By Anonymous on Jul 10, 2015 12:04 am
The Microsoft Hololens augmented reality headset had an impressive showing at E3, but it was limited to demos behind closed doors. The public wasn't able to see what looking through the headset is like. Now, a video showcasing the headset's uses at Case Western Reserve University reveals the actual field of view for the headset. The augmented reality "window" appears to take up about half of the screen, occupying a rectangle in the middle of the glasses' field of view. Even though it seems to be slightly limited by a small viewing window, it's still an impressive piece of technology. The video shows some promising real-world applications of the headset, including making it easier to teach students anatomy. One professor remarked that it will be useful because it lets students fail in areas of study (such as anatomy) which generally have high consequences for mistakes. Past videos demonstrating Hololens showed much more of the AR scenes, due to special cameras designed by Microsoft. This video shows the headset's actual field of view for the first time.  Recently, NASA also worked with Microsoft to send Hololens headsets up to the International Space Station to help train astronauts in space, although those were lost in a rocket explosion. GameSpot was able to go hands-on with Hololens at E3, and we came away impressed. You can read our preview here.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 11:14 pm
Another Fox property is getting its own mobile game.  A teaser website spotted by TouchArcade reveals that Fox is developing a Futurama mobile game. The page says the game is "coming soon," but that's all we know about it right now. Futurama main character Bender is featured prominently on the website, suggesting he will play a major role in the game. No developer is listed on the page. Other mobile games based on FOX franchises include The Simpsons: Tapped Out from Electronic Arts and TinyCo's Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff. Both are free-to-play games. It's unclear if the Futurama game will also use that business model, but it seems likely. Tapped Out is one of EA's biggest mobile games, generating more than $100 million in revenue. Meanwhile. Quest for Stuff is also a chart-topper. It won't be the first Futurama game, as a 3D platformer simply called Futurama was released for Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2003. We'll have more details on the Futurama mobile game as they're announced. What would you like to see from the game? Let us know in the comments below.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 11:13 pm
A new Warcraft trailer is out, and it gives you a 360-degree view of Azeroth's Stormwind region. Built for Google's cheap VR headset for mobile phones, Cardboard, the trailer lets you look up, down, and around from the back of a gryphon, a creature used for transport in Warcraft games. Even if you don't own Cardboard, though, you can still watch the trailer. It utilizes a phone's accelerometer to let you change the view by moving the phone through space.  It's a short trailer, around a minute long, and comes in at around 400 MB. But it's really cool to be able to soar above Stormwind City and look down at people going about their lives, or gaze out at the mountains in the distance. The trailer is available through studio Legendary Pictures' mobile app on iOS and Android devices. The studio also put out VR trailers for its upcoming movie Crimson Peak, and for 2013's Pacific Rim. Warcraft will hit theaters on June 16, 2016, and it features Clancy Brown as Blackhand and Dominic Cooper as King Llane. You can read more about the movie's cast here. Today, the film's director said that the movie is nearly finished, and that he might possibly make a trilogy of Warcraft movies.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 11:10 pm
While we've come to expect digital and physical versions of games to cost the same at launch, it remains somewhat bizarre to see physical versions discounted heavily after launch while digital ones maintain their pricing. This point was raised during a Ubisoft investors call today, prompting CEO Yves Guillemot to shed some light on why this is. During a post-earnings conference call Q&A session, Ubisoft was asked this digital/physical pricing disparity. For instance, Far Cry 4 still sells for the same $60 on the PlayStation Store that it did last November, whereas you can pick up a PS4 copy on Amazon for $24 on any given day.  "Digital is more reactive than what we put in stores, but at the same time, it doesn't react as fast on consoles than it does on PC," Guillemot said. "What we can say is that when games are older than one year, digital is a lot more dynamic on console because there are less units in stores. It's a new business, a new trend, and we think all this will get more in line with time, but for sure, at the moment you see all sorts of prices depending on who is doing a promotion for that specific week. "If you look at the PC [post-release discount] trend, I think you will see that on consoles, but you will have to wait a little bit of time for that to happen with the same speed," he continued, suggesting Ubisoft could become more aggressive in discounting digital console games in the future. Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez added, "On digital we will not sell [a game] for a lower price compared to physical. After a few weeks or few months things can change, and as Yves has been saying, sometime you might have a promotion on Amazon [that is] not on GameStop, but we can also react on the digital side. "We are actually more aggressive on the PC side where digital is very, very strong. We tend to be more conservative on the digital side for more console and more flexible on PC." Guillemot also pointed to one other factor that needs to be taken into account, which is how many copies of a particular game are left on store shelves: "Also, one thing to consider is related to stocks; if we have stock in stores, we tend to make sure we decrease the quantity of units in stores before going digital with lower prices." Ubisoft is hardly the only company with games this is true of; we know Nintendo deliberately sells digital games for the same price as physical ones in order to avoid lowering the value consumers place on its games. Even so, GameStop has voiced concerns about digital games getting too cheap, although consumers--at least in the US--have been shown to still prefer physical games to digital ones. Ubisoft today reported stronger-than-expected sales of Assassin's Creed Unity, but an overall decline in sales.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 10:50 pm
If you try to move through the map too fast, you'll die. Go too slow? You'll die. Stray away from your team or stay too close to your buddy? Dead and dead. If you want to survive The Red Solstice, a top-down shooter with an emphasis on tactics, you need to adapt quickly to new situations. Even then, you should probably prepare yourself to die a lot. The Red Solstice is not very welcoming to newcomers, especially if you try to jump directly into multiplayer (something the game itself advises against). Its core gameplay isn't too hard to grasp--it controls like a real-time strategy game in which you have only a single soldier or small handful of units. Right-clicking moves your soldier(s) to a location, left-clicking orders them to attack, each unit has a variety of skills (each with its own cooldowns), and you have a limited inventory of items. But there is a lot of depth beneath these basics, and if you try to treat The Red Solstice as a pure action game, you will struggle to succeed. You can slow the action down to a crawl with a tap of the button, giving you some extra seconds to breathe and plan your next move. This slow-mo tactical mode is only available when playing solo, but making good use of it is imperative for single-player success. Sure, you could try running through the map with auto-aim turned on so all your squad members automatically pivot toward and attack incoming threats, but that's a recipe for inaccurate shots and wasted ammo, neither of which you can afford if you want to make it out alive. One of the key elements of The Red Solstice is that it's class-based, and having a balanced squad of various classes is essential. This goes beyond the obvious "Take a medic with you so you can heal yourself" strategy in that each class has a variety of available skills that can make the difference between success and failure. Using the right support skill at the right time could save lives, and most classes have weaknesses that make it difficult for them to survive alone.  Things can look a little gross up close.For instance, the long-range specialty of the Marksman might be great for picking off enemies from afar, but they'll struggle if swarmed by a large group at close range. On the other hand, your Heavy Support soldier might be tank-like when it comes to holding a position, but they won't be fast enough to efficiently run around the map checking for items or turning on power generators. A good team needs diversity. The concept of a team should be stressed here. Even the best soldiers aren't likely to survive long alone, so sticking close to friendly units and using each class's unique abilities is vital. A good squad can plan ahead for a wave of enemies by setting up traps and turrets and making sure everybody has spare bullets. A lone wolf will get swarmed by enemies, run out of ammo, get backed into a corner, and die, not necessarily in that order. Simply sticking together isn't all it takes to succeed, though, and repeated failures can be frustrating. This is especially true as you deal with the infrequent checkpoints in the single-player campaign (which often force you to take long walks and fight through big groups over and over again) or die as you realize for the first time that grenades and rockets inexplicably seem to go through walls. A lot of little problems like these can add up to an unpleasant experience, but they're easier to get through with friends. This giant worm was a little too ugly to join his cousin on Arrakis.The game's