Halo 5 - Release Date Announced

 

 



The Halo 5: Guardians release date has been announced, October 27th. The release date was announced via two new trailers for the game that depicted a scenario between the Master Chief and Agent Locke. In one trailer, Locke discovers the Master Chief dying beneath a statue of his likeness, giving a final speech that he (Master Chief) is a traitor. Agent Locke readies his pistol to finish off the Master Chief. Whilst, in the other trailer, the Master Chief finds Agent Locke giving the same speech, beneath the same statue. Both videos end with the hashtag:

"#HuntTheTRUTH"

- Halo 5: Guardians, Master Chief Trailer, Spartan Locke Trailer

Now, a lot of the marketing for Halo 5: Guardians seems to point towards the Master Chief being a traitor. In a trailer depicting the Master Chief's helmet getting smashed, you can see a bullet with the word "TRAITOR" etched onto it.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens when the game is released on October 27th, provided it does not get delayed further. Seems like the story for the 5th Halo instalment is going to have some major plot twists, and some interesting story points.

The Best Selling Game - CoD VS GTA

 

 

Activision just released an info graphic for the Call of Duty series. And, it is not the biggest selling game series because GTA is still huge, especially with the upcoming release of GTA 5 for PC, the pre-orders for GTA 5 (PC) have helped a great deal in terms of helping GTA claim the title of "Best Selling Game of all Time".

 

One thing we like as gamers is how well our favourite game is doing. Through info graphics, we can learn how many unique actions have taken place (such as number of grenades thrown) or general statistics like how many copies of an entire franchise has sold. More or less, a way of hiding the fact that the developers love to brag about how well their game has sold. As mentioned previously, Activision has released a fresh new info graphic for the Call of Duty series, just to tell us how popular the Call of Duty franchise is. Info graphics are a fun way of learning cool statistics of how well your favourite game is doing and comparisons to real life scenarios. For example, the info graphic claims that over 100 billion multiplayer matches have been played, which is (if each CoD match equalled one professional game) equal to 390 million professional American football seasons, 263 million professional English football seasons, 81 million professional basketball seasons and finally 41 million professional baseball seasons.

 

Also according to the info graphic, 175 million copies have been sold across all platforms. And, since the franchise's launch over 10 years ago, there's been a copy of Call of Duty sold approximately every two seconds. These statistics are pretty impressive, and undoubtedly makes it one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, but the question still remains; is it the biggest?

 

The answer is no, according to Gamespot. Gamespot claims that the GTA franchise has sold over 185 million units by referencing a Take Two SSE File from 2014. The file claims that the GTA series has sold-in over 185 million units; which does not including GTA 5 copies sold on the PS4 or the Xbox One.

 

According to VGChartz, the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game have sold 8.6 million units which brings up the estimated total to 193 million units sold for the GTA series. However, what may be even bigger than both the GTA and COD series, is Tetris.

 

Tetris, according to Wikipedia, has sold over 135 million units. However, those statistics are only accounting for Game Boy and Mobile platforms, not including other platforms. So, if you account the sales for other platforms, that may put the total copies sold, for Tetris, over 200 million.

 

Nintendo's Mario series has definitely "sold" around 200 million units, however the games have been bundled with the consoles and as such are counted as "sales". Which means it is a rather inaccurate number because a lot of those copies may have been indirectly purchased through a bundle deal.

 

Even bigger, on mobile platforms, is Candy Crush Saga, which had about 500 million installs by February 2014. This is not including the recent release of Candy Crush: Soda and how well it has done in terms of installs/sales.

 

According to ThinkGaming.com, Candy Crush Saga and Candy Crush Soda, have a collective daily install amount of around 300,000, only on one platform; mobile. Candy Crush may have just taken the title when you take into account sales and installs.

 

But what about League of Legends? That's a huge game, and I bet it can compete. However, it is a hard comparison to make because Riot do not brag about how many installs they have, or how many registered accounts they have. What Riot lists is how many active users they have and this is most likely where gaming is going because it's about how much time and how many people you can attract to play the game on a regular basis; actual engagement matters most.

 

So, there seems to be a king for each platform: GTA for consoles, Candy Crush Saga for Mobile, and League of Legends for PC. Call of Duty is starting to decline, after what happened with Ghosts, a large amount of players began to brand Call of Duty as "copy and paste"; due to there being no innovation in recent releases except for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. However, the damage has been done and it will take a long line of respected annual releases for Call of Duty to regain it's title across the board. Franchises like GTA, are still on the incline. Candy Crush will most likely die out within a year or two, and as for League of Legends, it's still going strong.

 

 

 

 



Battlefield Hardline - DRM Woes

 

Battlefield Hardline has recently been "infected" with a nasty DRM. It was discovered by a user over at Guru3D.com. Guru3D.com specializes in benchmarking with different hardware setups. The user, known as Hilbert Hagedoom, had found that whilst benching Battlefield Hardline with different video cards, he had uncovered that the game has a form of DRM.

