i3 Gamer

2018-12-31T11:08:00.002+05:30

2018-12-24T11:52:00.001+05:30

Guest editorial: there was one unacceptable thing about E3 this year

2017-06-18T11:32:00.001+05:30

Security and safety were alarmingly lax at this year's consumer-friendly exhibition, Rami Ismail writes.

Rami Ismail is a co-founder of Vlambeer, the studio responsible for Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers and Super Crate Box, among others. This story originally appeared on Rami Ismail's blog. We are republishing it with the permission of the author.
This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, like every year, was a beacon, a celebration for games as an industry. The event's three days in the Staples Center conference building in Los Angeles are technically the heart of the event, and attracted over 70,000 professionals in 2016.
Since the introduction of livestreaming, the soul of E3 lives in the spectacle (and the coverage of the spectacle) surrounding the event. Large publishers and platforms throw press conferences that attract millions of viewers worldwide, who tune in to see what their favorite games company has for the upcoming year.
This left the showfloor in a precarious position: E3 used to be an industry-only event, but the value of the showfloor, and the value of exhibiting there, dropped rapidly as companies could get more attention outside of the event. In effect, the showfloor had become a meeting space and a place for developer interviews.
So for 2017, E3 has radically changed what the show is: the expo now allows for the general public to register and visit the show. It’s an important step that is presumably necessary to ensure the continued survival of E3, and has brought back some value to exhibiting at the event. E3 graciously ensured that general audience badges were a neon yellow, and thus clearly distinct from the industry badges. Meanwhile, the enthusiasm and excitement of the general audience was a huge energy boost for the floor.
Regardless, for developers and press, the general audience has made the event a lot more clunky. The influx of 15,000 new people – many of whom understandably approached the showfloor as if it was a swag-filled consumer show – led to repeated chaos in the hall. Between a brawl, some instances of people being pushed over during opening, enormous queues, and booths having to adjust for the audience mid-show, the chaos was palpable more than once.
Press can no longer quickly move between meetings due to the crowds moving with less of a purpose, a complaint that echoed frequently throughout the hall. Off-the-record conversations also had to be relocated due to the abundance of free-style vloggers documenting the showfloor with their mobile phones.
There were more structural issues related to the event clearly not being ready for public access. Examples include a lack of volunteers or enforcers outside of the booth-provided ones; an unclear distinction between accessible and private areas; poor funnelling at key locations, and an almost non-existent clear-out policy of the E3 hall after closing time.
Now, these are all transitional pains, and I understand that E3 is in a transitional year. It is important to recognize the effort and organisation steering the direction of an event in response to an ever-evolving industry. Many of these problems could easily be resolved by replicating other industry/consumer shows – gamescom in Cologne, Germany, for example, has a industry-only day and a separate business area, so that everyone can get their work done while the audience checks into the latest our industry has to offer.
All of this would make for an acceptable E3 if it wasn’t for one other issue. I’m not sure if my experiences with security at airports has made me more aware of security checks, but there was an almost complete lack of security at the show. Badges were poorly checked, bags were not checked, and there were no metal detectors. For every day of the event, I’ve tried to walk into the building and onto the showfloor without wearing my badge. I succeeded passing by the private security personnel, unobstructed, every single time, and every time I was carrying a backpack that was never checked for its contents. It would be trivial to bring any sort of weapon to the event, and in the case that someone did, security would not be able to react fast enough in the hall to prevent anything from happening.
Despite all my love for the event, this is unacceptable. With the recent weapons threat at Phoenix Comicon, the general prevalence of weapons in the United States, and the amount of anger and vitriol thrown around online about games, this is not a safe state for such a critical industry event. All of the press conferences – even the Devolver Digital booth in a parking lot across the street – had better security, whether it was metal detectors, bag checks, or bomb-sniffing dogs. These are, and should be, minimum regulations for any showfloor that handles over 70,000 people.
Overall, it was clear that the ESA is trying to transition E3 to a new paradigm, and I welcome their efforts to experiment. I understand that we can’t expect everything to be flawless. Despite the transitional pains, the event seems to have been extremely useful and fruitful for most attendees, and as such the ‘new E3’ can be considered a careful success for 2017. Security, however, is not a ‘you get to try again next year’ issue. If the ESA is going to treat E3 as a public convention-style show, it needs to have security that can handle that. I trust they’ll make improvements, and that the industry and the general public attending in 2018 can enjoy the spectacle and business of E3 on a floor that can be reasonably expected to be safe and secure from weapons.

Best graphics card deals today

2017-06-04T07:29:00.000+05:30

We've searched high and low for the best prices and deals on GPUs right now.

The graphics card is an essential component and when a new, demanding game comes out it can almost become an essential upgrade. But with so many options around why not let us help find you the best graphics card deals right now?

It’s the part of your rig responsible for pumping out pixels and if you’re not getting the smooth frame rates you deserve in Dark Souls III or Hitman, then it’s time to look for a new GPU. New GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are now available, which that means older stock is getting cleared out.

Our guide to the best graphics card will tell you all you need to know about which video card is best for your needs but if you're after the absolute best graphics card deals around right now we’ve got you covered with our regularly updated deals page.

Looking for the best graphics card deals in the UK? Come this way...

Some highlights this week: Both AMD and Nvidia have launched their new cards now. The new hardware has pushed prices on existing hardware down, making for some potentially good deals, and performance on older cards isn't suddenly worse just because something newer and faster exists. Let's go through the list and see if we can find out how low prices are getting on previous generation hardware.

We're going to break things into Nvidia and AMD cards, sorted in order of decreasing performance within each. Here's the full rundown on currently available cards.

Nvidia graphics card deals

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | 11GB GDDR5X | $665

Still a lot of price gouging models out there for Nvidia's new powerhouse GTX 1080 Ti, but if you can find them the best prices are below $700. Just be patient if you can't find a good one.

