Warriors Orochi 3 is getting yet another re-release, this time bringing together all the extra content from other versions along with some brand new goodies.
As detailed in this week’s Famitsu, as reported by
Warrior’s Orochi 3 Ultimate headed to PS3, Vita
19 JunMortal Kombat: Komplete Edition PC requirements released
19 JunHigh Voltage Software has released the minimum and recommended system requirements for Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, which hits PC on July 3 via digital distribution and arrives in stores in August.
Here they are in full, courtesy of EvilAvatar.
Nordic Games still chasing THQ assets
19 JunNordic Games can’t tell us what it’s going to do with Darksiders, Red Faction and the many other ex-THQ properties it picked up in April because it still hasn’t taken possession of all of them.
Business and product development director Reinhard Pollice told the console distribution rights for Double Fine’s Costume Quest and Stacking soon.
Nordis Games has said in the past it wants to “do right” by the IP it acquired. The publisher acquired most of THQ’s IP in a job lot for $4.9 million following the sale of big ticket items like Homeworld, Saints Row and South Park.
38 Studios: Rhode Island budget approves bond repayment
19 JunAfter toying with the idea of abandoning certain debts, Rhode Island has found room in its budget to honour bonds which financed bankrupt Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios.
collapsed – an event some critics feel Rhode Island wasn’t entirely uninvolved in, although a lawsuit puts the blame firmly in 38 Studios’ corner – leaving $89 million in initial worth and interest to be paid.
Rhode Island could probably have found a way out of the debt, but has apparently decided to shoulder it despite an expected $30 million budget gap in the next financial year, taxpayer disgruntlement, and concerns over the state’s credit rating.
However, that could change; each year, the payments will have to be approved anew by legislature. This year’s payment must still be signed off on by the House and Senate.
Oculus Rift venture funds used to expand staff, no new platforms planned
19 JunOculus Rift is using the $16 million in venture capital it raised recently to expand its already top-notch team of engineers.
“We’re using the funding to ramp up on hiring more smart people, the best and brightest that we can find,” CEO Brendan Iribe told Engadget.
Iribe said the majority of new employees will be engineers, but apart from the new hires little will change at the tech company, which will remain focused on building the world’s best VR platform.
“The dev kit as it is now, that we’re shipping, will stay the same, and the software side will just keep getting better,” he said.
Rhe money won’t be used to develop the tech for other platforms, unfortunately.
“We’re always looking at other platforms – looking at consoles, we’re also looking at Android and the mobile side in a big way – but right now we really are focused on the PC platform,” Iribe said.
Thanks, Joystiq.
PlayStation 3 firmware update reportedly bricking consoles
19 JunShortly after the release of a new firmware update for PlayStation 3 a few hours ago, reports of bricked consoles turned up. The firmware has since been pulled, and we’re awaiting more information on what action those affected should take. According to Gematsu the update allowed you to switch off trophy notifications via the System Settings menu.
Grasshopper Manufacture “heavily relying” on Unreal Engine 4
19 JunKilelr is Dead and Lollipop Chainsaw developer Grasshopper Manufacture is super keen on Unreal Engine 4, thanks to its cross-platform capabilities.
Speaking to Joystiq, studio boss Goichi Suda said the Epic suite is perfect for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
“As a developer, we’re heavily relying right now on Unreal Engine 4. That works really well with both systems – or in the sense that we could go either way,” he said.
You can expect Grasshopper to use the engine in future whenever “it’s a big title, or if it’s suited to that title”, he added.
But what is Grasshopper using Unreal for right now? Not the upcoming Killer is Dead, which hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August, but the game after that, which the developer has already dropped a few teases about.
When the project was first discussed, Grasshopper hadn’t made up its mind what platforms the game would be coming to, but this new comment certainly suggests a next-gen launch is likely.
It’s due in 2014, and will be an action title – Grasshopper’s forté – but apart from that we know very little. Suda has said it will be unique, which isn’t surprising. It will be published by GungHo, which acquired the developer recently with its mad stacks of fat loot to the delight of both parties.
