After disappearing from PlayStation Stores in other regions overnight, the playable teaser for Silent Hills, PT, is now gone from PSN in North America. Despite this, the game remains playable for those who downloaded it in time and, just as importantly, it can be deleted and re-downloaded if need be.
I just ran through the process myself, deleting the game while worrying that it would be gone for good. The deletion screen is accompanied by the standard text explaining that it can be downloaded again from the Library section. It's possible that would prove to be untrue given the unusual circumstances at work here, but after going through with the deletion, I was able to find PT listed in my Library and begin downloading it again like anything else.
PT arrived on the PlayStation Store last August as a surprise during Gamescom. It was believed to be a demo of a new horror game, but playing it through to completion (no easy feat at the time) revealed it to be a teaser for a new Silent Hill game called Silent Hills. It was to be a collaboration between Kojima and film director Guillermo del Toro, and would star Norman Reedus of Walking Dead fame.
Today is April 30, the last day of the month, and that means Xbox Live Gold members have just hours left to claim their Games With Gold freebies for April.
You don't need to own either system in order to add the games to your account. You can claim them through the SmartGlass app, Xbox.com, or on the systems themselves--Xbox One games can even be claimed from a 360 as of last month.
As with all Games With Gold games, the 360 titles are yours to keep forever, while the One games will remain playable as long as you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
The Internet Archive has more than 2,000 classic MS-DOS games preserved on its website, and it appears that every one of them can be embedded into a tweet so that they're playable right on Twitter.
It's unclear when this feature was added, but Wired has discovered that it not only works, but you can then embed tweets (as I've done below) so that these games are playable on other websites.
These games are presented just as they were when they were released. That includes the draconian DRM that a game called Stunt Driver included where you're presented with a "Course Quiz" that asks you to look up information in its paper manual. That's something that proved to be a problem for me when I loaned someone the manual as a kid and never got it back. Fortunately, as pointed out in the comments on the Internet Archive, that manual is now available online (PDF), and I can get back to playing after two-plus decades.
Due to violent protests in Baltimore, Orioles games earlier this week were forced to be postponed. Rather than continue to push a game against the Chicago White Sox back, the teams instead made Major League Baseball history on Wednesday by playing in an empty stadium--something that MLB 15: The Show recreates when playing that particular game.
Image credit: PastapadreImage credit: USATSI
As noted on Reddit and Pastapadre, choosing to play the April 29 game between the Orioles and White Sox causes the entire 45,000-seat stadium to be emptied (save for a few small areas that presumably can't be tweaked on the fly). The game ordinarily offers crowds of different sizes depending on various factors, but the pendulum never swings so far as to have no one in attendance.
Aside from the size of the crowd, the MLB 15 game plays out as any other would. The same was largely true of the real-life version, which still saw "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" played and the official attendance of zero announced to the nonexistent audience, according to the New York Times. You can see what the scene looked like in the image to the right.
Watch as Trevor (of course it's Trevor) performs all manner of crazy stunts that Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O would get killed attempting if they tried them in real life. Abstract Mode is using an invincibility cheat here, too, so that's why Trevor doesn't die when he gets blindsided by a bus or mauled by a mountain lion.
This video is just the latest example that speaks to the creativity of the GTA V community. Check out the stories below to see some other epic creations.
GTA V was released for PC on Tuesday, April 14, quickly becoming the most played non-Valve game published on Steam, with more than 300,000 people playing the game simultaneously. Following the game's release, some fans reported that their Social Club accounts had been hijacked, but Rockstar maintains that the online service has not been compromised.
GameSpot's GTA V PC review praised the game's improved visuals and frame rate.
Glu Mobile, the San Francisco-based developer behind the wildly popular Kim Kardashian mobile game, has announced a partnership with the pop singer for new title. As part of the agreement, a five-year deal with an option for a three-year extension, Glu gets access to Spears' voice and likeness.
Spears will retain some level of "creative influence" over the game, however, Glu said.
The new Britney Spears game will let players "interact with Britney and experience the glitz and glamour of the entertainment business." The game is expected to launch worldwide for mobile devices in the first half of 2016.
