‘Final Fantasy VII’ lands on iOS with built-in cheat codes
If you can’t find your old PSOne discs, don’t want the PC version and don’t have a PS4, there’s now one more way to play Final Fantasy VII: on your iPhone. Today Square Enix launched the classic jRPG for devices running iOS 8.0 and up. At its core, this release is a simple port of the PC version of the game, but developers have made a few minor tweaks to the title palatable on the small screen.
Leveling up won’t be an issue on the mobile version of the game, for instance: the iOS version has a “max stats” command that instantly raises your character’s levels. Your all-powerful party won’t have to deal with time-sucking random battles, either — they can be turned off. Finally, Square Enix has decided not to give the game a customized touch-friendly menu as it has with some of its other mobile Final Fantasy ports, opting to overlay the screen with a virtual joypad instead.
Final Fantasy VII for iOS launches today, but it’s on a slow rollout: at the time of this writing, it only seems to be available in New Zealand, for $19.99 NZD (which converts to about $13 in greenbacks). Check out the New Zealand product page here or hit up Square Enix’s official YouTube channel to watch the trailer.
Source:
YouTube, iTunes (1), (2)
Tags: finalfantasy, finalfantasyvii, gaming, ios, iPhone, mobilepostcross, Square-Enix, squareenix, videogames
For $200, Samsung’s latest Gear VR headset is a no-brainer
If you’re the owner of a new Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge, an extra $200 will get you Samsung’s Gear VR Innovator Edition, one of the first virtual reality headsets available to the public. Like others following the Oculus Rift story, I assumed that all VR headsets still presented issues like nausea and lag and weren’t yet consumer-friendly. But I wanted to see for myself what the fuss was all about, and since I already have an S6 Edge, I decided to splurge on one. In a few short days, my prejudices have melted away: The Gear VR isn’t perfect, but it already does plenty of things, and does them well.
After owning a OnePlus One for the better part of a year, I ditched it in favor of a Galaxy S6 Edge. That’s because I wanted to get into virtual reality (among other reasons), and the Gear VR with a Galaxy S6 attached is smaller and lighter than the original Gear VR with a Galaxy Note 4. With motion sensors, a touchpad, a volume control and a back button, it’s far more sophisticated than, say, Google Cardboard. Like the last-generation Gear VR, this one is powered by your smartphone, which you can now charge while using the headset via a USB passthrough port (the first Gear VR didn’t have one).
Also like the original, the new Gear VR requires you to clip in specific phones — the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge — to function as computer, sound system and display. Luckily, those phones have Quad HD screens squeezed into 5.1 inches, which makes for an ultra-dense 576 pixels per inch — ideal for a display that’s just an inch from your face. (I now regret saying that 4K smartphone screens were dumb, because that would be amazing.) A pair of magnifiers gives you stereoscopic vision, and there’s a focus wheel with a wide range of adjustment. The headset doesn’t allow for glasses, however. Software-wise, Samsung wisely let Oculus handle the software and supply VR-specific apps like Oculus 360 and Oculus Cinema. The result is a headset that’s easy to set up and operate, and searching for content is easy.
Using a VR system isn’t like being in the Matrix, but it does feel a little weird. Sure, it’s disorienting at first, and if cellphone screens mess with your sleep cycle, then the extra light from VR headsets will likely obliterate it. Still, I never experienced any dizziness, nausea or other side effects supposedly common with these sorts of headsets. That’s perhaps thanks to the Gear VR’s motion sensors, which are very responsive. I found the UI surprisingly natural; you just look at what you want to select and then tap the touchpad on the side of the Gear.
VR suffers from a well-publicized lack of content, but it’s not like there’s none. For one, you can play any regular or 3D movie (more on that in a sec), Oculus 360 and stereoscopic videos, YouTube clips, porn (of course), games and VR “experiences” that combine those things. An example of the latter is the Insurgent VR “Shatter Realty” experience (embedded below), where you get a bit of everything: stereoscopic 3D and wraparound 360-degree views, all tied together with a game-style story line. During one segment, you’re perched high on a skyscraper with a vertigo-inducing view straight down, and at another point, there’s a train barreling straight toward you.
The games I tried weren’t amazing, but smartphones lack the graphics power for the sort of visually dense games that would do the Gear VR justice. As revealed at Oculus’ Mobile VR Jam, however, plenty of interesting titles are coming for the headset. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is probably the best-known title available now, but requires at least two people (and preferably more) to play. I also tried an FPS called Protocol Zero ($5, Android gamepad required), which uses low-res graphics to good effect inside the Gear VR by tapping into the 360-degree, stereoscopic environment. Gaming will be a different story on the Oculus Rift, of course, as it will run on PC hardware.