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara four pack available on Steam
19 JunYou can now pick up a four-pack of Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara on Steam for $45. The pack includes four complete bundles of the remastered Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara. Having a couple of extra games handy is a perfect way to entice a few mates into the drop-in, drop-out co-op, I guess.
Thanks,
Mass Effect, Dragon Age staff going to San Diego Comic Con
19 JunHit up the Dark Horse booth at San Diego Comic Con to check in with BioWare and view exclusive merchandise.
BioWare community manager Jessica Merizan will be in charge of the developer’s presence, guarding members of both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age development teams from your worshipful advances.
Mass Effect producer Mike Gamble, Dragon Age editor Ben Gelinas, and Dragon Age artist Nick Thornborrow will be in attendance along with a couple of special guests. You’ll be able to get autographs from Gelinas and Thornbarrow, who will be promoting the Dragon Age: The World of Thedas lore book.
If you’re a Mass Effect fan, you should swing by to check out the Bronze SR-1 Normandy; only 300 of these models are available, exclusively at the con, with a limit of two per customer. Visit the BioWare Blog for a better look at it.
San Diego Comic Con runs July 18 through 21.
Everquest 2 EU services transfer to ProSieben this week
19 JunSony Online Entertainment will transfer management of Everquest 2 in Europe across to ProSieben sometime this week.
The switch will occur “on or around” June 20, Sony Online Entertainment confirmed.
“We want to address up front the most common concern that players have had, which is server accessibility. SOE and ProSiebenSat.1 Games have determined that it is in the best interest of the players and the community to allow players to continue to play on any server regardless of where they live,” the publisher assured users.
“That means that European players will be able to play on U.S. servers and vice versa.”
An updated FAQ on the subject should answer any further concerns.
The switch to ProSieben raised quite a controversy when first announced, but Sony Online Entertainment was quick to address questions of forced switching, region locking and split communities.
Thanks, Massively.
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z isn’t just Ninja Gaiden meets Dead Rising
19 JunCreator Keiji Inafune feels zombie-slicing ninja title Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is more than just a natural blend of two established titles.
Speaking to Destructoid, Inafune said his experience as creator of Dead Rising is not necessarily an important factor on Yaiba’s development.
“Yaiba is not purposefully trying to be influenced from Dead Rising. They are both [my] games, so the zombies made for Dead Rising and the zombies that are here will of course have some similarities,” he said.
“But you can’t just cut zombies down and leave it at that. That’s not going to be a fun game. You have to think, okay, ninjas and zombies, put those together and see how do we make that fun. What kind of chemical reaction comes from that combination?”
As a spin-off to the Ninja Gaiden series, Yaiba must of course have some of the same DNA as its progenitor, but Inafune’s also determined to ensure his game is open to those who find Ninja gaiden a bit inaccessible.
“It should have a Ninja Gaiden feel to the combat, the kind of responsiveness of a Ninja Gaiden game, but this is not a main Ninja Gaiden game. Yaiba is its own thing, and we need to make it accessible to people who maybe come in for the zombie aspects,” he said.
“They like zombie games and they’re not used to the technical aspects of Ninja Gaiden. We need to be as open to those players as well so they don’t quit in two seconds. Once we have that, we can think about how to make a deeper combat system and offer those sort of technical challenges for people who want that as well.”
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z was developed by Spark Unlimited, and Inafune hopes it will show Japanese gamers that western developers can make fun games. It’s due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2014; we finally got to see some gameplay recently.
3DS colours limited by western retail approach
19 JunNintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has blamed North American retail practices for the relative lack of variety in 3DS and 3DS XL colours.
“It really comes down to the nuts and bolts of how we manage our SKUs at retail, and how we do it in a way that’s effective for us and effective for our business partners,” Fils-Aime told IGN.