Spears is one of the music industry's best-known pop singers and has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide to date. She has 39 million Facebook fans and 41.7 million Twitter followers. So it's not difficult to understand why Glu thinks a mobile game featuring her would be potentially lucrative.
More details about the new Britney Spears game will be announced later.
Earlier this year at the Game Developers Conference, I spoke with Redacted Studios president David Robinson about the upcoming Afro Samurai 2. It was a lengthy conversation, in part because I enjoyed the original Afro Samurai (the Howard Drossin-penned and RZA-inspired soundtrack is particularly delightful), and in part because the stories behind Afro Samurai's development and its sequel were too fascinating to pull away from. At one time, Robinson was a rescuer of sorts, a producer who took troubled projects like Afro and Splatterhouse and wove their fraying threads into working entertainment. Now, he's leading a new studio to potential prosperity after successfully lobbying to continue the Afro Samurai story...and after retrieving art assets meant for the original that would have otherwise been ignored, never to be seen and enjoyed by anyone outside of the developers that created them.
I caught up with Robinson again recently to see if sequel was taking shape, and as it turns out, Redacted has ended up rebuilding more than it potentially bargained for. "As an indie developer, with fewer than 10 people on the new game, all asset development comes at a premium, so the thought was that we would be able to use some of the original assets," says Robinson. "But as it turns out, we have literally rebuilt almost all of the game just to make sure it fits in with the next-gen feel. Early on, it seemed that we were going to be able to reuse a lot of the assets, but after working with the Unity 5 engine for a while, we learned that it would be better to raise the bar."
The catalyst for this change of approach wasn't Afro Samurai at all, but another developer's success with a similar art style. Says Robinson, "When we had a game like Borderlands borrowing from our style and moving it forward, it made us realize that what we created with the first game worked well, so then we just had to upgrade the look since graphics power across all devices has made amazing progress since we first released. Even on the character side, we found we had to re-create or considerably upgrade most of the assets. It makes it easier to have assets to copy, but in the end, it's never as easy as you think it's going to be. Shaders and lighting in next gen have required us to work hard to recapture the amazing cel-shaded look that the first Afro game pioneered."
The visuals aren't the only element to undergo a sea change. The original Afro Samurai allows you to slow the pace and use an analog stick to slice through enemies at any angle. When I first saw the sequel in action, it seemed that the game had removed the skill entirely, relying instead on swordplay styles you can switch between at any time. Targeted slow-motion strikes haven't been removed, however: they have simply been recontextualized in a way that, in Robinson's eyes, should welcome a broader audience.
I wasn't a fan of Unity before I became an indie. Now, it's literally the oxygen we breathe.
David Robinson
"We changed the game fundamentally to allow more of the fans of the [manga/anime] series to be a part of the new game and every aspect of it," says Robinson. "We took a long hard look at all the consumer and press comments from the first Afro Samurai game to see what we needed to improve. One key message we took away from this was the fact that the game controls were just too 'hardcore' focused. This kind of struck me, since I consider myself a hardcore type gamer. I have lots of friends who just aren't crazy Street Fighter fans, but love Afro. Our biggest challenge therefore was how to make the game controls feel good to the existing gaming fan community while making them a little more accessible to new fans. So we have been developing a system that can satisfy both types of gamers and that at the end of the day will make both sets feel badass as they execute on that final finishing move."
"However," continues Robinson, "We haven't abandoned the slicing systems. Far from it: We've expanded on it and enveloped new ways to exploit it but across a world of new characters and storylines. It's an integral part of the Afro branch of the new styles system. As you get closer to gaining true Afro-ness in your upgrade tree in this game, you will be able to slice just like in the old game."