There are no issues with cinematic content, however. There’s some “screen-door” pixelation on the Gear VR, even with content developed for the 2,560 x 1,440 Galaxy S6, but it’s hardly noticeable. Oculus Cinema puts you in one of several fully rendered, 360-degree, theater-style environments; you can see the floor, seats and even the projector behind you. It feels like some of those pixels are wasted — why not let the film fill your field of vision? But I happily watched Casino Royale and other films on the Gear VR and promptly forgot about it.
Zero Point Oculus 360 film from Condition One
Oculus 360 movies are brilliant; they actually live up to the “put you in the action” trope. All the pixels are put to use, so the realism is often palpable. It does present a storytelling problem, however: The camera position shifts constantly in regular cinema so that the director can drive the plot forward. Doing that in an Oculus 360 movie would be jarring, because you feel like you’re a character in the movie, not an observer. For me, the better option is 180-degree, stereoscopic movies. Still, having the action all around you in 3D is far more immersive than a regular 3D film.
Dramatic VR films could eventually blow IMAX away if handled correctly. Film studios haven’t produced any notable content, so all you can see now are demos like 11:57, a horror short — or the adventure film Zero Point (above). On the other hand, companies like Virtual Real Porn have already produced numerous titles. I checked a few for er, research purposes, and 180-degree stereoscopic porn doesn’t come close to real sex as some are hoping, but it’s definitely much more immersive.
Should you buy a Gear VR Innovator Edition? Assuming you have a Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge and enjoy fun, then yes: a million times yes. Gaming is its Achilles’ heel, but serious gamers would never consider Android anyway. Even so, you can use the device now — today — to comfortably watch regular 2D and 3D films anywhere without squinting at your smartphone screen. And the immersive Oculus 360 and stereoscopic movies (and photos) are the height of the VR experience, letting you explore real or synthetic worlds in a way you never could before. There’s still a lack of content, but that’ll come, and the headset still gives you plenty to do right now. For $200, why wait?
[Image credits: Team Coco, Condition One]
Filed under:
Gaming, Wearables, Samsung
Tags: CurvedScreen, engadgetIRL, GalaxyS6Edge, GearVR, irl, Oculus, OculusCinema, samsung, uk-feature, VirtualReality
’80s game designers had to cheat their way to color graphics
We take powerful computer graphics for granted nowadays, to the point where we complain when 4K games won’t play at 60fps. But YouTube’s iBookGuy showed how tough designers had it back in the 80s just to make color graphics work, period, on 16K machines of the day. They had to use a variety of workarounds just to get 16 colors on a 320 x 200 screen, as that would normally eat up your entire 16K of RAM right there. Developers for machines like the NES and Commodore 64 resorted to dividing the screen into “cells” that could each hold only two colors, a trick that used up just 9K of memory.
That meant designers had to be creative to make graphics look good — in the image above, for instance, there isn’t a single 8 x 8 cell with more than two colors. Another trick designers used was to divide elements into “sprites” that operated independently of other screen graphics. Nintendo’s Mario, for instance, was actually built from four individual sprites. There’s plenty more info in the easy to follow video (below), and he promised more episodes down the road.
Via:
Boing Boing
Source:
The iBook Guy
Tags: 16K, 8-bit, 80s, ComputerGraphics, TheiBookGuy, video
Amazon UK is ending book and video game trade-ins
Did you know that Amazon UK accepts book and video game trade-ins? Nope, me neither. It seems plenty of other customers were oblivious, or at least haven’t been using it, because the company has announced that the option is soon disappearing. The section of Amazon’s site which lets you specify your trade-ins will go dark on August 31st, after which you’ll have seven days to mail out your physical media. Of course, if you’re still prepared to thin your library in order to accrue extra cash, you can still set up shop and sell directly through Amazon Marketplace. Otherwise, there’s always GAME, CeX and eBay.
Via:
Metro
Source:
Amazon
Tags: amazon, games, preowned, preownedgames, TradeIn, TradeIns, videogames
Microsoft studio wants you to choose and shape its next game
Press Play, the Danish developer behind Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba is opening up its doors to seek advice on its next game. The Microsoft-owned studio is entering what it calls “open development.” For now that means the public can choose which of its game concepts gets greenlit, but it’ll soon mean a lot more.
