Before the game was officially made available, NeoGAF user Wario64 has posted a selection of photos showing the game on Xbox One, along with timed achievement challenges. .
Battlefield 4′s rent-a-server scheme is live, but the Xbox One version has run into a snag. On the bright side, that “death shield” issue has been squashed.
While the new server scheme is the heart of the shooter’s latest update, DICE addressed the death shield thing in a post on the Battlefield Blog.
“We’d also like to inform you that with today’s server update, we are deploying a fix for the issue being referred to as Death Shield, where an invisible shield would appear around killed enemies, blocking weapons fire. Thank you for being patient as we worked to get this resolved,” the developer wrote.
Otherwise, as noted, it’s all about the rent-a-server going live. Hit the link above for pricing and other details, but please note that the Xbox One version is on hold.
“We have identified rental time issues with the Rent-a-Server Program release on Xbox One and have temporarily removed the feature as we investigate,” DICE said.
“The servers which were already rented will still be available for play, but admins may not be able to access all the management features at this time. As soon as a fix is in place we will announce its availability.”
Game of Thrones author George RR Martin has placed his assistant – sci-fi author Ty Corey Franck – as consultant on the TellTale Games adaptation. We assure you he’s not just an intern or anything like that.
The revelation comes from this New York Times article. Real name Ty Franck, he has enjoyed success – along with collaborator James A. Corey – with Leviathan Wakes, the first novel in the Expanse series, which is also getting the TV treatment courtesy of Syfy.
Commenting on TellTale’s body of work, HBO global licensing VP Josh Goodstadt added, “We were struck by the sophisticated level of work and high-quality approach to storytelling in all of their games. We quickly recognized that this same level of quality and dedication could be a great complement to the richness of Game of Thrones.”
We’ll have more on Game of Thrones as it comes out of TellTale’s reveal-pipe.
his week’s North American PlayStation Store is full of tasty content from a variety of genres – horror, RPG, fighter and more.
It’s been a bit quiet on the triple-A front for the last few weeks but that’s all about to change. I say “about” to change, because this week its presence is largely confined to pre-orders.
On PS4, you can pre-order EA Sports UFC, Wolfenstein: The New Order and Watch Dogs, including as a Gold Edition with season pass. Wolfenstein: The New Order pre-orders are also available on PS3.
As for things you can own now, the PS4 has Child of Light, Daylight and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which has no light in it.
On PS3 there’s a broader choice with Child of Light, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends, Raiden 4: Overkill, Rambo: The Video Game, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All Stars Battle, Thriller Chiller Bundle and Yu-Gi-Oh Millenium Duels.
Finally, there’s one lone PSOne Classic – Bust A Move 4 – and demos for Lego The Hobbit and Yu-Gi-Oh Millenium Duels.
PlayStation Plus subscribers get a free copy of Velocity Ultra, plus a really rather enormous list of discounts.
On that topic there are a number of sales and price changes this week worth checking out.
To DLC now, where you’ll find add-ons for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, Child of Light, Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars, Defiance, Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Complete Edition, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All Stars Battle, LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet Karting, LittleBigPlanet Vita, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace, Rocksmith 2014, Soul Sacrifice, Yu-Gi-Oh Millenium Duels and Zen Pinball 2 Star Wars.
For full update information including prices, discounts, sales, price changes, avatars and themes, please visit the PlayStation Blog.
The Season Pass will give you access to the single-player story featuring T-Bone; a new Digital Trip game mode, Conspiracy, plus new missions, weapons, outfits and more.
Purchasers can knock 25% off what they would pay buying DLC individually with the Season Pass.
Here’s a bullet list of features included in the pass:
All-New Single-Player Story – Take on the role of T-Bone, a brilliant but eccentric hacker who lives by his own rules.
Conspiracy! – A new Digital Trip Game Mode that lets players hunt down cyborgs in this mind bending alternate game universe.
More single player missions, weapons, and outfits.
Save more than 25% over the individual downloadable pack prices.
Season Pass holders get one-week early access to all included Watch Dogs add-on content.
The Watch Dogs Season Pass will be available for PC, PlayStation and Xbox systems for $19.99
Watch Dogs releases on PC, PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One May 27. A Wii U version is expected in the fall.
Obsidian Entertainment boss Feargus Urquhart has said the studio would love to develop a large-scale RPG such as Skyrim, and while Kickstarter is great for funding projects, larger scale ideas sometimes need the backing of a publisher.
Speaking in an interview with CVG, Urquhart said role-playing games are the “trajectory we want to always be on,” and when it comes to making large RPGs, working with publishers “makes sense.”
“Right now, fewer major games are being worked on by independent developers than almost any time in the games industry,” he said. “That’s one of the challenges of being an independent developer right now. I would love to say that I could go up on Kickstarter and raise $15, $20, $30 million dollars to do our own big triple-A console game.
