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Xbox One Console Reviews
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Sweet this is just what I need for when Dark Souls II drop on PC next month
It’s no secret that Respawn made the design choice of 6 vs. 6 Pilots per match within Titanfall despite the game being fully capable of supporting higher Pilot counts.
Xbox One and PC players are reporting instances whereby 7 Pilots are on a particular team or both teams in both the lobby and during a match with no negative effects. It appears the anomaly happens at complete random and only lasts for the duration of 1 match, but confirms the potential for more Pilots per match – if that ever happens.
It appears it was first reported during the Titanfall beta although was overlooked given the general nature of a beta build. Reddit users have confirmed instances are still taking place in the retail build, most likely to the delight of players in that particular match.
Source: Reddit
Props on this. Shit is butter now
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Reasons for 2015 Delay and Development Update Shared by CD Projekt
Today CD Projekt RED held its financial report, and during the presentation they shared the reasons for the delay to next year of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, together with an update on the development situation, clarifying what has already been done and what still needs time.
What has already been done:
What has already been done:
- Dialogue lines are closed & implemented.
- They are currently recording voice overs for each language version of the game.
- The world of the game is completed – locations are finished, all important gameplay mechanics are already implemented.
- Graphic assets and animations are nearing completion.
- The game can already be played in full.
- REDengine 3 supports all 3 platforms.
- The physical elements of the collector’s edition are in production.
- Implementation of the remaining side quests.
- Importing voice overs and testing their quality/changing them.
- Gameplay testing and balancing.
- Continuous work on improving the quality of graphic assets, animations, effects and sounds – this will last until just before going gold.
- REDEngine3 optimization.
- Less competition.
- Improved effectiveness of marketing campaign targeted at aware gamers and not random gift-buyers.
- Better polished game: the last 20% of time stands for 80% of the game’s attractiveness.
- More new-gen consoles on the market = more potential customers.
- Witcher comics – digital and paper.
- Continuous intensive marketing action for The Witcher 3.
- Witcher 3 preorders.
- Release of The Witcher Adventure Game (board game) – Q3 2014.
- Two mobile titles: The Witcher Adventure Game and a new multiplatform project.
- Together with an external development studio they are working on a multiplatform mobile game, which uses advanced features of tablets and smartphones
- They are entering a completely new territory, both in terms of gameplay and business model
- Work on the project began over a year ago, independently from TW3 and Cyberpunk 2077.
- The game will be announced together with beta sign-ups.
- Commercial release this year.
20% off MS Gift Card. Can be used on XBox Marketplace
Wal-Mart will buy your used video games
Wal-Mart will soon let consumers trade in their old video games for gift cards that they can then use to shop for items in its stores or on walmart.com.
The world's largest retailer said its new video game trade-in service kicks off on March 26 and will roll out in more than 3,100 Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500)discount stores nationwide.
The retailer said the service will accept unlimited number of games for popular consoles, including Sony (SNE) Playstation, Nintendo (NTDOF)'s Wii and Microsoft's XBOX as long as they aren't damaged and are in their original packaging.
After they bring in the games, consumers will get an eGift card which they can use to shop for groceries at Wal-Mart, jewelry on walmart.com or even for gas at Sam's Club locations.
The trade-in value of the games will vary from a few dollars to about $35, depending on their age. Some games considered to be too old will not be accepted. The service is available only to customers 18 and older.
Wal-Mart said it will refurbish the video games, label them as "Certified Pre-owned," and sell them later this year in stores and on its website.
Wal-Mart wants to tap into the $2 billion pre-owned video game market, said Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising and marketing officer. The retailer estimates that there are nearly 1 billion unused video games sitting in homes across the United States.
"We're not part of it at all. We expect to grow the market even more now because of our entry into it," he said.
The latest trade in program follows Wal-Mart's other recent similar initiatives. Last fall it launched smartphone and ipad trade in programs.
