Xbox One Console Reviews
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Irrational Games, the studio that makes BioShock, is shutting down. BioShock creator Ken Levine said today that he plans to move on to smaller, narrative-heavy games that will be released digitally.
Levine, who ran Irrational, announced the news on the Irrational Games website today, noting that he'll be starting "a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" and laying off all but 15 people.
"While I'm deeply proud of what we've accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we've done before," Levine wrote. "To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience."
The troubled development of BioShock Infinite was no secret—Levine's latest game was an expensive production, affected by multiple delays and scrapped features, which might explain his new focus.
Levine's new goal, as he wrote today: "To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally."
Irrational's final project will be part 2 of the BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea downloadable content,which is out next month. We've reached out to Take-Two for comment, and for more details on the future of the BioShock franchise.
On one hand, it really sucks that Irrational Games is shutting down, and I hope that everyone who was laid off finds new employment soon. On the other hand, the idea of a cool new digital game by Ken Levine is pretty damn exciting.
Levine, an undeniably talented writer best known for his work on BioShock, also had a major hand in Thief and System Shock 2. His games are sometimes controversial, but almost always worth talking about. And it's exciting to see him taking the opportunity to make something risky.
Look carefully at what Levine wrote in today's announcement (bolded emphasis mine):
"In time we will announce a new endeavor with a new goal: To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally.
When I first contemplated what I wanted to do, it became very clear to me that we were going to need a long period of design. Initially, I thought the only way to build this venture was with a classical startup model, a risk I was prepared to take. But when I talked to Take-Two about the idea, they convinced me that there was no better place to pursue this new chapter than within their walls. After all, they're the ones who believed in and supported BioShock in the first place.
Thanks to Irrational and 2K's passion in developing the games, and the fans who believe in it, BioShock has generated retail revenues of over a half billion dollars and secured an iconic place in gaming. I'm handing the reins of our creation, the BioShock universe, to 2K so our new venture can focus entirely on replayable narrative. If we're lucky, we'll build something half as memorable as BioShock."
In other words, Levine is no longer shackled by the AAA beast that BioShock has become. He's working on a digital narrative game, and he's taking a whole lot of time to make it happen. He's free to be small, flexible, and creative, and if you don't mind a little optimism on a day that's rather sad for a lot of people, I'm excited to see what sort of experiments he has in mind.
Just look at some of the talented designers who have left the world of big-budget game development to play around with narrative games. Gone Home, last year's indie critical darling, was directed by Irrational alumnus Steve Gaynor. Designer Kent Hudson also left AAA to make his fascinating experimental narrative game The Novelist. Lucas Pope left Naughty Dog and made Papers, Please, one of the most important games released in 2013. Adrian Chmielarz moved from Gears of War to an indie horror game that looks pretty damn cool.
So, yeah. I'm psyched to see Ken Levine going off and taking risks. It's way more exciting than the thought of yet another BioShock game. Even if we never do see BioShock Vita.
Interesting words from the man who designed Gears of War: "The whole 'old guard,' where you get a Game Informer cover and an E3 reveal, is dead... I'll never make another disc-based game for the rest of my career, and [at E3] they're trying to woo buyers from Target and Walmart?"
At this point it's a common sentiment: the world of indie game development is packed with designers who exchanged the high-octane world of AAA gaming for freedom and flexibility, and all sorts of pundits have declared that consoles as we know them won't be around for many more decades. Still, it's fascinating to see this coming from Cliff Bleszinski, the guy who helped create one of last generation's biggest franchises. Is the world of traditional retail AAA games really dying?
Read the rest of Leigh Alexander's great interview with Bleszinski over on Gamasutra.
The Order: 1886 does what it wants. Zeppelins, elevated trains and automatic rifles? It might not fit the history it's based on, but hey, why not? Toss them in. Developers Ready at Dawn are telling a story about men and women fighting half-bred monster people that never existed in their own vision of 19th century London.
The Order's presentation is as striking as the content. The entire game—cutscene and gameplay—is framed in a 2.40:1 animorphic aspect ratio (so it looks like a widescreen movie). It runs at 30 frames per second because that delivers a look they like. And they're taking cues from what other developers have done in order to build the experience they want to give players.
