Gaming - Page 907

Man, oh man... the amount of hours I pumped into my Sega Genesis, NES, and SNES... but now, Analogue is tempting me with their new Super Nt.

SuperNt is a new console that is capable of playing the massive 2200+ library of SNES and Super Famicom cartridges at 1080p, with no lag, and is compatible with every single accessory out there. The new console will play SNES games at 1080p, all while looking super-fly, as if it was designed this year.

The new console runs games from 480p to 1080p, with both NTSC and PAL support, as well as 48KHz 16-bit audio. There's even the same controller ports as the original SNES, with the new Super Nt capable of having its firmware updated with an SD card. Analogue has even included scanline options, scaling options, and more in order to get the exact image you want on your TV.

Monolith and WB Games have announced a weekly calendar timeline of post-release events for gamers to tackle in the war-torn world of Middle-earth.

One of the main reasons Shadow of War has lootboxes is that WB Games wants the experience to last quite some time; with the help of the devs at Monolith, the publisher has effectively turned Shadow of War into a service game, complete with an optional online mode with a distinct multiplayer hook. And one of the traditional benefits of this monetization strategy is free post-release content updates that typically keep players engaged and so they "stick" to the game. Now Monolith has revealed a small slice of this post-release engagement with a weekly list of rotating challenges.

All in all the calendar isn't too impressive, but it's not a timeline of content perse, more of a smattering of community-driven challenges and mini-events that net specific rewards. Each challenge week is separated into weekly and weekend challenges that rotate on a week-to-week basis, and the ending challenges seem to be geared towards online play. All in all I expected a bit more from Monolith on the engagement front, but the game is still young and they'll have time to roll out more updates and the like. And of course the team just launched Shadow of War so they need a breather--any dev team needs a fair bit of R&R after launching a massive game like this.

Sumo Digital, the UK-based independent games developer known for titles like Crackdown 3, Dead Island 2 and Forza Horizon 3, plans to go public with an IPO worth $198 million, British publication The Times reports.

Sources familiar with the matter tell The Times that Sumo Digital are currently preparing to go public in London in an IPO worth £150m, or about $198 million based on recent conversions. The developer has hired Zeus Capital to help plan the IPO, and the company's co-founders, Carl Cavers and Paul Porter, will receive significant portions of the offering thanks to their current stakes.

Interestingly enough, Sumo Digital is currently run by equity firm Perwyn, who has majority of the company's stake after a buyout in 2016. It will be interesting to see how this IPO affects the development of future games such as Crackdown 3, which has been delayed to 2018, and Deep Silver's often-delayed Dead Island 2.

Gearbox Software is hiring a writer for an "unannounced AAA FPS/RPG hybrid with strong characters and a central narrative thread," and we're pretty sure it's Borderlands 3.

We've known that Borderlands 3 is in the works for quite some time--last April Gearbox officially confirmed the third chapter is in development--and 2K Games label parent company Take-Two Interactive has even strongly iterated that Borderlands 3 will release in the company's fiscal year ending March 2019. Now a new job listing has popped up to give us a few more details.

The listing calls for a writer to help "punch up" the story and plot outlines, including writing up voice-over dialogue and in-game text for missions and interactions. Gearbox wants candidates to have a penchant for humor and inject comedy into the mix--another staple of the Borderlands series--while staying true to the plot arc.

Like other major publishers such as Activision, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K Games, and Gearbox Software, uses recurring monetization streams via microtransactions and in-game purchases to act as safety nets in case new IPs backfire.