"This is a new category for us. We're doing it because our customers have asked us for it," said Mac Naughton.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/18/news/companies/walmart-video-games/index.html?iid=HP_LN
Time Warner Cable might take it this year.
EA Is Again A Contender For 'Worst Company In America'
Can EA take the title three years in a row? The Consumerist's Worst Company In America bracket is live once again, and again the video game publisher Electronic Arts is a contender.
Microsoft is also on the bracket this year, along with some particularly nasty companies like Monsanto, Seaworld, and perhaps worst of all, Time Warner Cable.
In 2012, EA took the prize in the wake of Mass Effect 3's controversial ending. They won the crown again in 2013, just after releasing the broken SimCity. Today they're facing some flack after the bug-filled Battlefield 4 and the disappointing Dungeon Keeper mobile remake. EA has also vowed to do better. Let's see if the Internet thinks they have.
Microsoft is also on the bracket this year, along with some particularly nasty companies like Monsanto, Seaworld, and perhaps worst of all, Time Warner Cable.
In 2012, EA took the prize in the wake of Mass Effect 3's controversial ending. They won the crown again in 2013, just after releasing the broken SimCity. Today they're facing some flack after the bug-filled Battlefield 4 and the disappointing Dungeon Keeper mobile remake. EA has also vowed to do better. Let's see if the Internet thinks they have.
^ Nah i say EA gets it again,after all the issues w/ Battlefield 4 online..
Ironically, I did this last night before I even saw this article... Found a corner to hide in, and collected my Achievements, XP, and extra Titans... lol...
Those who have played it already know this, but for those who haven't, be aware that Titanfall's "campaign" isn't really deserving of the name.
It's there for...I have no idea, actually. Maybe they needed some flimsy sort of narrative to justify future action figures/cartoons/comics books? In terms of what it brings to the game, it offers very little, subjecting you to a number of regular multiplayer matches whose only difference is a few visual effects and some boring narration.
Figuring that "war is hell, but walking is nice", reader Tony decided to see if he could finish the entire Militia campaign without firing a shot. Which he duly did.
Sure, we've seen this sort of thing before; Call of Duty will usher you through a stage as a passenger, though in that case at least you're moving forwards through something. As you'll see from Tony's footage, Titanfall doesn't even bother with that.
Since you're simply playing standard multiplayer matches with some icing on top, the game doesn't care what you're doing, so long as everyone else around you is doing their thing as well. As he'd be kicked for inactivity if he simply stood there, Tony decided to "go for some nice walks". He gets shot by others, sure, but on his end, he maintains a stoic vigil of pacifism. P
You know what, now we've seen this, I wonder what it would look like if all twelve players in a campaign refused to fire a shot. Just all those grunts, strolling around the map by themselves, kicking robots and grunting things to nobody in particular...
Those who have played it already know this, but for those who haven't, be aware that Titanfall's "campaign" isn't really deserving of the name.
It's there for...I have no idea, actually. Maybe they needed some flimsy sort of narrative to justify future action figures/cartoons/comics books? In terms of what it brings to the game, it offers very little, subjecting you to a number of regular multiplayer matches whose only difference is a few visual effects and some boring narration.
Figuring that "war is hell, but walking is nice", reader Tony decided to see if he could finish the entire Militia campaign without firing a shot. Which he duly did.
Sure, we've seen this sort of thing before; Call of Duty will usher you through a stage as a passenger, though in that case at least you're moving forwards through something. As you'll see from Tony's footage, Titanfall doesn't even bother with that.
Since you're simply playing standard multiplayer matches with some icing on top, the game doesn't care what you're doing, so long as everyone else around you is doing their thing as well. As he'd be kicked for inactivity if he simply stood there, Tony decided to "go for some nice walks". He gets shot by others, sure, but on his end, he maintains a stoic vigil of pacifism. P
You know what, now we've seen this, I wonder what it would look like if all twelve players in a campaign refused to fire a shot. Just all those grunts, strolling around the map by themselves, kicking robots and grunting things to nobody in particular...
