Gaming - Page 913

Ubisoft is putting in an interactive educational game mode into Assassin's Creed: Origins, and I'm incredibly excited.

Assassin's Creed games teach gamers about history. These games are more than games--they blend real history with fiction and spark our imaginations and interests into periods we didn't know much about. And as you learn more about history, the more you get out of the games. But Ubisoft is going far and away above the call of duty by adding in a new special educational app to Assassin's Creed: Origins that will teach you tons about ancient Egypt as you explore, uncover, and engage with an interactive world of 49 BC.

The new mode is called Assassin's Creed: Origins Discovery Tour, and will be free for owners of the game. The mode essentially turns off combat to let you explore one of the most magical periods in history when Greeks and Egyptians mingled societies in a flourishing, golden age of innovation. You'll learn neat little factoids as you explore and drink in ancient relics like Khufu's Horizon, the Bent Pyramid, and (my favorite) the Pharos of Alexandria. In short: this mode is a dream come true for a history buff like myself.

Valve has removed 173 games from Steam, with majority of them developed by Silicon Echo Studios. Why were these games removed you ask? Silicon Echo Studios has been caught 'asset flipping' games, meaning titles have been developed using pre-made assets for Unity game engine. Asset flipping allows developers to create and release games fairly quickly and at little cost for the developer, that wasn't Valve's major issue however.

As you can imagine, of the 173 games that were removed a majority of them were cheap, or free games sold in bundles. The problem is that people could buy these games extremely cheap and use them to collect Steam Trading Cards and resell them on the Steam Market place to generate a profit. This also generates profits for the developer, Silicon Echo Studios in this instance, as they take a cut of the card sales.

Polygon have released a statement in which Valve confirmed that all of the company's games have been removed, and also "ended our business relationship with them."

If you're unfamiliar with Valve's True Sight series, True Sight is a documentary series that takes you behind the scenes of professional Dota 2 tournaments, focusing on the two teams that have made it to the grand final and allows the public to experience the highs, lows and pressure of playing professional Dota. In this episode, True Sight provides exclusive footage of Team Liquid and Newbee as they experience The 2017 International Grand Final.

The winner takes home the prestigious Aegis of Champion trophy and the largest prize in esports history, $10,900,000. Newbee were dominate during their upper bracket run, not losing a series. Team Liquid were just impressive with many people saying Team Liquid played their grand final in the semi-final vs LFY, oh how they were wrong. Team Liquid lifted their game when it counted most to claim a 3-0 series win over Newbee.

True Sight allows the public to experience the emotional rollercoaster of the TI7 grand final from each team's perspective. Watch as Newbee and Team Liquid discuss tactics during their drafting phase, team bonding and even the occasional joke in this 29 minute documentary.

After lots of misinformation and a big controversy, Warner Bros is now buckling to community pressure and will offer the Forthog DLC, which commemorates a deceased developer at Monolith games, for free.

The saga of Shadow of War's Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC is a contentious one. A bit ago Monolith Productions developer Michael Forgey passed away. WB Games and Monolith decided to do something special by immortalizing his memory as a character and sell the DLC for $4.99. Most of the proceeds would go to Forgey's mourning family in the form of a donation. However, users quickly found WB wouldn't give all the DLC proceeds to Forgey's family, and the PR department apparently sent out misinformation that only purchases in the US would count--and only those in certain states with certain laws (but now WB says they only promoted the promo in the US because of international laws, and always planned to donate proceeds to Forgey's family).

This inspired lots of pushback. Gamers accused WB Games of making a quick buck off of a deceased dev--a shameless move that dragged the publisher's, and Monolith Productions', reputations through the mud. Both companies were already damaged by Shadow of War's hotly debated lootboxes. Something needed to be done, and WB has now made the call to make the Forgoth DLC free and give a single one-off donation to Forgey's family. In the interest of transparency and to explain its actions, WB outlined why they opted for the DLC path in the first place. The WB Games rep says there was no ill-will conceived here and the DLC was made to immortalize their fallen comrade and help his surviving widow and children.

EA is preparing the next series in the Need for Speed franchise, offering up the biggest open world in the series yet. The developer has released a new trailer: 'Welcome to Fortune Valley', which you can check out below.

Need for Speed Payback features older derelict cars in its open world, where you can take the shell and parts to make your own custom car to take on your opponents with. A nice change from the usual drive-the-hell out of your car and beat-everyone-everywhere gameplay in other open world driving games.

EA has built "the biggest open world Need for Speed has ever seen", but in a market filled with similar games and nothing that will grip players in the way something like Battlegrounds has, will Need for Speed Payback be worth the long haul? We'll find out on November 10 when it launches for the PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Halo 5 developer 343 Industries announced a few months ago now that there was an Xbox One X update coming for the first-person shooter, which will provide 4K support and more on Xbox One X.