 

Whilst swapping out hardware, Hilbert went to boot the game up again only to be greeted by an error stating that the account's version of Battlefield Hardline had been accessed by too many different computers; suggesting to try again at a later time.

 

Unsurprisingly, PC gamers are up in arms as the dreaded DRM scheme may be returning, at least for EA games. It could spread like an infection, resulting in every game having a DRM. The reason why DRM is such a problem for PC gamers is because during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, not many developers were making games for PC. And when they did make a game, they would stuff it full with DRM schemes which would require PC gamers to jump through a load of loopholes just to get the game to run, and if your internet every cut out, you would get booted off the game entirely. They did this because they assumed their games would be pirated.

 

Thankfully, a time of peace has been thus far long lasting, but that could soon be all over if DRM policies are allowed to take root in our games again.

 

The form of DRM that Origin uses, is not all that bad. It creates a hash ID whenever you load up a game, and each time you play that game from another computer, that hash ID will change. If the ID changes too many times in too little a time frame, your account is locked out from playing that game for a period of time. Furthermore, if you play Battlefield, you've already agreed to this in the End User License Agreement of Origin, which states:

 

"You acknowledge and agree that the Application may use information regarding your computer, hardware and operating system to create an anonymous machine identifier for purposes of validating your license rights and updating the Application. Information accessed for this purpose is not stored in retrievable form."

 

- Origin End User License Agreement, License Grant and Terms of Use, Section C

 

This single quote, puts a bullet in any arguments in regards to a breach of privacy, as players have already agreed to this.

 

Furthermore, this form of DRM is not so much as a form of anti-piracy measure or anything nasty for that matter. It's designed to be an anti-cheating measure; meaning that when someone is cheating, EA can ban their hardware ID instead of their IP or account. Cheaters can easily remake accounts or spoof their IPs, but it's a lot harder to spoof hardware IDs.

 

Back in 2011, a Need for Speed: World user had asked for cheaters to be banned based on Hardware IDs. EA listened and now years later, what they did for the community has come back to bite them because one user was affected during the very rare case that you have a cartwheel's worth of video cards going into your PC.

 

I hope EA keeps this policy, as a hardware ID ban is the best way to ban a cheater and makes it a lot harder for them to come back.



No Live-Action Zelda on Netflix

Recent rumors about a live-action Zelda series on Netflix have been put to rest by Satoru Iwata, after a wall street journal report gave everyone hope that there may be a live-action Zelda series on it's way.

In response to the hype, Iwata said:

"As of now, I have nothing new to share with you in regard to the use of our IPs for any TV shows or films, but I can at least confirm that the article in question is not based on correct information."

- Satoru Iwata, Nintendo

It's saddening that there is no confirmed live-action Zelda series coming, however, Iwata has worded his comment carefully; so we may be getting something but just not in the form of what the wall street journal report mentioned.

Arkham Knight Delayed Again

 



Batman: Arkham Knight has been delayed again. The new release date is June 23rd and the information came with the release of Arkham Knight's latest gameplay video. The game was originally set to release in October last year but a few months prior to that release date, the game was delayed until June 2nd of this year (2015).

Arkham Knight's game director said:

''We're a developer that hates to make any compromises, so we are sorry to say this means it's going to be just a little bit longer until you can play the epic conclusion to the Arkham trilogy. As a reward for your patience and understanding, and to make the wait even more unbearable, we are pleased to whet your appetite with a new gameplay video.''

- Sefton Hill, Rocksteady

I am sure everyone can wait a little big longer for the final chapter in the Arkham trilogy, no one who is a fan would want anything but a satisfactory end to Batman's story and seeing as we've waited this long, why not wait just a little longer to get the perfect ending?

There might be some good news however, aside from the gameplay video, as a report has been circulating that fans will be getting Remastered Editions of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City for PS4 and Xbox One. However, it is just a rumor but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. Diehard fans love to see their favourite games brought back with extra graphical fidelity. Warner Brothers has yet to comment, so fans can only wait and hope.

 

 

The graphics that are being shown off in this fresh gameplay video are just jaw dropping. The animation is pristine and the texture quality (especially on Batman) is superb. Can't wait to see the final product; no one is sure as to why they delayed Arkham Knight once again but the most likely reason is that some last minute bugs have arisen during testing.

Free Windows Upgrade for Pirates

 

As we know, everyone on Windows 8 will be getting a free upgrade to Windows 10. However, what's new is that even people who have illegitimate copies will get a free upgrade to Windows 10. Seems like Microsoft really wants everyone to move over to Windows 10, but could it be bait to take down all the pirates?

 

It seems like Microsoft is extending a warm hand to show the pirates that their software is worth the purchase, by offering free upgrades. But undoubtedly this may irritate some people who have legitimately purchased the software, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was some sort of trap for all the years of their software being pirated. What if, when you upgraded to Windows 10 from a pirate copy, Microsoft would full-well know that you are using a pirated copy? And as such take legal action against all the people who have pirated copies. The community is split 50/50, some say they will give it a chance and if it is a great piece of software, they will pay for a legitimate license. Others are wary that it is a trap laid by Microsoft to expose all the pirates in one fell swoop.

