By Chris Pereira on Apr 11, 2015 12:09 am Final Fantasy XIII streaming on iOS
It may not be the most highly regarded game in the series, but Final Fantasy XIII can now be played on smartphones, albeit in Japanese.
Square Enix today made good on its previous promise to deliver a cloud-powered version of FFXIII to both iOS and Android devices in Japan. It is technically possible to play the game outside of Japan if you have a Japanese iTunes account, but with the servers being based there, streaming can reportedly be quite rough. A 3 Mbps connection is recommended.
However, you don't have anything to lose by trying it--a free trial is available for the first 30 minutes, and only after that are you asked to buy the full game, which runs 2,000 yen (just under $17 USD).
GameSpot has contacted Square Enix to find out if this is something that could see release in North America and will report back with any details we receive. The JRPG, originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010, launched on PCs last fall.
The screenshot above gives you a look at the interface used for playing the game on a touchscreen. You can check out a few more images from the game's iOS App Store listing below.
Rockstar Games announced on Friday exactly when you'll be able to start playing the digital PC edition of Grand Theft Auto V next week--and it's slightly earlier than we expected.
The downloadable PC edition of the acclaimed open-world game will unlock at midnight UK time on Tuesday, April 14, which is 7 PM EDT or 4 PM PDT on Monday, April 13. Having GTA V to look forward to will certainly help cure the Monday blues, I would imagine.
GTAV for PC will go live on April 14 at 12:00 AM BST (In the US, this is Monday, April 13, at 7:00 PM ET, 4:00 PM PT).
GTA V was originally released in September 2013 for last-generation consoles. The game launched for current-generation machines in November 2014, selling 10 million units on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as of December 31. In all, GTA V has shipped a massive 45 million copies worldwide.
As we've learned over many years of strategy games, the real-time strategy genre is replete with creative possibilities. Last month during the Game Developer's Conference, I chatted with representatives from both Oxide Games and BonusXP Games about their current strategy projects, and the visits were pleasant reminders of how a single genre can provide a framework for many different ideas and tempos. The Oxide game in question was Ashes of the Singularity; The BonusXP game was Servo. Both games intrigue me--but for very different reasons.
Servo: Quick Matches, Big Robots, and Loud Explosions
If you know the name Bruce Shelley, then it's probably because you know Ensemble Studios, the celebrated (and now defunct) developer of Age of Empires and Halo Wars. BonusXP is one of several studios that rose from Ensemble's ashes--a 20-member studio half-comprised of Ensemble veterans, including Shelley, a veritable game development hall-of-famer. It's not so surprising that BonusXP would be making a strategy game; what's more unusual is that its game, Servo, represents a thematic departure from Ensemble's work. Halo Wars aside, that studio was known for grand historical strategy with a serious tone. Servo, on the other hand, is a lighthearted game about big customizable mechs blowing each other up in matches that end in a matter of minutes.
BonusXP CEO Dave Pottinger, another Ensemble veteran, joined Shelley to show me Servo in action, and the first game I was reminded of was Relic's excellent Dawn of War II, in part because you customize servos--that is, the giant armored suits that give the game its name--by equipping and customizing them just as you do with Dawn of War II's space marines. Pottinger, on the other hand, more likens these piloted servos to Warcraft III's hero units. "The actions that your servo has in the game are partly defined by what you equip," says Pottinger, adding that it's a process that occurs between matches. There are slots for shields, fist weapons, and so forth, each servo made up of many modules that allow you to attach the bits and baubles that best suit your style.
Given this level of customization, however, it was difficult for me to completely let go of the Dawn of War II comparisons, and according to Pottinger, many others have also noticed the similarities. Given those similarities, and the uniquely customizable servos, it was hard not to imagine even more ways to personalize those bots, in the way that I can paint Warhammer miniatures and make them truly mine. Pottinger laughs; apparently, just the week before, a BonusXP staff staffer had blogged on that very subject. "That's exactly the feeling we want you to have, is that this servo team is your boys," says Pottinger. Adds Shelley, "I think that's a real strong thing. Personalizing your gaming experience is a big deal."
When Servo launches, however, cosmetic customization will be limited. There will be somewhere between 500 and 1,000 servo parts in the game when it releases to Steam Early Access later this year, but not nearly as many vanity objects, though Pottinger says that they will inevitably follow. Says Pottinger, "It's a game, from the gameplay standpoint, about self-expression."
Of course, Servo is about more than just preparing for battle; it's also about seeing how many fireworks you can create by blowing enemies up with your metal behemoths. On the battlefield, the Dawn of War II comparisons begin to break down. You do command your servo(s), of course, but base-building is still an important component. You and your enemies are fighting over a resource called bloom, which you collect from the bloomwells that dot the combat arena. To utilize that resource and build a small army of drones, healing beacons, and defensive turrets, you order structures to be dropped onto the map from the heavens above. Says Pottinger, "An RTS for us, it's about buildup. It's a shorter buildup, and it's compressed, and it's more automated, but it's still there. If I want to go heavy on drones, for instance, I'm going to need thousands of resources to pump into that. Otherwise, I can spend that on fences. It's about strategy, it's that choice, and the idea of being at the head."
Just how short is that buildup? Says Pottinger, "An Age game used to be 45, 60 minutes. Our Servo game is about 10, give or take. So in that same time period, you're playing three or four games. Every game you play, you earn some parts for your servos." He adds that players respond well to exciting onscreen physics and bright explosions, a lesson Ensemble learned when creating Age of Empires III. "Big giant robots blowing stuff up is great," says Pottinger, and it's hard to argue with a solid hypothesis like that. I certainly witnessed a lot of explosions while watching Shelley maneuver his servos and drones around the map.
Personalizing your gaming experience is a big deal.
