests as an Epic or Legendary gun drop. The pistol is arriving a little bit earlier than the game mode as we can assume that this is a strategy from Epic Games to create hype for Fortnite's new game mode.

We all know a gamer that plays way too many games, with countless people addicted to gaming in all forms: PC/console gaming, mobile gaming, and other forms of gaming.

But now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has updated their list of classified diseases, and included a "gaming disorder" in this revised list. WHO's new draft of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) describes the "gaming disorder" as a "pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour" whether it's online, or offline.

The description continues, saying:

Secretlab is the best gaming chair company in the world, but they've promised a stellar 2018 and have started this early with the tease of their upcoming NAPA series of gaming chairs.

Secretlab's new NAPA chairs succeed the already-amazing OMEGA ELITE chair which featured top-grain leather, with Ian Ang, the Managing Director and co-founder of Secretlab explaining: "We wanted to round off our existing catalogue by creating the most luxurious gaming chair in the market, one which combines the elegance and durability of a premium leather armchair with the functionality and support that have become the hallmark of the Secretlab brand".

The new NAPA line of chairs will be made available in super limited quantities at first, as Secretlab has to go through a "lengthy manufacturing process" and has "strict selection criteria used to handpick the chair's raw materials".

Final Fantasy dev Square Enix is pushing into the new year with lots of ambitious plans, and wants to embrace emerging and disruptive technologies.

Typically we get a good idea of what big publishers and devs will do from their fiscal year results, especially regarding release slates and earnings, but Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda recently highlighted some of the future paths for the company in a jovial new year's message.

The letter--which we've included below--is quite lengthy but worth a read if you're interested in Square Enix and its games. While 100% specifics aren't really touched upon, the CEO's message does highlight the future path of the company and aligns with some of our predictions, including a unified online digital storefront similar to uPlay.

PlatinumGames is currently working on a "shapeless, formless" new IP, and the beloved Bayonetta and Viewtiful Joe developer has some ambitious plans with the new game.

Although PlatinumGames has made some of the best action-based titles around and attached their name alongside greats like Nintendo, the Japanese game dev is still independent. This day and age most devs are aligned or even wholly-owned by big publishers like Activision and EA, but there's still some outliers like PlatinumGames and Ninja Theory, who successfully developed and released Senua's Sacrifice, an excellent game that sold quite well. According to PlatinumGames head of development Atsushi Inaba, the studio wants to follow that same route.

We've known that PlatinumGames is working on its own new IP for a while now, but no new details have been released. But in a recent interview with GameInformer, Inaba opened up about the IP and the studio's plans:

KING Art Games is currently developing a new RTS that is to be based in an alternate 1920+ universe created by Polish artist Jakub Rozalski. The game itself isn't expected for a release until 2019 as the company developing it has been concentrating and trying to perfect the "basics" before moving onto more extreme development.

From the above video we can see that the destruction mechanics that KING Art Games has used will allow for full undisclosed destruction of any building or object of any size. Not only has this destruction system been implemented to the game but KING Art Works has also added a bunch of other systems as well such as, squads, pathfinding, weapons & armor, damage types, user interface, controls and more.

The next system that is in the pipeline for KING Art Works is a 1v1 multiplayer mode and it is expected for completion in the Spring of 2018. As the year progresses on we can expect more video releases from KING Art Works as they say in the description of the video that they released that they are "looking forward to show you guys real gameplay in the upcoming months."

Last year Super Mario 64 was available to play online with up to 24 players but now another mod for the classic game has surfaced and this time it's first-person mode.

Thanks to a very talented modder going by the name of 'Kaze Emanuar' fans of the classic Mario game will have the option to download and play Super Mario 64 all over again but this time in first-person mode. The mod is implemented through a romhack meaning players will need an original copy of the game and an emulator to experience Super Mario 64 on their PC.