GeForce GTX 1080 | 8GB GDDR5X | $490
Prices for these cards are dropping thanks to the GTX 1080 Ti, and that's an excellent thing. Plenty of models below $500 now.

GeForce GTX 1070 | 8GB GDDR5 | $365
You want a GTX 1070? Sure you do, and so does everyone else. It's the best graphics card overall, in our view, delivering awesome performance at a price that doesn't quite break the bank. The baseline official MSRP is $380, and we're now seeing prices below that.

GeForce GTX 1060 | 6GB GDDR5 | $215 Here's a cheaper option from Nvidia's latest range of cards, and it'll be battling it out against AMD's RX 480. The 6GB version is $215 on Newegg, and you can also find the excellent value 3GB version for $180.

GeForce GTX 1050 Ti | 4GB GDDR5 | $130

The GeForce GTX 1050 is very affordable, and it plays 1080p just fine. Plus, it's quiet, efficient, and that 4GB of VRAM is very nice for the price. Check out this deal for a model at Newegg for $130.

GeForce GTX 1050 | 2GB GDDR5 | $80

Rounding out Nvidia's 10 series graphics cards is the GTX 1050, and it's very high up the relative price / performance scale, especially in the US. The 2GB of VRAM may cause some problems down the line, as games are quickly progressing beyond that. For now though, you can find these for as cheap as $80 at Newegg.

AMD graphics card deals

If you're having trouble finding the higher end AMD RX cards for good prices right now, you're not the only one! We'll make sure to let you know when they're back in stock. Vega is coming soon though, and you might be better off waiting.

Radeon RX 460 | 4GB GDDR5 | $95

AMD's new budget card is $95AR for the 4GB version and $70 for the 2GB version at the moment. The specs won't blow your mind, but you won't find another new card this cheap if you just need something passable for a budget rig.

In our guide to the best graphics card we’ve detailed the four best GPUs in terms of the overall champion, the best high-end GPU, the best value, and best budget gaming video card. We've listed those above already, and with the exception of the budget offering they're all new cards that regularly go out of stock. Here's the real-time pricing for each (assuming our pricing engine can find any in stock):

ARUKU PARTY

2016-06-21T00:58:00.001+05:30

Skyjacker lets you play space pirate in customized, destructible ships

2013-10-18T15:00:00.000+05:30

After a long drought, the space-flight sim is coming back into vogue. Skyjacker, a new space combat simulator from indie developer Digitilus, simulates the lives of ruthless space pirates in an open, deep-space setting. Players’ ships will be fully customizable, and each mission lets them hijack, destroy, and loot enemy vessels for parts. To expand this experience, Digitilus is returning to Kickstarter to help raise funds for development.
Based on a series of novels written by Digitilus co-founder Eugene Zhukov, Skyjacker will feature a system of fully-destructible ships owned by numerous alien races. Players will follow the story of the ruthless pirate Ael, fighting as mercenary pilots harassing enemy ships traveling across the galaxy. While Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen is focused on creating a massive persistent MMO-like universe, Skyjacker will tell the story of a single pirate amid a vast galaxy.
The heart of Skyjacker will be first-person dogfighting combat, a system that the team is already very proud of. Skyjacker is only in alpha right now, but already has full joystick support. Each scripted mission will take place in a solar system generated from random variables such as the number of suns and locations of planets.
“Currently we have 24 basic types of mission scenarios which we’ll multiply to over 30 environmental assets,” Zhukov tells PC Gamer. “This way, we’re getting over one hundred possible mission conditions.”
Digitilus has turned to Kickstarter to raise funds before, and the result was the intricately detailed Starship Constructor app. Allowing players to build ships and experiment with in-game systems with the sandbox freedom of Kerbal Space Program or Minecraft was really important to the team, according to Zhukov. “Freedom is always good,” he says.
The question for me is, will the spaceship creator live up to the full creative promise of that freedom? There’s nothing wrong with ambition, but Skyjacker is a much larger project than anything Digitilus has tried before.

Zhukov was able to show me an ungainly eel-like starship built by an artist as a joke and, although he assured me it would fly “if you stuck an engine on the back,” the practicality of outlandish ships is still undetermined. It will do me no good if I can build a praying mantis starship, for example, if I can’t get it to perform in combat.
According to the developer, this freedom also manifests itself in combat, where players will be able to coordinate with each other to destroy enemy shields and disable engines without obliterating ships entirely. Having an intact ship to salvage will provide upgrades and raw materials to sell on the black market.
Players will also be able to express their creativity with the mission creator, a new toolset that Digitilus is hoping to develop with funds raised by fans. A new Kickstarter drive launches today to raise $150,000 for mission development tools as well as more powerful co-op and PvP multiplayer modes. Currently a server can support 12 players in a multiplayer match, but with funding that number could grow.

“We’ve received immense support from players,” Zhukov says, “and although we are committed to funding and completing the project ourselves, a successful Kickstarter will enable us to solidify the game and speed up the launch, providing galactic aficionados with all the features they want, much sooner than planned.”
Skyjacker is currently in alpha, and Digitilus has released a playable demo that you can play at their website.

Space Hulk’s latest free update includes new campaign to show fan appreciation

2013-10-18T14:58:00.000+05:30

In a nod to its fans, indie strategy game Space Hulk has released a new—and free—three-mission campaign as part of its latest patch which went live today. The appropriately titled Messenger of Purgatory campaign surfaces as part of update 1.2, which also addresses the game’s optimization, visuals, and a variety of other improvements, according to its official changelog.
“We have had both a rough start as well as great support from all of you,” the developers report in the changelog. “So we decided to give you this one for free as a big THANK YOU!!”
Set—as always—in the Warhammer 40k universe, the new Space Hulk missions send you on the hunt for the remains of Captain Atarius. Thomas Hentschel Lund, CEO of the game’s developer Full Control, highlighted player feedback in his comments about the patch in the official press release today: “This game update addresses many of the fan requests and suggestions that continue to hone and refine the experience of Space Hulk.”
For some more background on Full Control’s PC translation of the classic board game, check out our preview of the turn-based strategy game.
Hat tip, Joystiq.