Bruce Shelley
You'll witness explosions across all of Servo's game modes: a single-player campaign, skirmishes, cooperative battles, and of course, competitive battles as well. But across every mode, Pottinger wants to keep the pace lively, using the game's role-playing elements to keep players coming back for more. "We like that interplay [between the RTS and RPG elements], and that's what the whole cycle is. It's not 'just go play for ten minutes, and then I'm done.' It's 'play a game for ten minutes, I'll go tweak my guys, play another game.' That whole half an hour where you play three or four games and you're thinking about tweaking all your guys. That's what a game session is in Servo."
Genre-based similarities aside, it's hard to imagine an RTS more different from Shelley and Pottinger's previous games. Even the exaggerated, cartoonish art style represents a noticeable departure, and I asked the men how important it was to make a bold statement that distinguishes their new work from their old. "Bonus is around because we wanted to go make something new," responds Pottinger. "New and highly polished. The Age games had a lot of ways to play. We wanted something that. We love Age, and there's a lot of Age in this. It's definitely boiled down, and it's going to be cast around this idea of a shorter experience. Age 3 with the home city was our first attempt at progression with an RTS. Maybe it didn't go so well, but we've been working at it for a long time, and it's definitely a better rendition of that."
"But I think you're right," Pottinger continues. "It's hard to have 100-foot mechs and not have it be a little bit more lighthearted than a long back look at the Dark Ages through the Middle- and Coal Ages." Adds Shelley, "It reminds me of Alien, when they're joking in their pod. It's a serious, scary movie, but they're telling jokes, right? There's the humor of the battlefield for someone. I get this sort of feeling here."
Ashes of the Singularity: How Many Units Can One Screen Depict?
What I saw of Ashes of Singularity wasn't so much a game so much as an engine, a real-time display of the technology powering the upcoming strategy game. But what an impressive display it was, featuring thousands of hovering vessels of various sizes firing lasers at each other across a vast land map. Brad Wardell, CEO of Ashes publisher Stardock, and Oxide Games' Brian Wade were on hand to walk me through what to expect from the game's insanely massive battles, and the ensuing discussion was more technical than systemic. I am still not sure I know what Ashes is all about, huge laser-light shows notwithstanding, but given the number of units the game lets you control at once, the possibilities are vast.
Rather than summarize, however, allow me to quote Wardell directly regarding the Direct X 12-powered delights.
Says Wardell, "Every single shot is a light source. Let's say your typical game for a console or PC may have four light sources. [Ashes of the Singularity] has around seventeen hundred light sources on it simultaneously. These explosions you see here are not drawn. They are actual effects of smoke being lit by light. It is simulating an actual explosion, rather than a bunch of images of an explosion that an artist drew. Every turn on the ships does it's own target tracking. The player can control either individual ships, which would be insane, or what they do is combine them together into what we call meta units. You take your individual ships, based on what each one will do. Some will have better range, some do protection, some have anti-air, some have special abilities you might want to use. You put them together and they become a meta unit that work together. It's not like a control group where it's just a blob of units, it's every unit in the meta unit knows about each other, so when you give it an objective, the unit AI each goes off and does its thing."
Phew. It's easy to refer to Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation when talking about a game that puts so many units into the fray, but Ashes of the Singularity makes Supreme Commander look positively dinky. "StarCraft has a lot of units, might have a hundred. Supreme Commander might have had three, four hundred on the screen. This may have tens of thousands of units in game." As for the meta units, "They can be as few or as many [units] as you want," says Wardell. "On a basic level, a meta unit would be a single, what we call a T2, a cruiser, and a couple frigates, and what makes a meta unit different from, say, a control group, is that a meta unit knows about the other units, and it's hierarchical. There is a queen bee, and she has lieutenants, and they work together as a single unit with a single objective."
Wardell adds, "Literally, the last game that had a lot of units on the screen was maybe Supreme Commander, and that's an order of magnitude difference."
Those are big shoes to fill, of course, and the idea of commanding an army of this size sounds absolutely intimidating at first. But Ashes of the Singularity has more tools beyond meta units to keep the masses of ships and drones in check. "That's where the empire tree from Sins of a Solar Empire comes in," says Wardell, "because in Sins you dealt with a lot of units. Not with this many, but you dealt with a lot, and what we wanted to do is, we wanted the user interface should lend itself so that you can use these units intelligently without it becoming frustrating, because this is a game of strategy. From a game mechanics point of view, you could almost describe it as a cross between, say, Sins or Total Annihilation and Company of Heroes, in that regions have specific resources that I need to capture. You must control a contiguous set of regions back to your seed, your home base, to gather those resources, and we introduced a concept that we call victory points so that players can control the length of their game that they want. In a world where people want to play a game that lasts thirty minutes or twenty minutes for streaming purposes, and a game that could last a week. If they're playing single player, we want them to be able to do both, and so those give us the tools to do that."
Literally, the last game that had a lot of units on the screen was maybe Supreme Commander, and that's an order of magnitude difference.
Brad Wardell
As Wardell and I chat, I stare at the screen loaded with futuristic ships firing at each other, and something strikes me: these are all land units, yet they all hover. None of them seems to touch the ground, and I wonder how important this detail might be in Ashes' pathfinding systems. Getting thousands of units to navigate around each other must be an absolute nightmare, and as it happens, hovering is a key component in solving potential bottlenecks. Says Wardell, "Dan Baker and Brian Wade pioneered the terrain system that we got together, so there's a couple interesting things about the terrain and pathfinding. One is, the way we build maps, we've already got pathfinding information, so we know how to get from one area to the other smartly, if you will, so we've already pre-calculated pathfinding for the majority of the map. We know where everyone's going, it's actually a pretty efficient cost for us. We basically do that up front and then you have to pay for that during the real time."