Project Spark Xbox One beta opens up to all
All Xbox One owners can try out the game-crafting playground of Project Spark, after Team Dakota opened up the platform's beta this week. A closed beta began earlier in the month, but now players won't need a beta key to jump into the sandbox.
One of the biggest strengths of Project Spark looks to be the sheer variety of things you can create in it, and just how flexible its tools are. We've seen in the hands of the developer everything from visually authentic recreations of Limbo to fully working synthesizers, while an Xbox One beta montage trailer shows users are displaying their creative finesse too.
One of the biggest strengths of Project Spark looks to be the sheer variety of things you can create in it, and just how flexible its tools are. We've seen in the hands of the developer everything from visually authentic recreations of Limbo to fully working synthesizers, while an Xbox One beta montage trailer shows users are displaying their creative finesse too.
Originally scheduled for release next week, the Xbox 360 version of Respawn Entertainment's mech shooter has been pushed back to April 8 (April 11 in Europe) to give port developer Bluepoint Games time to make it better.
The Titanfall 360 delay news comes from a post on EA.com from EA Studios executive vice president Patrick Söderlund, who says the game is fantastic, but not quite fantastic enough.
Now, I want to update everyone on Titanfall for Xbox 360 in development with Bluepoint Games. I've been playing the game a lot, and it is fantastic. But we see a few things that can be made even better, so we're giving Bluepoint a little more time to do just that and deliver an epic Titanfall experience for Xbox 360 players. Titanfall for Xbox 360 will now be releasing on April 8 in North America, and beginning on April 11 in Europe. The game will feature the same 6v6 gameplay, maps, modes, weapons and Burn Cards as the Xbox One and PC versions of the game.
Whatever the problems might be, they can't be too bad if they'll only take two weeks to fix. Xbox 360 gamers eagerly awaiting Titanfall's release can rest assured they'll receive a completely flawless product come April 8. There is so much confidence being bred here right now
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes: Review's
polygon 5.5
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5519578/metal-gear-solid-5-ground-zeroes-review
Kotaku
gametrailers - 8.5
<iframe src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:gametrailers.com:f23a51a7-e923-40a3-9022-671ef019f38c" frameborder="0" height="288" width="512"></iframe>
gamespot - 8.0
IGN - 8.0
CVG - 7
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5519578/metal-gear-solid-5-ground-zeroes-review
polygon 5.5
"Ground Zeroes feels more like a cash grab than a real follow-up
It's admirable that developer Kojima Productions was willing to toss long-held franchise tenets out the window in favor of re-imagined Metal Gear Solid gameplay. And it's possible that in a more complete game, these additions might shine more brightly. But Ground Zeroes is hardly the right venue to demonstrate the future of the franchise. It's staggeringly short and unsatisfying, feeling more like a cash grab than an honest-to-goodness installment in a beloved franchise."http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5519578/metal-gear-solid-5-ground-zeroes-review
Kotaku
gametrailers - 8.5
<iframe src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:gametrailers.com:f23a51a7-e923-40a3-9022-671ef019f38c" frameborder="0" height="288" width="512"></iframe>
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Get More: Comedy Central
Get More: Comedy Central
gamespot - 8.0
IGN - 8.0
CVG - 7
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/18/5519578/metal-gear-solid-5-ground-zeroes-review
Crytek Shows Off The Power of the CRYENGINE in GDC 2014 Showcase Trailers
The developers at Crytek have announced today a major update for their CRYENGINE technology, offering licensees access to an array of new features that have been showcased in the previously released Ryse: Son of Rome. The update, in short, not only optimizes the engine for next-gen technology like the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U, but also adds Linux support and updates to the existing PC, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS and Android support.