As it happens, the original Afro Samurai was originally meant to have multiple combat styles, along with, as Robinson puts it, "a billion other things" that were designed for the game but never made it into the final release. How does this system in Afro Samurai 2 work? According to Robinson, "Each time you take down a new boss or you go through a major story element you'll be able to add that combat chip to your combat wheel, so basically the player learns all these new combat moves and adds it to their combat inventory. All these new character styles and moves can be upgraded, similar to what you'll find in an RPG. This means that the player can add new moves, animations, capabilities, on a per chip basis. For example, the Afro Style, once upgraded, will allow you to perform the old afro slice. The new Kuma style approaches slice in its own way. In each volume, your character will upgrade its combat style until eventually you will be able to do amazing things with all the abilities you've picked up and learnt to master. This will give the game the depth and staying power an episodic game needs. Players will pick up and learn new combat moves as the game progresses until they will see the ultimate version of their characters."
There's a key word above you might have missed: "volume." Afro Samurai 2 will be released in installments, an episodic approach we associate with story-based games like those that Telltale makes, but typically not with hack-and-slash action extravaganzas. But it makes sense when you consider Afro Samurai's manga and anime roots; Why wouldn't an associated game also be serialized? Robinson tells me that this approach allows each episode to have its own feel, while giving the overall arc a clear beginning, middle, and end. "From a franchise perspective we want to engender to the fans that each volume will feel different from the last," says Robinson. "We want them to feel that the ride we take them on will get wilder and wilder each time. We have some pretty cool surprises in store for the fans, and being episodic allows us the flexibility with development to experiment more with some crazy ideas, changing up the flow every few months with fresh content."
Being a small team, we have to pick our battles and pray the middleware providers have their collective shit together.
David Robinson
All this is being done without the financial backing of a giant publisher like Namco Bandai, though games publisher Versus Evil has partnered with Redacted to bring Afro Samurai 2 to PC and current consoles. Every new idea is a make-or-break moment for the studio, which doesn't have the $10M budget of the original Afro Samurai. Money has not been the only challenge Redacted has faced, however.
"With no large publisher to back the team's technology plan long term, we had to adapt Afro to use [popular game engine] Unity," says Robinson. "And that posed huge challenges. We had to get features and shaders unique to the Afro franchise to work in an engine that simply wasn't cut out for it. In that regard we have found ourselves right back where we started from on the first Afro, developing tech and features on a brand new engine under huge time and budget constraints with no safety net. As far as I know, we are one of the first teams that will be shipping [a] next-gen [game] on Unity 5. It's tough to be the first ones. There are never handrails where you need them, and being a small team, we have to pick our battles and pray the middleware providers have their collective shit together."
Being episodic allows us the flexibility with development to experiment more with some crazy ideas.
David Robinson
Unity has been the team's saving grace; Afro Samurai 2 is being made by less than a dozen people working on a shoestring budget, so utilizing every potential resource is vital. Says Robinson, "That's where the Unity Store has also been a lifesaver for us. It's cool. We sell some bottles and cans we collected from the neighbor's trash, and boom! We can afford that plugin that saves us three weeks' programmer time we didn't have in the first place. I wasn't a fan of Unity before I became an indie. Now, it's literally the oxygen we breathe. No shit. Pardon my language. Engines make me emotional."
Robinson is an emotional guy in general, actually, clearly excited by his game, his studio, and the partnerships he's created. Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA is again on board as Music Director; American Sniper co-author Jim DeFelice is penning the story. I haven't yet played Afro Samurai 2 myself, save for a few moments of button-mashing at GDC. But when a designer is this enthusiastic, the joy is contagious. "What carries us is the passion for making games and telling stories we think fans want to see, play, and hopefully buy," says Robinson. From almost anyone else, I'd dismiss this statement as typical public-relations-speak. When Robinson says it, I wholeheartedly believe it.
Yet another big-name 2015 game is shifting to 2016.
Deep Silver on Thursday announced that its open-world zombie game Dead Island 2 has been delayed out of 2015 and into next year. The reason? Deep Silver wants to make a game that's true to their vision. This process is taking longer than previously expected.
"We have always set ourselves a big goal for Dead Island 2: to create the sequel that takes Dead Island to the next level. A game that takes what our fans tell us they love about Dead Island--multiple different characters to play with, co-op, and turning a paradise setting into a zombie slaughter melee--and a game that adds a ton more content and combat options on top of that," the studio said on Twitter.