 

In an interview with Terry Myerson, who runs Microsoft's operating systems unit, he said:

 

"We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10."

 

- Terry Myerson, Microsoft

 

A spokesperson for Microsoft followed up, to reaffirm the quote, that:

 

"Anyone with a qualified device can upgrade to Windows 10, including those with Pirated copies of Windows. We believe customers over time will realise the value of properly licensing Windows and we make it easy for them to move to legitimate copies."

 

- Microsoft Spokesperson

 

Microsoft really do want everyone to be on Windows 10, I guess what they'd like is for everyone to be on Windows 10, so that more apps are developed for it, which then means more users and so the cycle continues. They are even dropping Internet Explorer for a new web browser called "Spartan" named after the Master Chief, who is a Spartan.

 

Personally, I will get Windows 10 for DirectX 12, I think that'll do some good.

 

 

 





Predator to appear in Mortal Kombat X

 

 

Prepare yourselves, the most badass killing machine to have ever been conceived is set to appear in Mortal Kombat X. This has to be the only character to have been added to the Mortal Kombat universe that has me think twice about acquiring one of the games. The Predator, has come. I simply cannot wait to see the Predator in action, and of course, his trophy kills. One of the trophy kills will without a doubt be the Predator ripping his opponents head out, along with the spine.

 

The Predator has always been an interesting character when it comes to combat. They are honour-bound warriors who live to die in combat. They are Hunters that live to search for the deadliest, most thrilling prey to take down. These warriors live to die in combat.

 

There is some leaked DLC on Xbox.com that confirms that the Predator will be in the game. To quote:

 

"Kombat Pack grants early access to 4 new playable characters and skins. Stalk and slash your opponents as Horror Icon Jason Voorhees, or play as Predator, the Ultimate Hunter."

 

- Xbox.com, Mortal Kombat X, Kombat Pack DLC

 

It's exciting that new characters, owned by different companies are being introduced into Mortal Kombat. The Predator is owned by Fox, so we may even see future characters such as the Xenomorph or John McClane.

Would be awesome to see the Xenomorph VS the Predator though.

Minecraft Rules The YouTube Roost

It's no surprise that Minecraft is the most popular game being played on YouTube. Many YouTubers make their living by playing Minecraft. It's been of popular demand for quite a few years; Minecraft is so diverse and there are so many mods that you can apply to the game, to make it an entirely different game whilst still maintaining the core component; creativity. There's plenty of variety between the Minecraft YouTubers, but the question is, when will it end?

What comes up, must come down, and this rule also applies to Minecraft. Eventually, the hype around the game will cease and more than likely these YouTubers will have to find alternative methods of acquiring views. This is why I cringe a bit when I see a YouTube channel dedicated to a single game; that YouTuber, although famous, is only known for playing that one game. What happens when the public interest of that game dies out? The YouTuber's themselves may be getting bored of having to play the same game each day to make a living.

I play World of Warcraft, and I'd love to make a living off of YouTube just playing video games. However, if I was only known for playing for World of Warcraft, it'd become a chore more than a job after a while, as only WoW content would garner enough views to make a living. Everyone gets bored of a game they have been playing for a while straight, and this is no exception to YouTubers, or even Twitch Streamers.

Popular Twitch Streamer Bajheera, streams his WoW gameplay for around 5+ hours a day; he plays the game each day and you can tell he genuinely enjoys playing the game. However, there's no doubt that he must be thinking at times "Damn I wish I could play X game right now" instead of streaming.

He makes a sustainable living out of it, but one must get bored eventually. Same thing applies to Minecraft Streamers, such as DethridgeCraft, they must get bored.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that it'd be nice if a new game came over the horizon and took YouTube and Twitch by storm. I hope for the sake of people who make a living out of these games that they are thinking about alternative ways of making an income via YouTube; vary themselves in terms of content so that if one game dies out in terms of popularity, there's always another for them to play whilst still garnering views.

Gabe Newell says there is no Half-Life 3

 

Lord Gaben, formally known as Gabe Newell, has spoken. The news is sad, yet unsurprising thus far for fans of the Half-Life franchise.

 

Gabe says that there is no Half-Life 3 planned, at least for not a while. In a recent interview Gabe was discussing people's nostalgia in the past with franchises that they love, like Half-Life 3. He said that he understands them and their desire to continue their experiences with the franchise they love. Gabe then said:

 

"The only reason we'd go back and do like a supper classic kind of product is if a whole bunch of people just internally at Valve said they wanted to do it and had a reasonable explanation for why [they did]."

 

- Gabe Newell, Valve

 

He then followed that comment with:

 

"But you know if you want to do another Half-Life game and you want to ignore everything we've learned in shipping Portal 2 and in shipping all the updates on the multiplayer side, that seems like a bad choice."