Both Wardell and Wade describe to me in some detail how the pathfinding operates, taking time to tout the game's true line of sight and procedurally generated maps. Wardell also mentions that while the game looks and performs its best on Direct X 12, it will run on Direct X 11, albeit with fewer bells and whistles. Meanwhile, I look back to the screen, getting lost in the sheer amount of space-age activity, which proves eerily hypnotic, and I wonder if my PC will be ready for this when Ashes of the Singularity makes its way to Steam Early Access this summer. There's no way I will settle for the lesser version of this impressive technological showcase--not after seeing what's possible. I am still not sure I have a handle on how Ashes will play, but for now, Stardock and Oxide have allowed the tech to speak for itself. And as it happens, it made for an impressive argument.
If you choose to do everything possible, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be a very long game. And as it turns out, even if you know how to minimize the time it takes to get through the core, you're still looking at a 25-hour experience just to complete the game's story.
That's according to CD Projekt Red, which revealed to Gamereactor that the quickest any of its testers could run through the RPG's story was 25 hours. If that causes you to worry about how quickly you'll be able to complete it, keep in mind that not only omits side quests, but also skips right through dialogue and takes the fastest-possible path, which you likely won't know when initially playing through the game.
As for a closer indication of how long you can expect a playthrough to last, the developer previously offered an estimate of about 100 hours, with half of that accounting for the main narrative, and the other half spent on side content. More recently, senior designer Damien Monnier said that it could take upwards of 200 hours to do absolutely everything.
Should you find yourself having completed everything in the main game, two DLC packs will be released that, combined, add roughly 30 hours of additional gameplay. The first of these, Hearts of Stone, launches in October, and will be followed by the second, Blood and Wine, in the first quarter of 2016.
For some time, you've been able to connect your account on Call of Duty's website with Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. Now, you can also connect to your Nintendo Network ID, though it's unclear why.
As discovered by NeoGAF member catmario, the Nintendo Network ID option has been added to your profile page. Electing to connect sends you to the page pictured below, explaining that your "basic profile information" (things like your Mii nickname and country) will be shared with the Call of Duty site.
Going ahead with the process doesn't appear to have any real purpose at the moment beyond netting you another checkmark on your profile page.
But it does raise the question of why this addition has been made, considering that we don't know if any future Call of Duty games are coming to Wii U or 3DS. The first two Black Ops games appeared on Nintendo consoles (Wii and Wii U, respectively), as did 2013's Ghosts. Last year's Advanced Warfare, however, skipped Wii U in a move that Michael Condrey, co-founder of developer Sledgehammer games, described as an "an Activision decision."
The Nintendo Network ID connect page
Call of Duty: Black Ops III was just revealed and is likely headed to Xbox One, PS4, and PC at the very least. Asked about the possibility of the game also coming to a Nintendo platform in light of the Nintendo Network ID connection, an Activision spokesperson declined to offer GameSpot any additional information.
This week's gaming headlines may have been dominated with the likes of new game announcements for Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but another important industry story should not go overlooked. A legal quarrel between the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)--the group that represents the industry's interests on Capitol Hill--and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights advocacy group, boiled over this week over how video games can be preserved for future generations.
In a post on the EFF's website, staff attorney Mitch Stoltz lashed out at the ESA, basically saying that the group is attempting to block the preservation of older games (more on that later). The EFF is asking the United States Copyright Office to introduce new "legal protection to game enthusiasts, museums, and academics who preserve older video games and keep them playable." Stoltz says the EFF would like to see an exemption made to section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention provisions for hardware (i.e. "jailbreaking") so that people would be allowed to modify games and the consoles they're played on so that they can live on long after servers are shut down.
"Many player communities, along with museums, archives, and researchers, want to keep the games they own playable after publishers shut down the servers the games depend on," he wrote. "Section 1201 creates legal difficulty for these communities, which is why we've asked the Copyright Office to give them an exemption."
But the ESA says allowing such an exemption could open the floodgates for rampant piracy and lead to diminished intellectual property value for copyright owners.
"Because permitting circumvention of the access controls on video game consoles will increase piracy, significantly reduce users' options to access copyrighted works on video game consoles, and decrease the value of these works for copyright owners, ESA requests that the Register deny the proposed exemption," the group wrote in its response.
The ESA went on to outline other potential dangers of allowing the exemption.
"A significant and practical consequence of granting the proposed exemption, which should not be ignored, is that users would wrongly believe that they can traffic in circumvention tools to hack their video games or engage in wholesale reproduction and distribution of the video game software," the group explained. "The takeaway would be that hacking--an activity closely associated with piracy in the minds of the marketplace--is lawful. Invariably, the market for distribution of hacking tools would grow to serve the market for this 'lawful' use. Should litigation be necessary to thwart the unlawful distribution of those tools, the burdens and costs of such litigation would be significant, and would greatly diminish the value of copyrighted works."
The ESA further states that the EFF does not have gaming's best interests in mind because, though some people might mod their consoles to allow games to be played after servers are turned off, even more people could do so to steal games.
"There is abundant evidence that the primary reason many users seek to hack video game consoles is not to create new and different works, but to avoid paying the customary cost of existing works or devices" -- The ESA
"There is abundant evidence that the primary reason many users seek to hack video game consoles is not to create new and different works, but to avoid paying the customary cost of existing works or devices," the ESA wrote.
It added: "The harm the proposed exemption would impose on copyright owners (and consumers, who ultimately would have less access to copyrighted works) far outweighs any alleged adverse effects."
In its filing, the ESA does point out that it has supported and its members have attended various video game museum exhibits before, including the Smithsonian Institute's Art of Video Games two years ago. Games on display, however, included titles like Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., and Flower.
