The beta test of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition took place over the week of E3, and developer The Coalition has just released a list of all the changes and fixes coming to the game as a result of the beta.
According to a post on its blog, the studio received a lot of player feedback on how to improve the game. This has resulted in several balance changes and even performance upgrades. Tweaks include improving the look of blood and gore, tuning footstep audio, and re-balancing the shotgun.
You can see the full list of changes below, detailed in the post:
Multiple fixes and tuning for the Gnasher Shotgun
Multiple fixes for Frag Grenades, Boomshot, and Torque Bow
Tuning for footstep audio and other sounds around a player
King of the Hill improvements, including ability for the developer to adjust more settings for competitive play
Removed active down from active reloaded Longshot sniper rifle and added/tuned active bonus for sniper bloom/aim
Bug fixes and tuning for skill-based matchmaking
Tuned red/blue colors for team shaders (Locust/COG)
Improved look of blood and gore in gameplay
Improved game performance to reduce screen tearing
Bug fixes and tuning for controller sensitivity settings
Various bug fixes on maps, weapons, matchmaking, audio, and controls
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is a remaster of Gears of War, which was released in 2006. It's in development primarily at Splash Damage with assistance from The Coalition, the studio responsible for Gears of War 4. The remaster includes all 19 original multiplayer maps, split-screen and LAN support, and all original game modes plus Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill. During the beta test, over one million matches were played. It launches on August 25 for Xbox One and on an unspecified later date for the PC.
Troy Baker's performance as Far Cry 4 antagonist Pagan Min is among that game's most memorable elements, right there alongside trampling an enemy base on the back of an elephant. But Baker's audition to get that role sounds as if it might have been even more interesting than anything Min does in the game.
During a recent Q&A panel at Indy PopCon 2015, Baker recounted his experience of trying out for the role, elaborating on what he told GameSpot last year. While there was a script he was meant to follow, Baker said, "That went bye-bye very quickly." In particular, he went off the rails when an assistant walked into the audition room partway through the scene.
"And I just remember, I was talking like this [begins speaking like Min], and all of a sudden she walks in and I said, 'I'm sorry, who is this? Who is this walking into this room right now. No no no, don't leave, sit down.' And she's looking at me like, 'I don't know what...'
Back in Min's voice, Baker continued, "Have a seat, please. Make yourself comfortable. Would you like some coffee that she brought in? It looks very delicious. Now here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to murder her right in front of you."
While the assistant looked bewildered, Baker recalled, "Meanwhile, the team's going, 'This is it! This has got to be the one!'" He followed all of this up with a more specific threat, saying as Min, "I'm going to peel your face off and put it on my own. It'll be the most glorious makeover I've ever had!"
Baker remarked on how much he appreciated having that much freedom to explore the character, but he noted that he only received it because he had "built some level of trust through other performances that made them go, 'Let him go.' If they had never heard of me, if I'd never done anything before and I did that, maybe it works, but otherwise they're like, 'We wrote a script. We'd like for you to do that if you don't mind.'"
Publisher Ubisoft revealed a new expansion for Trials Fusion called Awesome Level Max at E3, and today we got our first look at its gameplay in a new trailer.
As teased at E3, Awesome Level Max will let you play as a cat riding a unicorn, a pretty significant change from the ATVs and motocross bikes that you normally use. Players will also be able to use the unicorn alongside others using bikes in the game's multiplayer mode. It appears that the animal will have the same physics as bikes when riding it.
Also notable is the cat, which wears a bandana and wields a pistol.
Additionally, the trailer shows off some of the new challenges coming to the game. One of them causes your bike to shake uncontrollably, and another requires you to ride around with a massive bobblehead.
Trials Fusion: Awesome Level Max consists of two parts: the Awesome Adventure, which features the unicorn, and Red Lynx vs. All Stars, which showcases the best community-made maps. It launches on July 14 for PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.
The Xbox 360's infamous "Red Ring of Death" hardware problem was one of the biggest storylines of the last generation of consoles. Now, one of the video game executives at the heart of the struggle, Peter Moore, has revisited the issue that ended up costing Microsoft over $1 billion when all was said and done.
"It was sickening," Moore, a former Microsoft corporate vice president who now works as the CFO for Electronic Arts, said about the Red Ring of Death issue as part of a new IGN podcast.
"I took a lot of the abuse because I was the face of it," Moore added. "It was ultimately on me. But this was a thing that we actually couldn't figure out what was going on."
Microsoft later discovered that the issue was triggered when the console got too hot. At this point, the system would stop working, and three red lights would appear.
Moore went on to say that he vividly remembers telling then-Xbox boss Robbie Bach about the problem.
"'I think we could have a billion-dollar problem here,'" Moore remembers telling Bach all those years ago. "As we started to do the analysis of what was going on, we were getting the defectives in...it was a challenging problem for our engineers. We couldn't quite figure out what it was; we knew it was heat-related and there were all kinds of [temporary] fixes."