“You’ve visited retail in Japan. One of the key differences in Japan is that the hardware is that it’s behind the counter. It’s not out and about. So in that type of construct, you can have a lot of inventory behind the counter. It’s a lot easier to support multiple colors.
“In our [North American] market, it’s all out there on the shelf. When you visit our retail, if I had to try to have 25 different SKUs out there, Wal-Mart would kill me. So what that means is that we have to be more selective and more knowledgeable in how we handle different SKUs.”
There are currently only three colours of 3DS available in the US and Canada and three of 3DS XL, but many more in Europe, Australiasia and Japan. Fils-Aime said Nintendo of America is introducing more variety to its range by backing limited editions.
“We are taking a page out of the Japanese playbook with these very limited-edition unique hardware options,” he said.
“We started with Fire Emblem. We did Pikachu. Now, obviously, Animal Crossing. What we’re seeing is that if we do this right, we can have a more limited quantity, have it sell through in a fairly short period of time, and use that as a way to satisfy the consumer’s desires to have a range of different SKUs and some special hardware.”
Youkai Watch video demonstrates battles, ghost hunting
19 JunHere’s a new video showing off the battle system and exploration in Level-5′s new 3DS game, Youkai Watch. We have no idea if this is coming west yet, but Steph and I are basically in raptures over every video of it so you can bet we’re gonna post ‘em.
I have no idea what’s going on in this trailer but Siliconera has a handy summary. You play as either Keita Amano or Fumika Kodama, residents of Sakura New Town with the rare ability to interact with creatures from Japanese folklore.
The town is freely explorable and players can spot youkai anywhere thanks to the titular device, a Youkai Watch. Some will be quite difficult to find, but if you get tired of looking for them you can seek out bugs or fish instead. Um.
Once you find a youkai you’ll have to capture it in a touchscreen battle system; one pretty neat battle gimmick is turning the 3DS to spot enemies creeping up to ambush you.
Youkai watch is coming to 3DS in Japan on July 11.
Escape Goat 2 will have joined rooms, new puzzle components
19 JunEscape Goat 2 will allow players to move back and forth between multiple single-screen rooms as they solve new kinds of puzzles.
According to Destructoid, Escape Goat 2 moves the series beyoind single-screen, standalone puzzles to a Metroidvania-style sequential joined rooms map system.
Some rooms may have multiple exits, and some of them will not be accessible the first time you’re in there; you’ll sometimes have to wander back once you’ve obtained whatever you need to reach the next door.
There are also a couple of new gameplay features – surface physics and disappearing bocks – which players will have to contend with as they help our purple friend and his mouse companions escape the nefarious environments they find themselves trapped in.
A couple of new screenshots accompanied the information, which I have arranged pleasingly below to show off the visual upgrade of the sequel, which was announced in January. Expect Escape Goat 2 later this year.
Deadpool also includes an appearance from Rogue
19 JunActivision has detailed another guest character appearing in the upcoming Deadpool – everyone’s favourite X-men star, Rogue.
Obviously the “everyone” here is pretty much “me, and only if we don’t count Storm or Gambit” but writing intros isn’t as easy as it looks.
Rogue, whose in-game bio is detailed below, joins Wolverine, Cable, Mr. Sinister, Psylocke and Domino.
Deadpool is coming to PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next week.
Thanks,
Telekinesis and Telepathy in Stick it to the Man – Preview
19 JunAlongside the Puppeteer, where characters are made of wood and cloth, there was another, smaller title with a unique visual aesthetic based on materials: Stick it to the Man. It's a game in which all of the characters and objects are two dimensional and stickers play a big role in not only the visuals but also the gameplay. Your character, Ray, has woken up from a coma to find that he now has a weird pink arm coming out of his head that gives him several abilities. Ray can read people's thoughts with this new power, and he can also take ideas from people's heads and transplant them into the real world.
