By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 11:45 pm
 Volume is a stealth game about being heard and committing crimes. Developer Mike Bithell stops by to give the GameSpot staff a quick look at this unique-stealth, puzzler.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 11:33 pm
Halo 5: Guardians will have packs of items, weapons, and skins for purchase, but items that have an effect on gameplay will not be allowed in Halo 5's arena multiplayer. REQ packs, according to the Halo Waypoint website, can be acquired via the in-game currency or by purchasing them with real-world money. These packs will give you access to armors and weapons as well as skins and animations. But to keep its 4v4, skill-based mode fair, developer 343 Industries is banning weapons and armor received in these packs from it. However, anything you get in a REQ pack will be usable in the game's newly announced Warzone multiplayer mode. According to the developer, "While players will earn REQ Packs across both Arena and Warzone, only cosmetic items can be used in our Arena experience. This is to ensure that all players start with the same weapons and abilities as part of our vision for the balanced, competitive play in Arena multiplayer." The developer goes on to explain that it wishes to provide a breadth of different play experiences in the big-team, MOBA-inspired Warzone mode. "Within Warzone, you'll have the ability to deploy a multitude of weapons and vehicles from your inventory of REQs throughout a match," 343i states. "These requisitions are governed and balanced by Warzone's in-match REQ Level and Energy systems, which are driven by player and team performance within the mode." The developer promises that the option to purchase the REQ packs exists only "as a matter of convenience." Additionally, money from the purchases will help fund the prize pool for the Halo Championship Series. Check back on GameSpot all this week for further news and previews about Halo 5: Guardians. The game launches on October 27 for the Xbox One.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 11:23 pm
 Check out the E3 2015 teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls Legends.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 10:51 pm
Fallout 4's graphics have been contentious since we saw the game's first trailer earlier this month. Now, the man in charge of the entire project has weighed in on the subject, stating that "graphics matter." During a panel presentation this week at E3 2015, game director Todd Howard was asked about how Bethesda Game Studios has leveraged the power of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for Fallout 4. Howard said better graphics help players to become more immersed in the virtual world in which they're playing. "I think with each of our games, the graphics [are] always going to move along," Howard said. "Not just the graphics, but memory is important to us. How much memory it has. If we make a world that has, not just more details, but more dynamic details that we can keep track of and stream in and load quicker, all of that suspends your disbelief that this is a real world."  "The graphics matter, they do matter in suspending your disbelief," he added. Also during the presentation, Howard was asked about the colorful world we saw in the Fallout 4 announcement trailer. Fallout being a post-apocalyptic series, seeing bright blue skies was something of a striking difference compared to Fallout 3, which was quite gray. "Looking back at Fallout 3, there is a sameness to the environment," Howard said. "It can be, if you're playing the game for an eight-hour stretch, a little depressing." Howard went on to stress that, while much of Fallout 4's world is bright and colorful, a section of the Fallout 4 map--where the bomb fell--will be a dark and dreary place, as you might expect. Fallout 4 launches in November for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. We learned a lot more about the game this week at E3; check out some of the big stories below.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 10:47 pm
The newly revealed Star Fox game for Wii U, Star Fox Zero, does not have an online component, according to producer Shigeru Miyamoto. Asked about any plans for online support in the game during a roundtable discussion at E3 this week, Miyamoto said, "No, there isn't." This is because Nintendo's focus is on other aspects of the game. "We're really prioritizing having smooth gameplay at 60 frames-per-second," he explained. "In previous Star Foxes, we had focused a lot on dogfighting, but here we're really focusing more on the single-player experience." It's unclear whether Zero offers any kind of multiplayer support at this point. And while Miyamoto was pretty clear about not having plans for an online component (which wouldn't necessarily have to be a multiplayer mode), he did suggest that this could change.      "Of course, as we continue on, as people get a feel for the game and the development process continues and we think it'd be really good, we'll definitely consider it," he added. "But right now we're not." Star Fox Zero, which is being co-developed by Platinum Games, was officially unveiled at Nintendo's E3 Digital Event on Tuesday morning. For more, check out our hands-on impressions.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 10:45 pm