At the time, 343 Industries didn't tell us what other Xbox One X enhancements there would be, but now we have some more information thanks to a post on Neogaf by Halo Franchise Development Director, Frank O'Connor.

O'Connor posted to the Neogaf forums saying:

Sony isn't making another PlayStation Vita handheld, says company bigwig Andrew House, and will continue its bullish focus on the PlayStation 4-centered ecosystem.

Even the Nintendo Switch's global superstar success isn't enough to convince Sony to re-enter the handheld business. The console-maker feels that traditional handhelds simply aren't a big enough market opportunity for the current games industry landscape, although handheld gaming certainly was during the Vita and 3DS' heyday (the Nintendo 3DS currently has over 67 million units sold). The Nintendo Switch, which is projected to sell more than 10 million units in its first year, is a unique strategy because it's a hybrid and not just a handheld--at least that's what Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House thinks. Maybe that's why Sony filed these patents for a transforming Vita handheld.

"The Nintendo device is a hybrid device and that's a different approach and strategy," Mr. House said in an interview with Bloomberg. Outside of Asia, where the Vita is still sold and games are still made, the Vita just isn't big enough to support. "We have not seen that as being a huge market opportunity," he said.

Nintendo is pulling another classic Nintendo move by greenlighting the release of overpriced, non-Virtual Console games on the Nintendo Switch.

I've wanted classic NES, SNES, N64 and GBA games on my Nintendo Switch for quite some time, but the company seems to adamantly refuse to bring its Virtual Console service, which sells beloved classic retro games a la carte, to its newest transforming handheld-and-console Switch platform. I've argued that Nintendo is missing out on potential millions every month Virtual Console isn't available, and that the NES and SNES Classic Edition systems are the main culprit. But now the console-maker is just adding insult to injury by greenlighting the release of expensive games that no one really asked for on the device.

Any Switch owner will have noticed the eShop's classic fare consists not of golden-age NES sidescrollers or shoot-em-ups, but of "Arcade Archives" NeoGeo games sold for $7.99 a piece. Most of these games are two-player titles. That's not a mistake. Although Nintendo says the Switch is a "home console first and foremost," they really want gamers to play with others. Fast-forwarding to today and we have a new range of games in Hamster's Arcade Archives offering, which is another series of classic games that's once again devoid of the games Switch owners like myself really want to play--Super Mario Bros 3, Chrono Trigger, the Castlevanias and Final Fantasies. In their stead we have two-player versus games that simulate old 1980s arcade cabinet experiences. That's a neat sentiment, don't get me wrong, but it's not a I'll-pay-$8-to-relive-coin-op-arcade-moments kind of sentiment (at least to me).

Atari has revealed that its new nostalgia-meets-present Ataribox will indeed be a fully-fledged $250 console that runs on Linux and is powered by an AMD chip.

Note: All of the images shown here are prototype pictures. The console has yet to be finalized and won't be mass-produced until the Indiegogo campaign is successfully funded.

The Ataribox is a very, very risky move. The new console sees Atari trying to marry nostalgic arcade classics with modern video games in a set-top box that does lots of other things including web browsing, social media, apps, and streaming. Today's console gaming market is absolutely dominated by the likes of Sony, Microsoft, and more recently, Nintendo (the latter of which has made an incredibly rags-to-riches leap with its new Switch hardware), and now Atari wants to carve out its own niche in the market with a re-vamped Atari machine. But the industry has changed dramatically since the 70's and 80's where Atari was all the rage--now the billion dollar games industry makes most of its revenue from software, especially on marketplaces wholly owned by the companies that sell the consoles themselves.

I recently reported on the success that Divinity: Original Sin 2 is achieving, with 85K concurrent players post launch and even reaching 93K concurrent players yesterday on Steam alone (D:OS2 is also released on GoG). Developer Larian Studios, have recently released their first significant patch (patch 3.0.143.324) for D:OS2 that features a number of bug fixes as well as adding the promised German, French and Russian translations to the game.

Existing save files are compatible, which is expected but not always a sure thing. This patch also features a series of improvements for the game's different endings. Below is a list of improvements and changes.

To view the entire patch notes, click here.

I think even my grandparents have heard of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, the epic battle-royale shooter from Brendan 'PlayerUnknown' Greene. PUBG has continued its rise to the top with recently surpassing 1.5 million concurrent users.

