‘Shenmue 3’ creator explains how Sony is helping out
When the word got out that Shenmue 3 was getting financial help from Sony, not just E3 stage time, some gamers understandably flipped out. Were Yu Suzuki and crew duping fans into supporting a big-budget sequel in the guise of a crowdfunded indie title? Well, you can relax a little — Suzuki has come clean and explained to backers just how Sony and partner Shibuya Productions are involved. On top of an apology for misleading supporters, the developer notes that Sony and Shibuya are helping out with marketing, production and (in Sony’s case) “some publishing.” While he can’t talk about the terms, he’s adamant that your money is going directly to Shenmue‘s development. The other companies are “not seeing a cent” of your pledge, Suzuki says.
The disclosure should help assuage some jittery backers, although it also suggests that crowdfunded game studios still have something to learn about being up front about their financing. Although the teams behind projects like Shenmue 3 and the Castlevania-inspired Bloodstained have been quick to answer questions about outside help, their campaigns aren’t very explicit about why they’d like your money. In situations like these, your contribution mostly helps the designers gauge interest and work on bonus features that wouldn’t otherwise be practical. Those are fine motivations, but they’re seldom as obvious as you might like.
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Sony
Source: Kickstarter
Red Bullshit: How ‘Destiny’ lost support of its biggest fans
Last week, Destiny developer Bungie was riding high following the reveal of the game’s biggest expansion to date, The Taken King. Gamers were excited to learn about the new subclasses, missions, weapons, armor and, most importantly, a new raid focused on Crota’s vengeful dad, Oryx. But as E3 2015 wound down, an interview between Eurogamer and Luke Smith, Bungie’s creative director on The Taken King, quickly derailed the game maker’s momentum and turned Destiny’s most supportive players against it. Just two days later, Bungie has inexplicably painted itself into a corner by dropping the ball for a second time.
Let’s start at the beginning. Ahead of The Taken King’s launch on September 15th, Bungie unveiled four separate bundles for the game. Those who already own the original game will need to pay $40 (double the price of the first two expansions) for The Taken King on its own. That’s fine, Bungie has already talked up all of the new stuff that will come with it.
If you’re new to the game, you’ll pay $60 for “all year one content.” This includes Destiny, The Dark Below and House of Wolves expansions and The Taken King. That’s a pretty reasonable price when you consider existing gamers are paying $40 for the next installment on its own.
However, if you’re gunning for the Collector’s Edition, that’s where things get a little muddier. For $80, you get a special Collector’s Edition box, a steelbook case, print artifacts, a book, weapon packs, a replica strange coin and all of the existing and upcoming expansions. On top of that, there are also three armor shaders and three class-specific “emotes,” which take the form of dance moves or gestures.
Day one Destiny players, who have already sunk plenty of money into the game up to this point, face a dilemma. There’s no way to get the bonus emotes and shaders without buying the content they’ve already spent the better part of a year playing. Yes, there are cool items that help sweeten the deal, but for those who have committed countless hours to Destiny, the lack of a clear upgrade path for in-game items like emotes or shaders is upsetting.
Things were made worse when Eurogamer met with Smith, who offered troublesome answers to serious questions. Take this exchange for example:
Eurogamer: Final question on prices.
Luke Smith: Is it also the final question on the emotes?
Eurogamer: I’m not going to mention them again. I can’t get them.
Luke Smith: But you can if you buy the Collector’s Edition.
Eurogamer: I’m not going to buy the game and two DLCs all over again.
Luke Smith: Okay, but first I want to poke at you on this a little bit.
Eurogamer: Poke at me?
Luke Smith: You’re feeling anxious because you want this exclusive content but you don’t know yet how much you want it. The notion of spending this money is making you anxious, I can see it.
Eurogamer: I do want them. I would buy them.
Luke Smith: If I fired up a video right now and showed you the emotes, you would throw money at the screen.
Eurogamer: What I’m saying is that fan frustration is not because they don’t understand the proposition. It comes regardless of how cool the exclusive content is. The frustration, and mine as a fan, is that the method of acquiring it requires me to re-buy content I bought a year ago.
Luke Smith: It’s about value. The player’s assessment of the value of the content.