Some of these new updates will include:
For a closer look at the beauty the CRYENGINE allows for in its games, two new trailers have been revealed, which can be viewed below. The CRYENGINE trailer shows how the tech looks in games like Monster Hunter Online, Evolve, Star Citizen, Icarus, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Ryse: Son of Rome and Warface; the CRYENGINE Free SDK trailer shows how it looks for non-commercial use projects like Snow, Umbra and Aderyn’s Cradle, as well as a variety of environments and settings like “Lil’ Whiskey Saloon, CeleryLand, Cave along the Coast, Halcyon City, Severalls Hospital, Autumnal Graveyard, The Lab, Iron Age,” and “Wrecked Apartment.”
If you’re a developer interested in the engine, you can download either version from the CRYENGINE website. For more on Crytek and the CRYENGINE technology, check out all of our Crytek news.
GDC 2014 CRYENGINE Showcase Trailer
GDC 2014 CRYENGINE Free SDK Showcase Trailer
Some of these new updates will include:
- Physically Based Shading, which swaps out traditional observationally based shading for a real world physics model that simulates the interaction between light and materials;
- Geometry Cache, which uses efficient, cache-based animations to realize the msot complex simulations (cloth, explosions, fluid dynamics) normally only possible in offline rendering;
- Character Technology, which works to deliver the most realistic real-time character models and animations;
- and Image Based Lighting, which brings lighting and render consistency to all materials.
For a closer look at the beauty the CRYENGINE allows for in its games, two new trailers have been revealed, which can be viewed below. The CRYENGINE trailer shows how the tech looks in games like Monster Hunter Online, Evolve, Star Citizen, Icarus, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Ryse: Son of Rome and Warface; the CRYENGINE Free SDK trailer shows how it looks for non-commercial use projects like Snow, Umbra and Aderyn’s Cradle, as well as a variety of environments and settings like “Lil’ Whiskey Saloon, CeleryLand, Cave along the Coast, Halcyon City, Severalls Hospital, Autumnal Graveyard, The Lab, Iron Age,” and “Wrecked Apartment.”
If you’re a developer interested in the engine, you can download either version from the CRYENGINE website. For more on Crytek and the CRYENGINE technology, check out all of our Crytek news.
GDC 2014 CRYENGINE Showcase Trailer
GDC 2014 CRYENGINE Free SDK Showcase Trailer
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The real-life holodeck didn't work quite as well as advertised
http://cdn2.sbnation.com/assets/4158657/Cortex_2.191-textured-transparent.png
http://cdn2.sbnation.com/assets/4158657/Cortex_2.191-textured-transparent.png
Dhan Balachand is the CEO of Sulon Technologies, and I’ve been lured into a hotel room at GDC to check out something that’s being billed as a real-life version of the holodeck from Star Trek
The product is called the Cortex, and it delivers a combination of augmented and virtual reality.
"They’re not mutually exclusive," Balachand said. "They can combine to create some really crazy experiences."
The 30 minute demo was plagued with technical difficulties, but as a proof of concept the Cortex was able to deliver what was promised, although the execution has a ways to go before it becomes an attractive product.
Some assembly required
The head mounted display doesn’t actually come with a display, you have to provide your own by sliding in an Android device with a six inch or larger screen. The hardware syncs with the rest of the systems in the helmet to deliver an experience that’s frankly very, very strange.
There is one motorized camera on top of the helmet that senses the size of the room, you can feel it move as it looks around, and a front-facing camera provides a real-time video feed of your environment. You can play a game in augmented reality mode, where the camera shows you the real-world room and super-imposing floating targets or monsters for you to shoot, or you can enter a fully virtual reality room to explore.
Here’s the kicker: Since the hardware’s camera knows the size of the actual room, you get to walk around the environment itself and explore. The virtual room scales up and down to match your surroundings. You reach out to touch the virtual wall and feel the real wall, and a proximity sensor helpfully dings when you move too close to a real-world object.
"You build your game scene as you wish, and the VR engine takes that game that you just built and it applies geometric customization so that it scales," Balanchand explained. The system was plugged into a power supply so the wires were an issue in the prototype, but the renders of the development kit show a much smaller and completely self-contained product.