There are three ideas being batted around the Press Play office: Dwarka, Karoo, and Knoxville. Dwarka is an “action-packed first-person co-op game,” Karoo is a “physics-based multiplayer construction game.” and Knoxville a “third-person multiplayer action-survival game.” Here are the teaser trailers for all three:
You wouldn’t know it from the teasers, but each of the concepts is already at the prototype phase of development. Press Play’s site has gameplay demos for all three, with Karoo probably being the furthest along. Once a title is chosen, Press Play says it’ll continue to work with the community during development. Some of its plans include “sharing early builds of the game and having community members join meetings and project reviews via Skype.” If you’ve ever wanted more than the regular video diaries and blog posts created by game creators, Press Play’s initiative seems like a unique chance to get involved in game development.
Filed under:
Gaming, Microsoft
Source:
Microsoft
Tags: microsoft, PressPlay
‘Duke Nukem’ franchise ownership finally settled
A dispute that left ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise in limbo has officially been settled. In a statement, Gearbox Software affirmed that it’s the “full and rightful owner of the Duke Nukem franchise.” Previous rights-holder and creator 3D Realms (aka Apogee Software) relinquished all claims, saying “to secure the future of Duke, 3D realms has agreed with Gearbox that a single home serves (it) best.” That’s a far cry from the rancor between the parties after Gearbox launched the lawsuit in 2014, however. Gearbox assumed it had bought the full franchise rights from 3D Realms, until 3D Realms announced that it was creating a new title called Duke Nukem Survivor.
To secure the future of Duke, 3D realms has agreed with Gearbox that a single home serves (it) best.
At the time, 3D Realms said “it is our position that (we) retain the right to develop the tentatively titled Duke Nukem Survivor game…. (and) that the trademark for Duke Nukem was never assigned to Gearbox.” Caught in the middle of the whole thing was 3D Realms’ new parent, Interceptor, which said “when (we) acquired a license to develop Duke Nukem Mass Destruction (Duke Nukem Survivor) from 3D Realms, we did so in good faith and were not aware of any conflict.”
News of a settlement first leaked in May, but the statements today are the first official confirmation. There’s no word on whether Gearbox plans to develop a new Duke Nukem game, considering that the last title, Duke Nukem Forever, bombed. The franchise is probably better known now as a cultural anachronism and shorthand phrase for “never-ending development.”
Filed under:
Gaming
Source:
Gearbox Software
Tags: 3DRealms, DukeNukem, interceptor-entertainment, Lawsuit, Settlement, Survivor
‘Rainbow Six: Siege’ won’t breach and clear until December
It seems like that original October 13th release date proved a bit too unlucky for Ubisoft and Rainbow Six: Siege. A post on the gaming juggernaut’s blog says that the game has a lot of room to improve and an extra month or so will help the developers do just that. Namely, balancing weapons and equipment, tweaking co-op “across all game modes” and some other housekeeping bits. Don’t worry though because the closed beta is still on for September 24th while the full game launches across all platforms on December 1st. It’s starting to look like a trend for the company, and is almost assuredly helped in part by the absolutely atrocious launch of last fall’s Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
Filed under:
Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source:
Ubisoft
Tags: December, delay, gaming, hd, hdpostcross, pc, PcGaming, PlayStation, ps4, rainbowsix, rainbowsixsiege, ubisoft, xbox, XboxOne
Andy Serkis whispers about the devil in this live-action ‘Volume’ vid
Volume isn’t a movie, though it does feature a major film star, a popular YouTube personality and a BAFTA award-winning voice actor. Not bad for the sequel to Thomas was Alone, an adorable video game about basic shapes and friendship. Volume stars Andy Serkis (Gollum in The Lord of the Rings), Danny Wallace (the narrator in Thomas was Alone), and Charlie McDonnell (a long-time YouTube star with 2.4 million subscribers). It’s a Robin Hood-inspired stealth game set in a technologically advanced future — and it’s out today, August 18th, for PlayStation 4, PC and Mac. It was supposed to hit Vita today as well, but that version has been delayed, creator Mike Bithell announced on his blog.
“Unfortunately, we unexpectedly had to make the decision to hold off on the Vita version for a couple weeks to get it where we want it,” Bithell writes. “It’s so very nearly ready, but it needs a little more love. A few personal problems and issues have slowed down our submittal, so even though the game is ‘done’ on Vita, we still have some QA process to go through (because that stuff matters).”