 PC Gamers are in for a treat with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Take a look at the graphical techniques the Dawn Engine can utilize.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 10:17 pm
 Check out the dynamic and immersive world of Tom Clancy's The Division in this all-new gameplay walkthrough. Face off with enemy factions in the heart of Manhattan as you attempt to reclaim New York City and venture into the Dark Zone in search of epic loot.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 10:12 pm
The wildly successful Kickstarter for Yooka-Laylee, the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie made by former Rare staffers, is now over. The final tally? Just short of $3.3 million. Yooka-Laylee was first unveiled at the end of April, when developer Playtonic was asking for about $260,000 in crowdfunding. That target was surpassed in less than an hour, and it's gone on to become one of the most highly funded games in Kickstarter history. Due to raising so much more than its initial funding target, a number of stretch goals have been met that will see the game's scope expand greatly. These range from new multiplayer modes to an orchestral score to free DLC for backers. In addition to Kickstarter, Playtonic has been accepting backer funds through Paypal, which it will continue to do for now. This means the actual total that's been raised is higher than the $3.28 million Kickstarter lists, though keep in mind that figure doesn't factor in Kickstarter's cut (five percent) and payment processing fees. The last new Banjo-Kazooie game was the Xbox 360's Nuts & Bolts, which was somewhat of a departure from the earlier games. The only news involving Banjo was that Banjo-Kazooie, Tooie, and Nuts & Bolts will be included in the Rare Replay compilation coming to Xbox One.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 10:03 pm
 Greg and Colin get the latest from Cliff Bleszinksi about his game, studio, and industry insight. Also, he really likes CS:GO.
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 09:23 pm
The PlayStation 4 finally has a new media player that allows video, music, and pictures to be streamed from a PC or USB stick. The app--simply titled Media Player--is now available on PSN. If you browse through the PS4's content area, you'll find a Media Player tile that allows you to download it.     You can stream files off of a home server or a USB stick that you plug into the system. Many of the major file formats you'd hope for are supported, such as MKV, AVI, and MP4. A full list of supported formats follows below. PS4 Media Player Supported File Formats and CodecsVideoMKV - Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level 4.2
- Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
AVI - Visual: MPEG4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level 4.2
- Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
MP4 - Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level 4.2
- Audio: AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
MPEG-2 TS - Visual: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2, MPEG2 Visual
- Audio: MP2(MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), AAC LC, AC-3(Dolby Digital)
- AVCHD: (.m2ts, .mts)
Photo- JPEG (based on DCF 2.0/Exif 2.21)
- BMP
- PNG
Music
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 09:02 pm
King's Quest would like to tell you a story. It would like you to pull up a chair and listen to a tale of brave knights and loyal friends. It would like to enrapture you with a fairy tale so magical, you might actually believe it to be true. Of the many games I have seen in action at E3 2015, King's Quest is the one that planted a smile on my face and kept it there. How could it not? As Creative Director Matt Korba led a live demo of the upcoming episodic adventure game, I was drawn in by the beautiful environments, which are quite literally painted by hand and scanned into the game, lending it a special bedtime-story quality. I was drawn in by the incredible soundtrack--a soundtrack that would have made legendary Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling happy in the way every onscreen action was accompanied by musical onomatopoeia in the form of colorful staccato woodwind phrases and trombone glissandos. I was drawn in by the indelible voice cast, which includes Wallace Shawn (Vizzini in The Princess Bride), Richard White (Gaston from Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast), and the inimitable Christopher Lloyd, who should need no introduction. "It's a long story, but I shall tell it briefly," says the aging King Graham to his granddaughter Gwendolyn, with just enough of a wink to prepare you for the charms to come. King's Quest is structured as a story of old anew, the kind that the storyteller might embellish upon as the years pass. Indeed, this structure is exemplified in the way you can tell Gwendolyn it's a story of bravery, or