The ESA goes on to say that the EFF's "evidence of adverse effects is, at best, hypothetical."
"It is telling that EFF describes the activities of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, and the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, in archiving video games, but fails to provide a single actual instance of any of these institutions having difficulty in their archival activities as a result of the DMCA's prohibition on circumvention," the ESA wrote.
The EFF, on the other hand, foresees a bleak future for the preservation of video games if the provision is not allowed.
"Thanks to server shutdowns, and legal uncertainty created by Section 1201, their objects of study and preservation may be reduced to the digital equivalent of crumbling papyrus in as little as a year," Stoltz said. "That's why an exemption from the Copyright Office is needed."
For lots more on this case, check out the ESA's full responses here, as well as the EFF's here. GameSpot will continue to follow these proceedings as they unfold.
The ESA has some of the biggest players in gaming among its ranks, including Nintendo, Square Enix, Microsoft, Sony, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, and Activision Blizzard. The group is also responsible for oganizing E3 every year.
You'll be able to square off against God of War protagonist Kratos in the PlayStation versions of Shovel Knight, developer Yacht Club Games has announced.
This confirms what was teased in the trailer above, which originally aired during the PlayStation Experience back in December. Kratos drops onto the screen and appears to be a boss you'll fight, and it turns out that is indeed the case.
However, as detailed on the PlayStation Blog, Kratos isn't someone you'll inevitably stumble across. Encountering him is described as being "very tricky," so you'll need to "keep your eye out for secrets… and possibly even double secrets" to get him to show up on the world map. Defeat him, and it sounds like you'll unlock some new abilities--Yacht Club teases that "Shovel Knight learns a trick or two from Kratos."
When you do face him, you'll be treated to a Shovel Knight-style version of the God of War theme music, which you can listen to below. The GIFs above and below should also give you an idea of what Kratos is capable of.
Shovel Knight releases on PS4, PS3, and Vita on April 21 as the final game in the 2015 Spring Fever promotion. It'll feature Cross-Buy support and be priced at $14.99, or $13.49 during its launch week for PlayStation Plus members.
Today is the last day you'll be able to download Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious on Xbox One and Xbox 360 for free. Beginning tomorrow, the game will cost $10, so if you're interested, you may want to act quickly.
At school or work? You can queue up your download from the Xbox Store online or through Smartglass on your smartphone or tablet.
Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious is a standalone game, meaning it doesn't require a copy of Forza Horizon 2. The game was released for free on Xbox Live in late March in an effort to promote the latest installment in the film series, Furious 7.
The game features a handful of cars from Furious 7, and actor Ludacris also makes an appearance. These cars were recently made available to purchase for the Xbox One version of the game--you can get them all for $5. For a closer look at the cars, check out the image gallery below.
CD Projekt Red on Friday released a five-minute gameplay trailer for upcoming open-world role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that covers just about everything you'd want to know about the title.
The impressive trailer shows off the game's massive world and deadly creatures and enemies. It also discusses some of the game's story, which will touch on religious fanaticism, war crimes, and racism.
In terms of activities, the new Witcher 3 trailer shows off how you'll be able to be do all manner of things, including horse racing, getting drunk, and "following your heart." You can even "satisfy your passion," the narrator says, as Geralt is shown going to bed with two women.
You can also play cards, brawl in the streets, swim underwater in search of treasure, or join in "ancient rituals," which is the what the startling image above depicts.
The deals listed below--which do not require Xbox Live Gold--are good through April 12, while the wider Spring Sale ends April 13.
Are you picking up anything? Let us know in the comments below! And be sure to check back later today for GameSpot's comprehensive deals roundup that collects the day's best offers for all platforms.
Xbox Spring Sale Weekend Deals (Good Through April 12):
Recently released role-playing game Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, which comes with access to the Final Fantasy XV demo, has now shipped more than 1 million copies worldwide since its arrival in March. Square Enix announced the news today through its Japanese Twitter account, as translated by Siliconera.
Type-0 HD is available today for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. GameSpot critic Alexa Ray Corriea scored the game an 8/10. She wrote in her review: "Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is about the fluid and frantic action, which propels you towards the next battle, and then the next, and then the next."
As for Final Fantasy XV, the game is also coming to PS4 and Xbox One, but Square Enix has not yet announced a release date.
The Rock Band experience could be "even more incredible and immersive" in virtual reality, according to Harmonix CEO Steve Janiak. In a new interview with Gaming Insiders, Janiak said Harmonix is always looking to work with exciting new technologies, and virtual reality is no different.
"Harmonix prides itself on being at the forefront of new technologies," he said. "VR is an intriguing frontier, and a great opportunity to fundamentally reinvent how people connect to music."
Although he didn't announce any specific plans to add VR support to this year's Rock Band 4, he didn't rule it out, either. He even teased that VR could be a way to better capture the feeling of performing in a band--something the Rock Band series is trying to do.
"For Rock Band, the feeling of playing live music, of really being on stage with the lights and the crowd and the sound enveloping you, that's the experience we're trying to deliver with Rock Band 4," he said. "It could be even more incredible and immersive in the context of VR, and we're excited about the possibilities."
Harmonix, of course, is already working on VR with its new music app for Samsung's GearVR mobile headset. It's described as a "fully immersive, music-drive dreamscape," though it's not specifically tied to any Rock Band game.
Also in Gaming Insiders' interview, Janiak says that, in addition to the regular release of new DLC tracks, Harmonix plans to roll out new features to Rock Band 4 as time goes on. This could in theory include VR functionality, but this isn't confirmed.
"We'll also be adding substantial new functionality to the core game and releasing those new features on an ongoing basis, as part of a continuing conversation with our fans to see what resonates with them and what they want," he said.
