Massive shooter ‘PlanetSide 2’ hits PS4 for free in June
PlanetSide 2 is massive — it holds the Guinness World Record for the most players in a single online, first-person shooter battle with 1,158 people — and it officially launches on PlayStation 4 on June 23rd, completely free to play. It’s been in beta on PS4 since January, but the floodgates really open later this month, especially considering you don’t need a PlayStation Plus subscription to jump in for free. Developer Daybreak Game Company (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) promises to keep the updates coming on PS4 with holiday content, new features and fresh items.
“On behalf of the PlanetSide 2 development team, we’d like to thank the tens of thousands of players that have taken part in the Closed Beta testing,” Director of Development Andy Sites says. “Because of you, we’ve been able to make a ton of refinements to the game that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible without your valuable feedback.”
Source: PlayStation Blog
Terminator Genisys: Revolution now available
Competing against a host of other franchise movies coming out this summer, the companion game for Terminator Genisys managed to score some points as the first app listed in the Google Play Store for pre-registration. Terminator Genisys: Revolution first popped up almost a month ago with a “Pre-register” button that enabled users to sign up to be notified of the game’s availability. That time has come as developer Glu has released the title for installation on Android devices.
The game is a third-person shooter in which the player helps John Conner make a new fate in the battle against Skynet and its army of machines. Players will have hundreds of missions available to them as they battle against all sorts of enemy machines.
Terminator Genisys: Revolution is free, but does offer in-app purchases. As an inducement for fans to install the app, Glu is offering a special welcome pack for anyone who installs the game before June 4th. The pack includes a grenade, a rocket, and EMP battery, and a med kit, all items that players will probably find quite useful in the apocalyptic world of 2028 where the game is set.
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‘Resident Evil 4’ secretly adjusted its difficulty for you
Resident Evil 4 is one of the most beloved entries in the survival horror franchise, and the last game before the series moved towards a more bombastic, action-focused style. There are many reasons to love this Leon Kennedy adventure, but one that often goes unrecognised is its dynamic approach to difficulty. As Pocket Gamer‘s Mark Brown explains, Resident Evil 4 would subtly tweak your experience depending on how well you were playing. Enemies would deliver greater damage, for instance, and appear more aggressive if you were easily charging through each area, and some players have suggested that ammo drops would automatically decrease for your preferred weapons. All of this culminated in a game that naturally balanced challenge and progression — you never felt completely safe or in control, but neither did you feel that tricky sections were impossible. As Brown notes, to Capcom’s credit they’ve never confirmed the feature’s existence — all we have are anecdotes and corroborating gameplay footage from the fans.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Polygon
Source: YouTube
Here’s that ‘Fallout 4’ trailer you’re looking for
Fallout 4 is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, and so far, this is what it looks like. First, the rumors are true: Fallout 4 is set in Boston, as demonstrated by scenes from an alternate-universe Scollay Square, the real-life Boston city center established in 1838 and demolished in 1962, plus other landmarks in the video. Second: That voice you hear is definitely series narrator Ron Perlman. Bethesda’s 24-hour Fallout 4 teaser site hit zero this morning, revealing a trailer and pre-order links, plus a nudge to tune into the company’s presentation at E3 on June 14th. The teaser site also went live a tad early, letting the world peek platform details and a few screenshots ahead of the actual announcement. Watch the first Fallout 4 trailer below.
Disney’s smart toys combine Avengers, sensors and imagination
Those giant, green Hulk hands in your closet might be cool but their utility doesn’t extend much beyond freaking out your cat and making tired “you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” jokes. Disney has an idea to remedy that with internet-connected versions of those as well as a pair of Iron Man gauntlets. Wait, smart toys? Yep. As The Wall Street Journal tells it, these Playmation devices will work in concert, via radio frequency and infrared signals, with special action figures as well as other branded apparatus you strap on to your body. Based on what TechCrunch says, these sound an awful lot like a home laser-tag set. Different playthings offer different augmentations (action figures come with new, narrated, playable stories, and you can buy more of the latter via a connected app) but they won’t all work together.
An Avengers set is due out this fall, but crossing over between them and forthcoming Star Wars and Frozen sets is a no go. Kind of like Disney’s other toys to life line, the Infinity video game; womp, womp. The idea is to think of these less as toys and as more of a platform akin to a video game system – especially when it comes to cost. WSJ says that a starter pack costs $120 and accessories have a $15 base price. But, the difference is that these aren’t designed for sitting glassy-eyed in front of a flatscreen, you’re supposed to be up and moving around with ’em. You know, like we did before the internet and Xbox replaced our imaginations.
Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, Mobile
Source: Playmation
‘Skylanders SuperChargers’ takes to the skies, streets and sea
Imagine Mario Kart, Looney Tunes and Top Gear got together to plan a wild, rockin’ birthday party for a 9-year-old. The result would probably resemble Skylanders SuperChargers, the latest game from Activision and Vicarious Visions, due to launch in North America on September 20th for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and iPad. This is the first Skylanders game to feature vehicles in its toys-to-life lineup — and we’re not just talking cars.
SuperChargers takes to the land, air and sea with 20 vehicles and 20 characters, although of course most of these will be sold separately. The SuperChargers Starter Pack ($75) comes with two characters, one car and a portal, and that’s all you’ll need to complete the main game. The rest of the game, with action-packed water tracks and cloud-streaked midair passages, looks so intriguing that players and parents alike will most likely be tempted to splurge on additional planes and submarines. Standalone vehicles cost $15, while characters are $13. As a bonus, though, every existing Skylanders figure will work with SuperChargers.
Players can use any character with any vehicle they wish, but each car, plane and boat has a corresponding driver. When that character is behind the wheel, the vehicle gets special upgrades, such as more firepower or unique attacks. Plus, they look pretty cool together: The bird character Stormblade, for example, has silver-blue plumage and sharp-tipped feathers with wavy, aerodynamic details. SkySlicer, Stormblade’s paired jet, features a similar aesthetic, almost as if it were her custom helmet enlarged 50 times over.
SuperChargers pits players against series antagonist Kaos and his “Doomstation of Ultimate Doomstruction,” which eats the sky. Considering the game plays out in a place called Skylands, that’s a fairly big deal. A few former Skylanders characters show up in SuperChargers, with some modifications — Super Shot Stealth Elf, for example, is a new twist on the classic figure, adding a new weapon and the ability to lay down an auto-attacking turret as she goes invisible. She’s one of the Starter Pack characters, alongside newcomer Spitfire and his paired car, Hot Streak.
At first glance, the car portion of SuperChargers looks eerily similar to other cartoonish racing games, most notably Mario Kart. There are winding tracks with collectables and speed boosts along the way, and players are able to drift around tight corners or between obstacles. Speeding down streets in the sky isn’t the only option here, though — there are also mini battle arenas where players must maneuver their cars to shoot down enemies and figure out laser-based puzzles to move forward.
The game also features secret side-tracks lining the streets — and then there are the non-road areas. These are technically side quests, not necessary to finish the game, but impossible for any completionist to ignore. Plus, they look like the most innovative portions of the game. Flying features a lot of swerving, shooting and weaving, but the game’s true newness comes in with the water sections.
Each seafaring vessel is able to dive below the water’s surface, so there are technically two tracks for every boat level: one on the water and one underneath. One of the boat-based boss battles, using the Dive Bomber submarine figure, features a circular pool with a wave-making machine in the middle and dozens of enemies scattered around it. Players have to dive beneath the water to dodge attacks and get some air by ramping off of waves at the right times. Eventually, players dive directly beneath enemies so that the boss’ shots take out the baddies for them. It’s all hectic and complex, and it looks like a solid culmination of many different skills picked up throughout the game.
SuperChargers is a big game with new features (aside from the jets and subs), including one level that takes place on the back of a dragon, a top-down flying section, a 2D submerged area and a portion with a shrink-and-grow ray. Plus, players can customize their vehicles on the fly by picking up spare parts along the levels.
Oh, and since it’s a video game featuring cars, planes and boats, we asked Activision the obvious question: Will there be racing?
“Where would your mind go?” a developer responded, while literally stroking his beard as if in deep thought. Our minds go to, “Yes.”
[Images credit: Activision]
Fallout 4 is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC
In the four-plus years since Fallout: New Vegas was released, gamers have been waiting for Bethesda to confirm the next title in the super-popular franchise. The company had us salivating when it dropped a new 24-hour counter on its website yesterday, but even before the timer has reached its conclusion, we finally have confirmation of the next instalment: it’ll be called Fallout 4 and it’s coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Details are scarce but it appears that that Amazon, Best Buy and GameStop will begin accepting pre-orders, most likely from today. We can expect more news at 10AM ET when the game’s teaser site goes live, showing us the first official trailer and what we can expect to see at Bethesda’s E3 showcase on June 14th.
Another screencap from Fallout 4, this one’s a bit more high res (thanks @DigDugg89) pic.twitter.com/pQXptWtyWC
– Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 3, 2015
Source: Fallout 4
Steam will refund nearly any online purchase within two weeks
Used to be that if you purchased and downloaded a game from Steam, and it didn’t work out for whatever reason, you’d generally be SOL. However, Valve has recently reversed its zero tolerance return policy and will issue refunds for online purchases (with a few caveats) through Steam Support. According to the newly established Steam Refunds page, “You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam – for any reason.” That’s just so long as you’ve played the game for less than two hours and request the refund within two weeks of buying it. DLC content has a similar two-hour window while in-app purchases will be refundable for a full 48 hours. There are a few niggling exceptions to that rule — movies and games you’ve been banned in, for example, are not eligible — so head over to the refunds page if you have specific questions about your purchase.