I wasn’t able to demo the feature, but I was also told that the helmet was smart enough to change transparency in real-time if someone enters the room. So if you’re running around a virtual dungeon that’s exactly the size of your bedroom and one of your kid walks in, the display may shift to show some of your real-world environment so you don’t trip over a toddler. Getting used to walking around the augmented reality environment takes a bit, as the camera seems to show a slightly zoomed-in version of the real-world.
Latency was a problem; the system had a hard time keeping up with even moderately fast head movements. They promised that the spatial scanner they created for the dev kit is ten times faster than the unit I was using. The system also broke down a number of times due to a loose cable, but that sort of mishap isn’t rare in early prototypes of this sort of display.
The helmet I was using was a very early prototype, they assured me, and the development kit will be much easier to use while still being smaller and offering a smoother virtual reality experience. While the use of the spatial sensors to "paint" fantastical environments over the actual room was impressive, as a virtual reality experience the screen wasn’t up to the task. The video embedded in this story is largely aspirational.
The $499.99 development kit is expected to ship out in the fourth quarter of this year, and you can see the vast improvements they're hoping to see in the hardware by comparing the prototype image with the render of the development kit. The company is also expected to ship with their own solution for three-dimensional controllers, although the prototype used the Razer Hydra.
The idea of a wearable holodeck is interesting, and certain aspects of the technology were very impressive. Still, there’s going to need to be vast improvements in the hardware and software before this becomes a technology to watch.
In an effort to promote better behavior on Xbox Live, Microsoft is planning to give rewards to Xbox One owners who contribute positively through their online interactions. Instead of simply penalizing players for bad behavior, the Xbox maker hopes to "actively encourage them to be better" in future Xbox Live updates.
During a talk at GDC 2014 aimed at ID@Xbox developers, Frank Savage, partner and development lead at Microsoft, said that rather than just ding players for poor, unsportsmanlike behavior on Xbox Live, players may be rewarded for exhibiting exemplary behavior.
If your reputation is "soaring because you're this amazing player that everyone wants to be with," Xbox Live's reputation algorithm may recognize that and dole out unspecified rewards. It's Microsoft's way of saying, "Thanks for being such a good member of the community, here's a reward," Savage said. The reward system sounds different from Microsoft's Xbox Community Level system, detailed last year, which recognizes actions from the existing Xbox Community Ambassadors initiative.
After the panel, Savage told Polygon that Microsoft hasn't determined what those rewards might be, as that component of Xbox Live's reputation system is still in the "brainstorming" stages.
The current implementation of Microsoft's reputation system for Xbox One, outlined last year by Michael Dunn, program manager for Xbox Live, interprets direct feedback from players to identify which members of the community are more troublesome than others. Players who are frequently blocked or muted, along with other negative feedback from Live users, will see their negative reputation exposed through their gamercard, be grouped with other bad players and could be deprioritized in multiplayer matchmaking. Savage said Microsoft sees about 425,000 feedback submits per week via Xbox Live.
"Our new reputation model helps expose people that aren't fun to be around and creates real consequences for trouble-makers that harass our good players," Dunn said last year.
Sony officially announced its Project Morpheus virtual reality headset last night, and plenty of other companies have been following Oculus' lead into the VR and/or augmented reality spaces at GDC. In that light, many observers are now eagerly watching for any hints of similar plans from Microsoft beyond the already rumored head-mounted display. The company doesn't seem too worried about falling behind by the new VR gold rush, though, with Xbox Group Program Manager David Dennis telling Ars that "we'll see how the VR space evolves."
When asked about Sony's recent Morpheus announcement, Dennis said he "love
"At this point, everything you're seeing out there is just prototypes and development stuff," Dennis noted regarding projects like Rift and Morpheus. "I think for us, it will be interesting to see how consumers respond and what experiences developers are able to deliver."
What about the rumors that Microsoft is working on AR glasses of its own, driven in part by a patent application for augmented reality glasses that surfaced last year? Dennis urged us not to read too much in to those reports.