focus (and where it shines most) is its multiplayer. If controlling a small squad of units in the single-player game feels like StarCraft, the multiplayer feels more like Diablo. Multiplayer is a co-op experience for up to eight players in which you only control one character. As you play, you'll earn experience points so you can go up in both level and rank, allowing you to unlock new classes, abilities, and weapons to use in your next game. There's a light story in the multiplayer campaign, but the bigger draw is that each time you play a map, the experience is unlikely to be the same as the last time you played. Beyond a selection of game variables the game's host can toggle before a match (tweaking things like the amount of time between enemy wave spawns or increasing the number of bosses you'll encounter), each deployment onto a map is somewhat randomized. The geometry of the location stays the same (though maps are large, so there is a lot to explore), but the enemies you'll encounter and the missions you'll receive are dynamic. These missions usually boil down to standard tasks like "kill all the enemies in this area" or "search this body for some information," but it's nice to have their order and location shuffled around every game so completing them doesn't become too rote. Like most co-op multiplayer experiences, The Red Solstice is best with friends. If you have none (or you just want a challenge), you can play the game's "Survival" mode, which is essentially the multiplayer mode except you control a handful of AI units to make up for the missing human players. It can be fun, but there's a genuine sense of camaraderie when playing online with a solid group of four to eight people, and the solo experience can't replicate that. If you try to treat The Red Solstice as a pure action game, you will struggle to succeed.
 It can also be good to hop online and try to find some experienced players willing to show you the ropes, especially because you aren't likely to learn them all without some help. Even after playing through all 10 missions of the single-player campaign, I felt that the game never communicated some things to me--at least not well. For example, I did not know you could pick up (and then toss) exploding barrels until I saw another player do it online. This bit of knowledge would have made one specific section of a single-player mission, in which I needed to blow up some barricades, a bit less frustrating. Getting to the center of the storm that is The Red Solstice isn't easy. A less-than-stellar tutorial and initial overload of information combined with a handful of quirks and bugs make it a game you have to stick with for a little while before you can fully appreciate its depth. If you can reach that point, though, and you have some friends to reach it with, this a storm you will successfully weather.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 10:49 pm
Ubisoft has revealed that its Xbox One games are still not outselling those released on Microsoft's last-gen platform, the Xbox 360. The Paris-based publishing giant told its investors on Thursday that, during the three-month period between April and June, the Xbox One editions of its games represented about 11 percent of total software revenue. By comparison, the Xbox 360 also represented about 11 percent of Ubisoft's game sales, as did the PlayStation 3. These figures come despite Ubisoft's biggest game in the past six months, Assassin's Creed Unity, not shipping on last-gen systems. In a further indication of Microsoft's steep challenge on the market, the PlayStation 4 versions of Ubisoft's games accumulated more revenue than the Xbox One and Xbox 360 combined, at 27 percent. Microsoft still has many years ahead to generate stronger momentum for the Xbox One, but presently, Ubisoft's numbers will make a convincing argument to third-party publishers that PlayStation 4 has become the lead console. In the past 18 months, a growing number of publishers have announced exclusivity deals with Sony, on franchises such as Street Fighter 5, Destiny, and Call of Duty. Ubisoft has also revealed to investors that the Wii and the Wii U represented a total of three percent of software sales combined; a figure that is up two percent year-on-year. PC game sales represent 23 percent, meanwhile, which is significantly higher than last year. Overall, Ubisoft's executive team announced a sharp plunge in revenue for the quarter, down 73 percent to $103 million. This figure was, nevertheless, higher than Ubisoft had projected.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 10:45 pm