“But the reality is – minus Star Citizen – that’s probably a little bit of a pipe dream. When it comes to making bigger console RPGs, working with publishers makes sense. It’s a big apparatus to try to ship these big console RPGs. I think we’ll always continue to talk to publishers, not just because of funding but also because of the realities of publishing big console projects.”
Urquhart went on to say Obsidian continues to “call up” publishers to discuss creating such large scale projects on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, hoping to convince companies to back particular ideas.
“I won’t even use names, but for us to go off and do our own Skyrim-like game that’s going to be on next-gen consoles, I’d love to do that,” he said.
“I’m not saying we’re talking to Bethesda about doing a Skyrim-like game or anything like that, but just saying that’s something we continue to call up and talk to publishers about.
“We have a lot of experience doing that, we love to do it, and if we can get them convinced of an idea, or if they already want to do it, then that would be something that we would choose to do.”
Back in January, Obsidian posted an opening for UI designer to work on current-gen consoles from PlayStation and Microsoft.
Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes has shipped over 1 million copies worldwide, Konami has announced. The figure isn’t copies sold, but how many units have been sent to retail, which is why digital figures weren’t mentioned.
The firm also announced a patch is in the works, but didn’t elaborate on what was included or when it would launch.
Deja vu and Jamais Vu missions, which were console exclusives at one time, will be released on May 1 for both PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said during the company’s Q3 FY14 call to investors last night there are plans to “channel inventory drawdown for Xbox consoles”.
A drawdown in inventory is when a company reduces the available amount of inventory. Drawdowns can help determine the company’s financial risk, and in this case, the drawdown discussed by Hood implies Microsoft has more inventory that it can push at the moment; therefore, it has the option of doing one of two things: slow shipments to retail down or slow or stop the manufacturing process.
Companies can also implement other ways in which to move inventory through marketing pushes and consumer incentives – like sales or price reductions. None of these methods were elaborated upon by Hood, so it’s unknown at present which route the company will take.
“Xbox One has sold in over 5 million units since launch and engagement has been high with users spending nearly 5 hours per day on their console,” said Hoot. “We will continue to extend the unique entertainment value proposition of Xbox One, particularly in markets outside of the U.S. where some services aren’t as mature.
“Xbox 360 sales exceeded our expectations this quarter. And across the platform, Xbox Live members continued to embrace the service with transactional revenue growing 17%. We do expect to work through some inventory in Q4.
“Devices and Consumer licensing, we expect [Q4] revenue to be $4.1 billion to $4.3 billion. In hardware, we expect revenue to be $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in what is a seasonally slower hardware quarter.
“This number also reflects channel inventory drawdown for Xbox consoles. In devices and consumer other, we expect revenue to be about $1.9 billion.”
Microsoft announced last night its Devices and Consumer Hardware sector, which houses Xbox consoles, reported $1.97 million in revenue for Q3 FY14 and $8.19 million for the nine months ending on March 31.
Devices and Consumer revenue grew 12% to $8.30 billion with 2 million Xbox console units, including 1.2 million Xbox One consoles, sold-in.
Dark Souls 2 has been out on PC for about a day now, and with that second launch is a second launch trailer that is actually different from the original one from back when the game his consoles earlier this year.
The main difference between this one and the last one is that none of it is the same at all except for the pullquotes. This trailer has gameplay whereas the previous launch trailer was just a cinematic. The other thing they have in common is they are both ads for Dark Souls 2.
inFamous: Second Son’s Paper Trail missions will come to a close this Friday, April 25, but developer Sucker Punch Productions has confirmed that Delsin won’t be receiving Celia’s paper power by the end.
Paper Power would have been cool. Creating a new power set requires a lot of time.. Hope you enjoy the free content and new bonus items!
Some people out there in Internet-land are already pretty pissed off that Delsin won’t get paper powers, but other seem to be fine with that. What’s your take?
Watch Dogs has received a new batch of screens out of Ubisoft Montreal, showing off a giant spider tank tearing through Chicago’s streets, Aidan cheating at a game of poker and catching some big air on his bike.
The shots came from a recent press event that Stace Harman went to last week, and you can check out his latest Watch Dogs preview through the link. It covers some new features, including the game’s weird Digital Trips, strange missions that merge reality and digital fantasy into one.
Without further ado, here are the screens:
Watch Dogs is set for release on PC, 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4 on May 27. A Wii U version is expected later this year.
Stace Harman plugs himself into Watch Dogs’ fictional universe and finds a degree of familiarity that could enhance immersion but may ultimately lessen its impact.
”Pearce’s technical wizardry is such that he can cast his spell on pretty much anything that’s controlled by a computer system and in Watch Dogs, as in real life, that’s more or less everything.”
Despite suffering a high profile delay of several months, it feels as though Ubisoft Montreal’s near-future hack-fest is arriving at a very pertinent time. Recent real-world history has produced headlines that take in covert phone surveillance, guerrilla hacking groups Vs multinational corporations and the uncovering of inexplicably large holes in some of the world’s most prominent IT systems.