Bungie immediately went into firefighting mode. Community Support Manager DeeJ_BNG took to Reddit to explain that the company was “reading this feedback and taking it seriously,” and vowed to address gamers’ frustrations in one of Bungie’s Weekly Updates. That didn’t stop players from voicing their displeasure:
Red Bull Gives You XP
The Weekly Update normally posted to the Bungie blog hasn’t gone up yet, but both the developer and Activision have already confirmed something that many gamers hate: buying stuff for XP. To be clear, many games offer downloadable content (DLC) with sponsors attached (hell, even Sony pays for exclusive weapons and levels that Xbox owners can’t use), but this new deal with Red Bull is particularly offensive.
In simple terms, Destiny is getting a brand-new quest. The bad news is that you need to buy “specially marked” cans of the popular energy drink to get it. They’ll even include bonus XP, helping you rank your Hunter, Titan or Warlock ahead of the quest’s launch on September 18th (three days after The Taken King). If you’re not interested in pumping your body full of taurine, you’ll need to wait until January 1st, 2016 to play it.
So while players are still frustrated at the in-game upgrades, Bungie and Activision are now restricting content depending on whether you enjoy Red Bull. Let’s not forget, this could be any food or drink brand — it’s the terms that will leave a sour taste in people’s mouths. At least with DLC, you just pay for the download and get on with it.
There’s no denying that Bungie has been under continual pressure from a demanding Destiny player base. Some players didn’t like The Dark Below; others hated the fact that Bungie dropped the raid in the current expansion. However, the company has been very proactive in addressing the community and in the months leading up to the release of House of Wolves, it made some very welcome improvements to the game’s overall experience.
Bungie deserves the criticism it’s received in the past week, but the increased vitriol might be indicative of gamers’ wider issues with the game. There have been complaints about Destiny (lack of a story, underpowered guns, not enough vault space, etc.) for a long time. Now there is a common cause to unite the community — Bungie needs to relent, or risk losing some of its biggest supporters.
Via: Activision
Source: Red Bull Quest
‘Driveclub’ finally reaches PlayStation Plus on June 25th
Remember how Sony promised you a free version of Driveclub with your PlayStation Plus subscription about, oh, two years ago? You’ll finally get to claim it this week. The Plus Edition of Evolution Studios’ PS4 racing game is launching on June 25th, giving you a chance to see what all the hype was about. Sony is taking care to avoid the server meltdowns that plagued the retail game’s debut, too. On day one, you’ll only have guaranteed access to offline play — internet races will gradually roll out to make sure that this socially-oriented title works as advertised.
In many ways, the PS Plus release represents the close to an embarrassing chapter for both the game creator and Sony. Driveclub was supposed to be a standard bearer for the PS4 that showed off both Plus and the console’s technical prowess, but seemingly nothing went right. The game missed the PS4’s launch thanks to a last-minute delay, which ultimately led to a roughly year-long wait as the developers reworked large sections of gameplay. And as Kotaku has learned, the several months of extra waiting for the PS Plus version was virtually necessary. Evolution had to overhaul code so that Driveclub‘s servers wouldn’t buckle under demand like they did last fall, and Sony went so far as to establish a multiplayer quality check team to prevent repeat incidents. If everything goes smoothly on the 25th, you’ll know that both teams have learned some hard lessons.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Android Authority is now on Twitch!
It’s the year 2015 and mobile gaming is as robust and exciting as it has ever been. To be frank, most tech and gaming websites haven’t really been giving the mobile gaming platform a lot of attention. That’s going to change soon and we’re going to be a part of it.
We would like to formally announce that Android Authority is now on Twitch! There are a lot of ways to show video games to people. You can write about it with screenshots and do video reviews. However, let’s face facts, the best way to see if a video game is any good is to see it being played and that’s what we want to do.
Download the Twitch app on Google Play!
To be perfectly honest, we were going to wait to announce it until we had a few more kinks worked out. To our immense surprise, the industry as a whole is getting as excited about mobile gaming as we are and that’s great. The best way to Twitch is synonymous with the best way to game: strap in and go.
Our next stream will be starting tonight at 6:30PM EST and we’ll be playing Kingdom Rush: Origins. We’ll have a button below that goes to our official Twitch page or you can find it yourself by going to http://twitch.tv/androidauthority. If you get there early, check out the Past Broadcasts tab where you can watch our stream from yesterday where we took a look at Chaos Rings III by Square Enix.