This is part of Harmonix's plan to release only one Rock Band game this generation of consoles. Instead of yearly sequels, the developer has said it it plans to improve and expand upon Rock Band 4's functionality over time by way of the kind of updates Janiak alluded to above.
You can read the full Gaming Insiders interview with Janiak here. It's a great read for Rock Band fans, as it also touches on song pricing experiments, why 2015 is the right time to bring back Rock Band, and if Harmonix will work with The Beatles again.
Rock Band 4 launches later this year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Activision is also reportedly planning to revive the Guitar Hero franchise this year with a brand new, more-realistic game due out for the same platforms.
Following his recent comments about Xbox and PC game Ori and the Blind Forest becoming profitable in just one week, developer Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler has now spoken about where the franchise could go next--and one possibility is the big screen.
Writing on NeoGAF, Mahler said he has "somewhat" of an outline for where he'd like to take Ori's story in the future "if we'd get to work on another Ori-related project."
Speaking of which, Mahler said fans can help increase the liklihood of Moon Studios working on more Ori projects by buying the game and telling their friends about it.
"The more copies we sell, the higher the chance that we get to work on new projects," he said.
Going back to Ori's story, Mahler said, "I think we crafted a big world with memorable characters and there's a lot of potential for us to go in and keep working on that tale."
"I've read both sides now--people that loved the story and people that really only cared for the gameplay and dismissed the story," he added. "But there was actually quite a lot of lore we created that didn't really make it into Blind Forest. I do really like that we kept the story focused on that triangle-relationship between Ori, Naru, and Kuro. I love that our characters have quite a lot of depth and that even our antagonist isn't just out to take over the world, but has a good reason for her actions. But it'd be interesting to take it a step further and open up the world a bit more, to give people further insight into how Nibel works, the characters in it, etc."
Mahler went on to say that it's "perfectly fine" if people only enjoy Ori for its gameplay. But all the same, he says he'd like to expand on the game's story someday--possibly through a movie.
"I'd love for us and Microsoft to do a little bit more with the IP," he said. "Ultimately, I think it'd be amazing if some movie studio would acquire the film rights and produce a film based on Ori. I think the story we crafted would suit itself really well for that medium as well..."
Ori was released in March for Xbox One and PC. An Xbox 360 version is coming later this spring.
GameSpot's 9/10 Ori and the Blind Forest review hailed it as a "rapturous platformer that is as fun as it is beautiful." For more on the game, check out some images in the gallery below.
Paris-based independent game developer Spiders (Bound by Flame, Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper) on Friday announced its latest project, a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk RPG for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The game is called The Technomancer, and the early details about it certainly sound exciting.
Set on Mars during something called "the War of Water," The Technomancer sees gamers playing as the Technomancer himself. Described as a "combat proficient warrior," the Technomancer has a range of cybernetically enhanced magical abilities, and also wields a sword as you can see above.
The Technomancer also features a "dynamic crafting system" that players can use to alter the visual appearance of their weapons and armor, which can be accessed through an inventory system.
In addition to the Technomancer himself, players will "bond with numerous unique and interesting companions and reveal secrets about their past," according to the game's official description. There are four different skill trees to follow, each focusing on three different fighting styles.
Another interesting story element is that some missions will have up to five different endings, Spiders said.
Here's the official story description for The Technomancer:
"On the run from the Secret Police and confronted by the harsh realities of the Red Planet, you must undertake a quest that takes you through tribal communities, cities lost under the ice, and dystopian shanties sprawled across Mars' dusty embrace."
The Technomancer is scheduled to launch in 2016 across Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Watch the video to see an unlikely band of thieves take on their next job: robbing a gold statue from Jeremy's home. It's quite well done, featuring high production values and some funny scenes.
The video is meant to capture the tone of Crookz, the upcoming game developed by Skilltree Studios. It's due to launch for PC at physical retailers and through Steam on August 25.
In the 1970s-era Crookz, every member of the game has a different skillset (like NPCs in Grand Theft Auto V's heists), so players will need to tactically work together to pull off their missions.
Crookz features 18 missions "set in a colorful and stylish '70s setting," along with all manner of tools for your characters to use, including camera jammers, chloroform, and explosive charges, among others. There is also a Challenge Mode players can compete in and leaderboards so you can track your progress against others.
For more on Crookz, check out some images in the gallery below.
The Xbox One edition of free-to-play game Happy Wars was accidentally released today, and that slip-up--which developer Toylogic attributes to a "system glitch"--is causing major problems.
Anyone who downloaded and played the Xbox One edition of Happy Wars (it's no longer available on the Xbox Store) will find that the Xbox 360 version of the game is broken and no longer playable.
Toylogic says in a Facebook post titled "Urgent" that the final version of Happy Wars for Xbox One will be released in the "near future." In the meantime, the developer advises that--if the game is still available to download in your region--you should not do that.
But people who did download and play the Xbox One edition and would like to return to the Xbox 360 version are out of luck, at least for now. This issue will be resolved in the next Happy Wars Xbox 360 update, though no timetable for its release was announced.
"If you have already installed and played Happy Wars for Xbox One, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you," Toylogic wrote.
Happy Wars, Microsoft's first free-to-play Xbox 360 game, was originally released in October 2012 and has seen more than 6 million players. The game was later brought to PC, while the Xbox One version was announced at E3 2014. The game will feature cross-platform play with the Xbox 360 edition (and your saves will carry forward, too), as well as online play and four-player split-screen local multiplayer.
As was previosuly announced, developer Giants Software built the console version of Farm Simulator on a new graphics and physics engine. Watch the trailer and you'll probably agree that the game does look rather nice. You can also see a variety of screenshots in the gallery below.
Farming Simulator 15 tasks players with managing and developing their own farm. This includes harvesting resources and taking care of animals such as cows, chicken, and sheep. You'll also need to sell your products and invest in more and better vehicles and power tools.