The mod, just like every mod that massively changes the game sometimes is not perfect and this is the case for Super Mario 64 in first-person. Due to the geometry of the game going invisible when the camera is to close to the area, side flips and jumps can provide quite some difficulty but it should be noted that the camera angle can be slightly changed.

Need for Speed has taken to Twitter today to announce that their latest instalment into Need for Speed Payback will be getting an online free roaming mode sometime throughout 2018.

Both EA and Ghost Games have not revealed any additional information regarding the announcement but simply left us with "Online Free Roam coming 2018, Happy New Year from everyone at Need for Speed!"

It is expected that we will be hearing more about this new mode coming to Need for Speed in the coming months. It would not be surprising if around the time of CES 2018 that Electronic Arts or Ghost Games release a video or information regarding the new mode as most companies are holding off on announcements until that time anyway.

GameInformer has been lucky enough to get a sit down talk with Platinum Games head of development and founder, Atsushi Inaba. Throughout the discussion, Inaba discloses the strategy of which his company is going to be taking for the future and what is to be expected in terms of releases coming from Platinum Games.

Inaba told GameInformer that his company was struggling to find a balance between a Indie-level productions and big-budget projects. The company cannot afford to be spending $10 million on game production but then at the same time doesn't want to be taking the traditional indie development route of a small team.

Inaba concluded by saying that Platinum games will find a comfortable middle ground "We can't put together a AAA, $10 million-plus game, because we just don't have that sort of cash as an independent developer. However, we don't plan to go the indies route with just a few people on a team making a game, so it'll be somewhere in the middle, looking at probably about 20 people on the staff making the game, so that'll still be a healthy (size)".

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is one of the most successful games of 2017, being nominated for Game of the Year the Battle Royale shooter is not even slowing down for concurrent gamers either (3.1 million!!). Now the developer has revealed the final goal for the game, and that is to have the title available on all platforms.

Chang Han Kim, the CEO of PUBG development revealed the games final plans in a recent interview with IvenGlobal, stating that he would like to see the game available to all gamers on "every platform." He continued by saying that the goal for the title is to become a "universal media franchise" that could even extend its reach beyond games and into TV series and maybe even movies.

Currently PUBG is only available on PC and exclusively on Xbox One, but Kim cleared up the doubt of ever seeing the title on other platforms by saying that "If we have the opportunity, the final goal would be to launch the title on every platform."

There are many survival horror games to choose from but another has surfaced, it is called Agony and is powered by Unreal Engine 4.

The setting for this game is quite unique, located in Hell, players will begin as a tortured soul with no memories of their previous life. Stuck in a maze and accompanied by simple minded demons players will have to traverse the complex map while using abilities such as possession to control demons on the way.

Deeper into the game players get, the quicker they will realize that for them to escape Hell there is only one way and that is to meet with Hells queen, the Red Goddess. The trailer showcases what the Red Goddess looks like and also gives more a view of the demons surrounding her.

Rockstar's highly acclaimed Red Dead Redemption series has got fans hyped and ready for the next instalment in the series. So far, Rockstar has given no specific information regarding the sequels release date but a Danish retailer may have just leaked the date online.

According to Coolshop, a Danish retail site, Red Dead Redemption 2 will be launching on June 8, 2018 even though this could be a mistake for the retail website the date coincides with that of the last piece of information Rockstar gave its fans regarding the date.

For those that remember the second trailer of the game back in September, Rockstar said at the end of the video that the game was due for release sometime in the Spring of 2018, which makes the date that Coolshop has posted to be very close.

A father of two was killed by police after a disgruntled idiot made a fraudulent 911 call, which resulted in a SWAT team turning up to the doorstep of the man.

The LAPD has since arrested a 25-year-old man that made the call, sending the SWAT team to a 28-year-old man's houe that ended up with the father-of-two shot and killed. The LAPD arrested Tyler Barriss on Friday after he made the 911 call to Andrew Finch's house in Wichita, Kansas.