The demo was set in a loony bin, which probably means that Ray's revelations didn't go over well with his loved ones. Flicking the right analog stick at an object you can interact with will grab onto it. If you do this while holding the L or R button you'll read someone's thoughts. So the first thing I did was read the thoughts of my cell's guard, who was apparently really bored with the guard game. Next up I peeled off the wall of the cell next door to reveal a woman who was convinced she was a spider on the hunt. Specifically she was on the hunt for men with a fly face. That doesn't seem to be very common so I took the idea from her head and tossed it on the face of my guard buddy. Result? instant fly man. She took him away to do who knows what and I was free to roam the asylum.
At this point you basically have free reign. There are some orderlies around who will shock you if they see you but you'll just be remade at the nearest printer so it's really no big deal. Moving can be done swiftly using waypoints that appear as thumbtacks tacked into the background. Flick your arm towards them and you'll be instantly transported.
This is an excerpt from the full story which was originally featured on gamrReview, read the full version here - Telekinesis and Telepathy in Stick it to the Man - Preview
PlayStation boss pushing more “immediacy” for downloaded games
19 JunTop PlayStation executives are hoping the PlayStation 4′s emphasis on decreased download times will help digital game sales reach their full potential.
Speaking to Kotaku, vice president of hardware marketing John Koller saod Sony is “very bullish on digital”.
“One of the things we noticed through the progression of building the PlayStation 4 and now that we’ve announced it is that immediacy is a big problem in this industry. Digital is really harmed by that,” he said.
“The difference between an eight hour download and a 15-minute drive to retail – retail is winning that every time. Physical gaming will proliferate as long as that continues.”
Sony is working on a number of solutions, one of which is PlayGo, which allows you to start playing a game well before it has finished downloading. Koller said he expects digital game sales to grow “a lot more rapidly” thanks to this innovation.
Part of the motivation for this decision is the growing prevalence of mobile gaming despite the often wide quality gap with console games.
“When you play a game on tablet or mobile, you may not be playing the deep, rich immersive games you play on console, but you are immediately accessing that content. There’s not a lot of lag. So we looked at that,” he said.
“And, as we talked to gamers who were starting to say, ‘You know I love console gaming but tablets and mobile are engaging my time,’ we realized that as an industry we need to solve that. PlayGo was born of that. We said, ‘We need to make it easier for people to get into digital content, so that people don’t have to wait around.’”
PlayGo, Gaikai and other solutions will help “make things easier for people on an immediacy basis, as an industry”, Koller added.
“We need to make games more accessible,” he concluded.
Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida echoed Koller’s comments.
“The things we want to see change [is to have] more people embrace the digital side and have more people connect,” he said.
Star Wars: The Old Republic hosting double XP weekends
19 JunBioWare has announced a number of double XP weekends for Star Wars: The Old Republic to be held over northern summer.
Both regular and Legacy XP will be doubled during the time slots listed below, as per the game’s Everytimezone.com has you covered if you need to check when the event begins in your territory.
Just a reminder that The Old Republic offers a free-to-play option.
Gunpoint recovered development costs in 64 seconds
19 JunGunpoint developer Tom Francis has quit his job because he suddenly has an enormous pile of money and plenty of ideas of what to do with it.
In a developer post, Francis joked that the game had recouped development costs in the first 64 seconds after pre-orders opened – but as the only direct cost was the price of the Game Maker software he used to build it, that wasn’t hard.
But even when you factor the cost of time and expertise, Gunpoint is doing pretty well; Francis estimates it took just “a few hours” to earn back his investment.
During pre-order week, sales were on track to fulfil Francis’s dream of using Gunpoint as a showpiece to get him a job at a game developer – assuming the trend continued. Instead, it spiked hugely, so that he could not only quit his day job but also give up on finding a position in the industry, since he can now afford to strike out as a professional indie.
“I can now make games full-time for the foreseeable future. More amazingly, I can do it with total creative freedom,” he said.
“There’s really no pressure for my next thing to make a particular amount of money, so I can do whatever I think will be most exciting.”