"There's always lots of rumors about lots of things," he told Ars. "We patent lots of things. As you know, Microsoft Research does a lot of stuff. You patent stuff to protect the IP in the event you ever want to work on stuff in the future, but it shouldn't be [a] telltale [sign] that anything specific is in development."
One of this fall's big Assassin's Creed games, called or code-named Unity, is set at least partly in 18th-century Paris, according to early leaked screenshots obtained by Kotaku.
These screenshots, sent to me by a source who requested anonymity, show Unity's new assassin roaming around what appears to be Paris. You can see Notre Dame, the Seine River, and other Parisian landmarks, and the shots are very clearly from an early version of the game.
What's more, this is just one of two major Assassin's Creed games that will be out later this year, according to a number of sources. Unity will be for the current-gen consoles—Xbox One and PS4—while a second game, possibly called or code-named Comet, will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3. Presumably one or both versions will also be on PC. Sorry, Nintendo fans: I haven't yet heard anything about Wii U.
This information comes both from web chatter and our own conversations with developer sources. For months now we've heard rumors and rumblings about what could be the next installment in Ubisoft's popular assassin-parkour series, which has been released on an annual schedule for five years now. There's been a new major Assassin's Creed every fall since 2009.
Interesting as all this is, the prospect of two major AC games this fall is particularly noteworthy. Some might be excited that Ubisoft is liberating their teams from the shackles of cross-gen development for Unity, which won't have to make any compromises to fit into last-gen hardware. But some critics have already accused Ubisoft of milking the Assassin's Creed franchise—in the past five months alone we've seen Black Flag, the mobile game Pirates, the HD remakes of Liberation, and an Assassin's Creed board game called Arena. Two new games this fall could add to Assassin's Creed's reputationas an overused series.
A few weeks ago, rumors about Unity popped up on the gaming forum NeoGAF, and were later corroborated by Examiner's Nicholas Gigante, who has been correct about Ubisoft-related rumors in the past. The gist: Unity is one of two Assassin's Creed games this fall; Unity is set during the French Revolution; Unity stars an assassin named Arno. This all matches up with rumblings we've heard in conversations with our own developer sources. It also meshes with the screenshots we've obtained (all posted below).
Last month, Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond told AdWeek that the next game in the franchise would be set during her "favorite historical era." A fake internal e-mail in last year's Assassin's Creed IV hinted at a number of potential historical settings for future games in the series, one of which was the French Revolution. Last year at E3, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot told Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo that they had three Assassin's Creeds in development.
When reached by Kotaku this morning, Ubisoft declined to comment on this story.
You can see all of the leaked screenshots below. It's worth noting: these are early screenshots of an unfinished game. The final product will likely look different, and we hear the textures will look much better when Unity is out later this year. (Also, some of these city plazas will probably look less empty.)
One notable new feature: there are now buttons to "parkour" up and down. I hear this is part of a new Assassin's Creed navigation mechanic that will debut when Unity releases this fall.
Quick, think of the burliest video game engines that you've seen lately. Frostbite 3. Unreal Engine 4. That Luminous Studio demo Square Enix showed off at E3 2012. Project Cars. Pretty soon, you're going to have to add Snowdrop to that list.
Ubisoft first showed the tech behind its upcoming Tom Clancy game at E3 last year, with a surprise reveal that no one saw coming. With the Game Developers Conference happening right now, the French company's offering another peek under the hood of Snowdrop.
Right now, it appears that Snowdrop is only being used for The Division but when companies invest in building tech like this, you better believe they're going to us for as many games as they can.
This AND UE4 are now available to the public..but at a price of course
Unreal Engine 4 now available as $19/month subscription with 5% royalty
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/unreal-engine-4-now-available-as-19month-subscription-with-5-royalty/
GDC: Crytek's CryEngine Adopts a Subscription Model
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/19/gdc-cryteks-cryengine-adopts-a-subscription-model
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