‘Halo 5: Guardians’ and live-action Halo TV show set for fall 2015 launch
We’ve known for a while that there’s new Halo game coming to Xbox One and that it could possibly make its debut this year. Today, Microsoft and 343 Industries provided some additional details on the project, most notably that the next instalment in the franchise will be called Halo 5: Guardians and that it will be pushed back to a fall 2015 launch. So what can we expect? Game specifics are scarce but we know that, like Titanfall, Guardians run on dedicated servers. However, unlike its mech-smashing counterpart, it will run at a glorious 60 frames-per-second.
“Halo 5: Guardians is a bigger effort than Halo 4,” says 343 general manager Bonnie Ross. “That applies to content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what’s now a brand new and more powerful engine.” Ross also confirmed that the live-action Halo TV series, which sees 343 Industries team up with Steven Spielberg to bring Master Chief to life, may also debut around the same time as Guardians. While you’ll have to wait until next year to enjoy both the game and the TV series in their full form, Ross suggests Microsoft and 343 will have more to reveal in the coming months, starting with the Xbox 2014 Media Briefing at E3 on June 9th.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox Wire
Upcoming Xbox history show will let you ‘play TV’
Microsoft has been teasing a level of interactivity within its slate of original Xbox video programming, but what kind of control will you actually get? The company isn’t revealing everything right now, but it just gave Deadline Hollywood a few small clues. TV producer Stephen David is creating a documentary/drama hybrid for Xbox Entertainment Studios that he says will be “like playing television.” In the inaugural 13 Days of Blood episode, which shows Roman history through the eyes of emperor Commodus (seen in marble here), there will be “new, interactive technology” that should “bring fight scenes to life,” according to Microsoft.
This sounds tantalizing, but it’s clear that the company is keeping its cards close to the vest. While the interaction could involve a full-fledged game component, it could equally be a simple matter of choosing camera angles as you watch gladiators and retiarii slug it out. The docudrama also isn’t due until 2015, so the odds aren’t great that you’ll hear much more about it this year. Nonetheless, these early tidbits give us a better idea of what to expect from Microsoft’s first experiments with self-branded shows.
[Image credit: Cmgramse, Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Deadline Hollywood
Grand Theft Auto III series lands on Amazon’s tablets and Fire TV
The Grand Theft Auto games have been on seemingly every platform known to humankind, but those with Amazon devices have had to make do without Rockstar’s vehicular mayhem. That changes today: you can now snag Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas on both the Kindle Fire tablet line as well as Fire TV. You’ll be very familiar with the experience if you’ve used any of the earlier mobile versions, although that’s no big complaint given the quality of the ports. With that said, the real allure may be the pricing. Each game normally costs $5 a pop, but purchasing San Andreas currently gets you enough Amazon Coins to buy the other two releases — this could be a good way to get started in the crime-filled world of GTA without making a big investment.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Amazon
Source: Amazon (GTA3), (Vice City), (San Andreas)
Far Cry 4 arrives November 18th on current, last-gen consoles and PC
Amidst talk of its 2014 financials, Ubisoft hid a sliver of information that will please fans of open-world, first-person shooters: Far Cry 4 exists, and it’s coming out this year. Ubisoft Montreal — with the help of developers at Red Storm and the company’s other dev shops in Toronto, Kiev and Shanghai — is bringing the title to PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 18th in the US, and on November 20th in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In the fourth installment of the franchise, players will roam the mountainous terrain of Kyrat, a region of the Himalayas with a “despotic self-appointed king.”
Folks who pre-order the shooter will snag a free upgrade to its Limited Edition, which packs a set of three single-player missions dubbed Hurk’s Redemption, along with Hurk’s harpoon gun. Ubisoft says its goal is for Far Cry 4 to become one of the top 10 best-selling games of 2014. While other details on the game are slim, the firm promises we’ll hear more about it during E3.