One such trick, which Microsoft never officially endorsed, involved wrapping the affected Xbox 360 in a towel. Doing this brought the console back to life, but only for a short while.
Also during the podcast, Moore recounted an even more important meeting about the hardware issue, this one with none other than Steve Ballmer, who was CEO of Microsoft at the time. Moore's team devised a plan to remedy the situation that involved Microsoft shipping affected customers FedEx boxes which they would then pack their console into and send it back to Microsoft for fixing or replacement.
All of this is to say, it wasn't going to be cheap.
"I calculated with my finance team [a cost of] $1.15 billion," Moore said. "I always remember $240 million of that was [for] FedEx. Their stock must have gone through the roof."
"I am trembling, sat in front of Steve, who I love to death, but he can be an intimidating human being. And Steve said, 'OK, talk me through this,'" Moore added. "I said, 'If we don't do this, this brand is dead.'"
"If we hadn't made that decision there and then, and instead tried to fudge over this problem, then the Xbox brand and Xbox One wouldn't exist today" -- Moore
Moore referred to this as a "Tylenol moment." This is in reference to a series of deaths in the 1980s that were the result of tainted pills. Tylenol owner Johnson & Johnson removed all capsules from sale and took a brief hit. Something somewhat similar was happening with Microsoft and the Xbox 360.
Ballmer agreed to Moore's proposal, even though it meant a billion-dollar loss.
"He said, 'Do it,'" Moore remembers. "There was no hesitation. And I'm thinking, 'I'm about to crater Microsoft's stock'. But actually, nothing moved."
"If you're an Xbox gamer, you can thank Steve Ballmer for not even hesitating," he added. "Now, we were a wealthy company that could afford to do that. But not even hesitating because the brand was more important. If we hadn't made that decision there and then, and instead tried to fudge over this problem, then the Xbox brand and Xbox One wouldn't exist today."
Asked how the entire Red Ring of Death situation made him feel, personally, Moore replied that it was stomach-churning time.
"It was sickening because I was doing a lot of interviews, and it's not like today with social media which would have been horrific, but we were trying to figure it out. We couldn't figure it out," he said.
Ultimately, Moore thinks Microsoft made the right call. In his estimation, the Xbox brand is now worth three or four times more than the $1 billion hit it took to fix the issue. And had that not been cleared up, the Xbox One "wouldn't have happened," Moore said.
IGN's full podcast is hugely fascinating, as not only Moore, but Xbox designer Seamus Blackley and current Xbox boss Phil Spencer also appear. They discuss all manner of topics that Xbox fans might find interesting, from the origins of Xbox to the Xbox One and the future.
Much as it did last year, Microsoft is giving away 20 custom Xbox One systems as part of San Diego Comic-Con, including consoles themed around Gears of War, Halo 5, Game of Thrones, and more.
While you will need to attend Comic-Con next week in order to see all 20 systems in-person, you can still win one without stepping foot inside of California. You can enter to win in one of three ways. One involves taking a photo of a console at the show and posting it to Twitter or Instagram with certain hashtags, but the other two methods don't require you to leave your couch.
During Comic-Con, you can look for the SDCC Collectible Console Sweepstakes section on an Xbox 360 or Xbox One to enter by July 12. Alternatively, you can follow the official Xbox account on Twitter and retweet a message (which has yet to be published) to win the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition-themed console.
Unfortunately, the sweepstakes are limited to those living in the United States, and you'll need to be at least 13 years old to win. You can check out all the rules here (PDF link).
Some of the systems--like the Madden and Lego Dimensions ones--are a bit lacking in their design, while others (like the Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 one above) are much nicer-looking. Let us know your favorites in the comments.
Called Alison Road, the game tasks players with exploring a house and uncovering the secrets of supernatural events happening within. The main character wakes up with no idea what happened in the house and must figure out the mystery while being stalked by a creature.
The catch is, you only have five nights to try to solve the puzzle. If the clock hits 3 AM on the last day, you will fail the game.
In the prototype gameplay video that developer Lilith posted, the game clearly echoes P.T. The character moves through narrow corridors in a house, the "enemy" is a girl-like figure that follows you through the hallways, and there's even a PlayStation controller in one of the rooms and a phrase from P.T. written on a picture frame. You can find the sentence, "Dad is such a drag," in Alison Road, which was said in P.T.
The game was Greenlit on Steam within two days of going live, and the studio will soon launch a Kickstarter. It's being made for PC and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and is planned for later in 2016. You can check out the 13-minute prototype video below.
Anki has announced that Anki Overdrive, its new racing game, will begin shipping on September 20 in the US, Canada, UK, and Germany. Like its predecessor, Anki Drive, this is a racing game with a twist: It features a physical track that has toy cars racing along it.