Making AAA games costs a lot of money--sometimes even $100 million--and publishers are typically risk averse when it comes to new IPs. But some publishers, like Ubisoft, have used new IPs as a gateway for a new interactive digital business model and have tremendously benefited from taking that risk. But Ubisoft's new IPs and digital games all have one thing in common: they're monetized via in-game purchases. This isn't a mistake: if, say, For Honor tanked, Ubisoft could buffer the loss with microtransaction earnings from a successful game like Ghost Recon: Wildlands or Rainbow Six: Siege. This is part of the biggest and more lucrative digital strategy the games industry is currently following, and will be a big part of gaming's future because of the tangible benefits it offers.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick recently spoke out on the topic, discussing the merits of microtransactions and how they help big publishers make key decisions. If it weren't for the big billion-dollar treasure trove of earnings from GTA Online's microtransactions over the years (analyst firm SuperData says GTA Online has made over $1 billion in earnings to date), Take-Two (and more specifically Gearbox) would've been hit a lot harder by Battleborn's failure. And if it weren't for those recurring revenue streams, which continually bring in money, Battleborn may not have been greenlit in the first place as the publisher would be more risk adverse than they already are.

UK MP Tracey Crouch, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has responded to the popular petition regarding lootboxes. Her answer? It's basically up to the Gambling Commission what answers are taken.

Following the ESRB's affirmations that lootboxes technically aren't gambling and the ratings board can't define it as such, as well as the European ratings board PEGI delivering a similar response, frustrated gamers and concerned citizens in the UK formally wrote up a petition asking the government how it plans to "protect vulnerable adults and children from illegal gambling, in-game gambling, and loot boxes within computer games."

Today the UK's Tracey Crouch delivered a response, and it's not what loot-box haters wanted to hear. The MP notes that regulations outlined for gambling and loot boxes have been outlined by the government's Gambling Commission in a position paper released in March 2017, and that commission is "keeping this matter under review and will continue to monitor developments in the market."

Rocket League are introducing their first themed-event for Halloween, Haunted Hallows. The timed event introduces new crates, in-game items and a new form of currency, Candy Corn. Haunted Hallows begins tomorrow- October 16 and runs through to November 6.

Candy Corn is Haunted Hallows limited-time currency and is earned by completing Online Matches. The Candy Corn currency can be redeemed for Halloween items, Decryptors, and locked "Haunted Hallows" crates. Candy Corn won't expire on November 6 when Haunted Hallows is finished, you will still have the option to spend remaining currency for one-week post-Halloween Hallows.

Decryptors are the latest way to unlock crates and can only be purchased using your precious Candy Corn. Decryptors can open any crate in Rocket League, including Event Crates, not a bad item to stock up on.

The road towards The International 8 is officially underway, with the first minor tournament of the new Dota 2 season completed. The group stage saw six teams from six regional qualifiers join Team Liquid and Newbee as direct invites to StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3, with the top 4 of the group stage progessing to the Playoffs.

StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3 featured a total prize pool of $300,000 with $135,000 going home with the eventual winners, Team Liquid. The International 7 winners were too strong for the resurgent Mineski, who had just an impressive performance to make it to the grand final only dropping two games to Team Liquid in the group stage and one to compLexity in the semi-finals. It would take until game one of the grand final before Team Liquid would even drop a game in the tournament with Mineski drawing first blood, but the defending SL i-League Invitational and TI7 champions would have the last laugh.

Game one saw Mineski surprise the TI7 winners with early pressure and early kills. Team Liquid were able to recover and force Mineski into teamfight after teamfight with Liquid gaining some momentum. It was short-lived success however, as once Mineski's BKBs were online it was all over for Team Liquid.

Former Naughty Dog employee David Ballard has claimed that he was sexually harassed by one of the studio's leads and that when he reported this situation he was fired because the company was going in a different direction and his position was no longer required.

The incident occurred in late 2015, originally Mr Ballard was too ashamed of the situation but has been inspired by other TV/Film individuals speaking of their experiences. Ballad took to Twitter over the weekend to deliver his account of events.

"In late 2015, I was sexually harassed at Naughty Dog by a lead. My work environment became extremely toxic afterward," Ballard said in a series of posts. "In February 2016 I had a mental breakdown at work & Sony PlayStation HR became involved. When I told them about the harassment they ended the call and fired me the next day. They cited the company was moving in a different direction and my job was no longer needed. They tried to silence me by offering $20,000 if I signed a letter agreeing to the termination as well as to not discuss it with anyone. I declined to sign."