The Rock will fight a giant gorilla in a ‘Rampage’ film
Just after rescuing his family from The Big One in San Andreas, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is set to save the world in a film adaptation of Midway’s arcade classic Rampage, Deadline reports. Now, you might wonder how a game about a giant gorilla, lizard and wolf destroying cities could be turned into a film, but really, what more do you need than The Rock versus giant monsters? After being first announced back in 2011, it finally looks like the Rampage film is getting off the ground. New Line is still looking for a director, but we hope they settle on someone comfortable with plenty of glorious destruction (more Pacific Rim than San Andreas, please). Production is set to begin next summer, which means we’ll likely see the film during 2017’s peak popcorn movie season.
[Photo credit: Buda Mendes/LatinContent/Getty Images]
Via: Polygon
Source: Deadline
Monument Valley players can get Ida’s Dream DLC for free on June 25
Back in late 2014, Monument Valley developers ustwo published a DLC pack for Monument Valley called Ida’s (RED) Dream. In this special DLC, the protagonist is decked out in red attire and was presented with puzzles to conquer. The DLC was priced at $0.99.
The Ida’s (RED) Dream DLC was originally done to help Product RED, a charitable organization that aims to eliminate HIV/AIDs in Africa. The event to help drive donations included other heavy hitters such as Clash of Clans, FIFA 15, Cut the Rope 2, Angry Birds, and a few Disney games. The idea was that all in-app purchases made toward (RED) content would go directly to charity. Apple also sells (RED) themed gear to support the effort.
Unfortunately, that promotion was iOS-only so the Android version never got to see it. That will change very soon. According to a report on TechCrunch, the company is releasing Ida’s Dream on all platforms on June 25th. The best part? It’s going to be entirely free of charge.
In terms of game play, the DLC is an extension of the original game and acts, feels, and plays just like all the other ones. The brilliantly designed puzzles and illusions will still be present and the usual array of crows will be there to block your path. The only difference between this release and the (RED) release from last year is that Ida (the protagonist) won’t be adorned in red cloths like she was with the promotional content and the levels will also be differently themed. Otherwise, everything will be the same.
This will likely go down as the final chapter in the Monument Valley saga. Neil McFarland, Director of Games at ustwo, has confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is working more on future releases, including Land’s Fall which is a VR adventure game due out later this year. If you have Monument Valley, keep an eye out for the DLC here in a couple of days. If you want to check the game out, you can download it using the button below.
‘The Last Guardian’ is a stripped-down sort of beautiful
The Last Guardian needs to be perfect. Fans of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been waiting for this, the third game from director Fumito Ueda, since it was announced in 2009. As issues with its production went public and development appeared to slow to a crawl, The Last Guardian entered the misty, nostalgic realm of what if in many fans’ minds. Then, Sony opened its E3 2015 press conference with a gameplay trailer of The Last Guardian on PlayStation 4, and those nearly forgotten dreams were suddenly reality. The trailer featured a young, toga-clad boy and Trico, a massive cat-bird-dog creature, as they traversed cavernous, crumbling ruins bathed in brilliant sunlight. Their journey, however, has roots in a prison cell buried in the dead city’s tall, grey walls.
During a behind-closed-doors demo at E3 2015, Ueda played through the scenes leading directly into Sony’s showcase video. It opens on the boy, surrounded by stone walls streaked through with greenery, grass poking through the floor. Sunlight streams though high-up windows as the boy runs toward a gate with wide-set bars, the gaps easily large enough for him to climb through. Beyond, inside a second cell, lies Trico, a creature the size of a tyrannosaurus rex. He’s covered in fluttering charcoal feathers and he has four bird legs, tiny wings, a slightly beaky mouth, a cat-like face and round, dark, puppy eyes. Two cerulean dots stick out of the top of his head, as if he had horns that were sawed off. Trico is giant yet adorable, and as the boy wakes him up, he makes noises that combine a bird’s screech with a dog’s whine.
Trico and the young boy have just met — the boy approaches Trico’s huge face, raises a hand to pet his furry beak, and Trico leans into it. There are no on-screen prompts throughout the entire demo, allowing the sheer size and beauty of the world to own the screen. The game shines in close-up details, when you can see the individual, shining strands composing Trico’s feathers, or the blades of grass rising through the floor. In wider shots, the graphics almost look dated, as if this were a PS3 game updated to run on PS4. Movement in the game, however, is gorgeous.
The boy wants to get them both out of captivity, but Trico is unable to stand because of two wooden spears sticking out of his back. The boy climbs Trico’s feathers, wraps his arms around a spear — it’s as tall as he is — and pulls. It takes a few, long seconds, but finally the spike comes free and Trico lets out a layered shriek. The boy removes the other spear and Trico stands.