 

- Gabe Newell, Valve

 

However, there is a single light from within the darkness, shining ever so brightly. Gabe finished with:

 

"So we'll keep moving forward. But that doesn't necessarily always mean what people are worried that it might mean."

 

- Gabe Newell, Valve

 

I personally think that Valve are scared to develop another Half-Life game because a sequel to Half-Life 2 would be expected to be so polished and so damn perfect as it'd most likely be the end to the Half-Life franchise. It'd probably mean a bad Half-Life game would severely damage Valve's reputation; a real make-it or break-it decision when it comes to developing and releasing Half-Life 3.

 

 

 

 



Nintendo - New Console in Development

 

Nintendo has announced that it is developing a new console, codename "NX". Satoru Iwata of Nintendo commented with:

 

"As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename 'NX.'".

 

- Satoru Iwata, Nintendo

 

That's all that came in regards to the new Nintendo Console, Nintendo said that they won't be talking about the console for another year so it's safe to say that it's simply an announcement and there is no reason not to buy a Wii U if you were thinking about it. In terms of sales, the Wii U is underperforming in comparison to the DS, 3DS and Wii. It's quite possible they might steer away from the Wii remote and move back to a more classical game method. Aka, controllers etc, with the Wii Remote feature as a side feature much like the Kinect feature of Microsoft's consoles. I think the buzz garnered from when the Wii released with a motion controller has since faded as there is no innovation for that type of control method to make it interesting and immersing. Consoles such as the Xbox One and PS4 with their standard gamepad methods are doing much better, and really focusing on the games rather than focusing on how to control the game.

 

Nintendo has also partnered with DeNA, which is Japan's largest mobile games developer. This means that DeNA can use all of Nintendo's IPs. Which means that we could get a new Metroid game.

 

Another problem with the Wii U is that in comparison to the other consoles it has the processing power of a calculator. Would be nice if the new console was powerful and could really bring Nintendo's next games to life.

 

DeNA will most likely go for Mario, Metroid and Pokémon games for the first 5 or so years, so that they have the opportunity to become a trusted brand. Then they will start going for other IPs which may include characters like Captain Falcon.



Titanfall 2 Confirmed

Titanfall 2 has been announced, and it's also going multi-platform. Aka, you can play it on PC, Xbox One and PS4. Respawn initially said that they wanted the original Titanfall to be multi-platform but without the deal they wouldn't have been able to do the game. Zampella said he is still trying to figure out how to mix single-player and multi-player elements into the second game. He said:

"I think it takes a while to figure that out and we haven't figured it out yet."

- Zampella, Respawn

Might mean that Titanfall 2 won't be the exact same structure as the first game, but not too different. I think their aim is to have some kind of meaningful story mode that doesn't feel intrusive but does the job. In the first game, the campaign mode was very much multi-player with story dialogue playing over whilst you played the match, a lot of people didn't really pick up the story because they were too busy killing other players and capturing objectives. Forgettable story, that was poorly implemented and if you did listen to the dialogue, it really just lays out what the aims are of each faction with no in-depth character development.

Hopefully Titanfall 2 will have it's own proper single-player, or at least implement a single-player in a better way than previously. Titanfall 2 may also implement free map DLC, as Zampella specifically complimented the way Evolve handled it's map DLC which resulted in a non-fragmented match making system, instead opting to make skins for the Hunters and Monsters purchasable whilst giving away maps for free so they players were fragmented based on what map packs they had.

Titanfall's DLC recently became free on March 11th, all three DLC: Expedition, Frontier's Edge and IMC Rising all became free on the 11th. This means that we can probably expect free map DLC for Titanfall 2 as well which is a great move so as not to fragment the player-base due to what map packs people own. According to Zampella the free DLC was to mark the one-year anniversary of the game.

It's interesting to see that first Evolve and now Titanfall have taken this post-launch approach to DLC because the question has been asked "Why not?". After a year, no one is buying the DLC any more so why not make it free? It's a great way to get new players interested and to raise awareness for the game and the upcoming sequel.

As there is no hard information regarding updates and changes to Titanfall 2, the best the community can do is to speculate. We can probably expect more weapons, titans and a new mechanic of some sort. They may bring big gameplay changes to perhaps all Titan game modes in which you have large maps and different types of Titans such as artillery Titans that shoot from a long range and bomb an area would be pretty cool.

Sony Won't Refund PS4 Gamer - Account will be banned if dispute is raised with the bank

Recent events have occurred that involved Sony and a PS4 User. The PS4 user realised that he had been hacked after $600 worth of cash had been spent via his PSN account. As such, he removed his card from the account and simultaneously launched support chats with both Sony and his bank to sort out the problem, preferably get a full refund of his $600. Reddit user Kadjar went to Reddit as well to post his ordeal with Sony and told the story of what had happened, but what shocked him most was how Sony dealt with the issue - although fast in response, they did not deliver Kadjar's $600. Instead, they only refunded a measly $150 to his PSN wallet, stating that the Sony representative is only permitted to refund up to $150, and not even to his bank account, but only to his PSN wallet.