As you can see from the graph above, PUBG's playerbase is rising at a rapid rate. It took 4 months for Battlegrounds to reach 500K conconcurrent players and build an established playerbase. In the previous 3 months we've seen the playerbase not only double, but triple to 1.5K concurrent players. Twitch viewers has maintained a steady viewing audience of 150-200K throughout PUBG's reign, peaking at 450K during the Gamescom Invitational 2017.

During a recent Reddit AMA, Mr. PlayerUnknown stated that he would "love" to add a single-player campaign to PUBG. Greene said: "I would love to add a single-player campaign to the game," he said. "I think the island we have could be a great location for an interesting story, but unfortunately we just don't have the time or the resources for this at the moment!"

Battlegrounds is one of the most-played PC games right now, with a new peak 1.5 million concurrent gamers playing the game at once. But what about the promised Xbox One beta?

"DOGGAVELI" tweeted out to Xbox Games Marketing boss Aaron Greenberg, asking: "do u know when the Pub beta is coming to @Xbox one", to which Greenberg replied: "We are working on that now, will share more news when we can, but we are all incredibly excited to get some Chicken Dinners on Xbox!"

PUBG has set the PC gaming community on fire, as I'm just as obsessed with it as the next person - but Xbox One gamers are going to love it when it hits consoles. I'm looking forward to seeing what Bluehole can do with the console version of PUBG, where I hope that it still looks great and runs well considering Unreal Engine 4 powers countless console games right now.

Industry veteran Rich Vogel has had a hand in some of the most influential games-as-a-service (GaaS) games in the industry, including Ultima Online, Meridian 59, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now Mr. Vogel has joined Certain Affinity as Vice President of Technology and Services to lend his expertise on two new service-based games: a new IP and an original game. What if the latter was a cross-platform free-to-play Halo game with microtransactions?

Yes, this is me thinking out loud, and no, I don't have concrete evidence to back this theory up other than my personal analysis of the games industry and a few bits of perspective that may lend some credence to the theory. When I say a "free to play Halo game," I mean on PC and consoles with microtransactions/lootboxes, a plug for streaming, and a set up for eSports action. There's a few reasons why I think this could happen. For starters, Certain Affinity has worked on six Halo projects, three of which were major roles: they co-developed Halo 4 and Halo 5 with 343 Industries, and made Halo: The Master Chief Collection's multiplayer--so it's fair to say they're well-versed in the Halo world. Secondly, Mr. Vogel is keen on aligning Certain Affinity to the billion-dollar market of GaaS, and instantly recognizable properties like Halo would ensure a playerbase. Thirdly, Microsoft is shifting towards a cross-unification platform by making Xbox a service rather than a console; this service bridges Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One consoles, and the company has focused intensively and the popular games-as-a-service format, which has found its way into nearly every major first-party game to date, from Halo 5: Guardians to Gears of War 4 and the most recent Forza 7.

This wouldn't be the first time (nor the last) Microsoft has tried something like this. Remember Halo Online?

Square Enix says it will create more service-based games, hinting mainline Final Fantasy games will no longer be one-off singleplayer experiences, but sprawling, ever-changing and updated games like Final Fantasy XV.

Not long ago I said that Final Fantasy XV was the new Skyrim. My point was that Final Fantasy XV, like Skyrim, was being ported on every available platform via re-releases. And like Skyrim (thanks to mods), Final Fantasy XV has become a live game of sorts that's continually changing over time with content updates and expansions. The real difference is that its Square Enix, not modders, who are pushing out FFXV's content. In fact, Final Fantasy XV is now an IP within an IP; the publisher has made the Final Fantasy XV Universe, which includes a galaxy of mobile games, the PS4 and Xbox One versions, season pass DLC, a stream of updates, a Switch and PC port, and a number of transmedia releases like an anime and a CGI film.

All of this (and more) is evidence that Square Enix isn't only betting big on games-as-a-service, but it's fully embracing it. This focus goes past the normal service games like Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest MMOs--it's bleeding into once-singleplayer games. Even Final Fantasy XV is getting a built-in MMO-like online multiplayer component. And the publisher is only just getting started.

Voice actors agree to end the nearly year-long strike against key video games companies.

In October of 2016, a number of high profile talent that brings video games to audial life went on strike to protest conditions set forth by 11 big industry publishers like EA, Activision, Insomniac Games, WB Games, and Take-Two Interactive. Today, almost a year later, the strike has ended and a number of demands have been met. While not all voice actor's demands were met, SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris called the agreement an "important advance" in the industry.

"This is an important advance in this critical industry space. We secured a number of gains including for the first time, a secondary payment structure which was one of the members' key concerns," Mrs. Carteris said. "The courage of our members and their fortitude these many months has been admirable and I salute them. We are always stronger together."