Following up from the successful H1Z1: Fight for the Crown tournament earlier this year, Developer Daybreak Games in partnership with Twin Galaxies, have announced the launch of the H1Z1 Pro League. The H1Z1: King of the Kill based professional esports league will feature 15 teams competing in a 20-week season, followed by the first-ever league championship in late 2018.

With esports rapidly expanding, we've seen Blizzard announce the Overwatch League along with Dota 2, CS:GO and League of Legends already well established in esports. H1Z1 is next to enter into the esport scene with The H1Z1 Pro League. "Our goal with the H1Z1 Pro League is to create a world-class experience worthy of our incredibly competitive community," said H1Z1's general manager Anthony Castoro as he recently spoke with Polygon. This will ensure a "player-first" approach, includes a guaranteed minimum player salary of $50,000, a governing committee and a well-defined revenue sharing model.

H1Z1: Fight for the Crown featured a $300,000 prize pool and had an estimated 390,000 viewers when it aired on CW Network in April, this success has opened the door for the inception of the H1Z1 Pro League. "We were the first to do a battle royale esports [event] with the H1Z1 Invitational in 2015," Castoro said. "Over the past couple of years, we've really started to develop best practices and learned how to run this kind of large scale event. ... We had really great success with the commercial broadcast of Fight for the Crown on the CW. I think our ratings were right up there with the NHL, the playoff game that was happening the same night." Anthony Castoro said with Polygon.

Following Epic Games stance on cheaters, Blizzard have been busy themselves with regards to punishing cheaters, specifically targeting World of Warcraft players who use third-party software to cheat.

No figure of how many accounts were suspended, but repeat offenders were dealt with bans up to 18 months while first time offenders were given 6 months. Blizzard have developed a method to detect cheaters using WoW bot software Honorbuddy as the 'ban section' of their forums have been FLOODED with posts. Honorbuddy released a statement via their forums confirming that their 'bot/tool' had been detected.

It appears as if Honorbuddy isn't the only software that was detected, with several other third-party software also being detected. These programs allow players to instantly teleport around the map, scripts to help them in combat and even fully automated bots which operate on behalf of the player.

Overwatch has hit yet another milestone, with Blizzard announcing there are now over 35 million players since the game launched back in May 2016.

We don't know which platforms have the most users, but I'd dare say the PC version of Overwatch has the lion's share of gamers. Blizzard hit 20 million players in Overwatch back in November 2016, and then 30 million in April this year. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds continues to pummel other games into the ground, so it'll be interesting to see how Overwatch's numbers get affected as PUBG continues to grow.

Blizzard hasn't revealed any other details about the 35 million Overwatch players, so we don't know if the free weekends count (they probably do). No matter what, 35 million gamers is a big milestone for Overwatch.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is racing towards v1.0, but Bluehole has a lot of work to do before we get there. The developer has talked about some updates that gamers have wanted since PUBG launched earlier this year: vaulting, and climbing.

Bluehole has said that climbing and vaulting have a massive impact on gameplay, which means they need to be tested "for at least a month" before they go live. The developer adds: "The content and features that will be in test servers need to be tested for at least 2 to 4 weeks. It will be very difficult for us to provide a stable service if we rush updates to live servers after short bursts of testing. As we would like to go through rigorous testing to prepare for official launch, we will not be updating new content to live servers and run test servers for a longer period of time instead".

PUBG will receive climbing and vaulting in "late October or early November", but personally... I think Bluehole need to work on hitting 100% optimization on Unreal Engine 4 for the game.

Nintendo has just announced that DOOM will be coming to their Nintendo Switch console on November 10, which will include all of the updates and post-launch content.

The physical copy of DOOM will include just the single-player campaign, with the multiplayer side of things needing to be downloaded due to its size. The digital version of DOOM for the Nintendo Switch will include the entire package, as there's no limitations with digital downloads.

In the video above, id Software's Creative Director Hugo Martin, and Executive Producer Marty Stratton talk about what gamers will expect in DOOM on the Nintendo Switch. They also talk about working with developer Panic Button to make sure that DOOM on the Nintendo Switch was "fast, brutal, and true to the experience gamers have loved on other platforms".

