Valve’s ‘Free to Play’ is a documentary about pro-gaming’s first million-dollar tourney (video)
For many, words like “MOBA” and “Dota 2″ might sound more like random collections of letters than a massively popular gaming genre and game, respectively. Valve, Dota 2‘s developer, wants to educate the masses by putting the game and a trio of its international players under the microscope in Free to Play. One might find Valve’s efforts feel a tad self-serving when compared to, say, Indie Game: The Movie, but, based on the trailer, the documentary seems more like a look at the human side of professional gaming than it does an advertising puff piece. If checking the film out and sitting in on a Q-and-A session with its creators sounds like a good time, tickets to next month’s San Francisco premiere are $25 through Eventbrite. Can’t make it NorCal? The doc will be available for free on Steam, as well — just like the game that inspired it.
Source: Free to Play, Eventbrite
Compare two generations of gaming across four platforms with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Like so many games launching at the end of 2013 and throughout 2014, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes straddles both last generation (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3) and the current one we’ve just entered (Xbox One/PlayStation 4). Given Metal Gear‘s history of gorgeous visuals, the question asked itself: what will Ground Zeroes look like on aging game consoles compared to the new shiny ones? It turns out that Kojima Products, the studio behind Ground Zeroes, has exactly the answer we were looking for in the form of a brand new comparison video.
If anything, we’re most shocked by how great it still looks on the older consoles! Of course, for those of you still fighting the console wars, there’s the (negligible) difference between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to analyze. Head below to take a look for yourself.
Doom 4 re-revealed as ‘Doom,’ beta access coming with new Wolfenstein
Remember Doom, the classic first-person shooter that invented a gaming genre? Though the franchise has taken some (considerable) time off in the past decade, the latest iteration is apparently not far from prime time. Originally named Doom 4, the now (somewhat confusingly named) “Doom” is headed into beta at some point this year; access keys will ship with boxed copies of Wolfenstein: The New Order this May.
As of right now, the only way to get into said beta will be to pick up a copy of Wolfenstein on one of its many platforms (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC). As for where the Doom beta will actually be playable is another question altogether: there are no announced platforms for Doom, though we suspect it’ll be on next-gen and PC at very least. It’s also not clear if the game will still be a showcase for id Software’s latest version of id Tech, the engine that powers id games. One thing is for certain: Doom co-creator John Carmack won’t have a hand in this one, as he’s moved on to the wiles of virtual reality at Oculus VR.
NVIDIA Titan Black cards bring much improved specs, even crazier prices
That’s right, a thousand dollars is just the starting price for the new Titan Black, which surpasses and replaces the original $999 GTX Titan that came out last year. Thanks to a more overclock-friendly version of NVIDIA’s “Big Kepler” silicon, card vendors are offering custom-cooled versions of the Titan Black that go way beyond the 889MHz reference design, with monetary premiums to match. EVGA looks to be bringing out a 1GHz “HydroCopper” variant, for example, which will likely fetch in the region of $1,100 — just reasonable enough, in a twisted sort of way, to make you question whether buying a base card might be selling yourself short.
But the Titan Black is about more than just clock speeds. It adopts the gaming-focused features of the $699 GTX 780 Ti, including a full quota of 2,880 stream processors and 240 texture units, and it combines them with the 6GB of GDDR5 and double precision floating point performance that made the first Titan so good at semi-professional GPU compute tasks (just below the level of a Tesla). We haven’t seen many reviews yet, aside from one saucy piece of literature that looked at four Titan Blacks side-by-side in SLI mode, but it looks like NVIDA might have finally hit on a solid product for those of us who want to mix business with pleasure.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, NVIDIA
Source: Hardware.info, AnandTech, TechPowerUp
NVIDIA launches two entry-level graphics cards based on its ‘most efficient’ GPU so far
AMD has enjoyed plenty of room on our pages recently, what with all the talk of Mantle-this and HSA-that. We imagine the folks at NVIDIA have found it all quite bemusing, because for them the graphics card business hasn’t changed: it’s still primarily about offering higher frame rates for fewer watts in common DirectX-based PC games. Indeed, that’s exactly what the green corner’s all-new Maxwell architecture is claimed to deliver, starting with the GTX 750 Ti card that should be hitting stores today priced at $150 (or £115 in the UK). At the transistor level, Maxwell is no more efficient than Kepler — we’re still looking at a 28nm fabrication process, which is pretty standard by now. However, NVIDIA says it has figured out much smarter ways of distributing power across its graphics cores, resulting in a doubling of performance-per-watt. What does this mean in practice? Read on and ye shall discover.