In addition to returning game modes like the self-explanatory Race and Battle (cars can be equipped with virtual weapons, as in a kart-racing game), Overdrive introduces two new modes. Time Trial has you trying to set the best lap time possible, while King of the Hill tasks players with being in first place for the longest amount of time.
Also new to Overdrive is a modular track. With the pieces included in the starter kit, you're able to build eight different tracks. This number grows further by buying expansion kits; what start out as relatively simple arrangements can turn into something much more elaborate, like what you see below.
Overdrive is played using a mobile device by downloading the Overdrive app. The cars can be (virtually) customized with new weapons and upgrades, and Anki--which is a robotics and AI company, rather than a game developer--claims the AI "allows each car to fully control itself on the track and use diverse strategies to fight to the finish."
The game promises to offer a much different experience than picking up the latest Forza or Need for Speed later this year, but it comes at a cost. In addition to the iOS or Android device each player needs, the starter kit is priced at $150. This comes with 10 track pieces, two cars, a charging platform, and a tire-cleaner. Unspecified new modes and features will be released for free post-launch, and the game supports tracks and cars from Anki Drive.
In July 2012, GameStop CEO Paul Raines revealed that his company was interested in applying its famous "buy, sell, trade" model to digital content. The retailer has even engaged in conversations with some European startups to use their technology for such a system. Three years later, GameStop remains interested in such a move, though there are some roadblocks currently in the way.
"It's still an opportunity that's out there," GameStop merchandising director Eric Bright told GameSpot during a meeting at E3 last month.
Among the reasons why GameStop hasn't made any moves just yet, according to Bright, is that "digital penetration is still at its infancy overall" across the video game industry. But one day in the future, you might be able to buy "used" digital games from GameStop.
"I think as the marketplace grows, it's certainly something that we're interested in and we'll continue to look at," Bright explained.
Selling secondhand digital content is already commonplace in some PC games. But on consoles, digital content is often licensed to one profile, and then it cannot be transferred. But it appears GameStop is intent on changing this, even if it takes a while.
According to previous comments from GameStop executive vice president Mike Hogan, such a system would require a partnership between retailers like GameStop and publishers. Last year, Hogan said GameStop was already having conversations with platform-holders like Microsoft and Sony to determine how they can work together for a used sales model for downloadable games.
While Sony hasn't weighed in on the matter, senior Xbox director Albert Penello said in September 2013 that support for trading, loaning, and reselling of digital Xbox One games will come sometime down the road. "I think we need to do that. That has to be part of the [Xbox One] experience," Penello said at the time.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's Supremacy DLC, the latest map pack to come to the game, is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC.
Coming a month after it launched on Xbox One and Xbox 360, the DLC contains four multiplayer maps and an Exo Zombies level. The maps include Skyrise, a remake of the classic Modern Warfare 2 map Highrise. The Exo Zombies level, called Carrier, features Bruce Campbell as part of its cast and tasks players with holding off zombies on an aircraft carrier.
The other maps are Parliament, Kremlin, and Compound. The Supremacy map pack costs $15, but it is included with the $50 season pass.
Supremacy follows the Ascendance and Havoc map packs. There's still another content drop, called Reckoning, planned for Advanced Warfare. Activision hasn't said anything about the upcoming map pack, but keep an eye on GameSpot for news as it becomes available.
Microsoft's Xbox Ultimate Game Sale returns next week, when tons of Xbox 360 and Xbox One titles will be offered at deep discounts. Now, Microsoft has announced some of the discounted games.
Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has published a teaser video that reveals some of the games that will be on sale, including Far Cry 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Goat Simulator, among many others. A written list is also available below, but specific prices have not yet been announced.
Here is a sneak peak of the Ultimate Game Sale, 70 of the best deals we’ll offer all summer starting 7 July pic.twitter.com/ueEbarqoJb
With manufacturing for Nintendo's new console, the NX, reportedly set to begin in October with the console itself potentially launching next year, some may be wondering what that might mean for the company's existing platforms like the Wii U and 3DS. According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, Nintendo will continue to support those platforms, even after the launch of the NX.
"NX is a new platform, so the installed base will have to be built up from zero," Iwata said during a recent shareholder presentation, the English translation of which was published on Thursday.
"When NX is launched, there already will be a certain volume of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U hardware widely existing in the market, so from a software business perspective, it would be highly inefficient to stop releasing titles for Nintendo 3DS or Wii U right after the launch of NX," he added.
Iwata went on to say that Nintendo is currently holding discussions with internal and external developers about "how to continue creating software for Wii U and 3DS" after the launch of the NX.
"As for Wii U, we will continue to make efforts, as it is a priority within the company to think about how we can satisfy the consumers who purchased this system to the maximum extent possible," he added.