Interview: Assassin’s Creed IV game director Ashraf Ismail on the future of open worlds

2013-10-18T14:57:00.000+05:30

People are obsessed with pirate ships. Before we sat down to chat proper, Assassin’s Creed IV game director Ashraf Ismail told me a story about how one playtester became so enamoured with the Jackdaw that he spent hours boarding it from every possible angle. “You know, we kinda needed to get some other things tested, but we let him at it anyway,” Ismail laughed.

Ismail’s in Sydney to show off a new build of Assassin’s Creed IV, ahead of its release in November. During a hands on preview, another Australian journalist spent an hour trying to overtake an enemy pirate ship. He died dozens of times apparently (because it’s a fairly high level feat to pull off) but eventually he did it without resorting to cannons.

People are obsessed with pirate ships. Ubisoft is banking on this obsession, because Black Flag will usher in one of the most dramatic changes to the Assassin’s Creed series we’ve seen over the course of its six titles. Naval combat and navigation is one of the core mechanics in the forthcoming installment, which releases for PC on November 22.

PC Gamer: You’re working across six platforms and two console generations with Black Flag. Is there more pressure on this title than ever before?

Ashraf Ismail: For sure. As a brand there is a pressure to bring something new and something fresh, but in terms of the number of platforms, no – that’s not really an added pressure. You can argue that with the next-gen stuff we need to raise the game a bit in terms of visual quality and immersiveness. So, yes there is multiple angles of pressure rising. But I think globally we deeply know as a dev team, as a company and as a brand that we need to surprise our fans. That was the objective when we started Black Flag two years ago: the key words were fresh and fun. We know we risk going stale, but the job is on us as developers to surprise people and that’s one of the reasons we went with a pirate theme and especially with doing a naval sandbox.

When you think of next-gen people have this notion that you need to experience something that you haven’t experienced before. Visual quality goes up, but the games also need to get bigger and immerse you more, and that’s where the idea of the naval sandbox came from. Not that it’s unique to next-gen, but it forced us to ask how do we take the city building that we know and just exaggerate and go much bigger and create a world that we’ve never had in AC, and hopefully which gamers have never seen. So yes, there is pressure but it’s a really strong motivator for us to try something different and to take a risk.

I remind people that it’s really risky to take a brand like Assassin’s Creed, which is very successful in terms of sales and fanbase, and then to say “you know what, part of the core experience now is naval combat.” I love the fact that Ubisoft went with it and supported us in attempting to do this. It’s a very risky thing and we could have totally screwed it up, but because of the pressure we know we need to take risks. It’s been a positive experience.

Is there a risk there that you’re fragmenting the series’ core elements – freerunning, stealth, land combat etc – with the introduction of naval combat?

AI: Again, it’s our job to ensure that the core of Assassin’s Creed is there. We do have a brand team, which is outside of the development team. That team is composed of writers, designers, project managers and so on, and they look at the larger arc that is Assassin’s Creed. There are people there who pay attention to what direction the game is going in and whether it is still fitting in with the brand pillars. Things like freerunning, fighting and stealth: these are really core and we’re never going to lose those.

I always say there’s a reason there are very few good pirate references in video games. Actually there’s almost none. The best in my opinion is Sid Meier’s Pirates. And that’s because if you want to do a credible pirate game you need to have cities, you need natural locations, you need to have an insane naval combat system but also a naval world, and to do that in one shot… I don’t know how any team could do it. There’s few pirate games because it’s a huge undertaking. We have such a solid foundation in Assassin’s Creed, because Assassin’s Creed 3 started pushing the naval navigation and nature, and they started the naval combat, so we had the ingredients in place. We could spend a good two and a half years developing something spectacular on those foundations. So yes, there’s risk involved in whether the naval stuff fits into the freerunning, but I feel like when people play the game they’ll feel like it’s Assassin’s Creed, yet the core experience will be so different and fresh that it will surprise people.

What are the most important elements of an open-world moving forward, apart from graphical fidelity? What do consumers want the most?

“We’ll always have an historical element because it’s core to the brand. Mark my words”

AI: For me, at its heart an open world game is a promise of an experience. The more immersed you are in that experience the more lost you can get inside the world. We worked pretty hard on making the world believable and credible. Having NPCs that look like real people who exist in that world, that’s always been a tenet of Assassin’s Creed since the first game. I think we can push that further. Beyond that – and this isn’t a hint of any future mechanics – I personally feel like there will be some element of connectivity. We’ve seen games that are single player games that somehow try to integrate the idea of other people interacting with your world. I’m sure that at some point with Assassin’s Creed, and with other open worlds, we’re going to see more of this. Demon’s Souls is a prime example of a single player game which is very personal which [nonetheless] let’s other people interact with you. I think that’s the best reference out there. I think we’ll see more of this, but all in the hope of immersing you more in the world.

With Black Flag, we want players to be completely lost in the Caribbean. What I mean is, you have a mission that is at the top of the map, but when you move in that direction the game world will keep inviting you to move off that path without you knowing it. Maybe if you find yourself, 45 minutes later, nowhere near that mission start, but you’ve done a bunch of harpooning and found a bunch of treasures and updated the Jackdaw, this for me is achieving a level of immersiveness that really only open world games can achieve. Those are the two fronts. We’re always going to push the immersiveness layer, having systems that attract you and pull your attention. On a pure feature basis there will probably be more social stuff, though I’m not entirely sure how yet.

Assassin’s Creed has become more generous with those distractions you mention. Is there an awareness within the dev teams that there might be a stretching point for these distractions? Is it possible to give the player too much to do?