The game also includes a new activity: woodcutting, along with vehicles and tools dedicated to the craft. In all, Farming Simulator includes more than 140 vehicles and farming tools, including some that are exclusive to the console editions. Popular farming brands including New Holland, Ponsse, Case IH, Deutz-Fahr, MAN, and Liebherr are represented in the game.
Speaking in the latest issue of Edge magazine, as reported by GamesRadar, Spencer was asked for his thoughts about not having a competitive device to launch against Sony's PlayStation 4 headset, Project Morpheus. Spencer replied: "It's more of an announcement than anybody really having any VR stuff right now--and that's not a shot at Sony. I mean, it's hard tech, and I think it's great what they're doing with Morpheus. But they've announced [it for] the first half of 2016, so a little over a year from now."
"I don't think VR is a now thing. I'm not saying it's five years from now, but it's not really a now now thing" -- Spencer
Overall, Spencer said he sees VR as "an interesting space," and one that's different than what Microsoft is doing in the "mixed reality" sector with HoloLens. All the same, Spencer stressed that, "there's nothing that precludes us from doing something in the VR space."
"There are partners out there, and while these guys are PC-based today, if we want to do something with Xbox... Right now, it's just been about technologies and things that I think we need to do on Xbox One to make the experience better, and that's where our focus has been," Spencer added. "And I don't think VR is a now thing. I'm not saying it's five years from now, but it's not really a now now thing."
In addition, Spencer teased that various VR companies are "very interested" in bringing Microsoft's Minecraft franchise to VR. No official projects have been announced, but Microsoft did show off a Minecraft HoloLens tech demo back in January. He also reiterated that Microsoft is currently exploring gaming opportunities for HoloLens, explaining that, while traditional VR experiences like Oculus or Morpheus are tethered to a PC or console, HoloLens aims to differentiate itself by being untethered in nature. But for people who do own an Xbox or PC, there could be gaming potential there with HoloLens.
"Now we can say, 'Well, OK, if I do have an Xbox or a PC, what are those scenarios?' We haven't publicly talked about what those are, but you can imagine, as we continue to drive and get success with HoloLens, those scenarios will become obvious and developers will take advantage of them," Spencer said.
The full interview with Spencer is available in the latest issue of Edge Magazine, which you can buy online right here. The issue also features more coverage for Wii U shooter Splatoon and a new interview with veteran Capcom designer Yoshinori Ono, among other things.
What's your reaction to Spencer's comments about VR? Let us know in the comments below!
"Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the first title for next-gen hardware in the critically acclaimed Black Ops series," reads a line from the description, referencing Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The game is also likely to come to PC, though it's unclear if Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will be supported this time around.
In terms of story, Black Ops III is set in a "dark, twisted future where a new breed of Black Ops soldier emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the technology we created to stay ahead, in a world where cutting-edge military robotics define warfare."
We also have now learned that Black Ops III will feature three main modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. All of this comes together to deliver the "deepest and most ambitious Call of Duty ever," Activision writes. Black Ops III developer created the now-popular Zombies mode, delivering the first iteration of it in 2008's Call of Duty: World at War.
Meanwhile, the Treyarch Facebook page has recently been sharing news stories about biohacking, suggesting this may play some role in Black Ops III. Given the "new breed of Black Ops soldier" referenced above, this definitely sounds possible.
2010's original Black Ops was set primarily in the 1960s, while 2012's Black Ops II took place in the 1980s and 2025.
In addition, Twitter user ThaTiemsz has posted what they call official Black Ops III art (see above). This picture was apparently found on the Call of Duty website, though we've been unable to find it ourselves.
Activision plans to formally reveal more details about Black Ops III on Sunday, April 26. The game is due out this fall, and will be a follow-up to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Shuhei Yoshida, the Sony executive who presides over internal games development, has asked fans to send across their ideas and requests for PlayStation 4 system features.
Writing on Twitter, Yoshida said that all ideas should be sent to his colleague Toshimasa Aoki, who can be found here. One fan has already asked for the PS4 to introduced uncompressed screenshot support; an idea which Aoki said he would look into.
.@toshimasa_aoki works on new PS4 features and Project Morpheus. You can send Toshi your feedback and requests, that will help us. :)
Yoshida has in the past been a key point of contact for PlayStation 4 owners who request new ideas for the system. During the console's launch in late 2013, the executive heard numerous requests for the console to introduce DLNA and MP3 support, the latter of which was introduced twelve months later, as part of the Masamune firmware update.
Microsoft is preparing to deploy an Xbox 360 upgrade that will allow the console to support external hard drives with a capacity as big as two Terabytes.
Presently, the size limit for Xbox 360 external hard drives is 32GB. However, that theoretically can double to 64GB, because the console can connect to two external drives simultaneously. With this new update, that means the total possible external hard-drive capacity has ballooned to four Terabytes.
Writing on the 'Major Nelson' blog, Xbox executive Larry Hryb said that the console update would arrive "later in the year". Preview members, however, can try the new feature straight away.
In March, Microsoft revealed that its Xbox One preview program--which allows participants to beta test new system-wide features--has expanded to the Xbox 360.
In November, the Xbox 360 will mark its tenth year on the market. The system has sold 83 million units worldwide.
Bungie has detailed several new features and gameplay changes that will be added to Destiny via the upcoming 1.1.2 patch.
Key among them is a new approach to ammo drops in the Crucible multiplayer mode. Speaking on the Destiny website, Crucible designer Kevin Yanes said that Special and Heavy ammo drops will be more limited resources to help balance matches.
"Special Ammo will spawn less frequently, it will take longer to pick up, there will be less crates located on the map, and the bricks you find will provide you with less ammo," he explained.
For Heavy ammo, players will no longer have the option to camp near supplies and retrieve them when necessary. Instead, Heavy ammo will despawn if not picked up within a period of time.
"The main thing we wanted to prevent in terms of Heavy Ammo was players trying to buffer their supply by sitting within range of a brick without picking it up," Yanes added.
"This hurts your ability to anticipate when heavy ammo would be in play during a match. By introducing despawn conditions, we're ensuring that players will have to acquire ammo when it becomes available, or risk losing it all together."
Meanwhile, the update will also include a safeguard that is hoped will prevent players from accidentally deleting their hard-earned items and weapons. With the new update, players can "lock" their items by highlighting them and pressing the right thumb-stick.
"One recurring story we keep seeing involves Legendary and Exotic gear getting accidentally dismantled by errant pets and over-enthusiastic children," said UI engineer Daniel Hanson.
"We decided to empower players to protect their precious gear with Item Locking."
Along with the Crucible changes and Item Lock feature, Bungie is also introducing more ways for players to express themselves. With the 1.1.2 update, players will now be free to wear any of their helmets in the Tower social space.
Artist Andrew Davis explains: "The design team came to us wondering if we could give players the option to show off their sweet helmets while running around the Tower. We all agreed that it's important to give players every opportunity to show off the cool gear they've earned. It turned out to be a fairly quick UI task to turn helmets on in the Tower. Our engineers banged out the code for it in short order. All we had to do was figure out where to put the menu option. A number of locations in the UI were discussed. Character screen? Details screen? We decided that the Settings menu was the most obvious and easiest place to control this new feature."
Bungie has yet to share a release date for the 1.1.2 update, but says it will be able to share the information "very soon."
The developer will also announce the release date for Destiny's next expansion--House of Wolves--later in April.
Last year Irrational Games closed its doors. Levine and a small team of others left to work on a "smaller, more entrepreneurial" game. Now, he says that he's looking to change how he addresses character relationships. "When you look at BioShock and BioShock Infinite, you had some tiny bits [of agency] with the Little Sisters when you harvested, but it led to one of two monolithic endings,"he said.
"In the new game, you have very fluid relationships with the characters. They have a spectrum of feeling about you based upon what you do and if you help them or go against them. That changes dynamically, and you can end the game with a character absolutely despising you or somewhere in the middle. The path to getting there doesn't have seven or eight stops like your traditional branching tree structure. It has potentially thousands of stops with hundreds of thousands of potential states you can be in with all your relationships to all the characters and wants."
Levine says that's the biggest thing his team is developing--a system to make an interesting character. To manage this, he says his characters are driven by their passions, wants, and needs. "The player now has the ability to facilitate those wants or needs or go against those wants or needs or ignore those wants or needs. The reason I think the system is going to work is because it's a very organic way to look at a character."
So far, Levine's been pretty quiet on details about his new project, but earlier this week he confirmed that he's using Unreal Engine 4. We also know that the game will be rooted in science fiction and targeting a PC audience. You can check out this post for everything else we know so far.
In the mean time, the BioShock series has also been passed off to another studio, 2K Games in California. The next entry hasn't been announced just yet, but 2K has said that the franchise still has plenty of potential for growth.
With the rise of crowdsourcing, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to design a video game using only the input of the masses. PX57 is a new game from PC peripheral manufacturer, Logitech, claims to be the "first-ever crowdsourced video game of its kind."
Originally announced last year, PX57 was designed by more than 12,000 votes and put together by people from developer Tiny Mantis and the New York University Game Center, a rather famous department known for taking on experimental game design projects. Director of NYU Game Center Frank Lantz said in a press release, "PX57 reflects the ideas and creative choices of everyone who was involved and we're excited to see it come to life."
According to Logitech, PX57 is a traditional tower defense game. I downloaded it to play a few rounds, and it's rather unusual. PX57 has a resource management system that's a bit like Starcraft and other classic RTS games. You have teams of workers that continually build up your resources, and you have to protect them as well as your primary base.
The game rates you based on how well you did and then you can upload your score to a leaderboard and see how you stack up to others.
PX57 is free to download either from the official website, or the Apple App Store.
[UPDATE #2]: We've added the first video of working online multiplayer.
Previously we reported on the team of Halo Online modders that have been hard at work poking and prodding the upcoming free-to-play game's code. The team seems to have made some significant progress since then and posted a six-minute video of the game in action.
Everything from custom loadouts to vehicles seem to be working. The video suggests that many of these features will be locked behind microtransactions, as the loadout slots shows lock symbols and a purchase button. Otherwise though, it looks just like Halo.
So far, it seems that the modders kept to their word: despite copyright takedown notices from Microsoft, they're still working.
[UPDATE]: We've added a statement from Microsoft below.
A Microsoft spokesperson told GameSpot that while they were pleased to see enthusiasm from the fan base, Halo Online was built with the Russian market in mind.
"While we're thrilled there's so much interest outside of Russia, the beta of Halo Online is a PC experience tailored specifically for the tastes, tech and infrastructure of the Russian market and furthermore, is still in an early state. As such, we want to ensure a quality experience for our beta participants within Russia which could be impacted through unauthorized use."
Our original story:
Last month, we reported on the upcoming free-to-play, Russia-only shooter, Halo Online. Since that reveal, modders have leaked some of the game's files and attempted to create a tool that would allow players from all over the world to play the game. Understandably, Microsoft wasn't too happy with the modding project, codenamed "El Dorito," and filed a copyright takedown notice against Github, the host for the mod.
Speaking with pirate-friendly site, TorrentFreak, one of the people working on El Dorito said that the team has enough backups to keep going and highlighted some of their long-term goals with the mod.
