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Archived News:
Oculus Rift unveiled a new "Crystal Cove" unit at CES today, with the new
version of their Oculus VR headset sporting an upgraded OLED display and newly
added positional tracking. There are details on this on
Polygon, where they learned that these changes will not greatly increase the
cost of the units. "Cost has always been at the crux of the entire Oculus
platform, if the hardware is not affordable, it might as well not exist," Nate
Mitchell of Oculus told them. "We made sure this is a low-cost solution without
sacrificing any quality. This is a top-notch positional tracking system." They
have some info on both changes, saying OLED panel has an unusually high refresh
rate and the ability to fire an individual pixel "for a fraction of a
millisecond and then turning it off and then going black until the next pulse."
They also discuss what the positional tracking adds: One of the demos
shown at CES will feature the player sitting across from a fantasy character in
Unreal Engine 4, with a table that features a tower defense game resting between
you. Positional tracking will allow the player to lean forward and study the
board and details of the units. The extra three degrees of movements would also
allow players to lean out a virtual window, for instance, in order to look
around while still keeping their body in cover.
Swedish site
Gamereactor has a report (in their native tongue) that Tom Clancy's The
Division will be delayed, though we don't recall an official release date for
the upcoming third-person shooter to miss. The report is based on comments
attributed to an unnamed member of the development team at Ubisoft Massive
railing against a 2014 release date said to have been announced by Ubisoft, and
a translation of his statement calls this "laughable" because the project still
has a long way to go. Ubisoft has not commented on the report. Thanks
NowGamer.
The
FINAL FANTASY XIV website announces this weekend will be free to
owners of the MMORPG who dropped their subscriptions prior to the release of the
version 2.1 patch (thanks
Massively). Word is: The release of patch 2.1 introduced a wealth of
new content such as the Crystal Tower 24-man raid, player versus player battles
in the Wolves’ Den, new extreme encounters with the primals, further
developments in the main scenario and much, much more! Since we’re excited for
even more players to experience everything that FFXIV has to offer we’ve decided
to host a limited time Free Login Weekend!
If you have friends that played FINAL FANTASY XIV version 1.0 or FFXIV: A Realm
Reborn, please be sure to invite them to join you this weekend!
The
Steam Community has the announcement that Valve has greenlit another 50
games to be distributed via Steam when they are released. They offer
this
handy list to browse the full selection of new games. They also offer a
little more insight into their criteria for approving them: "These titles were
selected on the same criteria we have been using in the past: Votes in
Greenlight give us a hugely valuable point of data in gauging community interest
along with external factors such as press reviews, crowd-funding successes,
performance on other similar platforms, and awards and contests to help form a
more complete picture of community interest in each title."
The Elder Scrolls Online website announces a new round of beta
invites is going out for Bethesda's upcoming MMORPG: The beta is getting
bigger as launch approaches, and we can’t wait to see everyone’s feedback. If
you don’t receive your invite today, don’t worry—you’ll have more chances to
explore Tamriel before launch. When we send out invites, we post here and on
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, so follow us on your favorite site to make sure
you don’t miss an announcement.
Steam News announces
that Secrets of Rætikon
is now available via early access to challenge your skills and your
spellchecker. Here's word: Secrets of Rætikon is an atmospheric,
open-world, 2D exploration game set in the romantic wilderness of the Alps. Fly
through savage mountains, encounter wild animal tribes and discover the secrets
of an ancient culture. An inviting world beckons you to become part of the
enduring struggle between nature and civilization.
The
Defiance website introduces new 7th Legion DLC coming to Defiance
next month (thanks
Massively). Here's word on what this will add to Trion's MMORPG: When
the world fell apart, one group kept their courage. Guided by the teachings of
the Code of Bushido, the soldiers of the 7th Legion marched across Canada
gathering survivors as they went. From one outpost to another they marched until
finally they found a city which did not fall: Manhattan. There, they made their
stand against the darkness, and Commander Yoshida Hiro called an end to their
long journey. Now they have come to Paradise. What dread news could this
herald?
Joystiq - Steam Machines are nonsense and Valve is cool with that.
When someone asks whether they should buy a gaming PC or hold out for a
Steam Machine, I struggle to find a reason to wait. It's certainly not in
the price or the power. Maybe it's in the design, but that's a small market
to attempt to capture, considering the competition in the PC space. It's not
so much that I'm confused what a Steam Machine is – that's been clearly, yet
oddly, defined – it's more that I'm unsure where Valve's market lies.