AI: Yes, and I think the balance lay in what the purpose of this extra stuff is. We wanted to make sure that all the side missions and activities have a very simple function that a player can understand. So for example in this game, we’re blessed to have enemies that are not human: ships, inanimate objects that you can upgrade, more cannons and hulls, more defenses. All this allows us to have a progression system, and this system is a really easy way to reward the player. You need gold to buy the upgrades, therefore as you start to understand the economy of the game you start to understand what activities you need to do to get that gold. So you think: I need gold so I need to do this and this, which is better than selecting from a bunch of random icons on the map and trying them out.

We run into issues when we just put in activities that have no real purpose and are just there as content. As a game director I won’t do that – you can have some really cool stuff but it’s just meaningless. So the balance is really about the purpose and the function: if I’m doing this activity because it leads me somewhere, then it has a place in the game. You’ll see that in Black Flag: almost every single collectible, activity, side mission has a purpose, whether it’s to upgrade the ship or to upgrade Edward. There’s a function that’s clear and simple. We focused on that because we know that people can get lost in all the extra activities in open world games that are just there [for no reason].

It’s well known that naval combat and traversal was a difficult technical achievement. Specifically, what were some of the more difficult aspects?

AI: There are a million different things! I’ll start simple: the ship is an avatar. There is this psychological connection with players where you have a 3D figure on camera and you start to associate yourself with that character. You understand that the shadow beneath it places you somewhere inside the 3D world. These are mechanics that have been developed over years, starting with the likes of Mario 64. They’d been explored before that, but Mario 64 really defined a lot of this stuff.

So all of the sudden we have this ship that’s really big: its dimensions are awkward and we’re not used to it, and so where do you put the camera? How do you shoot, how do you drive? And at the same time not only is it a massive 3D ship, but you also need to feel that it’s a ship and still have it be fun to play and for it to be intuitive. When we started we had a lot of different prototypes for sailing, and some of them looked at sailing from a very accurate perspective. I’d say on some level they were fun, but on another they were completely unintuitive and unplayable. Just trying to sail and shoot an enemy was impossible. Finding the balance where it feels like a ship that you’re sailing on an ocean which has physics and you can feel the waves and wind, but you can also be in a combat situation: to not overwhelm the player with too many variables is really tricky. It took a lot of time with R&D and prototyping and trying different things.

The ocean itself is honestly one of the greatest achievements we’ve made. It’s fully physics simulated but we have full control over it. If we want it to go from a calm sea to an intense hurricane, we can do it. It feels natural and normal and logical and it’s beautiful visually. The guys who pulled it off, my hats off to them.

With the Abstergo narrative backdrop Assassin’s Creed could feasibly go anywhere. Is it possible the series could ever make a break from its historical settings?

AI: Feasibly, but I don’t think that makes sense. One of the pillars of Assassin’s Creed is that it’s historical fiction. I think it’s one of the biggest reasons why the series is so successful. Everybody in this world can love a certain time period or a certain historical figure, and I think one of our successes is that we go to time periods that you’ll never be able to physically visit or see. We excite people around this concept. To me, it doesn’t make any sense to have an Assassin’s Creed game that doesn’t have an historical element to it because it’s core to the DNA. I’ve been asked about whether Assassin’s Creed will make it to space in the future, and while anything is possible I think we’ll always have an historical element because it’s core to the brand. Mark my words.

Users are given the opportunity to rate missions, which will offer feedback directly to Ubisoft. Do you expect conclusive results?
AI: This is a very contentious feature in the game. I really wanted it in the game but our mission guys really hated it, which I understand why. We had many avenues of feedback, and one of the most important things a designer needs to be able to do is take in lots of feedback, whether its ideas or playtest results or just watching someone play and writing down notes. You need to absorb this information and then digest it. You don’t take it at face value – some stuff you can – but you need to be able to digest and understand what is happening. For me this is just another avenue of feedback. Of course when we see a mission is rated extremely poorly then okay, something went wrong. We’ll ask whether it was the writing, a bug, or was it just not a fun mechanic that was being used. On the other hand if something is rated really well, then for future games we can look at that and analyse why this mission was great.

TowerFall setting its sights on a January launch for PC

2013-10-17T14:52:00.000+05:30

Indie platformer TowerFall may land on PC as early as January, according to comments made by the game’s creator Matt Thorson to Shacknews. Previously exclusive to the Ouya system, TowerFall won the Media Choice Award Sunday at the IndieCade Games Festival and still looks set to include at least some of the new content we first heard about back in August.
“There’s two new archers and five new towers,” Thorson tells to Shacknews.
Already one of the Ouya console’s most popular games, TowerFall’s PC version will surely find a wider audience on PC for its 4-player combat archery. Thorson’s comments didn’t include word of the previously hinted-at single-player mode or online play, although he did mention to Shacknews at the IndieCade festival that he hoped to include a level editor as well as Steam Workshop functionality.
While the transition of a game from a console-based version to a PC can sometimes be problematic, it’s great to hear that Thorson has in mind some options for players to customize their experience, either through their own level editing or the always wild and wonderful universe of Steam Workshop.

Call of Duty: Ghosts system requirements posted by Nvidia

2013-10-17T14:50:00.000+05:30

Update: Well, that didn’t take long. Activision’s support Twitter account has just confirmed that these specs are not official.
Original story follows below.
While it’s not official, the likely PC requirements for Call of Duty: Ghosts have been posted on Nvidia’s website. The minimum requirements are pretty friendly to those without giant rigs, but a slight step up from previous CoDs given the transition to new console hardware.
According to Nvidia, Call of Duty: Ghosts’ helicopter-crashing dog antics (and other things) will require at least the following specs to run fluidly:

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit / Windows 8 64-Bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHZ / AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHZ or better
RAM: 6 GB RAM
HDD: 50 GB HD space
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 5870 or better
Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
DirectX: 11
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet connection required for activation.