To say Shadow of War's lootboxes are a contentious point is a huge understatement. Gamers everywhere are up in arms in protest of WB Games' decision to put paid loot box microtransactions into Middle-earth: Shadow of War, but developer Monolith says the game is fully balanced so that gamers won't have to spend an extra dime. You can either spend time or money to progress in the game.

The landscape of video games has changed. Long are the days when a $59.99 game is shipped 100% complete; now games are inundated with season passes, microtransactions, DLC, and other content that makes the industry billions of dollars. Depending on who you ask, these trends are hurting and helping the industry: games now have much more content than before, and devs are armed with a huge pool of resources and funding to ensure their creations get continually updated to preserve quality and add new things to do. But some games use psychological trickery to marry engagement, MAUs, and other strategies together to push gamers towards buying loot boxes or in-game currency, setting off a Pandora's Box moment that typically ensures these first-time buyers become regular spenders that spin the billion-dollar flywheel.

But Middle-earth: Shadow of War doesn't fall into the latter category, at least according to design director Bob Roberts. In an interview with Eurogamer Mr. Roberts affirms that Shadow of War is being finely tuned and balanced so that gamers aren't directed towards the game's loot boxes, and that only those who have really made up their mind to purchase the time-saving boxes will do so. In other words, gamers won't be tempted to buy loot boxes because the game will continually give you enough resources to fuel your experience, but only as long as you play of course (this is also known as "the grind").

Valve once plotted out loose plan for a four-player co-op fantasy game, and concept art gives a glimpse at what could've been a new fresh investment for the Half-Life developer.

Valve artist Drew Wolf recently put up some concept art for an unreleased, undeveloped four-player co-op adventure game that takes place in an original fantasy universe, showing gamers yet another cancelled game that could've rocketed to success. It's unknown if this co-op game was being concepted before or during DOTA 2, and it's possible that some elements from this art found its way into the MOBA--and maybe it's accompanying new Artifact card game.

"[This is] character development for an internal R&D project. The project was a fantasy adventure game centered around cooperative combat and driven by story," Wolfe said in his blog. The characters bring to mind a distinct Blizzard style, and remind me what Overwatch's roster may have been if the game had a fantasy beat.

Green Man Gaming has partnered with Intel to power its new business-to-business (b2b) marketplace in an effort to change up the PC game key reselling market and inspire confidence from major games publishers.

PC game key reselling can be a contentious point from game publisher's point of view: some of these sites, which sell cheaper keys to consumers, acquire their keys under shady circumstances. But with Intel's new Software Distribution Hub (SDH), publishers can hook up directly with resellers like Green Man Gaming in a more secure, direct environment, thus avoiding (hopefully) shady dealings. In this way publishers and games-makers who sign up to Intel's SDH platform can sell bundled or one-off keys directly to retailers and resellers.

"The Intel Software Distribution Hub offers our Intel Technology Provider Gold and Platinum Partners the unique opportunity to differentiate themselves by providing a wide range of popular game titles, in addition to delivering the excellent performance and exceptional experiences our gaming customers demand," said Ricardo Moreno, vice president of sales and marketing group and general manager of partner sales programs organisation at Intel Corporation, as reported by MCVUK.

Stunlock Studios' has announced that November 8, their arena-brawler Battlerite will be leaving Steam's Early Access and officially launching.

Currently you have to pay $19.99 to purchase Battlerite to gain acess, come November 8 Battlerite will transition into free-to-play. So why should you purchase prior to full launch? Well...

"By purchasing Early Access, you are granted instant-access to the game, all champions, and all future champions as well as a unique founder avatar and title," according to Battlerite's Steam Early Access page. "This bundle will not be available at launch. It's likely that the same amount of content will cost more once the game is released."

The Chinese Room, the independent developer best known for hits like Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, is taking a break from games development.

"We're going dark for the next few months," creative director Dan Pinchbeck said in an eye-opening blog post. Mr. Pinchbeck says the decision to steer the dev's figurative ship towards the docks and take a long-deserved break was caused by a jolting health scare, which caused him to re-think The Chinese Room's toll on his life. "To cut a long story short, the situation - between financial pressures, trying to keep the lights on for the employed team, the stress of end-of-development, health issues - just wasn't a tenable thing anymore. It was time to take a break, recharge, recover and have a good think about the future," he said.

The development team has since been let go, but Mr. Pinchbeck affirms "this is a pause, not an end." The studio's employee profile page has been taken down. The creative director says that he's working on a new game called the 13th Interior along with composer Jessica Curry and game designer Andrew Crenshaw, but there's no longer a full development team on the project.