"And we wanted to have all of that that done for release in spring 2015. We have been looking at the game long and hard, and we have decided we didn't reach that goal we set out to achieve quite yet. This is why we have decided to delay Dead Island 2 to 2016."
"Right now we are focusing purely on development, and we will have more info to share at a later stage. We know that our fans will be disappointed by this news, but by giving Dead Island 2 more time we are confident that everyone will get a better game to play as a result."
The game will feature melee combat, role-playing game elements, and "never-before-seen" handcrafted weapons, according to Deep Silver. In Dead Island 2, which is powered by Unreal Engine 4, you'll visit places like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Venice Beach.
There's also "seamless" multiplayer for up to eight players. You can "cooperate, compete, or simply coexist," Deep Silver says. It's all part of this "new-gen multiplayer experience." Finally, Dead Island 2 features a handful of dedicated classes that offer unique gameplay, including the action-focused Berserker and the stealth Hunter.
For a closer look at Dead Island 2, check out the images in the gallery at the bottom of this post.
In addition to the regular conferences from Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts (as well as Bethesda and Square Enix), there will be a new PC-focused press briefing, organizers announced today.
The first-ever "PC Gaming Show" will be held Tuesday, June 16 at 5 PM PDT. It's being put on by chip-maker AMD and PC Gamer magazine and will be held at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles.
You'll be able to watch it live on Twitch.
"The time is right for a PC-focused event in the week of E3 and we're honored to be part of bringing the industry together," AMD executive Matt Skynner said in the announcement.
The PC Gaming Show will be hosted by eSports figure Sean "Day[9]" Plott. Below is a list of confirmed attendees and speakers, while more will be announced later.
Evolve players on PlayStation 4 and PC are getting two free maps today for the monster-hunting game, 2K Games and Turtle Rock Studios have announced. The maps are Broken Hill Mine and Broken Hill Foundry.
They were released for Xbox One last month by way of an exclusivity deal with Microsoft.
Broken Hill Mine is set in the mining caves under the planet Shear, while Broken Hill Foundry takes place in a "fully industrial setting that has you sprinting down factory corridors."
In addition, both maps add new campaign effects for Evolve's Evacuation mode. They should arrive today on PS4 and PC before 8 PM EDT, Turtle Rock said.
Turtle Rock has also announced the next Evolve community challenge. If the the entire community can tally 2 million headshots on Monsters while playing as Parnell this weekend, everyone will receive the Parnell Predator Skin for free. If the community over-achieves and lands 2.8 million headshots this weekend, everyone will get the entire Assault Predator Skin Set.
The Evolve weekend challenge begins at 12:01 AM EDT on Friday, May 1, and runs through 12:01 AM EDT on Monday, May 4. If successful, the free DLC packs will be delivered to players by Thursday, May 7.
For a closer look at the new Evolve maps and community challenge DLC, check out the images in the gallery below.
Looking for something to hold you over until Jurassic World hits theaters on June 12?
Mobile developer Ludia (Jurassic Park Builder) has released a free game based on the upcoming movie exclusively for iOS devices. The game was developed through a partnership with Universal and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment,
Jurassic World: The Game takes players to Isla Nublar and follows the movie's lead characters, including Owen and Claire. You'll hatch, grow, and evolve more than 50 dinosaurs and then take them to battle in a head-to-head arena.
As you can see in the images in this post, the game also features buildings and landscapes inspired by the movie. In addition to hatching dinos, you'll construct and upgrade these buildings and environments, while also interacting with additional characters (Henry Ru, for example) to take on new missions.
Jurassic World: The Game also supports the Hasbro Brawlasaurus toys--you can scan a toy dinosaur and then battle with it in the game. Head to the iTunes store to download the game; there's no word on an Android or Windows Phone version.
Not interested in mobile games? LEGO: Jurassic World is currently in development for console and PC ahead of its launch in June alongside the movie.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the first entry in the Black Ops franchise developed under Activision's new three-year production cycle for the series. In announcing this plan last year, the publisher said it would allow development teams more time to try out ideas and have the freedom to iterate on them to make a better game overall. And that's exactly what's been the case for Black Ops III, developer Treyarch says.