The titular Order refers to a group dating to the Middle Ages who have carried on a millenium-long war with half-breeds who have some beast blood in them. It's not a straight-up shooter but rather a third-person action adventure in the vein of Uncharted (with cover, of course), and the similarities between Naughty Dog's franchise and Ready At Dawn's potential series-starter extend beyond a shared genre.
Aside from the visual fidelity afforded by developing exclusively on the PlayStation 4, the most glaring characteristic of The Order I noticed in the brief hands-off gameplay demo we were shown at a press event in LA last week is its seamless presentation; it goes from cutscene to gameplay without a break, then from shooting to branching quick-time events back to cutscenes with nary a gap to be found. And once you start playing, studio co-founder and creative director Ru Weerasuriya promised me, you're not going to face a loading screen until the next time you boot up the game.
"The point is immersiveness, making sure the player, once they're involved, that emotionally they don't get detached," Weerasuriya emphasized. "Every single time you break it, regardless of whether it's a visual break, that changes the way cinematics [change] from gameplay, or whether it's a loading screen that changes the pacing, all of those are pace-breakers."
Where you might say the seamless presentation is inspired by Naughty Dog, the QTEs I mentioned are akin to those we've seen before in Heavy Rain or The Wolf Among Us. They come in a sequence, and missing a button doesn't doom you immediately but changes that sequence. Fail too many times and you're dead, sure, but this is the new age, not the old one. Ready At Dawn wants these QTEs to customize the experience a bit for you, and to be one of many bits of curation the studio is using to deliver its vision.
"Every single element is really there as a tool to deliver an experience," Weerasuriya told me. "There is no one thing."
Another of those single elements is the framerate, a contentious point of debate in gaming these days. But bigger is not necessarily better, despite what some people will tell you, because while Peter Jackson may insist that 48 frames per second is the only way to watch a movie now, more folks tend to disagree with that than not. Also, frame-boosting tech on modern TVs—like TruMotion, MotionFlow, ClearScan, etc—are the butt of so many jokes ("I can't even watch five seconds of it" was all Weerasuriya had to say about that) because the visual difference between high and film-stand framerates is extremely stark.
And while response time is a worthwhile concern—60 frames definitely feels faster than 30—Weerasuriya noted the way the game is constructed can eliminate the need for a quicker response.
"You build the game with that in mind, because everything you do is a compromise," he said.
"Some things are done the way they are because of the experience they're trying to portray to the player. I think for us 30 frames per second and the animorphic… is very calculated because it happened very early on."
Ready At Dawn was from the beginning seeking a specific look and feel for the game. They liked the way 30fps looks versus 60, and they insisted on utilizing a 4x multisampling anti-aliasing (MSAA) process—which is quite technically demanding. Between that and any number of other graphical effects they wanted to implement. going with a higher framerate just wasn't a priority.
"Higher framerate doesn't equate to better," Weerasuriya insisted. "The framerate has to satisfy the experience you want to have."
sturmars i was thinkingg about it when metal gear cme out because i am not paying for a 2 hr game..
Been a member for years. Comes in handy. Play the games I refuse to buy then send back. Might send back the last of us because I don't feel like playing a second time and I will need some space for new games next week.
hey the man is it really that simple? i mean you can get a game an keep it for as long as you want? if so i am bout to join that shit because like you said why buy a game you don want to keep when you can rent it.see where im at theres no place to rent games no more but red box an i am not doing that shit lol cost to much...
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damn..guess there will be no next-gen Bioshock game 
Irrational Games, the studio that makes BioShock, is shutting down. BioShock creator Ken Levine said today that he plans to move on to smaller, narrative-heavy games that will be released digitally.
Levine, who ran Irrational, announced the news on the Irrational Games website today, noting that he'll be starting "a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" and laying off all but 15 people.
"While I'm deeply proud of what we've accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we've done before," Levine wrote. "To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience."
The troubled development of BioShock Infinite was no secret—Levine's latest game was an expensive production, affected by multiple delays and scrapped features, which might explain his new focus.
Levine's new goal, as he wrote today: "To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable. To foster the most direct relationship with our fans possible, we will focus exclusively on content delivered digitally."
Irrational's final project will be part 2 of the BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea downloadable content,which is out next month. We've reached out to Take-Two for comment, and for more details on the future of the BioShock franchise.