How important is a first impression? In the case of a video game, a poor one can push you into the arms of another. That doesn't mean that the new game isn't good, or even amazing--but you've now turned away from that game, or postponed your time with it. Perhaps you will return, and perhaps you won't; that initial glimpse stays with you and colors your perception. Class-based, massive online shooter PlanetSide 2 on the PlayStation 4 doesn't make a great first impression, whether you are new to the game, or have transitioned from the PC version. If you're new, the lack of direction can make the first moments daunting. Tooltips give you some basics upon your first interactions with various terminals and menu screens, but there are terms and mechanics you must come to grips with, and the best way to do that is to undergo trial by fire. Granted, you can get your bearings in a reasonable amount of time, learning what certs are (not a tasty mint, in this particular case), discovering the proper use of a sunderer vehicle, and getting used to the many menus. But if you're new, it's natural to flounder. After all, PlanetSide 2 doesn't even tell you what its three factions stand for or why they fight; rather than engage in some basic world-building to draw you in, the game asks you to choose a side blindly. There's nothing to center you, no direction for your emotional compass to point. Anti-air turrets giving you a problem? There's an app--er, a weapon for that!If you're coming to the PS4 version from the PC version, there is no learning curve, but there are other obstacles to overcome. Many of them are minor--but there are enough of them to make you pause and ponder whether these issues shouldn't have been solved, given that PlanetSide 2 is approaching its three-year anniversary on the PC. For instance, it often takes menus several seconds to respond, making you wonder if a button press didn't register--and if you press it again, you could inadvertently queue up commands you didn't intend. (Several times, I have deployed vehicles I didn't want because the slow interface had me repeating a button press I presumed hadn't worked.) The visuals are also a notable downgrade, a sensible sacrifice to keep the frame rate stable; unfortunately, PlanetSide 2 occasionally stutters and hitches during the most intense battles, making the compromise sometimes hard to swallow. On the other hand, PlanetSide 2's special moments are too special to let these encroaching shadows envelop the game in darkness. Yes, you would reasonably expect the full release to perform better, and to have swiped away the simple bugs that occasionally crawl into view--the way the reddish arcs that indicate you have been hit may not disappear until you log back in, the infrequent but irritating hard crashes, and so forth. But when the war heats up, there's nothing exactly like PlanetSide 2, a massively multiplayer shooter in every sense of the term. The world and its four primary continents (as well as the starting continent accessible only to newcomers) are open and persistent, inviting combatants to fight for control over the facilities scattered across the expanses. You can equip a number of different sights, depending on how close you want to get to the action. You engage others by taking to the air and participating in dogfights, by roaring forward in tanks, and by joining fellow infantry and rushing into ground battle. You're hooked up with a squad as soon as you log in, and while my fellow players aren't nearly as vocal or as coordinated on the PS4 as they are on the PC, it's to PlanetSide 2's credit that you can get involved in warfare mere seconds after entering the world--and that you can understand what your objective is simply by observing the heads-up display and following others into contested zones. And thus the battle rages ever on. You and other comrades hop into a transport vehicle called a sunderer, trundle towards your destination, and deploy near a facility, hoping that the terrain and architecture protect the vehicle from any keen-eyed heavy troops nearby. (A few rockets and homing missiles can quickly turn a sunderer to scrap, particularly if there are no engineers on hand to repair it.) Once deployed, the sunderer serves as your base of operations as well as a spawn point, ensuring that you and your squad never spawn too far from battle after death. From here, PlanetSide 2 becomes a veritable series of controlled detonations, with the swamps of the continent Hossin and the Esamirian tundra lighting up with artillery and laser fire--but never devolving into an incomprehensible mess off aimless firefights. The pace of battle changes depending on where the struggle occurs. A base nestled in the hills gives rise to clever sniping and rivers of infantry that participate in a tug of war as one faction pushes upwards, and the other streams downwards to stop it. Outcroppings, rolling hills, and rising towers break up your line of sight from every side, forcing you to be aware of potentially vulnerabilities in all directions. A flat approach, on the other hand, paves the way for a daunting rumble of tanks flowing as one unit towards the contested base. Tanks have a nice heft to them, making it fun to roll over hills and launch artillery at oncoming vehicles. On the flipside, launching a missile into one of those tanks, watching it explode, and hearing that rewarding audio tinkle that alerts you to experience earned is a consistent treat. You would reasonable expect the full release to perform better, and to have swiped away the simple bugs that occasionally crawl into view.