Also during the shareholder meeting, Iwata acknowledged that the Wii U has struggled, saying to an investor, "I cannot disagree with your indication that Wii U is experiencing the most unfavorable situation."
But he hopes that things can be different for the NX.
"I will not share details on NX today but with regard to the launch of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U not necessarily having progressed well and not acquiring sufficient support from software publishers, we intend to offer NX through a Nintendo-like solution," he said. "Thank you for understanding that we are making various considerations and preparations in order to avoid what happened with the previous generations."
What would you like to see from Nintendo's NX? Let us know in the comments below.
The Android version of popular Fallout mobile game Fallout Shelter should launch sometime in August.
That's according to Bethesda marketing executive Pete Hines, who shared the release window on Twitter in an exchange with a fan.
"Coming along nice," Hines said about the Android edition. "Haven't announced a date, but should be out next month. We'll let you know when we have specifics."
Nintendo made a number of exciting announcements at E3 2015 last month, but not everyone was impressed with what the company had to show. Now, Nintendo executives Satoru Iwata (president) and Shigeru Miyamoto (managing director) have responded to criticisms about the company's lineup.
As part of a recent shareholder meeting, the English translation of which was published Thursday, Miyamoto explained that Nintendo decided to focus on games that would have a "direct effect on our business in the near term."
"Since we mainly included the software that would be released before the end of this year, the entire software lineup appeared to be small," he said. "And because we did not include a number of third-party titles, we must've ended up giving people the impression that not so many titles will be released on our platforms in future."
"As for future titles, since we only introduced the software to be sold early next year, we acknowledge the criticism from our fans that we failed to excite them with new proposals," Miyamoto added.
At the same time, however, Miyamoto said he had a "solid feeling" that people who actually got to visit Nintendo's booth on the E3 show floor liked what they saw and appreciated the fact that they would have to wait months--not years--to play the games. This differs from the approach of Microsoft and Sony.
"Other than Nintendo, the major hardware manufacturers, Sony and Microsoft, also had booths, and I got the general impression that they were showcasing not only the products for this year but also many products for next year or the year after and, because of that, introductions for many of their software titles were done visually, not with playable demos," he said.
"At this year's E3, I noticed a number of dream-like demonstrations for which the schedule and format for commercialization are unknown," he said. "The current software for these virtual reality devices cannot be played simultaneously by a number of people, and since it is generally expected that the development for the applicable software for a high-performance device will take two to three years, there were a number of visual demonstrations for virtual reality devices."
Also as part of the shareholder meeting, Iwata offered a similar defense of Nintendo's E3 2015 lineup.
"We recognize that we have let down a number of the online viewers of this year's E3, especially the avid Nintendo fans, because we did not show what they had expected," he started off.
"On the other hand, since E3 was originally a U.S. trade show, when we consider what kind of messages we should dispatch and in what fashion, while we have to take into consideration the impression that we may give to people outside the U.S., we have been very mindful about how we can maximize our immediate business in the U.S. this year."
Another one of Nintendo's big E3 announcements, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, has been somewhat controversial. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime didn't shy away from acknowledging the pessimistic reaction of fans to the 2016 3DS game. "The reaction has been negative. There's no sugar coating it," Fils-Aime said in an interview.
What did you make of Nintendo's E3 lineup this year? Let us know in the comments below.
Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order was "very surprised" by the fact that the SimCity-like simulation PC game enjoyed such strong sales, reaching 1 million copies sold in one month. In an new interview with TechRadar, CEO Mariina Hallikainen said seeing the game sell so well has also been "very exciting."
"To be honest I was very surprised because we're a very small company, and [publisher Paradox] isn't a massive publisher," Hallikainen said. "If you think about the budgets for marketing and the game itself, the ability we have is amazing. There's almost this blurred line between what is creating and what is playing--and people have been sharing their creations with the world."
Hallikainen pointed out that the Steam Workshop for Cities: Skylines currently has more than 45,000 items, a figure she described as "mind-blowing."
"It's definitely something we didn't see happening so fast. I was hoping that Cities: Skylines might be the game that sells over a million copies in three years or something, and it happened in just over a month," Hallikainen explained. "It's very exciting."
Also in the interview, Hallikainen teased that Colossal Order will announce a "big expansion," along with some more free and paid content for the game, during Gamescom in August.
In GameSpot's 8/10 Cities: Skylines review, real-life mayor Brett Todd wrote: "Right now, there is no better way to take a peek at life as a mayor without filing your papers to run for office in the real world."
We already knew that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour would be missing Augusta National, the site of the iconic Masters tournament, but now we know other premiere courses also won't be found in the base package. EA Sports has confirmed that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will ship with just eight courses on day one, down significantly from the most recent entry in the series, 2013's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14.