Kadjar also realised that not only had his account been hacked, but that the hacker had taken full control of the account by deactivating Kadjar's PS4 and that another system had become the primary system for the account.

Kadjar spoke to many Sony Representatives throughout the day in regards to what had happened, and his complaints could be narrowed down to the following:

• Sony will only refund $150 of the $600 that was taken.
• The money will be in PSN credit, and not refunded into the bank.
• If the user escalates the payment dispute with his bank, his PSN account will be banned.
• If his account is banned, his purchased licences for games, such as The Last of Us, will be wiped.
• If the licences are wiped, there is no way of restoring them.

The most startling bullet point of the five is the 3rd; his account will be banned if he raises a dispute with the bank. This is bullying, Sony failed at their job and seems like they are simply being greedy - scare tactics to minimize their losses, instead of caring about loyal customers which could then increase their profits. The money that Sony/PlayStation received is not even intended for them, so why are they getting so defensive on not returning the full $600? This has only put Sony in a bad light, and the news has spread like wildfire across the internet, destroying any reputation remaining that Sony had going for itself within the gaming community.

On top of this, Kadjar's PS4 cannot be designated as the primary console for another 6 months, meaning it is locked out of the account until then. Reddit users are outraged at what they consider poor protection and customer care. Others argue that this highlights how important it is to have a strong password on your account, to deter events like these from happening.

Kadjar's post reads as follows:

"This morning, I started receiving emails indicating a number of purchases on my PSN account. As the transactions came in, one-by-one, it became immediately clear that my account had been hacked. I immediately logged into PSN and removed my card from the account, changed my email and password, and simultaneously launched support chats with both Sony and my bank."

"The Sony representative told me that they are only permitted to refund transactions of up to $150. He also informed me that I could dispute the charges with my bank, but by doing so, my account would be banned from PSN. As a result, I would permanently lose all of my purchases, including the Last of Us Remastered."

"He also informed me that my existing PS4 had been deactivated from the network this morning, and that a new one had been activated. When I asked him to deactivate that new, mystery PS4, he said he could not. I then turned on my PS4, logged in with my new credentials, and attempted to activate my PS4 with my account, but it informed me that I could not activate it as long as there was another PS4 bound to my account."

"I called customer support, hoping for some clarification. The agent informed me that there is indeed a refund investigation underway, but that it will be limited to $150, and that it would be credited to my PSN wallet, not my bank account."

"Furthermore, my account will not be able to activate a new system for 6 months, per Sony policy. I'm completely locked out of my own account until that date. I then asked about what would happen if I got my bank to reverse the charges, and he informed me that it would result in a banned account. I asked if there would be any way to restore my purchases, and he told me that there would not be, but I 'only have the Last of Us and a couple of the monthly free deal games,' so it's not a big deal."

- Kadjar, Reddit user

Several Reddit users have offered Kadjar copies of their games, which he has thanked them for but politely declined. Kadjar's goal was to bring light to Sony's awful customer service policies in hope that they might change them for the better.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Delayed

 

 

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End has been delayed by developer Naughty Dog. This isn't a small push back though, it's a huge pushback in terms of release date. Originally the game was to be released in 2015 at "sometime" but it's new release date is now 2016 Spring. You get a lot of developers changing the release dates of their games, but none so harsh as this.

 

Developers Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog unveiled the news on the Playstation blog today:

 

"Since we showed you our first gameplay reveal of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, more of the game and story have come together, and it's become clear to us that this game is much more ambitious than we originally envisioned. After spending so many years with Nathan Drake, he means a lot to the team, and telling the climactic chapter of his adventures is a task we don't take lightly...So we've made the difficult choice of pushing the game's release date."

 

-Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog

 

This is not the first set back for Uncharted 4 as several high ranking developers have recently left Naughty Dog; causing some fans to become nervous in regards to the quality of the upcoming Uncharted 4 installment.

 

A lot of fans have high expectations for the Uncharted franchise and as such most are willing to wait for the perfect ending to Drake's story. In the history of Naughty Dog, games having their release dates pushed back have been a good thing; as was the case with The Last of Us. Arguably one of the best games in 2013, only to be remastered in 2014.

 

However, you have examples such as Little Big Planet 2 that had it's release date changed and the result perceived by the fans was that it was a mediocre game.

 

Naughty Dog has had a great history of games; Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted and of course The Last of Us. Let's hope they can end this franchise on a high.

Fantasy Life 2 - Level-5 and They're Up Too

 

 

Developer Level-5 have just confirmed Fantasy Life 2 is in development along side other new titles that are in development. They also said that they will be showcasing all these new titles alongside "something mysterious" at an upcoming event in Japan that they have named "Level-5 Vision 2015, THE BEGINNING".

 

The official website for the event lists games such as Fantasy Life 2, another game in the Yo-Kai Watch series and Latent 7. Latent 7 is sadly a game for iOS and android as well as 3DS, and it doesn't have Professor Latent in the game. However, there is a whole host of characters to choose from including a Zombie.