a tale of friendship, regardless of how you play the fable out. ("Do as I say and not as I do," adults told me as a child, and it seems that philosophy is alive and well.) Once the story begins, however, grandparenting philosophies are temporarily forgotten: a younger Graham, seeking the location of a knightly competition in Daventry, alights from his trusty (and bizarre-looking) steed Triumph and proceeds to fall down a surprisingly lengthy incline, with musical cues emphasizing every bump and roll. According to Korba, the first chapter's script alone is about 600 pages long--about the entire length of Grim Fandango's. Much of that writing and voiceover is committed to flavor narration that occurs when Graham tries to combine inventory objects that can't be used together, or continues to use environmental objects over and over again. Consider these lines that the older Graham might intone if you try to go west when the game is clearly prodding you to go east. "After all that graceful rappelling, I was certainly not headed back that way!" "As I was saying, I followed the road to the east, and headed to the knight tournament." "Ahem. East!" "Suddenly, a gust of wind pushed me down the road, and I headed east!" This beautiful Kings Quest image was honored with an Into the Pixel award this week at E3 2015.That same gust of wind also pushes a fallen log into the way, blocking Graham's attempts to go the wrong way. What a small detail--and yet, what I saw during the demo proved that King's Quest thrives on these details. And when every line is so cleverly written and so charmingly performed, how can you not be taken in? Later comes a moment when Graham blows into what appears to be a summoning horn. What might the gangly, good-natured knight-in-training say if you continually interact with it? "That large horn seemed to be missing some sort of mouthpiece." "The horn was broken, but that didn't stop me from blowing on it." "Realizing a lot of people probably put their mouths on that horn, I was disgusted. I slowly backed away and never blew that horn again." The sequence next shown off in the demo was one I had seen earlier this year, but even so, I was enchanted by details I had either missed or forgotten. The group of guards barring the way to the tournament entrance, for instance, squabbled over how one of them might be mistaken for another--in spite of each guard looking like a clone of the others. I also fell in love with the way the mirror that figured so prominently in the original King's Quest is used as your inventory interface. The sequence ended when Graham, having successfully built a raft and crossed the nearby river, befriended a squat knight named Manny, who is voiced by the ever-personable Wallace Shawn. Graham is so excited to have found an ally that he bounces around Manny, excitedly saying, "What's your favorite color?! Do you like popcorn-flavored jellybeans?! What's your availability for sleepovers?! Are we in a secret club?!" And wouldn't you know, Manny actually answers Graham's questions. Korba says there are a lot of story branches in the game, but that King's Quest keeps its signaling of the various paths subtle. (I took this to mean that this is not a Telltale Game, and thus, the decisions you make will not be pointed out and dramatized at every turn.) The final section of the demo showed us such a decision being made when Graham attempted to cross a bridge, only to discover that the bridge was actually the back of a gruesome giant troll. "Hasn't anyone told you it's not polite to go stomping around on people's backs," says the troll, prompting Graham to consider a number of ways he could respond. Another award-winning Kings Quest image, a watercolor painting by art director Evan Cagle.You can threaten the troll. You can try playing nice. Or, you can try tricking him, which leads to yet another delightful scene, which follows when you tell the troll that you, too, are a bridge troll. "You're pretty ugly for a troll," says the beast, after giving you a good sniff, at which point he invites you to participate in the secret dance of the bridge troll guild. The dance is quite something to behold, and you must keep pace by pressing buttons in the proper order. (I suppose if King's Quest is to have quick-time events, that a crazy troll dance is at least a good use of them.) The troll is impressed by your moves, and as well he should be: Graham has all the awkward grace of any proper troll. The demo was then over, and I was left feeling saddened, because, well, the demo was over. I was ready to see more. I was ready to be part of this world, and hear these stories. I was ready to blow more broken horns and dance with more trolls. I'm happy to say that the first installment of King's Quest, A Knight to Remember, is due out in late July. Perhaps if I gaze into my magic mirror, however, I might find some kind of spell that brings this vibrant game to us even earlier. If magic truly exists, surely that would be a good use of it. "
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 08:30 am
By Anonymous on Jun 17, 2015 06:00 am
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