It also means Francis can “afford to keep being nice; he doesn’t have to charge players before he has playable demos, for example.
One of the developer’s current goals is to port Gunpoint out of its Game Maker base to native Linux, Mac and PC clients, and he’s currently looking for someone to help with this task; hit the link above for more info if you think you qualify. He’s also planning to continue support for Gunpoint with a ton of new features.
Gunpoint released last week on Steam and via direct purchase. It’s an IGF-nominated 2D stealth game which Pat has been following avidly.
Battlefield 4 PC will be optimised for AMD components
18 JunThanks to the PC-like architecture found in next-gen consoles, the PC version Battlefield 4 will ship optimised for AMD components.
In a statement published on IGN, AMD said the fact that its components are also found in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One enables a relationship between DICE and the tech company to optimise the multi-platform Battlefield 4 for its parts.
“It makes sense that game developers would focus on AMD hardware with AMD hardware being the backbone of the next console generation,” the company said.
Earlier in the day, there had been talk of an exclusivity deal extending to all Frostbite games, but both AMD and EA denied this was the case.
“At this time, though, our relationship with DICE and EA is exclusively focused on Battlefield 4 and its performance optimizations for AMD CPUs, GPUs and APUs. Additionally, the AMD Gaming Evolved program undertakes no efforts to prevent our competition from optimizing for games before their release,” AMD said.
“DICE has a partnership with AMD specifically for Battlefield 4 on PC to showcase and optimize the game for AMD hardware,” an EA representative added.
“This does not exclude DICE from working with other partners to ensure players have a great experience across a wide set of PCs for all their titles.”
Battlefield 4 is due on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 at the end of October and early November, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release dates dependent on hardware launch.
Nvidia to license GPU tech to other companies
18 JunNvidia is planning to make its graphics tech available to smartphone and tablet manufacturers, putting it in competition with Qualcomm and opening the door to deals with Apple and Samsung.
CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told Reuters that Nvidia will license graphics cores and visual patents, helping it reach new markets and take advantage of smartphone and tablet demand in ways it can’t do just shilling its own chips and devices like the Shield.
“The bottom line is the world has changed and we’re expanding our business model to serve markets that we historically could not serve by selling chips alone,” he said.
“We will target customers where their capacity and desire to build their own application processors is great. This is a way for us to engage customers who don’t like to buy chips because they like to create their own, because they have the capacity, creativity and now the scale to build their own,” he added.
Currently, the majority of smartphone and tablet manufacturers use Qualcomm parts, while Apple and Samsung produce many of their own components. Apple also utilises graphics tech from Imagination Technologies, a UK-based rival partially owned by Apple and Intel.
Nvidia’s Tegra mobile processor is considered pretty top-notch, but very few devices use it at present. The expansion of Nvidia tech to other devices could give mobile gaming graphics a substantial boost.
Max Payne 3 arrives on Mac this week
18 JunInstall Max Payne 3 on your office’s designated PhotoShop box and shoot faces while pretending to be designing logos.
According to a tweet from Rockstar, the Mac version of Max Payne 3 launches on thursday June 20.
The brief announcement made no mention of whether the DLC released since Max Payne 3 hit other platforms will be included or made available separately; we’re waiting on a press release for further information.
Max Payne 3 is also available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The minimum system requirements for the OS-X version are as follows:
- OS: Mac OS X 10.7.5 Lion
- Intel Dual Core Xeon / Core i Series 2.4 GHZ or greater
- 4GB System RAM
- NVIDIA® 8800GT 512MB VRAM or AMD Radeon HD 4870 512 VRAM
- HDD Space: 35GB
Thanks, Joystiq.
PS4 first-party games to RRP at $59.99
18 JunSony has confirmed that first-party PlayStation 4 games will retail at $59.99, the same price as new PlayStation 3 releases.
“We have announced the pricing for our first party line up of PS4 launch and launch window games,” a Sony representative told ShackNews.
“All four titles, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub, Knack, and InFamous Second Son are all $59.99.”