Speaking with Game Informer, Black Ops III multiplayer director Dan Bunting said the game's new Titanfall-like movement abilities might not have made it into the game if Treyarch only had two years on the project.
"In the two-year development cycles, the kinds of risks we're taking right now, we wouldn't be able to do with just two years because it needs so much iteration," Bunting explained. "[We iterated on the first set of multiplayer maps for] a year. That's three maps we were working on and each one was constructed in a different way so that we could learn how the different map shapes and the different ways that you pace combat felt differently with the different moving mechanics as they came in."
Bunting went on to say that Black Ops III's new Specialists system for multiplayer was another feature that Treyarch had time to include thanks to the extra year of development.
"Before there was the Pick 10 in Black Ops II, we were going down the path of starting to do character archetypes, which we had dabbled in with every single game before that," Bunting said. "This time, having the three-year cycle was a place and time where we actually had the time to flesh that out."
Game Informer's interview is well worth a read, as it covers other topics like Black Ops III's futuristic setting, its new four-player co-op campaign, and lots more.
Speaking about Call of Duty's new three-year, three-studio schedule back in August 2014, Activision Publishing CEO Erich Hirshberg said the setup gives developers the "freedom to fail."
This one focuses on the game's ragdoll physics. This mod allows characters to enter ragdoll at any time during the game's many cutscenes. As you can see in the video below, this leads to some rather funny encounters that Rockstar probably never envisioned when creating the game in the first place.
GTA V for PC doesn't officially support mods, but clearly that has not stopped fans from creating them. We can only imagine what creative fans will come up with next.
GTA V was released for PC on Tuesday, April 14, quickly becoming the most played non-Valve game published on Steam, with more than 300,000 people playing the game simultaneously. Following the game's release, some fans reported that their Social Club accounts had been hijacked, but Rockstar maintains that the online service has not been compromised.
GameSpot's GTA V PC review praised the game's improved visuals and frame rate.
"It looked great on PS4 and Xbox One, but GTA V shines on PC thanks to 4K-grade textures, the availability of additional post-processing effects, and an unlocked frame rate," reviewer Peter Brown said. "Previous versions of the game played just fine at 30 frames per second, but you quickly appreciate the added fluidity of playing at 60 FPS (if not more) on PC."
Watch the video below to see elders' reactions to the game's vicious and brutal finishing moves. We've also collected some of the best quotes below the video.
"I don't like the blood shooting out of the head; that's gory."
"That's gotta hurt!"
"That's disgusting; that should be illegal."
"Eww, I don't want to watch this."
"I guess they're always pushing boundaries. It's just like Saw. How many creative ways can we torture and kill someone?"
"No, I can't watch this."
"Gonna need some dental work there."
"I bet the people playing this don't even understand the reference; the 'Here's Johnny' reference."
"I think that's absolutely horrible; shame on whoever put that out. Shame."
"Don't do that! You don't eat the face! Come on."
"Here are these incredibly creative people, these are people who could change the world. And I go, 'Why are you putting your energy into really gratuitous and obscene violence?"
Jagex's new multiplayer FPS Block N Load, an intriguing-looking 5v5 game that combines elements of Minecraft and Team Fortress 2, is now available for PC on Steam. The game was previously available by way of a beta, but today, April 30, marks its official release
Block N Load normally sells for $15, but to celebrate the game's official release, Jagex is offering it to everyone for free this weekend only as part of a Steam Free Weekend promotion. Jagex has also rolled out a launch-week sale that marks the game down by 15 percent to $12.74.
Six Block N Load characters are available out of the gate, each of which have different skills and attributes. Check out the Block N Load launch trailer above to see these unique characters in action.
Block N Load's maps are anything but static, as players can use the game's building tools to shape the world around them. Jagex says this means no two matches will ever be the same. For lots more on Block N Load, check out GameSpot's in-depth hands-on preview in the video below.