 

The mysterious component of the event is what they call, quote:

 

"...next generation major cross-media project."

 

- Level-5

 

The event will take place in Tokyo, April 7th and will be streamed online.



Star Citizen - Largest Game?

 

Is Star Citizen the largest game ever? Both in concept and file size? And lets not forget crowd funding. Since 2012 the developers of Star Citizen have been relying on crowd funding, to fund the development of the game and they have just crossed over the $75 million milestone; which is a record for a crowd funded video game. In terms of scope, the game is huge as it is set in space and you can also land on planets manually (fly yourself) all the way down to the detail-enriched surface of the planet, into a city.

 

In terms of file size, the game boasts about 100GB in file size. This file size is also a record in history; blowing games like Titanfall (50GB file size) out of the water.

 

On their forums, the developers responded to poster, who claimed:

 

"The game files will be significantly more compressed and optimised than they are now. The size of the final game would probably be more like 30-40GB. Game patching will also be more optimised, so minor patches will be hundreds of M, and content patches would be a few GB."

 

- Forum poster, Star Citizen Forums

 

To which a developer responded with:

 

"As I have already said, I would not count on this. The game compression and asset removal is unlikely to yield such high gains that we will be able to reduce our client size to 30-40gb. The size and number of assets that are left to deliver means that our client size is more likely to be 100gb. Also, yes we are optimizing game patching for and to only deliver diffs, but this is unlikely to reduce actual patch size. Again, each patch has 100s of assets, each of these are at times 200mb, this leads to 2-6gb patches, and if we end up doing a file type re-factor and have to re-download 30-40% of the assets on the hard-drive, then the patch will be 14-20gb."

 

- JMasker.CIG, Developer of Star Citizen

 

Star Citizen is huge. If you were to download Star Citizen, with a file size of 100GB, it would take you 110 hours to completely download the game. 4 and a half days. The culprit for this huge file size is likely to be textures. You need great texture to bring a game to life, and great textures mean large texture file sizes, because great textures mean high resolution images (like 8k textures maybe?) and as such will be huge. They may even use multiple texture files for just one model to really keep the detail good and gold. No expense will be spared for this huge game that is coming over the horizon.

 

According to WCCF Tech, the game will utilize 8K Ultra-HD Resolution textures; thanks to being free from consoles. In other words, they do not need to worry about consoles. There is also likely to be a lot of un-compressed audio in the game.

 

Much like Quake and Crysis in their early days; the game is being designed (graphically) for hardware that does not yet exist and as such it is to be expected that not a lot or no PC will be able to run this game at full graphics once it releases.

 

 



Upsilon Circuit - The Game You Can Only Play Once

 

 

Upsilon Circuit, a game that takes permadeath to the next level - perma-permadeath. Once you die, you'll never play the game again. Upsilon Circuit is an eight-player game that exists on one server, for several months. Once the game reaches several months, it will by design be gone forever.

 

It's a role-playing game where you can't upgrade your character, can't customize your character. However, the people watching can customize your character. The game is filled with monsters and traps; slaying monsters gives XP. But not for the player to use on skills, the watchers decide that. During a game session, one of the eight players will be selected to actually play the game. The other seven players become watchers and decide what to do with the XP the player earns. The watchers can either skill-up the player or they can place more traps and monsters around. Once the player dies, a random watcher will be selected. Watchers can earn karma to increase their chances of controlling the character.

 

Upsilon Circuit, developed by RobotLovesKitty, creators of the kick-started game Legend of Dungeon, have taken heavy influences from their past game and how other games handle permadeath. However, what the developer realised is that there is no real permadeath as such; you die and start over from scratch. They wanted to take it to the next level; how about never being able to play the game ever again? Perma-permadeath was born. Upsilon Circuit revolves around this idea, to give a real experience, like it matters.

 

"We've been thinking a lot about permadeath and permanence."

 

- Goble, RobotLovesKitty

 

"And consequence."

 

- Stolzer, RobotLovesKitty

 

They wanted to create something truly unique, they continued to add:

 

"Legend of Dungeon has a ton of that - You've got one life, you go down in the dungeon. When you die that's it. you start over. But that's not enough for us. We've been thinking about real consequences. Like, real consequence. Big time, meaningful game experience - putting the permanence in permadeath."

 

- RobotLovesKitty

 

To give the lowdown of how Upsilon Circuit will work, here it is. Upsilon Circuit takes place in a large world filled with puzzles and monsters. There's only one instance on its lone server. A maximum of eight people can log in at a time, and of those eight, only one is playing. Through what Goble described as "some network trickery," the game gets streamed from the server to anyone who wants to watch on the internet.

 

I think this is a very unique game idea, very fresh spin on the idea permadeath and that it really does make it matter. It is described as "mathetically impossible" to play the game a second time. However, my concern is that if this game is to be purchased from Steam or what not, and there is a single server with only eight players at a time, potentially some people will never, ever, get to play the game. Furthermore, they'd be paying a price for a one-time experience. Not even a pound or a single dollar would be worth the buy in my opinion. However, it is early days for the game and we will see how it turns out.