Naturally this doesn’t confirm prices for third-party titles as publishers are free to aim higher if they choose, but it’s a good indication that Sony doesn’t expect them to do so.
Microsoft has also set a $59.99 price point for first-party Xbox One games.
The PlayStation 4 is expected to launch before the end of the year and although no further titles have been confirmed for the launch period there are a large number of cross-gen games slated for release from october through December and beyond.
Just as an aside, InFamous: Second Son is the only game on Sony’s list which will not be available on launch day; it’s expected in early 2014. Also, DriveClub will be free to all PlayStation Plus subscribers, and as you need a Plus subscription to play online on playStation 4, that’s probably going to be everybody.
Thanks, OPM.
EverQuest Next confirmed as official title of new MMORPG
18 JunEverQuest franchise diector Dave Georgeson has confirmed on Twitter that the next EverQuest game is officially titled EverQuest Next. The game was announced under the same moniker way back in 2010, but it was described as a working title only. We’ve heard very little since, although Massively reports development was completely rebooted at least once, so don’t hold your breath; that said, there are hints we may see it this year.
EverQuest Next confirmed as official title of new MMORPG
18 JunEverQuest franchise diector Dave Georgeson has confirmed on Twitter that the next EverQuest game is officially titled EverQuest Next. The game was announced under the same moniker way back in 2010, but it was described as a working title only. We’ve heard very little since, although Massively reports development was completely rebooted at least once, so don’t hold your breath; that said, there are hints we may see it this year.
Space Nomads alpha demo available now
18 JunLoading Studios has released an early demo of its in-development, first-person tower defence effort, Space Nomads. You can download the demo from the game’s newly launched Indiegogo campaign, which is after CAD $60,000. Be aware that it is probably far from representative of the finished product, but if it takes your fancy the indie is offering a number of incentives to help out with the Linux, Mac and PC title.
AI War fifth expansion out now, four year anniversary edition available
18 JunArcen Games is celebrating the fourth anniversay of its cult classic AI War: Fleet Command with an all-new DLC expansion and a special bundle edition with all the content release to date.
Arcen is throwing a huge sale to celebrate the anniversary, with discounts on Steam, GamersGate and its own storefront.
The entire AI Wars franchise is on sale if you want to complete your collection, or go for broke and pick up the full game and all expansions for 60% off.
For those who already have the rest, the new expansion Vengeance of the Machine is 10% off on its own. The new expansion adds a bunch of new tools with which the villainous AI can crush its puny human foes, among other new content:
- Eight new AI types, from the honorable “Chivalric” which refuses to harass your Advanced Factories and other irreplaceables to the bleedingly-hard “Vicious Exotic” which eschews normal waves in favor of hammering you with massive Exogalactic Attacks.
- Two new Map styles: Wheel and Honeycomb.
- Six new Bonus Ship Types, from the modular Protector Starship to the hilarious “space dock artillery cannon” Neinzul Railpod.
- Two new optional AI Plots: Hunter (which brings the AI’s Special Forces from strong to nightmarish) and Shark.
- Five new Core Guard Posts to defend the AI homeworlds.
- Seven new Guardian types to add variety to the AI’s heavier units.
- 28 new achievements.
- More awesome music from Pablo Vega.
Now at version 7.0, AI War is available on Mac and PC and launched in 2009, winning over fans with its unusually intelligent AI opponents; ongoing post-launch support;strong player base and unusual strategy gameplay. It’s one of Arcen Games’ most successful and popular products.
Steel Diver to be resurrected as Nintendo’s first F2P release
18 JunNintendo’s very first free-to-play title will be a multiplayer affair based on Steel Diver, the 3DS submarine sim.
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the news with Polygon.
Steel Diver to be resurrected as Nintendo’s first F2P release
18 JunNintendo’s very first free-to-play title will be a multiplayer affair based on Steel Diver, the 3DS submarine sim.
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the news with Polygon.