The following eight courses are included with Rory McIlroy PGA Tour at launch:
Wolf Creek (Mesquite, Nevada)
TPC Sawgrass (Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida)
Royal Troon (South Ayrshire, Scotland)
TPC Boston (Boston, Massachusetts)
Bay Hill (Orlando, Florida)
Whistling Straits (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)
St. Andrews (St. Andrews, Scotland)
Chambers Bay (Puget Sound, Washington)
Golf fans will no doubt notice that famous courses like Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines, among others, are missing. It's also worth pointing out that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will include a handful of "fantasy" courses that are totally invented and not based on any real-world location.
EA Sports has also confirmed the twelve professional golfers that will appear in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour at launch. According to Operation Sports, they are:
Rory McIlroy
Jordan Spieth
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Ian Poulter
Hunter Mahan
Brandt Snedeker
Keegan Bradley
Rickie Fowler
Jonas Blixt
Jason Dufner
Patrick Rodgers
Martin Kaymer
Not satisfied with the current lineup of courses and golfers? If so, you may be happy to learn that EA Sports is planning free, post-launch content updates, the developer announced on Twitter.
@bbury10 Hey Brad, we'll be delivering free content updates post-launch.
In addition, designer Justin Patel writes in the Operation Sports forums that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will not be an annual release. Instead, EA Sports is treating the game more like a platform, releasing new content over time instead of all at once. EA Sports UFC took a similar approach.
The game was originally expected to launch in June, but was later delayed so that EA could make sure the online infrastructure will be smooth and stable at release. Launching during the same week as the Open Championship at St. Andrews certainly doesn't hurt either.
Nintendo could begin assembly of its next games console, the Nintendo NX, as soon as October, if a report by a Taipei-based news organisation is to be believed.
Taiwan-based Digitimes claims that Nintendo has inked a contract with manufacturing giant Foxconn Electronics, and wants the group to begin pilot assembly on the new machine by October "at the latest." Foxconn, which is also based in Taiwan, is believed to employ close to one million people, and is known to be the manufacturer of numerous Apple devices such as the iPhone.
Digitimes' information, purportedly obtained by an inside source, could not be verified by time of going to press. GameSpot has contacted Nintendo for comment.
Given the working title the NX, Nintendo is expected to reveal its new console on or before E3 2016, with a release earmarked for later that year.
However, the Digitimes report claims that "mass production will start in May or June 2016, while the console's official launch may take place around July."
It is also claimed that Nintendo is preparing to ship 20 million Nintendo NX systems in its first year.
Meanwhile, the Kyoto corporation will apparently continue to wind down manufacturing of its commercially unsuccessful Wii U system, with shipment volumes at about two million units in 2015. This claim has not been officially confirmed by Nintendo.
As of March, Nintendo has shipped about 9.5 million Wii U systems worldwide since launch in 2012. Unless sales climb dramatically, the Wii U will be Nintendo's worst-selling main console in the company's history.
However, in April the corporation managed to balance its finances and deliver an annual operating profit for the first time in four years.
The Nintendo NX was first announced in March. Although it is implied that the system is a home console and not a handheld, no key details have been released yet.
If the manufacturing story is accurate, it would suggest that the corporation has a final idea on how the product will look, and what components it will use.
Risen and Gothic creator Piranha Bytes has announced its next game, and it certainly sounds ambitious.
The game is called ELEX, and it's described as an "Eclectic, Lavish, Exhilarating, Xenial" open-world role-playing game. The game is being developed in collaboration with Darksiders publisher Nordic Games, and is due to launch in winter 2016/2016 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
"This is by far the most ambitious project for Piranha Bytes and Nordic Games to-date," developers said in a statement.
Nordic Games director Reinhard Pollice said in a statement, "ELEX is going to be edgy, dark, uncompromising, complex, and we love it already." The game's own website says ELEX is set in a "brand new post-apocalyptic science-fantasy universe."
The game "puts players into a huge seamless game world full of original characters, mutated creatures, deep moral choices, and powerful action," according to its official description.
ELEX will make its public debut at Gamescom in August. Unfortunately, no videos or images outside of the one above have been released to date. Gamescom begins in early August.
We'll have more on ELEX as it becomes available. Are you intrigued by what you've heard so far? Let us know in the comments below.
Universal Pictures has released the first full-length trailer for Steve Jobs, the upcoming biopic about the legendary Apple designer who passed away in 2011. This spot follows a teaser trailer released in May.
The movie, called Steve Jobs, is directed by Danny Boyle, who won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. It also stars Seth Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Kate Winslet as Macintosh developer Joanna Hoffman, and Jeff Daniels as former Apple CEO John Sculley.
It's a riveting trailer, offering something of a darker take on the iconic Apple visionary and his life. On display in the video are a series of gripping scenes, including Jobs butting heads with the Apple executives and some tense encounters with Chrisann Brennan, the mother of his first child, Lisa.
Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) wrote the the screenplay for Steve Jobs. The movie is based on author Walter Isaacson's biography and hits theaters on October 9.