 

Very cool idea.

Minecraft Might be Banned in Turkey

 

 

Minecraft might be banned in Turkey, as it has been deemed violent due to the fact that players are rewarded for killing enemies. Minecraft came under fire after citizens realised that a major part of the game is killing enemies; and as such in their minds it promotes violence due to the potential for "loot" from killing enemies.

 

Turkey's Family and Social Policies Minister launched an investigation into Mojang's title and as of today the investigation has concluded that Minecraft encourages violence and should therefore be banned in the country. The report says:

 

"Although the game can be seen as encouraging creativity in children by letting them build houses farmlands and bridges, mobs [hostile creatures] must be killed in order to protect these structures. In short, the game is based on violence."

 

- Minecraft Report

 

The report also states that children might confuse the real world with the game world and then begin to think that killing animals is okay and doesn't actually harm them. A court is expected to take place soon and then the courts will decide whether to ban the game on a country-wide scale. If the game does get banned; Turkey will be the first country in the world to have banned Minecraft.

 

I cannot believe how silly these investigators are being, Minecraft is based on creativity. It has been used in schools to give children a better grasp on geometry and to bring out the creativity in them through a game. A lot of education systems are looking towards games and seeing how they can adapt techniques used in games into their own education systems. As people who enjoy a game have no problem learning the mechanics of the game because the learning process is enjoyable in itself.

 

If Minecraft gets banned, this will only be a step-back in the direction that education is going. Education will eventually be a game in itself; with great learning results as an intended side-effect.







Source 2 Has Been Announced

 

Source 2 has been announced by Valve; a successor to the aging Source Engine that powered Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 in 2004. Source 2 will be "available for free to content developers", according to Valve's Jay Stelly. He continued to say:

 

"This combined with recent announcements by Epic and Unity will help continue the PCs dominance as the premiere content authoring platform."

 

- Jay Stelly, Valve

 

I would assume however that when they say "free" they mean free for the modding community. If you are a developer then you will most likely have to pay royalties to Valve for using and selling a product that utilizes their engine, which is only fair to be honest.

 

"With Source 2, our focus is increasing creator productivity, given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not just for the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favourite games."

 

- Jay Stelly, Valve

 

Valve also announced a Vulkan-compatible version of the engine; formerly known as Next Generation OpenGL. Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics API. Support for Vulkan is a priority for Valve as they want PC Gaming to come away from Microsoft's DirectX and onto Linux. Vulkan will also greatly increase performance by removing existing overhead problems.

 

The original Source Engine also uses Havok as it's physics engine. With Source 2, Valve have developed their own physics engine known as Rubikon. Exciting as it is, it may affect one of their leading games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The reason being is that if the physics change in any way, it could take a sidestep in how the game plays. For example, players may have to relearn how to throw grenades so that they can execute tactics that include the use of a smoke grenade or frag grenade.

 

No release date or explicit details about how the financing works have been released as of yet. But it does tell for an exciting future for PC Gaming.

 

 

 

 



Rock Band 4 Has Been Confirmed for Xbox One and PS4

 

 

Rock Band 4 has been confirmed by Harmonix for Xbox One and PS4, due to be released sometime in 2015. In a behind the scenes video on their YouTube channel, Harmonix shared a load of details about the game; including that they hope fans can use their old instruments with the new game to save them from buying new gear as well as allowing them to keep last-gen DLC.

 

They will be partnering with Mad Catz to produce all the new instruments so that new players can buy the equipment and play the game.

 

Daniel Sussman, a Product Manager at Harmonix explained how the studio will be approaching the game's development:

 

"We feel very strongly that making Rock Band 4 should be fun for us, and we had to think a lot about what's the game we would want to work on and that we would want to play. And where we arrived is what we want to build on and evolve the Rock Band experience that people."

 

- Daniel Sussman, Harmonix

 

He went on to say that although they will be developing and changing the game to fit the current-generation of consoles, fans of the series needn't worry to much saying:

 

"On the one hand we don't want to tinker with a core mechanic that has been very successful, on the other hand we want to push the envelope with regards to what people expect. We have a lot of really cool things up our sleeves, things that we're excited to show in the E3 timeframe."

 

- Daniel Sussman, Harmonix

 

Again, there is currently no release date other than it will be released sometime during 2015. I covered all of the leaks and details in an earlier blog post; New Rock Band Game Potentially in the Works.

 

 

 



Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain - The Last Metal Gear Game?

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has a release date, and it will be the last Metal Gear Solid game to be released according to Hideo Kojima. The release date given by Konami is September 1st, 2015. It's pretty crazy when you think about it; this series has been going on for about 28 years. The series started in 1987 and has been a solid game series since then up until September 1st, 2015 where the story will be brought to an end.

Hideo has made claims like this before. However, in an interview with IGN, Hideo takes on that notorious reputation head on.

"Kojima has made claims like this before, but in a video interview with IGN, he tackles that reputation head on."