It gets worse, as the call made by the 25-year-old idiot was over a $1.50 wager in the game, to which Barriss got pissed off with another Call of Duty player and then gave the police Finch's address in Kansas, who wasn't involved in the COD match whatsoever.

Just like last year, Blizzard is giving away five free lootboxes for just signing into Overwatch...and here's why that's a big deal in the gaming realm.

For service games, engagement is a major driver for success. Big-name publishers like Take-Two Interactive, EA, Ubisoft, Activision and, of course, Blizzard, all have nearly mastered the art of engaging players with a number of multi-faceted plans. One of the main strategies used to achieve this is giving away free in-game content to stimulate--and ideally grow--the playerbase. This content varies widely from huge free patches that add loads of new quests, items, characters and most importantly, new optional content to buy. These updates are extremely strategic and the publishers will typically roll them out every two months or when the playerbase dips--new content will almost always push lapsed players to jump back in.

So what better way to get Overwatch players back into the mix, outside of new maps and characters? Give them a smattering of "free" lootboxes that will likely fuel their progression grind, and thus keep them playing. And that's just what Blizzard is doing: the games-maker is giving away five free lootboxes to everyone who signs into Overwatch as part of its Winter Wonderland event, which ends on January 1. This limited timeline is also strategic and prompts players to jump in and grab their items, and once doing so, they're likely to keep playing to show off their skins if they get something they want (or something they like).

After the whole big Battlefront II and now the Destiny 2 lootbox/microtransaction fiasco, the topic of digital in-game purchases has become much more prevalent. But what do big players have to say about the issues? The founder of Bethesda weighs in.

Like them or not, Bethesda Softworks is a big part of the games industry. Panned for their overuse of an outdated games engine for titles like Fallout 4 and re-releasing Skyrim for the nth time, the games-maker commands a signficant place in the gaming sphere. In the wake of the online service game lootbox monetization strategy, Bethesda is ironically seen as one of the last major bastions of publisher-made singleplayer games (look at Prey, Dishonored 2, and Wolfenstein II, for example). Now Bethesda founder Christopher Weaver weighs in on lootboxes, microtransactions, and service games, and his remarks align with the company's singleplayer focus.

"This nickel and dime approach to payment may well backfire as it interferes with the flow of a game and disallows for players to lose themselves in its play-world," Weaver said in an interview with Rolling Stone. The publication reports that Weaver thinks the best answer to off-set microtransactions is to up the $59.99 price of games to a new standardized cost.

Blizzard is taking players back to the olden days of Diablo I again with its special timed seasonal event.

When I first heard about The Darkening of Tristram, I was beyond excited: being able to play a recreation of classic Diablo I within the new and improved (well somewhat) Diablo III? What ARPG fanatic couldn't love that--especially if you're like me and you grew up with the original game on PC and PlayStation. But alas the event came and disappointed, essentially adding up to Diablo III with old-school pixellations.

That event is actually coming back this new year, so starting on January 1 (and ending January 30) you can jump into the Retro-Vision-enhanced adventure if you missed it last year. Unfortunately it doesn't look as if Blizzard is adding any new real content to the game, and the rewards for playing the event are typically cosmetic items and the like. I was hoping for more effort this time around but it doesn't appear we'll be getting it.

Following the Switch's strong performance in 2017, Nintendo wants the handheld-console hybrid to double its current to-date sales mark.

Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima recently expressed that the company would like to sell 20 million Switch consoles through the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. "We would like to be over 20 million units," Mr. Kimishima said in an interview with Kyoto Shimbun, representing about a 43% increase in sales from the current 14 million target for the current fiscal year's end.

The Nintendo Switch has sold 10 million units throughout its first nine months, and would likely have sold much more if supply had been readily available throughout the year. The games-maker has replenished supply for the holiday season, just as we predicted, and Mr. Kimishima affirms that new games will bring new ways to play the on-the-go slash console device. "It's a momentum that exceeds your expectations, while analyzing the factor, while being a stationary machine, there are other ways of playing that can be carried outside as well," he said.