How much is redbox? but Yea it's a simple process. Just gotta learn the tricks to Getting new games. Like if something is coming out don't put any games on your list that are already out. Just leave the new release by itself at the top at least two days prior. And if you send something back to get ready for a new game, send it with a week to spare so that it frees up space in time. And you get a new release the day after because it ships on the release day. You can eventually work you way up to 4 games at a time and every 3 months you get a $5 coupon off of a used game. I do that for older releases on sale. I rent em to make sure its a working copy then buy it. They then send you the original case and anything that came with it.
Respawn is live streaming now.
http://www.twitch.tv/respawn
The Sony fanboys are in there hating hard
http://www.twitch.tv/respawn
The Sony fanboys are in there hating hard
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no PC Titanfall beta players..?
Yea, that shit is way overpriced. You keep the game for a month, and you just paid retail price...
I wonder what happened with that game rental service that Netflix was talking about doing tho.. I was really looking forward to that.
Ouch. I can rent 4 games for $36 a month.
Respawn is live streaming now.
http://www.twitch.tv/respawn
The Sony fanboys are in there hating hard.
Anything for them to avoid talking about how IGN didn't really seem to fall into the hype for The Order. Poor Sony Ponies. They need a hug.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/jay_to_the_son">@jay_to_the_son</a> We are aware, thank you! If it happens, please power cycle by holding power for 10 seconds. ^BB</p>— Xbox Support (1-5) (@XboxSupport) <a href="https://twitter.com/XboxSupport/statuses/435458021343236096">February 17, 2014</a></blockquote>
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lol
<iframe style="display: none;" allowtransparency="true" id="rufous-sandbox" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
Ijust finished playing another session for an 2hr+ and I see a potential CAMPING issues in this game already aand not only that the Smart Pistol is already being called Broken. So you hide on the roof top with a smart pistol = cheap and easy kills. you don't even have to aim the gun
In Titanfall, players can earn what Respawn Entertainment calls Burn Cards that grant your soldier special abilities for the entirety of one life.
We talked a little bit about them in our Titanfall preview and our interview with Titanfall game director Steve Fukuda, but in Respawn’s words, they are a way to encourage players to stay alive as long as possible, to give new players a fighting chance, and to add a touch of randomness to the gameplay. Players can equip up to three Burn Cards per match that are earned by completing in game challenges. They offer a wide range of awards – 50, in fact, according to users on NeoGAF.
Redditor Druidika has compiled images of these card which you can check out in his album below. (You might need to give it a sec to load, as there are a lot of them.) Six of them have not been revealed as of yet, so you’ll only find about 44 cards in the album, but the remainder of them have been compiled in this list below in accordance with recent Titanfall leaks listing a number of new weapons.
Burn Cards (Imgur Album)
- Bottomless Frags
- Shock Rocks
- (Amped Arc Mine?)
- (Amped Satchel Charge?)
- Amped RE-45
- Amped P2011
- (Amped B3 Wingman?)
- Amped Smart Pistol
- (Amped C.A.R. SMG?)
- Amped R97
- Amped EVA-8
- Amped R-101C
- (Amped Hemlok BF-R?)
- (Amped G2A4?)
- Amped LMG
- Amped DMR
- Amped Kraber
- Amped Sidewinder
- Amped Archer
- Amped Mag Launcher
- Amped Charge Rifle
- Active Camo
- Ghost Squad (Rare)
- Prosthetic Legs
- Smuggled Stimulant
- Adrenaline Transfusion (Rare)
- Spider Sense
- Packet Sniffer
- Aural Implant
- Echo Vision (Rare)
- Satellite Uplink
- Map Hack (Rare)
- Double Agent
- Conscription
- WiFi Virus
- Massive Payload
- Rematch
- Super Charger
- Spectre Camo (Rare)
- Decisive Action
- Pull Rank
- Outsource
- Fast Learner
- Thin The Ranks
- Urban Renewal
- Most Wanted List
- Titan Salvage
- Atlas Refurb (Rare)
- Reserve Ogre (Rare)
- Spare Stryder (Rare)
The Smart pistol is a 3 shot kill on other Pilots... I've yet to even get killed by one, to tell the truth...
But overall, the entire idea of a completely auto-aiming gun is a bad one.. They'll probably change or tweak that before release after they get a little feedback on it.. This is a Beta afterall..
I love the smart pistol. It's far from auto aiming, you can have a player on red, if he moves before you pull the trigger it's wasted. The fact that you can hit up to 3 at once is sick. I'd love for an elimination mode.