This is not the first movie based on the life of Steve Jobs, who died in 2011. In 2013, Ashton Kutcher starred as Jobs alongside Josh Gad as Wozniak in the movie Jobs.
Fassbender is also slated to play the lead role in the upcoming Assassin's Creed movie, which is scheduled to start filming in September.
As part of the guilty plea, Yee, 66, admitted his participation in two "criminal enterprises" related to his 2011 mayoral campaign and his Secretary of State campaign, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. You can see a summary of what Yee admitted to below.
Accepted $10,000 in exchange for using his influence as a state senator to assist in the process of obtaining a grant from the California Department of Public Health
Conspired to extort money from individuals by suggesting he would cast favorable votes for specific legislation only if the money were paid
Accepted a $11,000 bribe in exchange for arranging a meeting with another state senator to discuss specific legislation
Conspired with others to purchase weapons in the Philippines and import them illegally into the United States
Provided more than $6,000 in cash to a campaign aid knowing the aid would launder the money by arranging to convert the cash into checks made payable to Yee's Secretary of State campaign.
Yee was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2015. As part of his new plea agreement, Yee pleaded guilty to the racketeering charges mentioned above, while other charges--including conspiracy to traffic in firearms--have been dismissed, according to the release.
"Mr. Yee must now live with the consequences of betraying the trust that was placed in him when he became a public servant," US attorney Melinda Haag said in a statement. "It is particularly disappointing and troubling when our elected officials violate their obligation to fairly represent their constituents. This office will continue to devote the resources necessary to ensure that our elected officials govern within the law."
"Senator Yee's admission of guilt today brings some measure of justice to the true victims of his crimes: the people of the state of California," FBI special agent David Johnson added. "When a public official uses his office for personal gain and as a platform for illegal activity, he not only betrays the people who elected him to office, but undermines the core principles of our system of government."
Yee is currently free pending a sentencing hearing. Sentencing will take place on October 21, 2015 in San Francisco. Yee faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Some of Yee's other former associates have also pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and more. More information about the cases, including full court documents, are available here.
The next game from Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Desilets is aiming to be "Civilization tech tree meets Assassin's Creed." That's the phrase Desilets himself used to describe the title, a third-person action-survival game called Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, in a new interview with Kotaku.
The game certainly sounds ambitious, beginning with the dawn of humanity and running all the way through to humankind's command of the world.
"For me, it's fascinating that those little one-meter chimp with a kind of weird brain kind of took control of this planet and is totally destroying it," Desilets said. "Your character and family will have the scars of your decisions... We're not into caveman yet, we're before that. We go up."
Ancestors is currently in development at Desilets' new game studio, Panache Digital Games. A team of seven people are working on it right now. We've only seen one trailer, released last month during E3, and it didn't show much gameplay. But Desilets said he's hoping to have a playable version to show next year.
"The first-draft character is in it," Desilets said, explaining that players will begin their journey as a a pre-human Orrorin Tugenensis. "We're working on behaviors, how you work with the jungle."
Players will later take on other forms as part of the process of evolution. The game will play out as a series of episodes.
"We do an action sequence telling you the first time when we stood up," Desilets said. "We let you sprint, see forward then leave you in an open world and you survive as long as you can. In a later chapter you will eventually have a family that needs to survive, a tribe that needs to survive, but that is in the next chapters."
Last month, Desilets spoke out how much room video games still have to grow.
"The goal is to someday build the Titanic for games," he said, referencing James Cameron's iconic 1997 film. "For that you need characters that are not assassins. It's all about trying to come up with subject matters that are more than, 'I'm shooting stuff, but I have emotion' that I feel games are stuck in."
The first of July's free Xbox games through the Games With Gold promotion are now available on Xbox Live, including Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag for Xbox One and Plants vs. Zombies on Xbox 360. Of course, you'll need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to pick up the free games.
If you're at school or work, you can use the links below to queue up your downloads right now.
As announced last week, Microsoft's Games With Gold promotion will now include two new Xbox One games every month. This month's other free Xbox One game is So Many Me.
You can see the full rundown of July's Games With Gold titles for Xbox One and Xbox 360 below.
Considering the recently announced Xbox One backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 games, it's a good idea to pick up the last-generation offerings this month. Even though these specific games aren't playable yet on the Xbox One, Microsoft is planning to support more titles in the coming months.
By Rob Crossley on Jul 02, 2015 04:13 pm Microsoft launched the Xbox One across China in September, making it the first system to market
The long-awaited releases of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in china may not yield the kind of sales that both Microsoft and Sony had hoped for, according to one Asia business analyst group.
Sales monitor Niko Partners has published data that suggests the official sales of both systems in China would reach fewer than 550,000 units, combined, in 2015.
With an estimated population of 1.35 billion and a growing middle-class, China is considered to potentially be the world's largest market for video games. In April, the electronics giant Apple revealed that iPhone sales in China had surpassed those in the US for the first time, offering further indications of a growing base of Chinese consumers with a disposable income.
However, the release of both consoles across the region has come with complications.
While Microsoft had previously spoken of its ambition to "earn millions of fans in China," and while it was rumoured that the console sold some 100,000 units at launch, Microsoft has yet to publicise sales figures.
According to PC World, Microsoft has since dropped the price of the system from 3699 Yuan ($600) to 2999 Yuan in order to stimulate sales.
Key games, such as Grand Theft Auto V and editions of Call of Duty, have yet to be released across the region, likely due to sensitive laws on mature content.
Fans of Star Wars Battlefront have begun to share new details about DICE's multiplayer shooter by peeking at the Alpha download file that is set to be deployed on Thursday.
Fresh information about the game--which re-enacts key battles from Star Wars Episodes IV, V, and VI--was first published on the forum NeoGAF. The website lists a range of weapons and vehicles that appears to be accessible to players under certain conditions.
It is not clear how the data had leaked just hours before publisher Electronic Arts launches an alpha test of the game. The Battlefront Alpha is only available to a select few who registered their interest in late June.
From the files contained within the alpha download, weapons available in-game include the E11, A280, DH17, DL44, DLT19, DLT20a, EE3, Rocket Launcher, SE14c, and the T21. Some weapons may be locked to special characters, such as the EE3, which is likely tied to Boba Fett.
None of the data should be considered as a guarantee of the content that will appear in the final game, which ships on November 17.
The first screen-grab of the Battlefront Alpha, which is expected to launch in key territories on Thursday
Vehicles, meanwhile, include the T-65 X-wing, the Tie Fighter, Lambda Shuttle, Y-wing, Tie-Bomber, Corellian Corvette, Nebulon B Frigate, Imperial Star Destroyer, Mon Calamari Capital Ship Home One, AT-ST, AT-AT, Tie Interceptor, 74-Z Speeder Bike.
Among other notes taken from the alpha files, it appears that players will have a range of emote animations to select, such as an SOS signal, as well as a standard applause.
Storm Troopers, meanwhile, might be able to be customised and tweaked, though this has not been confirmed.
Meanwhile, the Tatooine map has both midday and dawn versions.
Star Wars Battlefront has been pitched by EA as its most important game release of 2015.
In a recent interview with GameSpot, DICE general manager Patrick Bach discussed the pressure of fan expectations placed on the studio.
"You want Battlefront to be as good as the films, which means that if we don't do that, players will be very upset. They will be very clear about that fact," he said.
More details surrounding Mortal Kombat X's upcoming new character Predator have leaked online. Posted by Eventhubs, the new content showcases the character's Fatality, Brutality, and gory win pose.
Try not to lose your head in the heat of battle.
Predator will be released in July, the third downloadable character released for Mortal Kombat X. Footage showcasing the character's gameplay had leaked earlier this week, which highlight finishing moves, variations, and more. Previously released downloadable characters include Jason Voorhees and Tanya. All three characters are available to be purchased individually or as part of the $30 Kombat Pack, which also includes Tremor.
Unreal Engine 4, the game engine from Epic Games that's behind titles like EVE: Valkyrie and Street Fighter 5, has been used to create some amazing projects. New scenes from a UE user, however, might just be the most photorealistic.
User Koola posted a couple of screenshots and a short video from an environment he or she is working on to the Unreal Engine forums, and the results are unbelievable. One of the scenes illustrates a beach and tide pools, and another is of a lava flow. Both look like photographs at first glance, but were actually created entirely within the engine.
Koola also posted a short video of a flyby of the beach scene, showing off the light's interaction with the environment and the fidelity of the reflections.
UE 4 has had several tech demos in the past showcasing what it's capable of, including the "Infiltrator" tech demo. Recently, a team also put together a real-time demo of a Parisian apartment called Unreal Paris.
You can watch the video of Koola's scene below, which is running real-time in-engine:
The International, Valve's Dota 2 tournament, has just crossed $15 million in prize money. In comparison, 2014's tournament raised almost $11 million.
The International raises money for its prize pool through crowdfunding. Valve, the developer of Dota 2, sells an in-game collection of items, called the Compendium, for $10. A quarter of each Compendium sale goes into the prize pool. Valve itself contributed $1.6 million to start the pool, so players have been responsible for over $13 million.
Courtesy of Dota 2 Prize Pool Tracker
This also means that Valve is making a lot of money on sales of the Compendium, receiving 75% of each purchase.
The International 2015's prize pool blew past last year's total, which itself was the largest esports prize pool ever. The prize money for this year's tournament exceeds the pool for the 2015 Masters golf tournament, which was only $10 million.
As of now, every single sales goal for the Compendium has been met; the last one was unlocked at the $15 million mark. Valve may create new stretch goals, but for now everything possible has been unlocked by the community. These in-game items are available to everyone who owns a Compendium, and they include couriers, weather effects, and announcers.
Street Fighter 5 comes out sometime in early 2016, but Capcom is already letting people play it.
Today the company announced that it is bringing the game to Six Flags theme parks across the country for certain periods of time. Set up in booths in the parks, the game will be playable for the general public to come and check it out. The booths will be open each day of the week for people to try the demos. On Saturdays, 8-person tournaments in single-elimination format will take place with rewards for top players.
Street Fighter 5 booths will open at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California tomorrow, July 2, and they will be there until July 7. Over the next two months, the game will be playable at the following Six Flags parks:
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom -- July 2-7
Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington, Texas) -- July 4-7
Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California) -- July 6-December 31
Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio, Texas) -- July 13-19
Six Flags Over St. Louis (Eureka, Missouri) -- July 27-August 2
Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell, Georgia) -- July 27-August 2
Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, Illinois) -- August 10-16
Six Flags America (Bowie, Maryland) -- August 10-16
Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, New Jersey) -- August 24-30
Six Flags New England (Agawam, Massachusetts) -- August 24-30
Star Wars Battlefront is in development at DICE, the studio best known for its work on the Battlefield series. However, the developer promises that its legacy does not mean that Battlefront will simply be a Battlefield game with a Star Wars theme.
In an interview with The Guardian, DICE general manager Patrick Bach put to rest concerns about the upcoming game and its potential similarity to Battlefield. Battlefront does not have squads or deep loadout customization, nor does it have expansive environmental destruction, all features of Battlefield. Rather, Bach stated that the developer is focusing more on what made the first two Battlefront games great.
"We have a strong legacy with Battlefield, but we did not want this to be a Battlefield game," he explained. "We wanted it to have a heart and soul of its own. We came at it from a very different angle. We know that the core audience of a game like this is different to the Battlefield audience. There's a crossover, but Star Wars fans expect a Star Wars game, not a Battlefield game. We looked at what Star Wars stands for, rather than asking how can we tweak Battlefield to be something else."
Bach also said that the developer has been getting concerns about the game being not enough like Battlefield. After E3, however, those complaints went away: "We've had to accept the fact that people will be upset with us until they get to play it. And when people did play it at E3 almost all the negativity went away. We stayed true to what we believed in, and when people saw it, they got it, they agreed that this is a game on its own, it is not Battlefield, and they liked it."
Call of Duty games have generally featured epic, chaotic single-player campaigns, but few have attempted to make a deep and expansive narrative. According to developer Treyarch, the upcoming Black Ops 3 will try to change that
In an interview with Polygon, studio head Mark Lamia and campaign director Jason Blundell spoke about how the team is crafting a story that's more comprehensive than the past two Black Ops games. They are creating a story so big, in fact, that there will be an in-game encyclopedia of sorts for Black Ops 3's lore.
"We have a detailed wiki-like thing in the game," Lamia explained. "We have detailed out the world. We have a full history of where the EU goes. It's our fiction, but it's as we have projected it out, literally, in more detail than we've ever done."
He continued: "We're giving [the lore] to the player this time. This is stuff we usually do anyway, with our research. How do we come up with these settings? We literally just did our research and project out. We're fortunate to have experts we can talk to. We've become futurist experts ourselves, living in this subject matter for so long. That's going to be there for the player. It's important."
With its heavy emphasis on futurism and advanced technology, it might be difficult to create a grounded narrative, relatable to players. Blundell acknowledged this difficulty and stated that the team is also trying to focus on the parts of their high-tech futuristic world that are the same in the present.
"People are still people, in Elizabethan times or today," he said. "Still the same drives, still the same anger and frustration. These things are all universal. They haven't changed since back in the old days. When you mix geopolitics or technological enhancements, be it the DNI or the invention of gunpowder, it's the same concepts, the same drives, the same fears that come out. That helps us keep in line when we're moving the story forward."
Finally, Blundell mentioned the possibility of historical set-piece levels in Black Ops 3. Although he didn't confirm anything, Blundell hinted that the team has not revealed all of where Black Ops 3 will take place.
"We like to go back in history," he responded. "Black Ops 1 even has a few World War II moments. Black Ops 2 had some levels in the '80s, taking on that part of the Cold War. We haven't talked about all of where Black Ops 3 takes us. But if the setting is meaningful to the story, you'll understand. It's just a creative place for us."
Retailer Best Buy has scored another Amiibo exclusive.
The retailer announced on Wednesday that it will be the only store to sell the Dark Pit Amiibo when it launches on July 31 for $13.
This Amiibo is not available for preorder, and Best Buy warns that supply will be "limited." The toys will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, and shoppers can only purchase one.
No comments:
Post a Comment