They need to reach a ledge high up on one wall so the boy can get to the other side of a heavy gate and set Trico free. First, the boy finds a barrel and picks it up; Trico notices and immediately jumps into a playful-puppy position, bird feet spread wide, ready to catch it. The boy throws the barrel and Trico gobbles it up.
The boy can direct Trico by yelling commands or pointing and stamping his feet in place as if telling the beast to walk in a certain direction. In the beginning, Trico doesn’t always listen to the boy right away, but as the game goes on, their relationship will become stronger and the pair will communicate more effectively, Ueda says.
Eventually, Trico extends his front claws to the high-up ledge, and the boy climbs his feathers and alights on the platform. There are even some more barrels up there, treats for Trico. Once on the other side of the wall, the boy switches a lever and the gate opens, releasing Trico. That’s where Sony’s demo started.
The boy could miss Trico’s tail. He could die.
There’s a moment in the Sony trailer where the boy leaps across a gaping chasm, the ground a pinprick thousands of feet below him, and Trico attempts to catch him with his mouth. He misses and the boy continues to fall, but Trico’s tail swings beneath the platform and the boy grabs it, making it safely to higher ground. Time slows down as the boy falls and it’s a tense, dramatic moment. It looks scripted, just as a lot of the game’s action sequences do — but it’s not. That scene, the boy catching Trico’s tail before falling to his death, is player-controlled. The boy could miss Trico’s tail. He could die. The same goes for those barrels the boy was throwing earlier — they won’t kill anyone, but they might just smack Trico in the face rather than providing him a tasty treat.
The Last Guardian is packed with mystery. Where are Trico and the boy? Why have they been kidnapped and held captive? Are they trying to get back home? Where is everyone else? This veil of secrecy and legend is upheld by the game’s lack of on-screen prompts (we haven’t seen any so far, at least) and the knowledge that every playthrough will be just a little different, thanks to the game’s robust AI system.
The Last Guardian hits PlayStation 4 in 2016 — a phrase almost as unbelievable as the game’s oddly pixelated, beautifully detailed, erratic world.
Supercade: inside the Louvre of arcade museums
Most museums don’t stimulate your senses with an onslaught of sounds and blinking lights. They definitely do not accept quarters as payment to fully enjoy the artwork. Despite this, the Supercade is a museum that takes great pains to restore one of the most important moments in video game history: the arcade. Owner Van Burnham’s collection of pre-1989 games are meticulously rebuilt and maintained in a climate-controlled environment. If you’ve ever sided up to a video game cabinet, placed a quarter on the seam between the controls and the monitor and uttered the words, “next game,” this is your Louvre.
Nestled in South Pasadena, California, the building that houses Supercade gives nothing to indicate that inside is one of the more impressive arcade cabinet collections in the world. The lack of visible signage isn’t a problem because it’s not open to the public. But the games need to be played and Burnham hosts special events and invites design schools to bring their students in to understand that at the core, gameplay (even when it involves only a few pixels) is key to a great game. And great — yet simple — gameplay is where this all started.
As a child, all Burnham cared about was video games. “My dad had bought me a Magnavox Odyssey when I was a kid and I was mesmerized by it,” she says. As she got older, she would spend all her free time at the video arcade: at the mall, the boardwalk, even hotels. “Wherever I was, all I wanted to do was play games,” she says.
Before there was the Supercade museum, there was the Supercade book. While working at Wired, Burnham pitched an article about the 30th anniversary of the Tennis For Two installation at Brookhaven National Labs. She went to executive editor Kevin Kelly asking him if she could do a feature on it for Electric Word, the magazine’s front-of-the-book section. But Kelly wanted her to take it further. It ended up being the book about her love of video games.
After years of writing and talking about her love of games, Burnham took the plunge and purchased a Donkey Kong Jr. cabinet. Then she bought another game. And another. And another. Now her collection is pushing 500 titles. Because it’s really a museum, many of the games being renovated get the same type of dedication to detail usually reserved for renaissance paintings.
The Nintendo Punch-Out cabinet originally shipped with a texture that more resembles a grand piano than a video game. Instead of just throwing on a coat of paint and calling it a day, Burnham stripped it down to the wood, painted it black and added nine coats of high-end automotive lacquer. “It took several weeks to get it right, but it is silky smooth with just the right luster,” Burnham said.