GOG.com, the purveyor of classic PC games of yore, is discounting a range of beloved RPGs to celebrate the 10th anniversary of CD Projekt RED's magnum opus Witcher trilogy.

Seeing as it's Geralt & Friends' 10th anniversary, the Witcher series headlines the sale with up to 85% off. The discount sees The Witcher 3 Game of the Year edition on sale for just $19.99, and The Witcher 2 and the original Witcher game down to a pittance of $2.99 and $1.50, respectively (seriously if you don't have those yet, give them a whirl).

If you already own The Witcher games, and are looking for some classic Bethesda goodies, GoG has Fallout and Fallout 2 at 50% off, alongside Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 at 40% off, alongside Morrowind and Oblivion at 40% of as well.The sale of The Witcher games lasts until October 25, whereas the sale prices on the weekly titles lasts until October 23.

Cyberpunk 2077, the most ambitious game CD Projekt RED has ever taken on, is on track...but that track is very, very long and winding.

It's been a long time since Polish game developer CD Projekt RED has discussed their massive new project Cyberpunk 2077. The teaser trailer dropped in January 2013, and over four years later, we don't have a lot of solid info. Outside of brief snippets from earnings calls and financial reports, the publisher has been quite vague on the topic...however we've collected a nice little treasure trove of updates in our back catalog of content.

Based on rumors that employee morale is low, and worries that Cyberpunk 2077 might actually be cancelled because it simply got too big to handle, CDPR released a statement clearing things up. Cyberpunk 2077 has not been cancelled, and while work is quite slow, co-founder Marcin Iwinski and studio head Adam Badowski affirm the game is "progressing as planned, but we are taking our time." In regards to the lapse of updates, the duo say "silence is the cost of making a great game." You can find a snippet from their joint statement below.

There's a fictional video games system called the Okama Gamesphere in the new South Park game, and every time you turn it on, it needs to update. Sound familiar? It should.

I play my Xbox One about once a month, but it seems every single time I turn it on I have to either download an update of varying size (sometimes as big as 3GB+) to play games online, or do what I normally do and simply play offline. It's frustrating as hell, and Microsoft has been lambasted for it left and right, but now they've officially been lampooned for it by the masters of parody.

In the new South Park: The Fractured But Whole game from Ubisoft San Francisco and South Park Studios, the player character (The New Kid, aka the Farting Vigilante, ButtLord, and/or The Amazing Butthole) has an Okama Gamesphere in his room. Older fans will remember the Okama Gamesphere; it's a bit obscure in South Park lore, a golden oldie.

There's good news and bad news for Age of Empire fans, the bad news is that only days before the scheduled October 19 release, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition has been delayed until Early 2018. The good news? Developer Forgotten Empires will invite thousands of extra players into the closed beta to allow for more in-depth testing, multiplayer balancing and other elements associated with beta testing.

The developers of Crazy Justice, a game I've only just come to learn about by developer Black Riddles Studio, will support cross-platform play between the PC, Xbox One, and even the Nintendo Switch.

Crazy Justice is powered by Unreal Engine 4, and is a new third-person shooter that features destructible environments courtesy of NVIDIA's PhysX technology. The game will see you taking control of heroes that have to save the world from evil, with plenty of missions along the way, new heroes, new special weapons, and more so that you can take evil down.

You can build your own custom skill decks, where you can construct barricades, walls, turrets, and other defense systems to keep the evil hordes at bay. Crazy Justice will be a multiplayer-focused game that still sports a single-player campaign, but the cross-platform play between so many platforms is awesome. Black Riddles Studios, kudos - you deserve the praise for this. Other game developers: learn from BRS.

Skyrim was a phenomenally successful game, but it was a solo experience... until now. The developers of Skyrim Together, a new co-op mod for Bethesda's infamous RPG, is now here. Check it out below:

The team is aiming for alpha and beta releases starting this year, with a release before the end of the year. But, with a complicated process like modifying Skyrim for a cooperative adventure, I can see Skyrim Together being delayed through to 2018. The team is currently showing off the following in the video: