By Anonymous on Jun 12, 2015 12:16 am
Publisher CD Projekt, parent company of Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, announced today that most PC players play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on CD Projekt's distribution platform, GOG.com. This is surprising because Steam is the most used platform by a large amount.  In a press release, the company revealed that over 690,000 people play the game through GOG, a substantial number considering it sold 4 million copies total across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. In fact, GOG didn't just edge out Steam--more copies are activated on GOG than on all other PC distribution platforms combined. Most likely, people flocked to GOG for the discount deals, which included up to 20 percent off of pre-order purchases. GOG also appealed to players for its insistence on keeping the Witcher 3 DRM-free. Green Man Gaming, another distribution platform, also sold GOG keys for the game at a discount, which could have helped drive people to GOG. The company also released some other stats about player usage through GOG. According to the statement, the sales account for "more than 21.5 petabytes of game and bonus content delivered, 3.5 million achievements unlocked, and 1,770 combined years of game time spread over 190+ countries." CD Projekt Red is still coming out with free weekly content for the game, and will continue to do so through July. This week's DLC includes new cards for Gwent and a quest about a town run by pigs.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:34 pm
Capcom has poured cold water on speculation that future iterations of Street Fighter 5 could appear on Xbox One. The latest entry in the company's long-running fighting game franchise was revealed in December as a PlayStation console exclusive. However, due to Capcom's history of iterating its Street Fighter games, some fans suspected that a possible Super or Ultra edition of Street Fighter 5 could be a way to bring the game to Xbox. However, a Capcom representative has told GameSpot that Street Fighter V, in any iteration, would never ship on Xbox One. "One comment we see a lot is that something like a Super Street Fighter 5 is going to come out on Xbox," said the representative. "But the reality is that this is a real partnership. We are console exclusive for this franchise for this numbered run." Speaking about the close relationship between itself and Sony, Capcom has said the partnership will yield benefits beyond marketing support. "We're not talking about how we're handling post-launch content, but I can say the relationship with Sony does open doors for things we haven't been able to do in the past," the representative said. "The relationship serves a gameplay and development purpose, and not just a marketing value." Xbox games executive Phil Spencer previously responded to the announcement that Street Fighter 5 is coming exclusively to PlayStation 4 for its console release. "Business deals happen," he said. "We won't do all of them. When we have a first party franchise in a genre I'd rather invest in ours." "There is a mix of deals to do," he said. "But making sure we own IP [that] Xbox gamers love is critical [in my opinion]." Spencer went on to say: "I'd love it if Xbox fans could play all the games, but business just makes some deals happen. It's all part of competition." For more on the game, check out GameSpot's in-depth Street Fighter 5 gameplay analysis and impressions.        
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:31 pm
During Oculus VR's Rift press conference on Wednesday, the company announced that it is creating a platform for game distribution similar to Steam. Called Oculus Home, the platform will house all of the virtual reality games that are compatible with the Rift headset. Unlike Steam, however, Home works with the headset so that you do not have to remove it to launch, buy, or discover games. Home will also have a social component: you can see what your friends are doing and view their favorite games.  Game pages also feature scenes from the games, which Oculus says will allow users to look around and get a feel for them before purchasing. During this conference, Oculus also announced that it was partnering with Microsoft and bundling in an Xbox One controller with every headset. Later, Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac announced a VR game called Edge of Nowhere. Oculus VR also unveiled its strange-looking motion controllers, the Oculus Touch. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news about the Rift.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:30 pm
 Introducing the Oculus Rift!
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:30 pm
While it will offer an Xbox One controller as the standard input method that comes with every Oculus Rift VR headset, Oculus also has a brand-new controller it unveiled today: the Oculus Touch. The strange-looking, circular Touch is comprised of two controllers, one for each of your hands. Each has a traditional analog stick, two buttons, and an analog trigger, as well as haptic feedback and what Oculus calls the "hand trigger." Touch is also capable of tracking "a set of finger poses" that work to "recognize natural hand poses like pointing, waving, or giving a thumbs-up," Oculus founder Palmer Luckey explained during today's press conference.        "Developers have been working with gamepads for years in VR; they've proven you can make really compelling content with a gamepad," Luckey said. "Brendan [Iribe, Oculus CEO] talked about how excited we are to include the Xbox One controller as part of the Rift, to make sure that developers have something that they can target, that they know every single person who has the Rift will have. Something that they can design their game to work very effectively with. And the Xbox One controller is a key part of the current virtual reality puzzle." Luckey described the Xbox One controller as the best way to play certain games, like Lucky's Tale and Eve Valkyrie, but he then brought up the subject of future games, which will need a different type of input device. Oculus is hoping the Touch will be exactly that. "These are going to take virtual reality gaming to the next level," Luckey said.           He describes Touch as "a pair of track controllers" that offer "hand presence, the sense of feeling as though your virtual hands are actually your real hands. This is critical to nailing the sense of overall presence. Once you have your hands involved, you really need tracking to be absolutely perfect, accurate, and low latency, or you're going to feel like your hands are dead." Luckey went on to talk about offering a controller that allows you to do things like pick up, fire, and throw away a gun naturally, as well give a thumbs-up or wave. "We want to enable a lot of different types of virtual reality experiences: entirely new, VR experiences; genres of games that have been around for decades that are being brought into VR; hybrid experiences that incorporate the best of traditional input with the best of Virtual reality input." We'll have more on Oculus Rift and the Oculus Touch as we approach E3 next week. More stories from today's Oculus Rift E3 event follow below.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:28 pm
 Check out the E3 2015 trailer for the Oculus Rift.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:11 pm
Update: Oculus also today announced its own VR controller, the Oculus Touch. You can read more about that here. Original Story: The Oculus Rift headset will come with an Xbox One controller, and Xbox One owners will be able to stream their games to the Rift, it was revealed on Wednesday during Oculus VR's media briefing. Oculus VR chief executive Brendan Iribe announced at today's press conference that, rather than provide a controller of its own, as was widely expected, the VR headset will come with an Xbox One controller and a wireless adapter for connecting it to your PC. This doesn't preclude the possibility that it will offer an alternative controller, but it appears the Xbox One controller will be the standard for now.  Xbox boss Phil Spencer joined Iribe on the stage to explain that the Rift will offer native support for Windows 10, making it easy to use the device with the upcoming operating system. More interesting was an expansion of the previously announced feature that will allow Windows 10 users to stream games from their Xbox One to a PC. Oculus Rift owners will be able to stream Xbox One games (through a PC) to the Oculus Rift headset. However, based on a very brief demo, it looks as if this won't offer a proper VR experience; you'll instead be playing games on a screen in a "virtual cinema." A video showing this with Forza Horizon 2 suggested all this does--besides put the video directly in front of your face--is add head-tracking support that allows you to adjust the camera by moving your head. While this partnership might come as a surprise, keep in mind Microsoft has a stake in Facebook, which owns Oculus. We'll have more details on all of this as they become available. More stories from today's Oculus Rift E3 event follow below.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:09 pm
During the Oculus VR E3 Conference on Wednesday, Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games announced Edge of Nowhere. The game, due out in 2016, will be exclusive to the Oculus Rift. Insomniac chief executive Ted Price appeared on stage during the event to talk about the game, which is presented in third-person and follows an adventurer trekking through a snowy environment. He stressed that Edge of Nowhere was built from the ground up for virtual reality, not simply converted.  We'll have more on Edge of Nowhere as it becomes available. Also today the Oculus media briefing, the company announced that the Oculus Rift will come with an Xbox One controller and that you'll be able to stream Xbox One games to the headset. The headset launches in the first quarter of 2016, though final pricing has not been announced. More stories from today's Oculus Rift E3 event follow below.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 11:01 pm
Steam's annual Summer Sale has begun, and with it dozens of games have received heavy price cuts. As always, some games are selected for flash sales to have even lower prices for a few hours. Additionally, like last summer, there's a community event that can lead to other discounts, although nothing has been unlocked yet.  Notable games on flash sales include: Check out these other games on sale: The community event works by using the summer sale badges that you can acquire by buying games on sale. You can also receive them by crafting game badges or trading with friends. Then, using those badges, you can join the "Monster Game" to "fight enemy monsters as you heelp your team level up, unlock new abilities, and achieve community milestones," as the Steam page explains. If your team does well, you can unlock discounts on games for the entire community. The next set of flash sales begin in 12 hours. Personally, I'll probably buy Metro Redux and the Homeworld Collection. What are you going to buy, or what games are you holding out for? Let us know in the comments.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 10:47 pm
GameSpot's early access reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available for purchase by the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote money, time, and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication. Like DayZ and H1Z1, ARK: Survival Evolved is another Early-Access survival game that has received an explosive amount of attention. But does it provide something different enough to warrant all the publicity? In short, no. You can collect materials, craft items, and tame dinosaurs, but many of those features are not exclusive to ARK, nor are they any better here. Serious functionality problems and lag exist, sapping enjoyment and crippling immersion. Still, it's not completely awful. Given the chance, you can have a lot of fun, even if there are not many fresh ideas at this stage of development. The game can be entertaining at times and frustrating on occasion, but the evolution of survival it is not--at least not yet. Welcome to Jurassic Ark.When you first wake up on the mysterious island, the game's primary drawback immediately becomes clear: performance. ARK has the trappings of many Early-Access games, but even with this caveat, it is incredibly sluggish and randomly glitchy. You may have to spend a lot of time in the graphics options menu clicking buttons and sliding bars until the frame rate becomes tolerable. Of course, this means you have to accept an uglier game to get better playability. This is what I had to do, so you'll have to forgive some of my screenshots. I could only run the game in a blend of medium and low settings. On high settings, the game can actually be quite attractive, with lush, green jungles, roaring waterfalls, and stretching grasslands with flora swaying in the wind. It's a shame to watch said flora blend into pixelated green blobs just a short distance away. Another major issue is server lag. Stuttering certainly occurs, but you have to enter a fight against a man or a beast to see it at its worst. In battles, players and creatures spring back and forth, to the point where any fight becomes a frustrating disarray of rubberbanding bodies. Entering the game, you settle down on the island, which is populated by your fellow players, dinosaurs, and other extinct monsters. Creating your character is the first step, and ARK gives you a choice between a male and a female form, with many additional options -- and I mean a lot of options -- for shape and size. The results are interesting to say the least. In my travels, I met grotesque mutants with giant heads and stubby arms as well as many other variations. It is amusing to see what others have come up with, but be prepared to encounter some nasty looking folks. You awake with little more than your underwear and a map that slowly fills in as you explore. On your HUD you'll find indicators monitoring stamina, food, and hydration levels. Weather, such as fog, will creep through the island, and rain will shower down, further stymieing the frame rate. Similar to DayZ, the game also introduces status effects. Extreme cold can damage health, while heat has a strong effect on your hydration levels. Sprinting through a steamy jungle will often leave you searching for sources of water or otherwise reaching for your waterskin. Stay away from those horns!Crafting is fairly rudimentary if you're familiar with survival games. You punch trees to acquire chunks of wood and pieces of thatch, and you can gather rocks scattered on beaches or jungle floors. These materials can be combined to create a rock pick-axe that can shatter boulders so you can obtain more materials, such as flint and chunks of metal. A metal, diamond-shaped implant on your left arm displays your inventory and menus for leveling up crafting; the latter features recipes, include instructions for tools, weapons, and parts to create structures. You can carve raw steaks from dinosaurs and dodos that you kill, and you can pick berries from bushes. However, the type of berries that could be harvested seemed random. There are multiple types of plants, but I couldn't figure out whether one bush or another was more likely to give certain berries. Other than that oddity, as I began my journey into collecting various goods, everything appeared to be in order for a survival game -- save for one interesting surprise. As I was going about my business, I heard a gaseous rumble, and I was informed that I had defecated. I looked down and, sure enough, there it was. Huh, I thought, that is new. Naturally, the defecation has a purpose besides being instantly hilarious (I'll grow up some day). You can use fecal matter that your character and animals expel as fertilizer to grow new plants for fiber and berries when you decide to create your own farm. Surviving on the island rewards you with experience points and more crafting options. As you level up, you can boost one of many attributes, ranging from health to stamina. Leveling up also grants you a small handful of points to spend on engrams, which unlock even more recipes and item tiers. Thatch structures make way for buildings crafted from wood, and the slingshot makes way for the bow, which you can eventually trade in for greater firepower, such as pistols and automatic weaponry. But there is a steep time investment to consider. You have to reach level 15 just to unlock a bow and arrows, and it took me around 10 hours to reach that rank. The time requirements also tie into a major criticism I have with the structures. Walls made from thatch and wood can easily be destroyed by anyone with a hatchet and a few minutes of time. You can eventually upgrade to powerful metal walls and doors, but I was nowhere near that point. Every time I logged back in, I found my character dead, my base ruined, and all my materials and food pilfered. It's almost enough to make you defecate in fury.  Unlock dinosaur dossiers to gain some history on the wildlife.ARK's primary draw is the dinosaurs, large and small, that populate the island. But don't expect the shock and splendor of Jurassic Park with large, migrating herds of brontosaurs or clever raptors surreptitiously assassinating any lost traveller who wanders too deep into the jungle. Instead, animals tend to stay where they spawn, meandering about without much purpose or urgency. On occasion, a meat-eater will attack a herbivore, but a battle of titans it is not. Utahraptors swarm their prey, nipping and slashing for several minutes, sometimes longer. It's not an exciting event to watch whatsoever. The two sides slowly hack or bite, usually without moving locations or moving just a tiny bit, until eventually one side emerges victorious. A larger-scale battle between, say, a tyrannosaurus and a stegosaurus, is impressive only because of its size, not because of its content. Even facing most animals on your own is hardly risky. With many fights, if you can stay near the back end of a beast (or at least out of reach of its pointy bits), you can take it down with a steady stream of whacks using your stone hatchet. The exceptions here are the faster predators, but with the aforementioned lag issues, you can usually deal with them quickly by standing still and waiting until they bound into your vicinity. All this considered, we can conclude that at this stage, the most attractive aspect of the game (i.e., the creatures inhabiting the island) is also the most vapid--at least until you learn how to make some friends. Why walk when you can ride a utahraptor?You can tame dinosaurs, which can be used as pack mules or sometimes as mounts. I found this to be my favorite activity in the game because it gave me a goal and provided a welcome challenge to overcome, which I wasn't getting running around picking berries and crafting huts that kept getting raided. Taming a dinosaur is relatively simple. The process involves rendering it unconscious, either by punching it, pelting it with rocks, or using a tranquilizer arrow, then earning its trust by feeding it the correct food according to the creature's correct diet--meat for the carnivores and berries for the herbivores. All the animals on the island have varying levels, and your tamed dinosaurs will level up, granting you the opportunity to increase their health and carrying capacity over time. But, with a dinosaur at your side, wouldn't it be better to ride it? The answer is yes, always yes. As you level up, you unlock saddles you can strap on to various dinosaurs, ranging from the slow-moving phioma to the speedier utahraptor and even the flying pteranodon. The raptor tears across the land, leaping far distances and using its talons to rip enemies to shreds. ARK's world begins to open up once you start riding dinosaurs. Without having to rely on your slow legs, traveling far distances becomes possible, and the joy associated with exploration soars. 