Nvidia also “recommends” a GeForce GTX 780, but that’s an extreme jump from a GTX 550 Ti. Unless of course you already have one. In which case, go for it, Mr./Ms. Badass—it is possible that the game scales well between mid-range and high-end.
For comparison’s sake, these specs are similar to the minimum requirements that Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs will reportedly require, except for the crazy 50 gigs of space.
Ghosts comes out on PC November 5, apparently with dedicated servers this time. We’ve contacted Activision to confirm whether or not Nvidia’s post represents the official system requirements.

Indie dev shares thoughts on Steam Controller after getting hands-on

2013-10-17T14:48:00.000+05:30

Dan Tabár, the game designer behind Cortex Command, got his hands on a prototype of the recently announced Steam Controller and says he has “no qualms” with the ergonomic feel of the controller and is “surprised how well it worked.” He told us he’s excited to see how the device will affect the feasibility of PC gaming in the living room.
Tabár tested the controller during a visit to Valve in September and had a chance to play some Borderlands with the new hardware, which he described as fresh off of an in-house 3D printer.
“What I like about controller specifically, is how surprisingly usable and good the touchpads felt almost immediately,” Tabár said. “It certainly is not the laptop touchpad experience frankensteined onto a gamepad. The new paddles on the back are a stroke of genius that makes me smack my forehead…and in general I just dig that Valve is clearly taking a fresh approach and leaving nothing because of some kind of sacred legacy expectations of what makes a good game input device.”
The controller’s touchpads will use a tactile-feedback technology in order to replace the thumbsticks that are mounted on the front of most traditional gamepads. At least in shooters like Borderlands, this is one area, according to Tabár, where the controller is still a work-in-progress.
“They do have some work to do on the haptic feedback for these kinds of games, because my impression was that it was rumbling and making klicky sensations constantly, not really giving me much useful tactile feedback,” Tabár said. “I see that as a polish/tweaking issue more than a dealbreaker though, and [definitely] something that will be fundamentally less of an issue with games that are built with the controller in mind.”
While he caveats that he only got to use the prototype in an FPS game, Tabár did wonder how people would adapt the controller to other genres, especially real-time strategy games.
“I do worry about people trying to use this with fast-paced RTS games and hope to stay competitive, or arcade fighting games, as another example,” he said. “Some game genres just lend themselves to specialized hardware like arcade sticks, auto racing wheels, flight joysticks, et cetera. However, as a universal controller, this seems to be a very flexible compromise.”
And as one of the three cornerstones of developer Valve’s plan to take PC gamers away from the traditional, desk-based, mouse and keyboard setups that most of us know, a feasible controller has got to be central to making couch-based PC gaming a reality. But it’s always tough to predict how new input devices will actually function without getting your hands on them.
Tabár says he’s “confident” the graphical editor for his upcoming Planetoid Pioneers project could be operated using the Steam Controller, even though the interface was designed for a mouse cursor. What’s clear from his experience is that many of the real advantages of such a radically new device won’t appear until we see games that are designed—from the very beginning—to work seamlessly with the new apparatus.

Following the tradition of most fighting game ports, NetherRealm Studios‘ clash of DC heroes and villains will enter the PC arena a few months after the initial brawl of its console brethren in the form of the Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition on November 12. As you’d expect, the Ultimate Edition includes the base game along with all the previously-released DLC, which includes the characters Batgirl, Martian Manhunter, General Zod, Lobo, Zatanna, and a re-imagined Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. The DLC also includes over 40 new costumes and 60 S.T.A.R. Labs missions. Americans (or those who ship themselves an American copy) also get the game soundtrack. The Ultimate Edition comes out on November 12 in North America and Europe for $50/£30, and other territories “beginning November 29” with High Voltage Software at the helm rather than NetherRealm. I’m usually weary of ports not developed in house, but considering High Voltage ported the PC version of Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, I’m not overly concerned.

2013-10-16T14:48:00.001+05:30

President of Worldwide Studios for Sony Computer Entetainment Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed over Twitter that the “basic functions” of the PS4’s DualShock 4 will be compatible on Windows PCs without the need for additional drivers.
When asked whether Sony planned to release PC compatibility drivers for the DualShock 4, Yoshida tweeted back “the analog sticks and buttons will work just fine” and the “basic functions” of the controller will work by default. Of course, Yoshida remained vague about what those “basic functions” actually were.

The folks at Joystiq noted that most third-party controllers use the XInput API, which sort of tricks your computer into thinking that controller is actually an Xbox 360 controller. It’s worth mentioning that the DualShock 3 controller doesn’t have XInput, and requires additional software, tweaks, and quite possibly headaches to properly run on a PC.
When asked if games would automatically recognize a DualShock 4 as a DualShock 4, Yoshida tersely said to wait for a field report after the PS4 launch. There are plenty of other questions out there regarding the DS4’s touchpad and motion controls, though I’d be perfectly content if games just recognized the controller’s buttons and joysticks. Here’s hoping that’s the case come November.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition coming to PC

2013-10-16T14:47:00.003+05:30

Following the tradition of most fighting game ports, NetherRealm Studios‘ clash of DC heroes and villains will enter the PC arena a few months after the initial brawl of its console brethren in the form of the Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition on November 12.
As you’d expect, the Ultimate Edition includes the base game along with all the previously-released DLC, which includes the characters Batgirl, Martian Manhunter, General Zod, Lobo, Zatanna, and a re-imagined Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. The DLC also includes over 40 new costumes and 60 S.T.A.R. Labs missions. Americans (or those who ship themselves an American copy) also get the game soundtrack.
The Ultimate Edition comes out on November 12 in North America and Europe for $50/£30, and other territories “beginning November 29” with High Voltage Software at the helm rather than NetherRealm. I’m usually weary of ports not developed in house, but considering High Voltage ported the PC version of Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, I’m not overly concerned.