"We've tried to do something different with Block N Load. We wanted to make a game where building is as important as bullets, smarts are as important as skills, and players could contribute to their team in their way," Block N Load vice president David Solari said in a statement. "We can't wait to see the creativity and invention of those that play Block N Load now that it's live. Today's launch is only the beginning. We have a player-first mentality, and look forward to an exciting journey with the players as the game evolves."
Microsoft has already teased that its E3 showing this year will be anything but traditional. Now, the company has confirmed that it's bringing its VR/AR headset technology HoloLens to the show.
Writing on the new HoloLens website, Microsoft said: "Holographic computing promises whole new ways for us to create, collaborate, work, and play. We look forward to showing and telling you more at E3, the world's premier trade show for computer and video games and related products."
Microsoft didn't say if HoloLens would make an appearance during Microsoft's E3 briefing itself or if the headset would be usable at the company's booth on the show floor. But both scenarios seems likely.
E3 2015 runs June 16-18 in Los Angeles, though Microsoft's briefing is expected to take place on Monday, June 15. GameSpot will be reporting live from the show all week long.
Microsoft has also launched a new YouTube channel for HoloLens, featuring a handful of videos about the futuristic technology, one of which is embedded above.
Nintendo has announced the next Nintendo Direct video briefing.
Scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 7, at 7 AM PDT, this livestream event will focus on the company's upcoming family-friendly Wii U shooter Splatoon.
On-hand during the event to talk about the game will be Nintendo's "expert team of scientists at the Squid Research Lab" (not a real lab).
Nintendo didn't provide any specifics about what it will show or announce during the event, saying only that viewers can expect all manner of "squid-tastic action." One thing you can bet on is Nintendo developers making a lot of squid puns.
You'll be able to watch the livestream right here on GameSpot.
As spotted by Videogamer, a Ubisoft senior gameplay programmer has listed Watch Dogs 2 on their LinkedIn profile. This person also worked on the original Watch Dogs and its expansion, Bad Blood.
However, this resume--which has since been scrubbed clean of any mention of Watch Dogs 2--doesn't provide any additional information about the game, like when it might be released or on which platforms.
Ubisoft declined to comment.
If Watch Dogs 2 is indeed in development, one venue where Ubisoft might announce it is E3. The publisher has not announced its plans for this year's show yet, but it typically holds its press conference on the Tuesday of E3 week, which would be June 16. GameSpot will be reporting live from Los Angeles all week.
By Rob Crossley on Apr 30, 2015 03:09 pm Nearly 15 million PS4s have sold around the world since April 2014
Sony's games division has recorded $404 million operating profit during the twelve months following April 2014.
The upbeat financial results were in part due to strong PlayStation 4 sales, which reached 14.8 million units worldwide during the twelve-month period. Sony expects these numbers will accelerate upwards, predicting 16 million more PS4 units sold in the twelve months from April 2015.
However, its portable division, which includes the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV, continued to slide. Sales fell to 3.3 million for the financial year, down from 4.1 million the year prior. PlayStation 3 hardware and software sales also continued to decline.
Sony noted that the strong overall performance for its PlayStation division was also due to a "significant" increase in network revenue, as well as robust game software sales.
Encompassing all its business performances, from photography to phones, the wider Sony corporation announced a $576 million profit, a figure up 159 percent year-on-year.
This year's earnings mark Sony's biggest annual operating profit in the past seven years, a dour period for the company, in which it had to revise its income projections downwards on fifteen separate occasions.
More promising news for investors came from Sony's FY15/16 projections, with the company expecting its profits to quadruple over the next twelve months.
Konami has not elaborated on why P.T. was removed from the store, which happened amidst a reported power struggle between the publisher and developer Hideo Kojima, who was directing Silent Hills. Director Guillermo del Toro and actor Norman Reedus were also involved with the game. Although Silent Hills has been cancelled, Konami stated that it remained "committed to new Silent Hill titles."
Microsoft is setting its sights on a major milestone for Windows 10. The company said today during its Build conference in San Francisco that it's aiming to have 1 billion devices running the new OS by 2018.
"Within two to three years of Windows 10's release, there will be 1 billion devices running Windows 10," Microsoft VP Terry Myerson said during the keynote address, as reported by GameSpot sister site CNET.