In essence, Maxwell’s doubling of perf-per-watt should allow you to play top-tier games like Batman: Arkham Origins and Call of Duty: Ghosts at medium settings and 1080p resolution even on the GTX 750 Ti’s very modest 60-watt power draw. NVIDIA matches the card up against AMD’s R7 260X, which now costs $119, but which consumes nearly twice as much electricity and therefore requires more aggressive cooling. By doing away with big fans, the new GeForce should easily and quietly fit into that mini-ITX rig you’ve been secretly planning for your living room.
That said, if the 750 Ti is still too premium for your needs, then you should check out the slightly dumbed down GTX 750, which is also out today. Losing the “Ti” suffix means you sacrifice a few CUDA cores, and you’ll get a max 1GB of GDDR5 memory, but then you only pay $120 (or £90) and you need just 55 watts to power it. You’ll find full tech specs and some official game benchmarks for the cheaper card in the slide deck above.
Oh, and one more thing — these new cards both support NVIDIA’s remarkable G-Sync technology, which our very own eyes have observed making a 40fps game look as silky smooth as a 60fps game, through the clever adjustment of refresh rates. NVIDIA had to do away with SLI support in order to facilitate this feature, but honestly, we think it could be worth it — it’s just a shame that the big screen in your living room may never be able to appreciate the difference, because for the time being it looks like a G-Sync will only be compatible with a few regular-sized PC monitors.
The studio behind BioShock Infinite is no more
The studio responsible for both BioShock and BioShock Infinite is breaking up, according to a note from creative lead Ken Levine on the company’s website. Following the final content release this past month for Irrational Games’ latest work, BioShock Infinite, the company’s head (Levine) and a group of “about fifteen members of the Irrational team” formed a new, dramatically smaller venture within the parent company that owns Irrational (Take-Two Interactive — the same folks who own Grand Theft Auto-developer Rockstar Games, among others). That’s from a crew of nearly 200 at the peak of Infinite‘s development in Summer 2012. It’s not clear if Irrational will still be the name of the studio; either way, Levine said, “I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it.”
Levine and his new splinter crew will focus on one goal: “To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable.” In that vein, he’s “handing over the reins” of BioShock to Take-Two and going head down on his new, digital-only project(s). It’s also likely that Levine needs extra time for his non-gaming work, such as helping pen the remake to Logan’s Run.
Though BioShock 2 was developed by another Take-Two studio (2K Marin), both the original BioShock and BioShock Infinite were crafted in-house at Irrational Games; it’s unclear if the franchise will continue, but we’ve reached out to Take-Two for comment.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD
Source: Irrational Games
The folks behind Candy Crush Saga think their company is big enough to go public
Heard of game development studio King? No, right? You’re forgiven, as most folks don’t know the name of the studio behind one of the world’s most popular games right now: Candy Crush Saga. Sure, it might just be Bejeweled with free-to-play mechanisms built in, but over 93 million people played it last month. Yes, really.
And with those kinds of numbers, King apparently believes it’s large enough to go public — the company today filed for its initial public offering (IPO) with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Unexciting financial jargon aside, this means that King’s hoping to raise a ton of cash (it’s unclear how much) by offering stock to prospective investors; The New York Times is saying King “is expected to seek a multibillion-dollar valuation”.
If all of this sounds awfully familiar, that’s because FarmVille-maker Zynga pulled the same move just over two years ago — the story hasn’t been as positive in the following years. Like Zynga, King is largely dependent on a single game for its enormous userbase (the 93 million who played Candy Crush Saga in December are pulled from an overall pool of 128 milllion — over 70 percent of King’s entire consumer base). Of course, only time will tell if King will ascend from one-hit wonder, like the Zynga example, to mega-franchise purveyor, a la Rovio with Angry Birds.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Mobile
Via: NYT
Source: US SEC
Sony’s sold 5.3 million PS4s already, hits sales target with three weeks to spare
Sony’s prediction that it would move 5 million PlayStation 4s before the end of the fiscal year turned out to be on target. It just announced 5.3 million of the next-gen consoles sold worldwide as of February 8th, all before the PS4 launches in Japan on the 22nd. The PS4 has held the overall next-gen hardware sales lead since it launched in November, and appears to be extending the gap on the Xbox One during these early stages of the war. We haven’t received exact US sales figures yet, but the PS4 sold the most units in January, and worldwide had 4.2 million sold at the end of 2013. Pushing over a million more new systems in just over a month is no small feat, and Sony’s upcoming launch in its home country is sure to expand that total. Once we have the system in our home however, it’s software and services that will be most important in getting use out of those boxes. Right now Microsoft is putting its next-gen eggs in the Titanfall basket, but Sony is pushing PlayStation Plus with its first-ever commercial for the service (embedded after the break), plus exclusive games on the way including Driveclub and Infamous: Second Son.