Source: Ubisoft (PDF), UbiBlog
Even chickens have their own virtual world
How much would you pay for organic, virtual free-range chicken breasts? It doesn’t really matter, you can’t buy such a thing. But Austin Stewart, an assistant professor at Iowa State University, really seems to like the idea. He’s been traveling the country showing off Second Livestock, a concept that takes cooped-up poultry and grants them the gift of being free-range through virtual reality headsets and an omni-directional treadmill. The truth is, despite Stewart’s stone-faced presentations, that Second Livestock is not a real thing, and it likely never will be. But it is meant to showcase just how much we rely on technology to solve our myriad problems and how it impacts our own lives.
Obviously we don’t have the space or resources to allow every chicken in the country to be free range, but we’re not always entirely comfortable with the cramped filthy conditions our future meals are raised in. Thus was born this virtual environment where chickens can roam free, at least in their minds. But the project is as much about human relationships as it is about chickens. We spend our days isolated in cubicles glued to a computer screen — just how different is that from a chicken coop? Well, we’re not rolling around in our own feces, so that’s an advantage. If you’re not into feeling introspective and down right now, then just sit back and enjoy the Photoshopped image above. I mean, come on — it’s a chicken wearing a VR headset!
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Second Livestock
Nintendo being sued over motion patents in the Wii and Wii U
Nintendo’s not having a great 2014. Between lackluster financial results, an accidental controversy, and now a lawsuit from Philips, life could be better. The Dutch electronics company Koninklijke Philips (better known as just Philips, for obvious reasons) is suing Nintendo over motion patents that span the entire Wii line: “Wii video gaming systems and related software and accessories including, for example, the Wii console, Wii Remote Plus Controller, Wii Remote Controller, Wii U console, Wii U GamePad, and Wii Mini,” the lawsuit filing reads. Worse for Nintendo, Philips is looking to halt the sales of those products while the court case proceeds, which could turn the Wii U’s poor sales into an even more dire situation.
For its part, Nintendo isn’t issuing a formal statement. Philips’ formal statement is written all over the legal documents. The electronics company alleges that Nintendo intentionally infringed on patents owned by Philips, that Nintendo was warned about said infringing patents in late 2011, and that Nintendo continued to voluntarily violate said patents. Beyond the creation of devices, Nintendo allegedly infringed Philips’ patents, “by making, using, selling, offering for sale, andimporting interactive virtual modeling products within the United States.” As such, Philips is suing Nintendo in the United States district court (specifically in Delaware, where many companies register for tax reasons).
Should the case go to trial, Philips is requesting one by jury. Also, Nintendo will have to stop selling its Wii and Wii U game consoles in the US during the trial. All that said, it’s very likely this will be settled out of court so Nintendo can avoid that situation.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD, Nintendo
Via: Game Informer
Source: Scribd
Xiaomi’s first tablet offers powerful gaming on the cheap
Just over two years ago, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun told this author that he wasn’t sure about making a tablet at the time; but today, he confessed that he’d been developing one all this time. What we have here is the conveniently named Mi Pad, which was just unveiled in Beijing with super attractive price points: CN¥1,499 (about $240) for the 16GB version, and CN¥1,699 (about $270) for the 64GB flavor. To be honest, we saw this coming when MIUI was released for the Nexus 7 back in March, but what surprised us was that this new slate happens to be the first to feature the powerful Tegra K1 SoC. This follows Xiaomi and NVIDIA’s earlier collaboration on the Tegra 4 variant of the MI3 smartphone.
Xiaomi’s Android 4.4 tablet comes with a 7.9-inch display (made by LG or AUO) with a high resolution of 2,048 x 1,536, which works out to be a sharp 326 ppi density with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Underneath that you’ll find the Tegra K1 SoC, which includes a 2.2GHz “4+1″ core CPU plus a 192-core PC-class Kepler GPU. There’s also 2GB of RAM, 16GB or 64GB of built-in storage, microSD expansion of up to 128GB, a 6,700mAh battery and stereo speakers. Unsurprisingly, you can also take photos with this slate’s two cameras: 8 megapixels on the back and 5 megapixels on the front. These are all tucked into a 8.5mm-thick glossy plastic body (which does look a bit like a scaled up iPhone 5c), weighing a total of just 360g. By the way, there’s no 3G or 4G version announced just yet, but you’ll find the usual 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 radios.