Asylum Jam to focus on horror without stigmatizing illness

2013-10-16T14:46:00.003+05:30

Decrepit psychiatric hospitals with Gothic architecture and their mentally ill patients still constitute a lot of horror fiction. The recently-released Outlast and Bethesda’s upcoming The Evil Within both take place in insane asylums housing horrific monstrosities, but Lucy Morris dislikes those tropes and seeks to challenge developers to create a different kind of horror game.
“You should not use asylums, psychiatric institutes, medical professionals, or violent/antipathic/’insane’ patients as settings or triggers,” states the Asylum Jam’s website. The 48-hour jam, running from Oct 11-13, was inspired by Ian Mahar’s Kotaku article that examined the negative effects of the horror genre’s prolific use of mental illness, including the societal perceptions that come with having one such illness.
In an interview with Polygon,Morris and participants in the game jam go in-depth on the stigmatization of mental illness, the potential for the jam to open a discussion, and their desire to explore other avenues for the genre’s future. So while Morris and developers, who can still sign up at the jam’s site, admirably try to move away from the popular horror tropes, they will try to create new, inventive ways to frighten people.
Great. Now games can make me squeal like a child for even more reasons.

Deus Ex: Human Defiance trademark filed by Square Enix [Updated]

2013-04-05T13:41:00.000+05:30

Update: Mysterious gaming sleuth superannuation reports a couple whois searches for the Human Defiance domain shows CBS Films as the registrant, a strong suggestion that the title is for the upcoming film adaptation from CBS and Eidos Montreal. Previously, director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill said they’re targeting a cyberpunk vibe for the film’s theme.
Original: Time to activate your speculation augmentation. You did all get that particular upgrade, right? Honestly, giant arm swords are all well and good, but they’ll hardly help you to deal with the news that Square Enix have filed a new Deus Ex trademark. The trademark application – submitted February 26 and spotted by NeoGAF – is for Deus Ex: Human Defiance, and has a classification class that heavily focuses on words like “computer”, “video”, “game” and “software”. What could it all mean?
Best case scenario: a follow-up to the excellent Human Revolution. Worst case? Probably an iPad game/movie tie-in for the upcoming cinematic adaptation. Other possibilities? A port of DX:HR, a standalone time-trial of all the boss battles, an HD remake of Deus Ex: Invisible War…
Okay, clearly my speculation drives have failed. What do you think Square Enix have in store? (And more importantly, if Eidos Montreal are set to make a sequel, where the hell is Thief 4?)
Thanks, CVG.

THQ’s remaining properties to be auctioned in April – Homeworld and Darksiders up for grabs

2013-04-04T13:41:00.000+05:30

The date’s been set for the final court-supervised auction of THQ’s remaining properties. Those titles not bought in January’s fire sale have been divided into lots, with initial bids due in April 1st. Final bids are required by April 15th, then, pending court approval, THQ expects to sell the remaining vestige of its existence by mid-May. *Sniff*
While the tastiest morsels have already been picked away, there’s still some meat clinging to the THQ bone. Darksiders, Homeworld and Red Faction are all looking for a new home. In an ideal world, the Homeworld license will be picked up by someone who’ll actually use it, and Red Faction will end up somewhere that recognises the brilliance of Guerrilla over the mediocrity of Armageddon.
Here’s the full list:
Lot 1: Red Faction

Red Faction
Red Faction Armageddon
Red Faction 2
Red Faction: Guerrilla

Lot 2: Homeworld

Homeworld
Homeworld 2

Lot 3: MX

MX Alive
MX vs ATV Untamed
MX Superfly featuring Ricky Carmichael
MX vs. ATV Alive Tournament
MX Unleashed
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
MX vs ATV Reflex
MX vs. ATV: On The Edge

Lot 4: Darksiders

Darksiders
Darksiders 2

Lot 5: Other Owned Software

All Star Cheer Squad
Elements of Destruction
All Star Cheer Squad 2
Fantastic Pets
All Star Karate
Frontlines: Fuel of War
Baja: Edge of Control
Full Spectrum Warrior 1
Full Spectrum Warrior 2: Ten Hammers
Battle of the Bands
Beat City
Juiced
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
Big Beach Sports
Big Beach Sports 2
Lock’s Quest: Construction Combat
Big Family Games
Neighborhood Games
Crawler
Pax Imperia
de Blob
de Blob 2
Stuntman: Ignition
Summoner
Summoner 2
Deadly Creatures
Deep Six
Terranium
Destroy All Humans!
Destroy All Humans! 2
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed
Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon
The Outfit
Titan Quest
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
uDraw
Dood’s Big Adventure
World of Zoo
Drawn to Life
Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter

Lot 6: Licensed Software

Costume Quest
Stacking
Scripps Spelling Bee (Scripps)
Daniel X (SueJack)
Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House
Deepak Chopra’s Leela (Curious Holdings)
Fancy Nancy: Tea Party Time! (Harper Collins)
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance
Jeopardy
Jeopardy 2
The Biggest Loser
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Truth or Lies
Let’s Ride Best of Breed
Vampire Legends: Power of Three (dtp)
Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet 2
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune 2
World of Zoo
Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase
Worms 2
Worms Battle Islands
Worms Open Warfare
Worms: A Space Oddity
Worms: Open Warfare 2 (Team 17)
Nexuiz
Paws & Claws Marine Rescue
Paws & Claws Pampered Pets Resort 3D
PurrPals 2
Rio
You Don’t Know Jack (Jellyvision)
Rocket Riot
Screwjumper (Frozen Codebase)

Wow, that’s a mixed bag of Other and Licensed properties.
Wishful thinking time! Who would you like to see bidding on the various series?
Thanks, GI.biz

The War Z is back on Steam

2013-04-03T13:39:00.000+05:30

Following customer complaints over misleading information on The War Z’s Steam page, Valve removed the unfinished multiplayer zombie survival game in December. It’s back, and Valve has explained the decision to give the controversial shooter a second chance in a brief announcement:
“Valve and Hammerpoint Interactive collaborated to address community feedback, update the Steam store page, and make the title available for purchase worldwide. In addition, a patch has been released to update existing customers. As such, the special refund offering extended for The War Z Steam customers who previously purchased the title has concluded.”
Below is a comparison of the Steam information from when The War Z launched in December and now.