Source: PRNewswire
Daily Roundup: Harmonix’s musical first-person shooter, limited edition PS4 and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The first PlayStation 4 LE
Sony and Kojima Productions collaborated on the first limited edition PS4 console, which will arrive exclusively for Japan on March 20th to celebrate the launch of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Click the link for more.
Chroma: a rhythm-based FPS
Harmonix, the studio behind Guitar Hero and Rock Band, hopes to chart new territory with its new rhythm-based, first-person shooter called Chroma. And if you’re scratching your head as to what that means, you’re not alone! Click on through for more on the ins and outs of this experimental game.
Philips connected retail lighting
Philips’ new connected retail lighting might make it easier for customers to navigate stores, using light-based communication to pinpoint those hard-to-find ingredients. Follow the link for more information.
Samsung Chinese mobile market
Samsung’s faring well in Greater China it seems. According to the latest numbers from IDC, the company took 19 percent of the mobile market share. Read on for more.
Filed under: Misc
Rock Band and Guitar Hero creator’s next game is Chroma, a free-to-play rhythm-based shooter (yes, really)
Harmonix is charting new territory yet again. The studio that birthed both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and the only third-party game-development house that created a successful Kinect franchise (Dance Central), announced a new game today: Chroma. Unlike the studio’s last several games, Chroma is headed exclusively to the PC (via Steam) as a free-to-play title. Also unlike Harmonix’s last several games, Chroma is wildly experimental, blending first-person shooting with pulsing electronic beats and garish visuals. The music game studio is even working with an outside team, Hidden Path Entertainment: the same folks behind critically acclaimed shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
If you’re still wondering what type of game Chroma is at this point, that’s understandable: There’s no such thing as a music-based first-person shooter. That is not a thing that exists (well, unless you wanna count Midway’s terribly amazing Revolution X). So let’s break it down: In Chroma, you play one of five classes (standard FPS fare, from basic assault to heavy “tank”), with weapons and abilities varying based on the class you choose. In the two game modes we played at DICE 2014, we were on a team with other writers battling for control of various points within a level or battling for control of a cart being pushed one way or another (think: Team Fortress 2). Pretty normal shooter stuff so far, right?
The musical wrinkle comes into play whenever you shoot or jump. Fire a sniper rifle shot on the downbeat and connect? That’s a one-hit kill. Jump on the downbeat? You’ll go a little higher. Better yet, jump on a downbeat on a jump pad and chain your button presses to the beat to continuously jump from pad to pad (this all makes more sense in Chroma‘s stylized future-world setting, promise). You can fire most guns whenever you want, and jump at any time, but timing actions to the beat makes a world of difference. That is Chroma‘s bizarre, fascinating premise.
Though we’re sold on Chroma‘s ambition, playing it — at least right now in Alpha form — is a mess. Not just because it’s early, but also because there’s a tremendously steep learning curve. Playing as any of the more advanced classes (engineer, tank) is nigh impossible, as even basic shooting is governed by matching trigger pulls to the beat (we played with an Xbox 360 gamepad, but a mouse/keyboard combo works as well). A visual indicator on-screen helps the rhythmically handicapped with upcoming beats, but even veteran beat masters will have a hard time juggling character control, map navigation, aiming and shooting while at the same time trying to match shots to the beat (not to mention lining up the timing of hitting an enemy with the rhythm of the in-game music).
Beyond being an incredibly risky blend of two totally different game genres, Chroma will live and die by providing a lag-free experience. The game’s dependence on rhythm while also being an online-only shooter means that any lag results in an extremely off-balance game. And all it takes for players to walk away from a free-to-play game is, well, anything. It’s free, right?
As a veteran of FPS games and a longtime Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Dance Central player, Chroma simply threw too much at me at once. It’s hard enough to learn a new level, parse a game type and master basic shooting mechanics without having to also figure out how rhythm fits into that. Frankly put, rhythm is too complex an input to add to a genre (FPS), which is already packed full of inputs. At least that’s how it felt after playing a few rounds of Chroma last week. For what it’s worth, the reps from Harmonix were all keenly aware of the barrier to entry and assured us that a rigorous training program is being created.
Thankfully for Harmonix, enough good will was built up by past work to give us pause before outright writing this off. We’ll give Chroma another shot when it becomes available in closed Alpha this month (sign up right here). Harmonix isn’t giving its new game a hard release date just yet, but says to expect wide availability by “this fall.”
AIVAnet 