And there's the rub: It's not Valve's market. Valve has SteamOS and the
Steam Controller, things that will exist regardless of the actual Steam
Machines, and they'll probably be worth the effort. They have clear uses and
markets. Valve has not made a Steam Machine of its own, and so it has
nothing to lose in this first-year gamble. Valve licenses use of the Steam
logo and the name, meaning it's already bringing in cash from other
companies' Steam Machines. The risk belongs to the hardware manufacturers –
iBuyPowers and Digital Storms alike – while Valve can collect the data and
see if hardware really is a good investment. It's genius.
The
Planetside subreddit has word from Sony Online Entertainment that they are
going forward with the
recently proposed plan to offer a unified subscription plan for all their
MMOGs, which will cost $14.99 per month (thanks
The Escapist). Here's word from SOE's John Smedly: Hi everyone,
Thanks for the feedback. We listened.
Here are the basics of our revised plan. Please note - we have not had the time
to do estimates of the work involved, and also we're continuing to listen. so
this isn't baked just yet. Do not expect that this is all going to happen
immediately. We plain don't know yet. we're doing that meeting tmw.
1) We're lowering the price of All Access to $14.99
2) We're going to make it so every subscriber to all our PC games an all access
member. Basically there will be one SOE membership for our PC games. Please note
there are some minor restrictions around our kids titles (simply put - if you're
a 12 year old who signed up for FR you won't have access to the adult games so
we'll likely leave the lower priced kids offerings as separate subscriptions for
under 12 for the same low prices).
3) We're keeping the 500 SC included with the subscription instead of going to
the "pick an item" system. We heard you. You didn't like the change. The only
change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You
can still hoard it though :) I realize this is a bit of a pain but honestly it's
the best compromise we could come up with that solves the problems I mentioned
in the other thread.
4) we are going to be giving our members a 10% discount in our marketplaces.
5) European players - we have an idea on how to include you in this but we need
to discuss with our partners. We have a pretty good idea on this though. give us
a bit of time to suss this out.
6) Nothing is changing with Player Studio items - you'll still be able to buy
them with your 500SC.
7) Console titles - you'll notice I only mentioned the PC titles. Our goal is to
include the PS3 and PS4 games that we have, but I want to be up front and say
that isn't a done deal.
In a nutshell that's where our head is at.
As always your feedback is welcomed. Please do us a big favor and carefully
think about #3. Our goal is to give you more value in the subscription to make
it more attractive and making it simpler in the process.
I really feel like we're making a good decision going this route. It makes
things simpler and gives more value to our players.
Thanks
Smed
GameInformer.com reveals the February cover story of their print edition
takes the wraps off Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve, the IP
acquired by Take-Two in the THQ
breakup. They reveal this to be a sci-fi themed, asymmetrical multiplayer
shooter the Left for Dead developer plans to release for Windows and
consoles this autumn. They promise 12 pages of details, impressions, and
artwork, and in the meantime, offer this overview of the project: The
sci-fi multiplayer-focused shooter pits a four-player crew of alien hunters
against a separate player-controlled monster that grows larger and more powerful
over the course of matches. Each hunter features its own unique items and
abilities, and while the monster may be outnumbered, its size and an assortment
of devastating attacks make it a more than formidable foe. Like Turtle Rock's
previous titles, Evolve is being built with variety and replayabilty in mind;
the result is a novel mix of cooperative and competitive multiplayer elements
that's unlike anything we've played before. Our exclusive hands-on time with the
game's four-versus-one hunt mode left us with plenty to be excited about, and
you can get all the details in this month's issue.
The
GeForce website now offers new WHQL-certified version 332.21 GeForce drivers
for NVIDIA graphics cards. Here's the skinny on what these do: The new
GeForce 332.21 WHQL driver is now
available to download. 332.21 WHQL features new SLI profiles for Assetto
Corsa, EVE Online (DirectX 11), Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, and Thief,
3D Vision profiles for Injustice: Gods Among Us (Excellent) and Path of Exile
(Good), and ensures maximum performance and system stability across all titles.
You can download 332.21 WHQL directly from the
Drivers page, or automatically
through GeForce Experience,
our free, essential, game and system enhancing application. For the complete set
of release notes please
click here.
If you experience any issues with the 332.21 WHQL driver please post a full and
detailed report on the
GeForce.com Driver Feedback Forum, where our Customer Care team can better
assist you.
The
SEGA Blog announces Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly's upcoming
Aliens action/adventure/shooter. "In Alien: Isolation, we have taken the series
back to the roots of Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie, the original survival horror,"
said Alistair Hope of Creative Assembly. "Our Alien is a truly terrifying
creature, as intelligent as he is hostile, relentless, brutal and unstoppable.
