You want cars? We got cars! Sony announced that Gran Turismo 6 will be available for the PS3 by the holidays. All the stuff from GT5 will return with additional cars and tracks putting the automobile count over 1200! That’s a lot of car collecting.
New features include an include course-maker function, GPS data, and a new physics engine. A new user interface will allow players to extend some of the gameplay and community features to smartphones, tablets, and PCs.
“It is amazing to think that it is 15 years since we first released Gran Turismo,” said Kazunori Yamauchi, during the announcement at Silverstone Circuit. “Things have changed a lot since then and now Gran Turismo 6 is a further evolution of my dream. We’re pleased to deliver GT 6 to PlayStation 3 as we have a very loyal community on that platform. However, we have refactored the game to make it very flexible and expandable, with a view to making many future developments.”
A demo release on PS3 is planned for July.
Warner Brothers Interactive announced Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure. The 5th Cell developed game will feature Maxwell and his sister Lily in the comic universe spelling out solutions to puzzles with the help of over 2000 licensed DC superheroes.
Speaking to Polygon, senior producer Caleb Arseneaux said that even Scribblenauts vets will find surprises in the game.
“So when you play Scribblenauts for the first time and you spawn a cat, that’s usually when people are like, ‘Oh my god, this game has a cat! That’s awesome!’ Then you type in dog, and the dog appears and starts chasing the cat,” he said. “In Unmasked, we have a Red Lantern that is a cat – Dex-Starr – so if you spawn a dog, and then you spawn a cat, Dex-Starr will appear, and when the dog tries to chase him, he’ll beat up the dog.”
There’s no word on what will happen if you type “keyboard cat” into Maxwell’s notebook in this game.
Per the official site, EA is working on a mobile version of its in-house graphics engine called Frostbite Go.
One of our most exciting current projects is called Frostbite Go, a mobile division empowering EA game developers with Frostbite’s proven excellent workflows and features to bring true Frostbite experiences to all major mobile platforms.
Despite the engine being devoloped to scale down to the mobile platforms, it appears the Wii U is still out of luck. The site notes elsewhere that “diverse targets from XBOX360 and PlayStation 4 to iOS and Android” are supported. EA and DICE have said that the absence of upcoming Wii U versions of Frostbite games was due to technical difficulties in porting the games over to the less robust hardware. As late as last week, DICE technical director Johan Andersson tweeted that they were not able to get the Frostbite engine running on Nintendo’s Wii U hardware which was the reason why they abandoned that effort.
With at least 15 games on EA’s schedule slated to use Frostbite, the Wii U could be left out of many EA games.
It’s been 37 years since Atari made a blocky ball bounce from a paddle to a wall of blocks. Pull up Google Image Search, type in “Atari Breakout” and get ready to waste some time.
Coincidently, (or perhaps not) Google I/O 2013 will be starting tomorrow in San Francisco. The event will showcase what Google has been up to for the past year. The event announcements are rumored to include a push into gaming with something called Google Game Center. This will likely be aimed at creating an unified achievement and matchmaking system in the Google Play ecosystem much like the service already present on iOS.
RIFT is changing to a free-to-play model on June 12th. Rumors had been swirling around Trion World’s MMO for months, but now it’s official. You’ll be able to download and play RIFT without spending a dime as soon as the Empyreal Assault update rolls out.
All players will be able to explore the entire world of Telara for free and will have access to the expanded in-game RIFT Store where a variety of services – mounts, boosts, wardrobe items, and more – will be available for purchase. An optional subscription will still be available that grants a slew of “Patron” benefits and bonuses to maximize the RIFT experience. Trion will celebrate its current and previous subscribers with loyalty and currency rewards for their time spent playing RIFT thus far.
Owners of the original paid client will get additional loot bags and character slots over the regular F2P players. Owners of Storm Legion will unlock the expansion Souls (Harbinger, Tempest, Tactician, and Defiler) on their account permanently.
Twitch, the gaming streaming service, is getting an app for Xbox Live today. Now you can stream StarCraft II onto your TV and trick your friends into thinking you’ve somehow gotten a console port of the game! The Twitch blog notes that the app will only include access to the top 300 channels and will only be available for Gold subscribers. The good news is that it’s Kinect enabled! Wait until your friends see you waving your hands around like a maniac while League of Legends plays on the big screen! You’ll be the hit of the party.
Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb posted that Twitch will get an exclusive broadcast on May 21st after the Xbox press event.
The app will be available to download later today.
Like the previous Metro, Last Light is characterized by the unforced mellow melancholy of a post-apocalypse some people call home. This is not the apocalypse we know and love. The Fallout games could never shake Bethesda’s penchant for fantasy quests and character builds and elaborate inventory subgames and dialogue trees and hearty faithful sidekicks. But Last Light has the somber sense that an apocalypse is not fun. It can be sad, small, dim, and lonely.
After the jump, mayday over Moscow Continue reading →
CD Projekt Red has released the beta of REDkit, the official Witcher 2 editor and SDK. The editor allows users to make new adventures for the steely-eyed white-haired witcher as well as modify existing game content. It’s free for owners of The Witcher 2. The editor wiki can help budding modders get started on their custom creations. There are nude models of Triss Merigold already in the game, so the hard work has already been done for you.