There’s no launch window for the Vita version, but it sounds as if it’s not too far off. Volume is a Cross-Buy game for PlayStation platforms, so anyone who buys it on PS4 will get it on Vita at no extra charge.
Tags: AndySerkis, charliemcdonnell, DannyWallace, hdpostcross, Indie, MikeBithell, mikebithellgames, RobinHood, volume
Invest in the development of your favorite video games with ‘Fig’
When Double Fine launched a Kickstarter campaign for an unnamed adventure game in 2012, it changed the gaming industry in a huge way. The project asked for $400,000 but raised more than $3 million in about a month, setting records at the time and jump-starting the video game crowdfunding craze. And then, in 2013, Double Fine announced it needed more money to finish its adventure game, now titled Broken Age. Even with millions of dollars, widespread publicity and thousands of fans, Double Fine ran into costly issues during development, and not all backers were receptive to the studio’s reasoning. Some of them wanted more say in how the game was made, seeing their donation as a legitimate stake in Broken Age‘s development — something that the Kickstarter campaign never promised.
Flash forward to August 2015: Former Double Fine COO Justin Bailey launches Fig, a video game crowdfunding platform that offers investment opportunities with cash returns and promises to provide backers with an inside look at how game development actually goes down.
Fig’s advisory board includes Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer (the man behind 2012’s game-changing Kickstarter), plus Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart, inXile Entertainment CEO Brian Fargo and Indie Fund co-founder Aaron Isaksen. The first game up for funding is Outer Wilds, an award-winning space exploration experience from Mobius Digital, a team of young artists and developers led by Heroes actor Masi Oka. Oka previously worked as a VFX Artist on the second Star Wars trilogy at Industrial Light & Magic.
Outer Wilds is looking to raise $125,000 in 30 days, and in the first few hours it’s already generated about $50,000. Fig features different tiers for potential contributors — lower tiers, starting at $20, are similar to Kickstarter’s reward system, offering copies of the game and other related swag. However, if you’re an SEC-accredited investor and throw down at least $1,000 toward Outer Wilds‘ development, you’ll receive a portion of the game’s net revenue on certain PC platforms. At its heart, Fig is a combination of rewards-based crowdfunding and traditional investing.
“By launching a Fig campaign, game studios can combine these two powerful methods of raising funds while retaining creative control and offering fans new ways to get involved,” Fig’s About page reads. “By supporting a campaign, fans journey with each studio as they go from development to launch (and beyond), all while gaining real insights and transparency into the business of making games.”
As for the transparency part of Fig’s plan, the site so far features a “development stage” timeline that displays where Outer Wilds is in the game-making process. There’s a section for updates from the developer as well, and a comments section open to those who pledge $20 or more to the project.
The plan is for Fig to eventually allow anyone, even non-accredited people, to invest in games on the platform, Bailey tells Games Industry. Fig itself has financial support from Spark Captial, a venture capital firm that’s invested in Oculus, Slack, Tumblr and other tech-adjacent companies. Fig isn’t the only new crowdfunding site to feature a twist on Kickstarter’s model: StartEngine, for example, comes from Activision co-founder Howard Marks and allows people to invest in private companies, something that Kickstarter doesn’t do.
With all of these crowdfunding choices, pick your favorite model and let the games begin.
Via:
Game Informer
Source:
Fig
Tags: CrowdFunding, DoubleFine, fig, hdpostcross, Investing, Investment, kickstarter, VideoGames
Xbox One to Windows 10 game streaming is about to look a lot better
Remember that “very high” streaming video setting Reddit users found hiding in the Windows 10 Xbox app? It’s available to all users right now. Today Microsoft announced that the app’s August update would enable game streaming from Xbox One consoles to Windows 10 PCs in 1080p and 60 frames per second. Nice.
Starting today, users with strong home networks can activate “very high” quality streaming under the ‘game streaming’ section of the app’s ‘settings’ menu. The update crams in a bunch of other handy features too, including the ability to right-click users on your friends list to send them a message, new notification preferences, the ability to compare achievements, a new grid view for the My Games section and the ability to add PC games to your game list via a drop down menu. Check out the full list of changes at the source link below.
Filed under:
Gaming, Microsoft
Source:
Major Nelson
Tags: fullhd, gamestreaming, gaming, microsoft, streaming, windows10, xbox, xboxapp
AIVAnet 