0008: Beams of light signify when a supply drop is about to touch down.The more you pry open the world, the more activities and enigmas you discover. Hidden caves, both on the surface and below the water, are scattered across the area, guarded by ferocious creatures. You can also find hints of mystery on the island. Three enormous obelisks, colored red, blue, and green, float lazily in the sky. The odd, alien structures could have something to do with the device imbedded in your arm and/or the random supply drops that appear and slowly fall from the sky in a beam of colored light. All of this suggests that some semblance of a crazy science experiment or "Hunger Games" plot is lurking just below the surface. You can also track down bosses to battle, such as the broodmother, a giant arachnid queen. In its current state, ARK: Survival Evolved doesn't provide many surprises. It is unquestionably a survival game, complete with core gameplay and issues that have often defined its mates in the genre. But including the words "survival evolved" in its name makes you think it offers the next stage in what should be expected from the genre. ARK, however, doesn't quite shake the foundations, notwithstanding the included thunder lizards. The developer promises more content, including procedurally generated environments, gas-powered vehicles, and a whole lot more. I want to remain optimistic because I did encounter moments of good fun in the game. The developer a year left until the game's projected release, so if they can smooth out the rocky performance and add some fresh elements, ARK: Survival Evolved may eventually be something worth all the surrounding hype. | What's There? | A survival game with dinosaurs to tame, buildings and items to craft, and a load of performance issues that hamper the fun. | | What's to Come? | More of everything, including weapons, animals, bosses, and biomes. The developer also promises better performance, and that the "game will sparkle like a shiny diamond before it is considered ready for Full Release." | | What Does it Cost? | $24.89, available via Steam. | | When Will it be Finished? | Projected release date is June 2016. | | What's the Verdict? | ARK: Survival Evolved is less of a step toward evolved survival as much as it is a shuffle. Still, there is entertainment to be found here, so long as you're willing to invest the time and weather the performance issues and server lag. |
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 10:35 pm
Warner Bros. on Thursday released a funny new video for its upcoming action game Batman: Arkham Knight, showing a bunch of celebrities playing Rocksteady's conclusion to the acclaimed series. The movie, which you can watch below, was produced by Warner Bros. and Rocksteady in partnership with Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam, who directed it. Here's a list of the celebrities who appear in the video. - Wiz Khalifa
- Blake Anderson
- Neil Patrick Harris
- Minka Kelly
- Kumail Nanjiani
- Breckin Meyer
- Joe Manganiello
- iJustine
- Troy Baker (voice of Two-Face)
- Kevin Conroy (voice of Batman)
As for celebrities who appear in the actual game, in addition to Baker and Conroy, Arkham Knight features the voices of Breaking Bad's Jonathan Banks and John Noble from The Lord of the Rings. After multiple delays, Arkham Knight launches June 23 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. For a closer look, check out some images in the gallery below.                     
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 10:30 pm
 We go hands on with bounty hunter mode, four battle rifles including the FAL and SG 510, a nail gun, and some new armor piercing tracer rounds.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 10:30 pm
 A player uses the break-in kit, a SG 510 battle rifle, and teamwork to pull off the perfect hit on an enemy vault.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 09:40 pm
Last month, game designer Koji Igarashi launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The game has now become the most funded video game ever on Kickstarter, passing the $4,280,000 mark by the time of this writing. Bloodstained blew through the second highest-funded project, an RPG called Torment: Tides of Numenera which collected a little more than $4,188,000.  Bloodstained is a game in the same style as original PlayStation Castlevania titles. A side-scrolling RPG with explorative elements, it is meant to be a spiritual successor to the games that Igarashi helped develop. He is most famous for his work on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which came out in 1997 for the PlayStation. The campaign began with a relatively modest goal of $500,000, but it quickly gained momentum and exceeded that mark in a single day. Since then, the campaign total has met several stretch goals, allowing the game to include local co-op, a speed run mode, and Vita and Wii U ports, among other features. There are still 35 hours left in the Kickstarter campaign. The next stretch goal, at $4,500,000, would allow Igarashi and his studio to develop a prequel mini-game. Bloodstained is planned to launch in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita, PC, and Wii U.
By Anonymous on Jun 11, 2015 09:39 pm
[UPDATE] The event has now ended. Here's a roundup of the top stories. The original story is below. Oculus VR's E3 video briefing, which is expected to bring news about the Oculus Rift consumer model, begins in under an hour. You can watch the entire event right here through the Twitch embed. The "Oculus E3 Press Conference" starts at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT and is expected to run for an hour. Oculus has not said what it plans to reveal today during the event. Recently, the Rift's rumored minimum specs leaked, while pricing still remains up in the air. What are you hoping to see? Let us know in the comments below.
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