Hey, whaddya know. Titanfall, a good-lookin' game about giant mechs, was born from good-lookin' art showing giant mechs.
The images you're seeing will be part of a book celebrating the game's art, due out later this month from Titan. You can grab it here. You can also see a flip through of the book from IGN below, which shows stuff like unannounced weapons and, um, giant monsters.
The artists whose work you're seeing below are Joel Emslie, Manuel Plank-Jorge, Matt Codd, Paul Christopher, Steve Burg, Todd Sue and Tu Bui.
<small>To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner.</small>
<small>Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!</small>
They going in on IGN for that "The Order 1886" preview. IGN should know by now that they can't be too critical about a Sony exclusive game
This shit is hilarious to me with all the excuses.
"If a developer wants 30fps for artistic reasons Its a good thing."
"Movies are only 24fps so it doesn't matter."
"3rd person games are expected to be 30fps."
I could care less about resolution if it plays and looks nice.
man i am gonna call his how i see it man on this metal gear,itdoes look alot bettr on the ps4 an i haate to say that but real is real.check this video out you cn cleal see the xbox one looks kinda worst then the xbox 360 version.i dont know if the people did that but as the video goes the p4 looks better..glad i have both systems.
In Titanfall, players can earn what Respawn Entertainment calls Burn Cards that grant your soldier special abilities for the entirety of one life.
We talked a little bit about them in our Titanfall preview and our interview with Titanfall game director Steve Fukuda, but in Respawn’s words, they are a way to encourage players to stay alive as long as possible, to give new players a fighting chance, and to add a touch of randomness to the gameplay. Players can equip up to three Burn Cards per match that are earned by completing in game challenges. They offer a wide range of awards – 50, in fact, according to users on NeoGAF.
Redditor Druidika has compiled images of these card which you can check out in his album below. (You might need to give it a sec to load, as there are a lot of them.) Six of them have not been revealed as of yet, so you’ll only find about 44 cards in the album, but the remainder of them have been compiled in this list below in accordance with recent Titanfall leaks listing a number of new weapons.
Burn Cards (Imgur Album)
If you haven’t yet, you can catch the last two rare cards, the Ogre and Stryder Titans, in action right here.
- Bottomless Frags
- Shock Rocks
- (Amped Arc Mine?)
- (Amped Satchel Charge?)
- Amped RE-45
- Amped P2011
- (Amped B3 Wingman?)
- Amped Smart Pistol
- (Amped C.A.R. SMG?)
- Amped R97
- Amped EVA-8
- Amped R-101C
- (Amped Hemlok BF-R?)
- (Amped G2A4?)
- Amped LMG
- Amped DMR
- Amped Kraber
- Amped Sidewinder
- Amped Archer
- Amped Mag Launcher
- Amped Charge Rifle
- Active Camo
- Ghost Squad (Rare)
- Prosthetic Legs
- Smuggled Stimulant
- Adrenaline Transfusion (Rare)
- Spider Sense
- Packet Sniffer
- Aural Implant
- Echo Vision (Rare)
- Satellite Uplink
- Map Hack (Rare)
- Double Agent
- Conscription
- WiFi Virus
- Massive Payload
- Rematch
- Super Charger
- Spectre Camo (Rare)
- Decisive Action
- Pull Rank
- Outsource
- Fast Learner
- Thin The Ranks
- Urban Renewal
- Most Wanted List
- Titan Salvage
- Atlas Refurb (Rare)
- Reserve Ogre (Rare)
- Spare Stryder (Rare)
Hey, whaddya know. Titanfall, a good-lookin' game about giant mechs, was born from good-lookin' art showing giant mechs.
The images you're seeing will be part of a book celebrating the game's art, due out later this month from Titan. You can grab it here. You can also see a flip through of the book from IGN below, which shows stuff like unannounced weapons and, um, giant monsters.
The artists whose work you're seeing below are Joel Emslie, Manuel Plank-Jorge, Matt Codd, Paul Christopher, Steve Burg, Todd Sue and Tu Bui.
<small>To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner.</small>
<small>Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!</small>
Damn, you not trying to leave any element of surprise with this game. It's bad enough we got spoiled with the BETA, you given away everything.
man its gonna hurt me so bad when they take the beta down tonight.oh how the time will go so damn slow.march 11th will take forever..
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