Original Steam store page

New Steam store page

Details that are not yet implemented or not available in the Foundation Release, such as areas as large as “100 to 400 square kilometers,” have been omitted. The phrase “single purchase” is also gone. While it’s technically true that the game can be played with one purchase, microtransactions extend to individual bullets, making it only technically true, with italics.
Selling bullets was one of many problems we dissected in our review of The War Z. The lack of voice communication, poor sound design, homogeneous landscape, exploits, hacking, and even spawn camping were among the criticisms that resulted in our 30% verdict. On that note, the new Steam store page also displays the game’s now-available Metacritic score of 23/100.

A screenshot from The War Z’s Steam page

The War Z’s Steam forum is filling with the expected mixed reactions. A thread titled “Petition to remove ‘The War Z’ from Steam” sits next to a thread inviting new players to a private server. Another thread trolls with “Should I buy War Z or Aliens: Colonial Marines?” while others take issue with specifics of The War Z’s return to Steam, arguing that the screenshots remain misleading.
The question, as I see it, is: should Valve be responsible for curating Steam, making judgments based on a game’s reception, or should it take a laissez-faire approach and let us decide (given accurate information) what to buy on our own? Given the introduction of Greenlight and some of Gabe Newell’s recent comments, the latter approach seems to be the direction Valve is traveling.

Fifth set of Steam Greenlight games greenlit: Anodyne, Distance, Organ Trail, and more

2013-04-02T13:38:00.000+05:30

Valve has announced the fifth set of games to be promoted from Steam Greenlight to Steam distribution. The service gives everyone with a game and $100 the chance to earn a Steam distribution deal—so far, 76 games have been greenlit, and 16 of those have been completed and released on Steam. The latest batch is below:

Surgeon Simulator 2013 will make a fantastic addition to the seemingly endless cavalcade of [MLG] Pro simulation videos. [Update: by "will make a fantastic addition" I clearly meant that someone already made one last month, which is like a year in internet time.]
While these developers should be proud of their accomplishment, Valve doesn’t seem too proud of Greenlight: Gabe Newell recently called the experiment “a bottleneck rather than a way for people to communicate choice.” He wants to go further, doing away with “artificial shelf space scarcity” entirely. We game in exciting times.

DayZ Mod update 1.7.6: new zombie logic, arrows, and a fight about cans

2013-04-01T13:37:00.000+05:30

A screenshot of wandering zombies by Reddit user fitzybaby.

DayZ changelogs are so much fun. Update 1.7.6 adds some important stuff, like a six arrow crossbow quiver and reusable wooden arrows with a 20% chance to break on use, and some less important stuff, like cans of Rabbitman beer and Chef Boneboy Ravioli. Or it did, until Hotfix 1.7.6.1 removed the modder-named cans after a big community argument. Darn, and I just said how fun these are.
But first: zombie logic. Zeds’ max target range has been reduced from 300 meters to 120 meters, they should zigzag less, and their running speed has been reduced. That doesn’t mean you can rest easy: “zed attraction” now causes the undead to “loiter closer to players over time,” sending them wandering into new territory. Early reports indicate it’s a welcome addition.
In other DayZ news, it’s now super easy to install the mod if you own Arma 2: Combined Operations on Steam. There’s an extra step to jump to 1.7.6, though: after installing, right click on the mod in your library, select “Properties,” hit the “Beta” tab, and select 1.7.6.1 in the drop down menu.
Oh, about the cans. 1.7.6 added new cans named for contributors to the mod, presumably because it seemed like a fun idea. A segment of the community did not think it was a fun idea, and said so (some more civilly than others), prompting the hotfix which removes them.
DayZ creator Dean “Rocket” Hall attempted to toss a bucket of water on the flames, writing in the forums, “Let’s not slaughter everyone just because something didn’t go quite according to plan and some people think it’s going in the wrong direction.”
I’d have been fine with tossing back a few Rabbitmans while eating my Herpy Dooves Canned Muffins, but I understand the complaint from hardcore roleplayers. I’m more of a LARPer, in that I would actually like a beer and a few muffins if anyone has some.

How to find a StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm launch event near you

2013-03-31T13:36:00.000+05:30

Much as we’ve all had a love-hate relationship with brick and mortar game stores, some of my fondest memories as a PC gamer have been lining up in the freezing cold with dozens of other gamers to grab the next big collector’s edition at midnight on launch day. If you’re hoping to have that experience with Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard has created a dedicated page to find launch events in your area.
So far, there is only one event listed for each region. There will be some Blizzard presence in Mexico City, Brazil, the US, Russia, France, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and, of course, South Korea. Many of these events will also feature prominent eSports pros. The event in our neck of the woods, in Irvine, California (near Blizzard HQ), will feature MC, Polt, Suppy, and ViBE, with emceeing by Day[9] and Husky.
If you don’t live near one of the officially-sanctioned events, I’d recomment the r/barcraft subreddit, which is a hub for organizing (mostly StarCraft-centric) eSports viewing events at local venues. Depending on your area, it’s not always 100% dependable, and tends to be US-centric, but most major metro areas have at least one or two. There’s also a running list on TeamLiquid with a few more locations, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Sweden, and Israel.