But it’s more than the exterior that needs work. Actually being able to play the games is the goal and it’s a moving target. You can’t just call up Nintendo or Atari and order parts for a game built in the 1980s. Hardware is always in short supply and it’s necessary to stock vintage components to keep the games going. “We try to fix the original part whenever possible, but some of these games are over 40 years old,” said Burnham.
The results are astounding. The games look and feel like they are fresh off the factory floor. Talking to Burnham, it doesn’t feel like an obsession and it’s more of a stewardship of history. Pac-Man resides next to BurgerTime. Toobin’ stands beside Star Wars. It’s like walking into a really amazing arcade in 1988. All your favorite games are there along with games you’ve never heard of.
That was the great thing about arcades; you didn’t need to throw down $60 for a new game. You made your decision after dropping a few quarters. Arcades also had a social element that current gaming culture lacks.
“It was amazing; the energy was just so intoxicating,” Burnham said. “The excitement of a new game, the thrill of getting a high score with a crowd of people watching … there really wasn’t anything else like it.”
It didn’t last. Arcades were already in trouble because of the video game industry crash of the mid-1980s, but in the 1990s, home console games were looking better than their arcade counterparts. Why go to a run-down arcade when you could play the same game at home on the couch? Arcades shut down and gaming receded back into homes with online gaming becoming the de facto means of social interaction.
Fortunately for those wanting more interaction outside their circle of gaming friends and random voices on the other end of a headset, arcades are making a small comeback. While you won’t find a Tilt in your local mall anytime soon, there are places like Barcade in New York, Brewcade in San Francisco and EightyTwo in Los Angeles. Burnham believes it’s more than just playing old games that makes these places thrive: “It isn’t just about being nostalgic about the games; it is about having fun playing them with friends and strangers. These games are addictive. Add a few drinks to the experience and it makes for a super fun night out.”
As for Supercade, the venue itself will stay private, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have a chance to see at least some of the collection. Burnham is teaming up with Giant Robot’s Eric Nakamura for an exhibition they hope to mount in Los Angeles. Plus, she has a new book and new site in the works. All of it will be completed within the earshot of Donkey Kong stomping on steel girders, Pac-Man swallowing power pellets and the Defender ship exploding into a hundred pieces — the sounds of a museum that needs to grow before the artwork it collects loses its last life.
Source: Supercade
‘Project Cars’ developer is already crowdfunding a sequel
Now that Project Cars is finally out after several delays, Slightly Mad Studios has decided that it’s time to begin raising funds for the game’s sequel. According to its creators, who were also the folks behind Need for Speed, Project Cars 2 will have 50 locations, over 200 racing tracks and eight disciplines (including Rallycross, Hillclimbs and Touge). It will also have a co-op mode, where you and a friend can play as each other’s driver, spotter and co-pilot. The studio has already set up a crowdfunding page on World of Mass Development with multiple tiers and rewards, the lowest of which costs £50 ($79).
Fans with deep pockets can go for the £10,000 ($15,816) option if they want to play an active role during the game’s development, an AI opponent and a race team named after them, various paraphernalia as well as a Michelin-starred dinner and a weekend stay in London. The studio plans to release Project Cars 2 for the PC, PS4, Xbox One and Steam OS. Those who’ve already bought the first iteration don’t have to worry, though: the developers promise more on-demand content for the game while developing the sequel.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Project Cars, World of Mass Development
Sony’s 1TB PS4 is official
Sony and Microsoft had a ton of games to show off at E3 this year, so we didn’t see much in terms of hardware announcements. Microsoft had already unveiled a 1TB Xbox One and today, we’re finally seeing the same move from Sony. On its European blog, the company revealed that its new “Ultimate Player Edition” PS4 with double storage will debut across Europe on July 15th. There’s no word on a wider release just yet, but given it’s already popped up in an FCC filing, a US announcement seems almost inevitable.
A new 1TB console isn’t the only announcement to come out of Sonyland this morning though. The company has also updated its not-so-hot PlayStation app for iOS and Android with a couple of nifty features. The first is the ability to enter PSN gift cards and promotional codes, so you no longer have to power on your PS4 to redeem them. The second is the ability to display comments on your phone or tablet while you’re broadcasting from the console — perhaps a simpler way to keep your streaming setup neat and tidy.
Nice update for PlayStation app on iOS and Android improves PlayStation Store browsing experience and more. Give it a shot!
– PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 22, 2015
Source: PlayStation Blog
AIVAnet 