 As with most video game wars, your success is never assured, and with loss comes frustration: the frustration of being gunned down by an infiltrator equipped with a bolt-action rifle as you sprint from one doorway to another, the frustration of shooting a teammate as he crosses your path just as you begin firing at the enemy, the frustration of hearing the voiceover explain for the umpteenth time that you shouldn't shoot friendlies. (Thanks, repetitive narrator-man.) Death is rarely an annoyance in and of itself, however. Even if you frequently fall, engagements are too big for you to feel as if you have singlehandedly let down your teammates. If you only rack up a few kill assists in between spawns, there's still a sense of accomplishment. When there's madness in all directions, who can say whether the bullets you landed didn't divert the winds of conflict? Not every moment you spend in PlanetSide 2 is in the midst of a massive firefight, however. There are uneventful stretches in which you and your squad capture facilities with little resistance, or amble ahead in tanks for many minutes on end, wishing there was something to shoot. Back at your faction's primary base, you might spend some time deciding how to spend the certification points you've earned during your hours and days of battle. This is your primary currency, and as is the case with so many free-to-play games, this currency accumulates slowly after the initial hours. When you feel vulnerable even when surrounded by the stolid armor of a lightning tank, it's only logical that you'd want to reinforce it. And when certs are slow to come, spending real-world money is a temptation. When in doubt, head towards the sound of gunfire. I wouldn't call PlanetSide 2 "pay to win;" Too little rests on your individual performance for that moniker to be an apt one. Yet there are some conveniences that are difficult to resist, such as the ability to bypass login queues when you purchase a membership (that is, a paid subscription, which is $14.99 if you pay on a monthly basis). Given that queues are still frequent on some servers, that cost ends up feeling more like blackmail for an experience that should be a base-level expectation (playing as soon as you log in) rather than a premium perk. Like so many big games with dozens of complex moving parts, your enjoyment of PlanetSide 2 on the PlayStation 4 rests on how forgiving you are of technical hiccups you would properly expect to be vanquished. As you play, the questions mount. "Why did that tank vanish into thin air after I fired my homing missile, and why did my missile then shoot into the sky?" "Why did my vehicle just sink through the geometry and explode?" "Does the view distance need to be this bad, even on a snowy continent?" You may never find answers--but you will temporarily forget you ever asked the questions when you and a squad of jump-pack-equipped light infantry swarm an enemy base, forcing the opposition onto the exterior platform where a friendly aircraft pilot guns them down with a laser cannon. At these moments, the troubles fade away, leaving only the frights and delights of planetary war.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 10:18 pm
Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot has said he believes the company's strong roots in creating immersive open-worlds will help its establish a foothold in the VR game space. Speaking in an investor meeting, Guillemot was asked whether Ubisoft, which uses the open-world framework for most of its most popular properties, intends to pursue a new design model to define a different kind of gaming experience specific to VR. "We feel the people that create worlds will be the winners of the VR Industry for sure," he replied. "What's interesting is that in those worlds you'll have many ways to interact. The fact that we create worlds is a big plus. When they are [being created] you can have an experiences that adapt to different customers." He continued: "As an example, if you go into the world of Assassin's Creed you'll be able to walk around and visit places or have something like an item hunt." According to Guillemot, he believes VR could have the same draw that Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone had thanks to its accessibility. "VR has a lot more accessibility--a lot more than with a controller--because you can interact with the world just by moving your head or pushing a button. This means a lot more people can come to this industry, like it happened with the Wii and Apple's touchscreen. "Bringing them to worlds in which they can choose what to do is a great opportunity," he added. "There's good potential, and the people that create worlds have an advantage in that." The exec did, however, indicate that Ubisoft would still consider unique experiences designed specifically around VR. "With all that being said, it doesn't mean there won't be specific experiences that will be created to [offer something that] doesn't exist in video games at the