- IGN

Kojima commented saying:

"I always say 'this will be my last Metal Gear,'" Kojima said, "but the games in the series that I've personally designed and produced -- Metal Gear on MSX, MG2, MGS1, 2, 3, 4, Peace Walker, and now MGSV -- are what constitute a single 'Metal Gear Saga.' With MGSV, I'm finally closing the loop on that saga. In that sense, this will be the final Metal Gear Solid,'" Kojima continued. "Even if the 'Metal Gear' franchise continues, this is the last 'Metal Gear.'"

- Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima has been working on the series for almost 3 decades, it is surprising that he has not stopped earlier because he must feel very neutered. He does have other projects in mind as a producer, so he is not leaving the video games industry.

Konami however has not been the best at releasing triple A games. They have slowly abandoned their franchises such as Castlevania and have solely worked on the Metal Gear Franchise. Now that Hideo is leaving it begs the question as to what they will release next. Hopefully they do not stoop to remastering everything they have. It would be nice for them to breathe life into either an existing IP or a new IP.

The Division - Early Alpha Build Leak

Fans anticipating Ubisoft's The Division finally got a sneak peak of the game in the form of a leak. Ubisoft however has said that the leak is well out of date and is not representative of the game's final quality; gameplay nor graphic wise. Not only has Ubisoft made comments about the leaked footage, but has also issued numerous take-down notices of any and all footage. Currently all that remains are a couple of screenshots and a GIF file of the gameplay.

Looks a lot less finished than what we saw at E3 2013. Graphically it looks worse and the gameplay looks a lot  more "janky" in comparison as well. Ubisoft commented on the leak with:

"These low resolution images come from a pre-alpha version organized by developers to test the infrastructure. A large portion of the game has been removed and is not in any way the current quality of the game."

- Ubisoft

The leaker did say that the footage he acquired was of a very early Xbox One Alpha Build. He also said that the gameplay is much faster and "arcade" like than he anticipated from promotional materials seen so far. Hopefully this leaked footage is in no way a representation of the game. Most likely an animation or similar test they had implemented; then recorded footage for logging purposes.

Ubisoft's The Division is expected to be released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC later this year.

Ubisoft's Prescription Video Game

Ubisoft has released a game in collaboration with Amblyotech Inc, of which the latter specializes in electronic treatments to deal with the disorder known as Amblyopia which causes lazy eye in children and if left unchecked can cause blindness in adults.

The game is known as Dig Rush, and it requires a prescription to play. The game is played on a tablet whilst wearing red and blue 3D glasses. The environment is black and white whilst the enemies, player and obstacles are red and blue which means you need both eyes to play the game and successfully complete the level. 

Apparently there is a similar treatment, with another game, of which amazingly, 90% of patients who played an hour per day said that there was an improvement in their condition after six(6) weeks. The problem is that the game had only one(1) level, and playing one(1) level for an hour straight, or even for six(6) weeks can get very boring and as a result patients would quit the treatment purely out of boredom.

Hopefully Dig Rush can fix this issue by implementing more than one level and having replay-ability so as to keep people on track with their treatment; as this method of treatment has proven to be very effective. 

Senior Producer Mathieu Ferland of Ubisoft said:

"The development of Dig Rush was a great opportunity for us to contribute our knowledge and skills in video-game development to help materialize a breakthrough novel medical treatment."

- Mathie Ferland, Ubisoft

There was never actually proof of video-games ruining your eyesight, but there is now definitely evidence if there is a 90% positive feedback rate on a video-game used for treating eyesight related disorders.

Robots are better at Video Games than you

Robots have apparently become better at video games than Humans. A group of researchers at Google's Deepmind Artificial Intelligence Research group have developed self-learning computers that is able to teach itself to play video games as well learn advanced strategies to destroy all humans in computer games. Deepmind uses classic arcade games such as Breakout in which you have to break down a wall by bouncing a ball against the blocks to break them. The AI figured out by itself that it can break a hole in the wall and then bounce the ball behind it to score more points.

Deepmind uses a system they developed known as "DeepQ Network" or "DeepQN" which combines neural networking and acute learning. The Deep Neural Network is a perception tool that has been created with animal vision in mind which helps the DQN see and interact more like humans do. While the Q learning is a reinforcement learning system that is based on math.

In the case of the AI the points are the reward and the directive is that the AI wants to maximize the reward. Other Researchers have tried directing AI to get max points but what the AI fails at is making short-term sacrifices for long-term gains, a fail in logic.

Breakout and Space Invaders are two games that are easy to learn but hard to master; a complex strategy is needed to really maximize your points. The AI is currently only able to play classic games like those listed above, so it hasn't quite gotten to current-gen game level. So far it has taken on 49 different Atari 2600 games. It's successes have not been mind boggling by average; scoring an average of 20% - 30% more than Humans have in Space Invaders. However, in Breakout the AI scored x10 more points than the best Human has. The next step is to transfer strategic knowledge gained from playing games, to other games.