Clearly, if somebody wanted to make a gritty and socially relevant thriller about Big Brother and those seeking to subvert the extensive digital networks on which our lives are run then now would be a very good time to tap into the zeitgeist.
Watch Dogs’ Aiden Pearce is a man able to exploit such weaknesses to gain access to Chicago’s fictional but credible ctOS (Central Operating System). Once inside he can manipulate its architecture to change traffic lights, activate vehicle barriers and raise bridges, at the touch of a button and on the fly – in a manner that’s mechanically similar to Starbreeze’s Syndicate reboot of a couple of years ago.
These abilities are particularly useful when being pursued by law enforcement and involved in shootouts. They also come in handy when you want to beat the traffic to make it home in time for mid-afternoon reruns of Gilmore Girls.
”It’s up to you to decide whether you choose to skim a couple of hundred dollars from the bank accounts of drug dealers, pimps or fraudsters. It’s surprisingly powerful the first few times you decide to tap an average Joe for cash only to find that they’re recently married or are battling cancer.”
In short, Pearce’s technical wizardry is such that he can cast his spell on pretty much anything that’s controlled by a computer system and in Watch Dogs, as in real life, that’s more or less everything.
As Pearce becomes more adept at using his shady skill-set he gains access to more comprehensive hacks, so while at first you’ll have to smash a window to jack a car you’ll later have access to a universal key encoder that’s let’s you unlock the door and start the engine without risk of a bystander reporting your brute force approach to the police.
Lords of the Fallen executive producer Tomasz Gop has stated that Deck 13′s incoming action-RPG won’t dip below 30FPS on any format, but has stressed that achieving 1080p on Xbox One is proving slightly more problematic than on PS4.
Now, speaking with IGN, Gop said of the game’s tech, “We definitely won’t be below 30fps, definitely. I think if we have to choose between resolution and framerate, we’ll probably choose to go full HD 1080p and have a stable, rock-solid 30fps, rather than try to lower the resolution and push it to 60fps because we believe this game looks pretty good, so we’d rather have a decent resolution to show it off.
“We’re working very hard right now to deliver PS4 and Xbox One in 1080p but I can’t confirm whether it’s possible. It’s probably easier for me to confirm it’ll happen for PlayStation 4, because it appears on this one we’re almost nailing it and pretty much there. For Xbox One though, it’s slightly tougher and we’re still working on it, so I can’t confirm that yet.”
Grand Theft Auto 5 didn’t come with a jetpack, which we’re sure hacked off some San Andreas fans, but one gamer has reportedly discovered data strings that suggest Rockstar is going to add one into the game.
It follows a site listing GTA 5 PS4 for pre-order. We’re still none the wiser about whether or not the game is coming to PC or new-gen formats yet.
Now, a member of the Se7enSins community Chr0m3 x MoDz has posted screen grabs of what is claimed to be the source code for Grand Theft Auto 5 1.12. It’s worth noting that apparently, the same parts of the code in previous versions did not include jetpack references.
The grabs are watermarked so we won’t be dicks and post them here, but the data strings in question are said to include a few potentially tell-tale references:
Prop_SPA_Jetpack CTaskJetpack TASK_JETPACK DRIVEBY_JETPACK // Setting it so you can shoot from the JETPACK just like parachute .?AUTunables@CTaskJetpack@@ ?AVCTaskMotionJetpack@@ .?AVCJetpack@@ .?AVCTaskJetpack@@ .?AVCGadgetJetpack@@ // the actual jetpack just like parachute.
TASK_JETPACK(int unk); XBL Toothpik found possible skis .data:838E1118 00000012 C .?AVCGadgetSkis@@ .rdata:820571DC 0000000D C START_SKIING .rdata:820571D4 00000007 C SKIING .rdata:820571C4 0000000E C FINISH_SKIING
Speaking to Eurogamer at Bungie’s Bellevue, Washington headquarters, COO Pete Parsons said Destiny was “close to shipping”, and O’Donnell’s music is still featured in the game.
“I think the Bungie fanbase is going to look forward to hearing Marty’s music, Mike Salvatori’s music, C. Paul’s music and Paul McCartney’s music in the game,” Parsons said. “That’s going to be exciting for people. It’s going to be a great, fantastic experience.”
Parsons wouldn’t touch upon the reason O’Donnell is no longer being with the company, but said since much of the game has already been completed, his departure would not impact Destiny.
“I believe people will be transported not just by the activities and the stories within the Destiny universe but by the sights and the wonderful sounds and music,” he said. “We have a fantastic team. We’re pretty close to shipping. There’s a lot of polish left to do, lots of tweaking and tuning, but a lot is already complete.”
Destiny is slated for a September release on on PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Finalists Semaj Riddick from Virginia and Tommy Zak from Wisconsin, beat out thousands of participants and will compete head-to-head on PlayStation 4 in a “best 2 out of 3″ format. T
he grand prize winner will receive a trip to the 2014 NBA Finals, $5,000 and a PlayStation 4 NBA 2K14 bundle.