The modder, known by the alias "Woovie," said, "We have made redundant [code] backups on private and public servers. This is to ensure we will always have one working copy. These are being synchronized so that data is always the same. Further [takedowns] may happen potentially, it's not really known at the moment. Our backups will always exist though, and we will continue until we're happy."
Woovie added that the El Dorito team is driven by a deep love for the Halo series, and frustrated by the fact that Halo Online is currently restricted to Russia.
"As someone involved in game development, I'm sympathetic with some developers when it comes to copyright issues. This is different though, in my opinion," he said.
In the same interview, fellow modder Neoshadow42 said that this would be a different situation if they were taking a game that people had to pay for and making it free. Instead, they're just allowing an already free game to be played by anyone. "We're working to improve people's experience, bring it to those who wouldn't have been able to play it anyway. I'd see that as a noble cause."
The El Dorito team said that gamers have been begging for a Halo 3 release on PC for years. Since Halo Online is being built with a modified version of Halo 3's engine, the team said they found their chance. "El Dorito aims to deliver exactly what everyone wants. The closest thing to a Halo 3 experience as possible, but on PC. If we can manage that, I'll be more than happy."
The teaser trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops III just came out, and just like all game teasers, it also has a fair share of little details for series fans to look out for. So here's all the important bits that we were able to find!
Iconic Silhouettes
There are two figures outlined by number sequence strings that are seen in the teaser trailer. Series fans will recognize these two figures as the soldiers featured on the box art of the first and second Call of Duty: Black Ops games.
Mysterious Coordinates
Throughout the trailer, various coordinates show up on screen that point out different locations. Will these be potential levels in the game?
1.300 N, 103.8000 E: A primary school located in Singapore. The coordinates also happen to be the name of a time-lapse dubstep video of the country from a videographer on Vimeo.
30.0500 N, 31.2333 E: A spot on the Nile between the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities and the Ramses Hilton.
47.3667 N, 8.5500 E: A prison called Gefängnis Zürich. It is located in Zürich, Switzerland.
Hidden Snapchat
At the 0:16 second mark of the trailer, you can find a little snapchat ghost on the bottom left that will give you a secret snapchat to watch. If you have the app, definitely take a picture of it and check it out!
These snapchat ghosts have also been appearing on posters in various multiplayer maps in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Lone Kanji
Japanese Kanji characters briefly appear on the silhouetted knife at the 0:32 mark. They stand for the number 54.
Could 54 mean that there will be a level set in 1954? Past Call of Duty: Black Ops single-player campaigns have had you hopping to between different time periods, like the 40's and 60's in the first game, and the 80's and 2025 in the second.
The Big Three
The outer roman numerals look exactly like the ones seen on the Call of Duty: Black Ops II logo.
Familiar Voices
Throughout the trailer, you hear voices from various characters from the Call of Duty: Black Ops series, such as Jason Hudson, Raul Mendez, Viktor Reznov, and Frank Woods.
So what do you think about what we found? Was there anything you noticed that we missed? Let us know in the comments below!
Treyarch also created the now-popular Zombies mode, which will likely be featured in Black Ops III.
Although Activision has now confirmed Black Ops III, the publisher isn't yet ready to share more details. But you won't have to wait much longer to learn more, as the game's official reveal is slated for April 26.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the most recent entry in the Black Ops series, was released in 2012 for consoles and PC. Are you looking forward to Black Ops III? Let us know in the comments below!
According to a post on the Age of Empires II: HD development blog, the now 16-year-old game will be getting yet another new expansion later this year. In his post, community manager Kieffer Bryant said that the expansion will include "new civilizations, campaigns, game modes, units, and more," but didn't offer any specifics beyond teasing an image of one of the new units shown above.
This will be a follow-up to The Forgotten expansion released in 2013. It added two new game modes called Treaty and Capture the Relic, a spectator mode, larger map sizes, five new civilizations, and four new campaigns.
Bryant also announced several changes for the game's latest patch that would be hitting Age of Empires II HD this week. These include better optimization when large numbers of units are on screen and an improved system for managing multiplayer lobbies.
For more coverage of Age of Empires II: HD check out GameSpot's review.
Tomorrow in Texas at the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 NASCAR event, one car will zip around the track decked out with Mortal Kombat X's name and logo. The car, as you might expect, is the No. 20 Toyota Camry, driven by 18-year-old Erik Jones and sponsored by video game retailer GameStop.
The O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 will take place at the Texas Motor Speedway tomorrow, Friday, April 10, starting at 8:30 PM EDT. You can watch the race on FoxSports One or listen to it on the radio.
For more on the special Mortal Kombat-themed car, check out the video above and some images in the gallery below.
GameStop has been a NASCAR sponsor for nearly a decade by way of a partnership with well-known racing team Joe Gibbs Racing. Before Jones--who is signed to a ten-race deal--GameStop-sponsored drivers included Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano.
As promised, HBO is now available for Sling TV, Dish network's new Internet TV service. HBO content, which includes live programming like this weekend's Game of Thrones season premiere as well as video-on-demand, is available on PC, as well as devices like Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.
Sling TV starts at $20/month, while an HBO subscription will cost you an extra $15/month.
HBO content was already available on Xbox One through the HBO Go app. But that app requires a cable subscription while Sling TV does not.
Another interesting thing to note is that, while Sling TV normally only allows one stream per account, this isn't true for HBO. Sling will allow users a total of three simultaneous streams.
This new multi-stream functionality will be added "on a rolling basis" beginning today, the company explained.
Sling TV, which requires no contract or extra hardware installation, features channels such as ESPN and ESPN 2, as well as TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel.
By comparison, Sony's $50/month PlayStation Vue streaming TV service does not offer HBO. You can see a detailed Sling TV vs. Vue breakdown here.
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