moment." In early 2015, Guillemot confirmed Ubisoft has multiple VR games in development: "What we are doing is working on the different brands we have to see how we can take advantage of those new possibilities but in making sure also that we don't suffer from what comes with it, which is the difficulty to play a long time with those games." At E3 2015 Trackmania Turbo was revealed for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. This is one of the games from Ubisoft that will feature VR functionality. Ubisoft's vice president of creative, Lionel Raynaud, also previously said VR devices would need to sell something close to 1 million units to be "a leading indicator for growth and impact that could lead to success and adoption from the development community." According to Raynaud, however, this number was "not a literal number that Ubisoft takes into consideration when looking at delivering game experiences and content for new platforms." "Ubisoft is always excited about new hardware and platforms and creating innovative experiences," he said.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 10:15 pm
Mirror's Edge Catalyst is getting a special edition, and it comes with a small statue of the main character, Faith. A post on the Mirror's Edge website reveals that the Collector's Edition comes with several real-world items. The most notable inclusion is the statue, which depicts Faith as an adult and a child. We know that the game explores Faith's origin story, so the statue's depiction of the character as a child makes sense.  This edition also comes with a Steelbook game case, concept art cards, a lithograph art print, temporary tattoos in the style of Faith's, and a special box to hold it all. The Collector's Edition costs $200, and is available for preorder now at GameStop and other retailers at a later date. DICE is attempting to make Catalyst's controls more intuitive and less frustrating than the original Mirror's Edge. At E3, the developer also explained that players will have some freedom of choice to move around the game's city, allowing you to roam freely on your way to objectives. It launches on February 23, 2016 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news about the game as it becomes available.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 10:04 pm
Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft has spoken out to praise Microsoft's decision to add a backwards compatibility solution on Xbox One for Xbox 360 titles. Speaking during a post-earnings financial call today, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that the Xbox One getting backwards compatibility is "very good news for the industry." "It's good news for gamers that Microsoft was able to work on the compatibility aspect," the executive explained. "They expect to come with 100 titles quite quickly, so that's really good news." "It will help some of the brands, like Splinter Cell for us, to come to Xbox One, which is great." It's not much of a surprise that Guillemot would be enthusiastic about backwards compatibility in general, as it gives Ubisoft another way to make money from its back-catalog games. To that point, Guillemot said Ubisoft is expecting some short-term revenue from Xbox One backwards compatibility, but more significant revenue will "really come" at the end of the year when the service rolls out to everyone. Xbox One backwards compatibility is currently only available to Xbox Preview Program members. Retailer GameStop has also praised Microsoft's Xbox One backwards compatibility announcement, which may not be much of a surprise, given the obvious upside for a company that sells games. Microsoft announced Xbox One backward compatibility during the company's E3 briefing. Since then, we've learned the initial list of supported titles and heard what Sony had to say about the announcement. Microsoft is also asking people to weigh in on what games they want to see made backwards-compatible; Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption is currently leading the charge in terms of votes.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 06:30 pm
 Watch this video to see the Raid on Apex 7 Warzone Map from Halo 5: Guardians created using Mega Bloks and interactive LED lights.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 06:31 am
 PlanetSide 2 brings massive open world combat and old problems to the PlayStation 4.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 06:00 am
 Things are getting all timey wimey in LEGO Dimensions as The Doctor takes Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle for a ride in the TARDIS.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 06:00 am
 Justin chats with Peter Capaldi about his experience bringing the Doctor to life in Lego Dimensions and more.
By Anonymous on Jul 09, 2015 04:45 am
 Aaron and Jake sit down to play Rocket League! A game that rolls soccer, demolition derby, and hockey all in one.
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