This is the Alien game fans of the series have always wanted." This has been a
poorly kept secret before this revelation, as it was outed by the discovery of
its trademark,
concept art, and
screenshots. The description on
Xbox.com confirms the game's protagonist will be Ellen Ripley's daughter,
and
Videogamer has some first-hand impressions, saying "It's Amnesia in space,
essentially, with Ripley stalked by a lone Xenomorph aboard the station," and
there are also a hands-on previews on
The Escapist and
Rock,
Paper, Shotgun. An
Alien Isolation trailer is also now available, teasing the project with
cinematics and glimpses of gameplay, a platform list that includes PC; Xbox One;
PlayStation 4; Xbox 360; and PlayStation 3, and word the game will be "out late
2014." Here's the description: Discover the true meaning of fear in Alien:
Isolation, a survival horror set in an atmosphere of constant dread and mortal
danger. Fifteen years after the events of Alien™, Ellen Ripley’s daughter,
Amanda enters a desperate battle for survival, on a mission to unravel the truth
behind her mother's disappearance. As Amanda, you will navigate through an
increasingly volatile world as you find yourself confronted on all sides by a
panicked, desperate population and an unpredictable, ruthless Alien.
Underpowered and underprepared, you must scavenge resources, improvise solutions
and use your wits, not just to succeed in your mission, but to simply stay
alive.
Continue here to read the full story.
The Steam Database
has details on a patch for Fallout 3 that rolled out
a few days ago that removes some variables with names like ShowCDKeyOnLaunch and LegacyKeyRegistryLocation that the posters on
NeoGAF say
shows the removal of Games for Windows LIVE functionality from
Bethesda's action/RPG sequel. This is by no means a stretch, as various other
games have recently removed support for Microsoft's DRM, including
Ultra Street Fighter IV,
BioShock 2, the
Arkham series, and DiRT
3 amid rife speculation
that the service will soon end altogether following the closure of the GFWL
marketplace during
the summer. This should theoretically be easy enough to check, but
reinstalling Fallout 3 here has resulted in errors keeping the game from
launching, but for what it's worth, we did not see any GFWL. Thanks
The Escapist. Update: After getting the game to run (protip: Fallout
3 does not seem to appreciate dual-monitor setups), Fallout 3 ran without any
GFWL prompts. Update 2: Upon closer examination, the game did install the
Games for Windows LIVE client, and when this was uninstalled, Fallout 3 will no
longer launch.
The
Starbound Twitter feed announces Chucklefish's Starbound has now sold
one million copies: "We've just passed a MILLION copies sold. Keeping with the
Keanu Reeves theme…
http://i.imgur.com/iBY3OfP.jpg #whoa." Thanks
GamesIndustry International.
The Roberts Space Industries
website now shows that Star Citizen has passed the $36 million dollar
crowdfunding mark. A new
Letter from the Chairman celebrates the news, outlines the Tamsa system this
unlocks, and lays out their $38 million goal, the "fully aquatic planet." They
currently show $36,158,810 collected from 353,996 "Star Citizens," which seems
to indicate that the average pledge for the upcoming space simulation is over
$100.00.
A
reddit post by John Smedly has thoughts from the SOE boss to
changes in how premium memberships
work in their MMOGs (thanks
Gamasutra). At the end he reveals they are also considering a single
consolidated premium subscription plan that would grant access to all their
games: We are considering (and are likely going to move forward with) a
plan that means if you subscribe to one of our games you are a subscriber to all
our games (this applies to PC titles only btw).. all for the current $14.99 a
month. That's a benefit most companies simply can't offer because they don't
have our portfolio of games. The goal would be to let you pick an item in each
game you play. Some of you might say "well who cares..I only play Planetside 2.
How is that a benefit to me?" My answer is simple - we've got a great lineup of
games, some of which aren't announced yet that cater to a lot of players. We
have EQN and EQNL coming along with other..... games... that PS2 players might
just like :)
A
Connected Realms Update on the World of Warcraft website outlines the
progress Blizzard has made on addressing low-population realms in World of
Warcraft, showing all the realms that have been connected so far. They also
announce further ream connecting they will undertake this week, as they have a
maintenance period scheduled for Thursday starting at 9:00 am EST. They say the
outline of their plans is not necessarily complete, and the schedule is subject
to change.
As noted in the Fallout 3 story above, I was not able to run the RPG sequel
after reinstalling it to see how it does or does not invoke Games for Windows
LIVE. I'm getting one of those unreadable dialog boxes that doesn't help much,
so I can't tell if the odd message about my .Net 4.0 installation is the
culprit. I don't really have the urge to play that game right now, but I don't
know if I'll be able to avoid the pull of troubleshooting this to try and figure
out what's wrong out of sheer OCD.
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