Via: SteamDB (Twitter), Polygon
Source: Steam
‘Gravity Ghost,’ a game that heals, heads to PlayStation 4
Gravity Ghost is currently in development for PlayStation 4, but it’s already a success. It launched on Steam in January, offering physics-based platforming tucked inside of soothing, spiraling gameplay and wrapped in a touching story. Ivy Games founder Erin Robinson Swink of course hoped that people would enjoy Gravity Ghost, but reception to the game still surprises her five months after its release. She’s mostly touched by the emotional reaction many players describe on the game’s Steam forums. Gravity Ghost helps people deal with loss in a visceral way.
“It’s not a forum where I usually see people sharing personal details from their lives, but there are multiple posts like this,” Robinson Swink says. “One reviewer said the game changed how he felt about his reaction to losing his grandfather…. Another ended their review with this: ‘My mom died last year, and in some weird way, this helped me deal with that? I can’t explain it, but it… well, did.’ My jaw just dropped when I read those.”
It’s more than loss, too: Gravity Ghost has found its way onto a list of recommended video games for self-care and one of Robinson Swink’s acquaintances said she played at least 20 hours of the game after her home was severely damaged. “It surprised me because that’s far longer than it takes to beat the game,” Robinson Swink says. “She must have started over a few times. We’re so early in the life of the game, it’s hard to know what its legacy will be. But if it continues to help people bring down the level of stress in their life, I will consider that a great success.”
Gravity Ghost stars Iona, a celestial spirit searching the stars for her lost best friend, a similarly ghost-y fox. Iona soars through a splintered galaxy, flinging herself around the gravity fields of planets to collect survivors and fragments of broken worlds. In Gravity Ghost, you can’t die — you only fly.
Soon, Gravity Ghost will be able to entertain and help people on PS4. There’s no official release date yet, but the PS4 version will feature exclusive content, including a new constellation with new challenge levels, three new original tracks from composer Ben Prunty and a new, unlockable character to play. Until now, Gravity Ghost has been strictly a PC game, from conception to sale. Robinson Swink says she developed it entirely on her laptop, where everything is small and up-close.
She’s not just an avatar, she’s a character in this world.
“For me it’s a very different experience to be playing the game on a TV,” she says. “It feels larger and makes outer space feel more encompassing. I deliberately made Iona very small compared to the planets, but now I get to see her in high detail even when the camera is far away. It makes her feel a lot more real, somehow. She’s not just an avatar, she’s a character in this world.”
Robinson Swink believes Gravity Ghost should do well on PS4, considering that players already compare it with Journey, a soothing, highly acclaimed, PlayStation-exclusive game. Besides, PC sales have already covered her direct development costs, so from here on out it’s smooth sailing — or soaring.
“I’m pretty stoked to bring it to the PS4, as it’s a platform where I think not many people have heard of the game yet,” she says. “I think the chill-out gameplay and impressionistic art style will be a really good fit with that audience…. Obviously I’d be thrilled if our sales were really good on the PS4, but I think the port will be worthwhile no matter what.”
AMD’s latest chips bring gaming and video chops to mainstream laptops
With AMD’s new sixth-generation A-series processors, laptops in the $400 to $700 range could soon become far more capable. Formerly code-named “Carizzo,” the new chips offer twice the gaming performance of Intel’s Core i7, thanks to discrete Radeon graphics. They’re the first mainstream processors with hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC video, the successor to the current H.264 standard which includes far better compression and support for 4K resolutions. And they’ll also pack in up to 12 compute cores (four CPU and eight GPU), which basically means they’ll be able to handle whatever you throw at them. Why focus on mainstream laptops? AMD notes that it’s the largest segment of the PC market by revenue and volume sold, so it makes sense for a company that’s traditionally focused on value to show it some love.
AMD’s basically gunning hard for the gaming and media crowd with its sixth-generation chips. Naturally, they include its dual graphics technology, which can summon the power of Radeon R7 graphics along their built-in graphics for a 42 percent jump in frame rates. They also combine game performance with hardware video encoding, which should make for much smoother game streams on Twitch. Battery-wise, AMD says the new chips will last twice as long as their predecessors, even when watching video or gaming.
While it all sounds good on paper, AMD will face some stiff competition from Intel’s new Broadwell-H chips, which were announced yesterday. Those chips also double graphics performance and boost overall media performance. Intel’s chips seem pretty expensive though, ranging from $244 to $623, and while we don’t know the pricing of AMD’s new wares yet, they’re usually cheaper than Intel. So there’s a good chance AMD can keep up the value fight. We’ll find out for sure once the new chips hit the market. AMD says computers featuring the sixth-gen A-series will start shipping in June, while Intel expects its chips to hit computers within two months.
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