Unfortunately, no date’s been announced for the Mi Pad’s global availability. All we know now is that there will be a beta test program in China in early June, so it may be a while before the device actually hit the market anywhere on this planet.
Filed under: Tablets
Want to be a race car driver? Start playing video games
The Nissan GT Academy is a racing competition that sees winning drivers transition from Gran Turismo‘s digital realm to an honest-to-goodness race car. Lucas Ordóñez was the very first GT Academy winner and he not only went on to race outside the virtual realm, but grabbed some podium finishes, too. Fast forward five competitions (and as many years) and Road & Track reports that four Academy grads will be racing at Le Mans for 2014, proving that this feeder route is the real deal. Nissan’s own entry in the famous 24-hour event, the hybrid electric ZEOD RC, will be driven by Ordóñez and 2012 winner Wolfgang Riep with Satoshi Motoyama as the third in the team. The Lotus entry in the gruelling full-day race will see 2011′s victor Jann Mardenborough — now actually racing in GT3 — and 2012′s Mark Shulzhitskiy competing with F1 commentator and ex-driver Martin Brundle’s son Alex Brundle. So next time your mom gives you grief for wasting all your time and rotting your brain playing video games, let her know you’re training for your future career as a professional race car driver.
[Image credit: Nissan]
Filed under: Gaming, Transportation, Sony
Via: The Checkered Flag
Source: Road & Track
Never leave bullet time in SUPERHOT, a unique take on first person shooters
Unlike your typical first-person shooter, in SUPERHOT, time only moves when you move. This gives you the ability to strategically plan out your approach. If you’ve played Braid before, the mechanics will feel familiar, as elements of the game speed up and slow down with each step forward or back. After completing the 7 Day First Person Shooter challenge, an event where teams from all over come together to build a new FPS in just a week, the team moved onto Steam’s Greenlight program, where it made it through in just a weekend. Now they’re turning to Kickstarter to help move the game further along. After just a few hours, they’re on their way to reaching their funding goal of $100,000. If you’re on the fence about helping out, you can try your hand at slowing enemies and bullets to a crawl with a browser-based demo. SUPERHOT isn’t the first game to use bullet time (remember Max Payne?), but the game offers a fresh spin on an otherwise repetitive genre. Who knows, maybe the game can even teach Zack Snyder a thing or two about slow-motion action scenes.
Via: Reddit
Source: Kickstarter
Flappy Bird is coming back as a ‘less addictive’ multiplayer in August
If you got hooked on Flappy Bird just in time for the game to be pulled, you’re in luck. Creator Dong Nguyen told CNBC today that he’ll put the title back in the App Store in August. When it does return, Nguyen says it’ll be less addictive thanks to a new multi-player mode. And there are entirely new games the way too, including one that features a man hoping from building to building. No word on how he plans to keep folks from getting hooked on those just yet.
Flappy Bird’s Dong Nguyen: Flappy Bird is coming back. Multiplayer. August. @CNBC
– Kelly Evans (@Kelly_Evans) May 14, 2014
Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen tells @Kelly_Evans that he’s bringing back Flappy Birds, but not soon; it’ll have a multi-player feature.
– CNBC Social Team (@CNBCSocial) May 14, 2014
#Flappybird creator says he is creating lots of #games. Next one guy jumping from building to buildings. #CNBC
– Donna Burton (@DonnaBurton) May 14, 2014
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Mobile
Via: Business Insider
Source: CNBC (Twitter), @Kelly_Evans, @DonnaBurton
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