For lots more on everything announced at Build, be sure to read CNET's extended coverage. The event runs through Friday, so keep checking back for even more news from the show.
Payday developer Overkill Software's cooperative first-person shooter based on The Walking Dead will release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, the developer's parent company Starbreeze has announced.
505 Games will publish the shooter, giving Starbreeze for a $10 million licensing fee and royalties on console sales.
"We believe that 'Overkill's The Walking Dead,' represents a huge opportunity to duplicate, even eclipse the success Payday 2 has enjoyed in the last few years by leveraging the existing business relationship between our two companies," CEO of 505's parent company Digital Bros Raphael Galante said in a statement.
The developer previously said Overkill's The Walking Dead will deliver a "completely new co-op experience" to the Walking Dead universe that will explore new characters and storylines. The game is being made with the blessing of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who says he was certain from the first day he saw the project that it was the "co-op action game fans have been waiting for." It is also the result of a new "long-term" partnership between Starbreeze and Kirkman's Skybound Interactive company. This partnership will extend "into the next decade" and marks a new era for Starbreeze, the company said.
Our friends over at Giant Bomb are hosting the live streaming extravaganza The Big Live Live Show Live right now! And you should check it out, because they're all pretty great guys doing funny things.
That video above, it's just the trailer, don't worry. The actual show is right here and it's guaranteed to last longer than the trailer.
In addition to the roundup of super secret surprise guests, gaming shenanigans, and bad decisions involving various foodstuffs, there's also a sale on premium memberships and a new shirt.
The main stream will wrap up at 5:30 PM PST today, but it doesn't end quite then. You'll still have a chance to enjoy a few hours on the after party stream, which runs until 7:30 PM PST for 100 premium members.
During Microsoft's Build conference today in San Francisco, the company officially announced a partnership with Unity Technologies--maker of the Unity game engine--related to the exciting-looking HoloLens technology. The Unity game engine is one of the biggest in the business, powering popular games like HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft and Cities: Skylines, among many others.
As part of the deal, which Unity called an expansion of the two companies' "strategic collaboration," Microsoft and Unity are working together to offer an "optimal authoring solution" for HoloLens. This includes customized tools (anchoring holographic objects to specific places in the real world was one example) and other optimizations that Unity developers can use to create all manner of games and apps.
These new Unity tools for HoloLens will be available as part of the Unity Pro and Unity Personal packages for free, the company said.
"Expanding our relationship with Unity Technologies was a natural next step in bringing content to Microsoft HoloLens," Microsoft Xbox boss Yusuf Mehdi said in a statement. "We are very excited to unveil this partnership and look forward to the possibilities it will open for developers creating experiences for Microsoft HoloLens."
"I think good stories must have an ending," he said. "You cannot extend them indefinitely, and we felt that Geralt has had such an amazing adventure, and his saga is already so long and complex that this seemed like a good point to think about an appropriate finale for the story."
While Geralt "has reached the end of his journey," CD Projekt Red hasn't ruled out making more games in the series.
"The Witcher universe is a very big place with a lot of NPCs, a lot of characters, a lot of places we haven't shown yet," Szamałek explained. "So, we might return to it at some point…but we think that this is a good place to let Geralt enjoy his retirement and try something new."
Looking beyond The Witcher 3, which launches May 19 for consoles and PC, CD Projekt Red is also working on another RPG, Cyberpunk 2077. Little is known about this project, however.
The preorder bonus includes a Black Ops III Personalization Pack and two Advanced Supply Drops that give you the chance to get more Weapon Loot and Character Gear to customize your operator. Each contains three items including at least one weapon variant, at least one item of Professional rarity or better, and the chance to get some exclusive new gear. Keep in mind that the Advanced Supply Drops may include duplicates of weapon variants or Character Gear you already have and may include level-restricted items, but that you can also redeem these items for XP.
Everyone who pre-orders will gain entry to the Black Ops III multiplayer beta, which will be held on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. More details about the beta, like when it will start, will be announced later. If you preorder the game from GameStop, you'll get some content exclusive to the retailer.