Respawn Entertainment will be at E3 with “no intention of showing up empty handed”

2013-03-31T13:35:00.000+05:30

On March 1st, 2010, Activision fired Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West. Things were said, lawsuits were filed, Zampella and West formed Respawn Entertainment, half of the Call of Duty studio’s staff walked out, EA jumped in and got sued too, then Yakety Sax played until everyone got tuckered out. Amid all that, Respawn seems to have developed a very blurry game, which may come into focus at E3 according to a pair of tweets from Zampella.
The news is notable because Zampella and West are notable, and not just for their role in creating Call of Duty. Before forming Infinity Ward, they were at 2015, Inc., where they designed one of my favorite shooters ever: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. The duo is partially responsible for two of the best-known FPS franchises ever, making Respawn’s next game potentially a major competitor.
But if they do announce a game at E3, just how will they announce it? At EA’s press conference? Maybe, but I think it’s also likely Microsoft or Sony has snagged the announcement as a card to play in the battle between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox DifferentNumber. Even so, that won’t necessarily make it a console exclusive, whatever it is. And by “whatever,” I of course mean, “probably a shooter.”

Valve don’t even fire people like a normal company – Varoufakis on hiring and firing

2013-03-30T13:34:00.000+05:30

The vision of Valve as a utopian game developer’s retreat was dented the other week, when details of internal lay-offs and firings were made public. In an interview with the EconTalk podcast, transcribed by Gamasutra, Valve’s in-house economist Yanis Varoufakis spoke about the company’s hiring and firing process. It is, as you might expect, all a bit weird.
“It does happen,” Varoufakis said about staff firing. “I’ve seen it happen. And it’s never pretty. It involves various communications at first when somebody’s underperforming, or somebody doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the company.
“In many occasions people simply don’t fit in not because they’re not productive or good people, but because they just can’t function very well in a boss-less environment. And then there are series of discussions between co-workers and the person whose firing is being canvased or discussed, and at some point if it seems there is no way that a consensus can emerge that this person can stay, some attractive offer is made to the particular person, and usually there’s an amicable parting of ways.”
The hiring process is similarly crowdsourced. “Let’s say you and I have a chat in the corridor, or in some conference room, or wherever. The result of this chat is that we converge to the view that we need an additional software engineer, or animator, or artist, or hardware person. Or several of them. What we can do is, we can send an email to the rest of our colleagues at Valve and invite them to join us in forming a search committee that actually looks for these people without seeking anyone’s permission in the hierarchy, simply because there is no hierarchy.” Anyone within the company is then invited to take part in the interview process, and consensus is sought before a hire is made.
Varoufakis also details the pay-review process, which he says is largely bonus based. He notes that there’s no upper limit to bonuses, so thanks to the nature of mutual review, “bonuses can end up being 5, 6, 10 times the level of the basic wage.”
“I wasn’t with the company long enough to notice, but there must have been situations where somebody didn’t fit in and eventually was edged out of the company,” Varoufakis admits. “But the vast majority of such moves simply contribute to the overall efficiency, and to the private joy of working there.”

Death Inc gets co-op multiplayer, Molyneux’s fervent support

2013-03-29T13:34:00.000+05:30

Plucky Kickstarter project Death Inc. is still fighting towards its £300,000 target with a little over a week to spare. Yesterday, mighty man of games Peter Molyneux joined with other industry chums to pledge his support to the promising plague-bearing RTS, and today the devs have added another two major bullet-points to the game’s list of features: co-op multiplayer and iPad support. You can see both the multiplayer and Molyneux in action after the jump.
The game is sort of Pikmin by way of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which your horde of sweating, puking plague victims sweeps through Merry Old England, claiming the souls of its citizens for the Grim Reaper. It’s funny, gorgeous to look at and snappy to control – a fact which you can confirm yourself if you download the demo.

QuakeCon 2013 announced for August

2013-03-28T13:33:00.000+05:30

Things guaranteed to happen each year: incrementally improved new versions of popular products, at least one earnestly predicted end of the world scenario, and QuakeCon, id Software’s mega-LAN party/PC gaming celebration. This year the BYOC event will be held August 1st – 4th at its regular stomping ground, the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
Don’t fancy lugging your rig across the country/world? Not to worry, Bethesda will also be showing off some of their upcoming titles for the first time in public. Chances are that means Elder Scrolls Online, but I’ve also got my fingers crossed for a possible Prey 2 revival.
As with previous years, attendance is free. The hotel is also offering a deal on rooms, details of which are available at the QuakeCon site.

Arma 3 alpha goes live next week; get instant access through Steam pre-order

2013-03-27T13:32:00.000+05:30

Attention, soldiers! After a uniquely challenging development period, Arma 3 is set to begin public alpha manoeuvres next week. From the 5th March, pre-orders for the military sim will go live on Steam, offering instant access to anyone who purchases either the Alpha or Digital Deluxe editions of the game.
The alpha trial will include four missions (“Infantry, Vehicles, SCUBA and Helicopter”), a limited selection of weapons and vehicles, two multiplayer scenarios, the scenario editor and modding support. All this will take place on the 20 km² island of Stratis, the smaller brother of the full game’s 270 km² Atlis.
“The Arma 3 Alpha is a big milestone in the project’s development,” writes co-creative director Jay Crowe. “Testing early and often puts us on the right track towards improving performance, stability and delivering on our goal of creating a robust final release. It’s also a big opportunity to get the game in the hands of our passionate community, which enables them to start work on their own creations, tailored to the fourth generation of the Real Virtuality engine.”
A free, limited version of the alpha, titled Arma 3 Alpha Lite, will also be available a week after the purchase edition, from March 14th. The lite version lacks both multiplayer and modding support. A full list of purchasing options and their benefits is available from this handy comparison chart.
Arma 3 Alpha edition will cost €24.99/£19.99/$32.99.