CD Projekt Red also announced the creator of the best mod during the closed beta period for the editor. Philipp Weber’s work-in-progress mod, Lykaon, has netted him a custom-made witcher sword to hang on his wall or sweep over his head like a monster hunter. The mod has Geralt dealing with women from his past. Lykaon will be the CD Projekt Red featured mod for the month. Weber has posted a helpful video tutorial to show folks how to start using the editor.
Did I mention there are nude models of Triss already in the game’s files?
Alleged Sony network hacker, Todd M. Miller, was sentenced on May 9th to one year of house arrest and three years of probation for obstructing a federal investigation. Miller was suspected of being one of the hackers of the Sony PSN servers from 2008 to 2011 that caused disruptions in worldwide services.
At the time, Sony’s reactions to the hacks were kept secret and any leaks of customer data was hidden even from higher level management within the company. It wasn’t until the 2011 hack of the PSN network that Sony was forced to publicly admit to the breaches due to the high-profile nature of the intrusion.
The court convicted Miller of obstruction because he smashed his computers and destroyed evidence before the FBI presented a warrant to him in 2011 for the incriminating hard drives. Without the data, the FBI wasn’t able to gather enough evidence for the prosecuter to bring Miller up on the hacking charges.
If he had been prosecuted of the hack, Miller could’ve faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Square Enix reported their Q4 earnings and posted a 13.7 billion yen loss. SE cited “strategic initiatives such as a change in its development policy, organizational reforms, and redesign of some business models” for the extraordinary losses. Additionally, sluggish performance of arcade machines led to an operating loss for the Amusement segment of the business.
The SE report states that the company will revamp their strategy regarding the mobile space by targeting more development for tablets and smartphones.
The business environment surrounding the Group is in the midst of major changes, where smart devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs are spreading rapidly, while the console game markets in North America and Europe are increasingly competitive and oligopolistic. In light of such environmental changes, the Group is focusing all efforts on a substantial earnings improvement through driving reforms of business structure in order to establish new revenue base.
Strategic resource allocation will also see changes due to the company’s shift in focus. Less will be spent on new engine and technology development, while more money will be spent on marketing.
Trion Worlds has announced that their MMO shooter Defiance will be getting five DLC offerings this year. The first pack, called Enter The Castithan, will enable new weapons for all players and access to Sieges which will be a new open-world game mode. People that pay $10 for the pack will additionally get access to play the Castithan Species as well as a new set of story missions. Nathan Richardsson, the executive producer, wrote that each DLC release will come with free benefits for everyone, as well as content only for players that buy the DLC.
We do our DLCs a bit differently with Defiance. Every time we do a DLC, of which we have 5 planned this year, we have a free component, a paid component and a store update. The free part is for everyone. We want people to be playing with their friends; we don’t like to isolate players.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be exclusive content in the DLCs, quite the contrary. The difference is that you can usually bring your friends with you. The catch is that they can’t directly benefit from all of it, like DLC specific loot or gain abilities.
In related news, the SyFy TV show has been picked up for another season. Thirteen new episodes will be created to air in 2014, which is good news for people that want their transmedia products to keep chugging along.
Wargaming has filed a lawsuit against Chinese companies Changyou.com Limited and Gamease for their Project Tank which seems to be a blatant copy of World of Tanks. Polygon reports that the complaint alleges that Project Tank (also known as Ground War Tanks and Tanks Ground War) “copied the plot, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, and character of World of Tanks, in addition to copying specific features, items, tanks, and artwork.”
For their part, Gamease and Changyou claim that Wargaming is bullying them. No. I’m not kidding.
“We feel truly shocked and bullied by Wargaming. A giant company of the gaming industry who is apparently ‘threatened’ by a closed beta phase browser game aiming to provide a cheaper, fairer, and more accessible war game to players around the world.”
The filed documents point out examples of the copying. These include features unique to World of Tanks such as historical inaccuracies made for the sake of gameplay and specific tanks that never existed in reality. Wargaming also accuses Project Tank of violating their patent on dynamic matchmaking.
Too Human developer, Silicon Knights, has laid off almost all of their staff and sold most of their assets, but CFO Mike Mays told Polygon that the studio is “definitely alive” and “very busy.” Mays did not elaborate on what Silicon Knights is busy working on, or even where they are located, but an Ontario real estate agent confirmed that the offices in which Dennis Dyack’s former company used to work are empty and available for lease. Silicon Knights has not filed for bankruptcy as of yet.
Some of the old hardware (to include computers and desks) was sold to Dennis Dyack’s new studio Precursor Games, which is currently working on Shadow of the Eternals. Assets such as computers were wiped clean before the sale to ensure that no art or coding work from Silicon Knights would transfer to the new company as specified by the courts.
Silicon Knights still faces a $4.45 million judgment against it due to a successful lawsuit from Epic Games for breach of the Unreal Engine license agreement used during the development of Too Human.
Call it the little VR kit that could. The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is getting support from all corners of gaming. Hobbyists to professional developers are coming forward with headset projects so we can watch videos of guys wearing a black box on their faces swing their heads around. Pretty good for a product that started out as a Kickstarter that still hasn’t actually been released for the general public.
After the jump, let’s check out some head-bobbin’ projects! Continue reading →
I played Metro 2033 on the Xbox 360, so maybe that’s why I don’t remember is looking nearly as good as Metro Last Light, which is often “why is this running at such an acceptable framerate??????” gorgeous. For instance, could Metro 2033 fit this many Nazis onto the screen at once? Not that I remember.
