Saturday, September 21, 2013

News::Saints Row IV (PS3, PC, 360) review | InsideTheBox

Saints Row IV is an excellent game. Many people found The Third to be a lackluster affair, however, IV manages to improve on everything that was wrong with the game, and add some fun new twists to the story and gameplay. Read on for our full review of the game, to see what it can offer.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359436/saints-row-iv-ps3-pc-360-review-insidethebox

News::Final Fantasy XIV Primal Guide Garuda (Hard Mode)

Another Primal Battle that everyone needs to fight in order to take on Bahamut in Final Fantasy XIV is the hard mode version of Garuda, the Lady of the Vortex. Compared to Ifrits fight, Garuda is much tougher as there are multiple adds that every DPS needs to take care of.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359522/final-fantasy-xiv-primal-guide-garuda-hard-mode

News::Star Wars Battlefront 3 Weekly - Episode 7: Vehicles we want to see

Bad news. There's no new Star Wars: Battlefront news...yet. But that doesn't mean there isn't a ton to talk about. This week, Greg and Lorenzo touch on a topic of vehicular combat which was brought up in the comments from Battlefront Weekly viewer GOD.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359525/star-wars-battlefront-3-weekly-episode-7-vehicles-we-want-to-see

News::Battlefield 4-ready PC in under $700

With the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and now, apparently, the long-rumored Steam Box looming just over the horizon, the average system requirements for AAA PC games is about to spike. Whether you're looking stay in the game, or just need to update an old toaster, right now is a great time to look at a new PC build.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359354/battlefield-4-ready-pc-in-under-700

News::Electronic Super Joy Review | ComboCaster

Michael Todd is a game producer and a figure precursor indie genre and it was from him that we got Super Electronic joy a platformer rhythmic, vibrant and colorful. Most games nowadays have to have a fantastic soundtrack, current, or some kind of art, but few can be as artistic and musical as Electonic Super Joy. So we turn on the game, it's given us a warning about epilepsy unusual, full of humor and sarcasm, and that sets the tone for a crazy ride into the world of electronic music and an incredibly difficult platformer, but very well designed.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359492/electronic-super-joy-review-combocaster

News::Diablo III Loot Comparison - PC vs Console

Erick played through Diablo III on both PC and Console to compare the quality and frequency of the loot drops.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359521/diablo-iii-loot-comparison-pc-vs-console

News::Game Guys review - Genius KB-G265 gaming keyboard

Computer peripheral company Genius has recently released its new KB-G265 gaming keyboard in North America. The company refers to it as an upgrade to its previously-available KB-G255 keyboard. While that might be true, it doesn't exactly shower its predecessor with praise.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359505/game-guys-review-genius-kb-g265-gaming-keyboard

News::Let's Play Outlast: Destin Goes To The Movies

Still going through the house in Outlast, a nice priest recommends checking out the movie theater! Destin decides he may as well enjoy a movie!



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359528/lets-play-outlast-destin-goes-to-the-movies

News::At This Point In Gaming, Historically Bad Adaptations Should be a Thing of the Past

Hardcore Gamer: Given the current available technology, and wealth of quality material to cite when conceptualizing such a project, there is no reason the majority of adaptations shouldnt be able to provide a playable experience that at the very least can entertain its fans for a weekend, and doesnt tarnish, or even damage, the source material that the higher ups writing the checks are usually more concerned with.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359496/at-this-point-in-gaming-historically-bad-adaptations-should-be-a-thing-of-the-past

News::CDPR Talks The Witcher 3 Tech: Tessellation, PhysX, Fur Tech, DX11.2, Windows 8, Global Illumination

DSOGaming writes: "A couple of days ago, we had the pleasure to interview Greg Rdzany Senior Technical Producer at CD Projekt RED and Balazs Torok Lead Engine Programmer at CD Projekt RED. Greg and Balazs shared some new information about the Fur tech that will be implemented in The Witcher 3 and talked about PhysX 3.0, Tessellation, DX11.2, Global Illumination, and shared their opinion about other commercial engines like CryENGINE and Unreal Engine."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359534/cdpr-talks-the-witcher-3-tech-tessellation-physx-fur-tech-dx11-2-windows-8-global-illumination

News::The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief - Episode 2 Review | Hardcore Gamer

Episode 2 can't hold in its excitement and spoils the big twist about halfway in and the rest of the game suffers for it.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359500/the-raven-legacy-of-a-master-thief-episode-2-review-hardcore-gamer

News::MOGAMEREVIEW: Sherlock Holmes Crimes And Punishment

Frogwares studios, the developer, has decided to change its engine to Epic Unreal Engine 3 as to the previous in-house engine, so the new series will be an important testing round for the company. Even though the new engine will allow the developer to create an open world. However, due to its detective characteristics, the game will not be an open world. Rather than traveling from world to world, cities to cities, the incident will take place in one place, so if you were expecting a diverse world compacted in one area, this won't be the game of your choice.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359291/mogamereview-sherlock-holmes-crimes-and-punishment

News::AMD Hawaii R9-290X GPU Benchmarks Exposed Fastest GPU On the Planet With 1020 MHz Clock Speed

As you can see, the Hawaii R9-290X came out overall faster than the other graphic cards in gaming benchmarks. Ofcourse, since mature drivers arent available yet we will be noticing some hiccups in performance but overall the card is the fastest single chip GPU on the planet. Expect more benchmarks soon!



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359510/amd-hawaii-r9-290x-gpu-benchmarks-exposed-fastest-gpu-on-the-planet-with-1020-mhz-clock-speed

News::Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Review | Nova Crystallis

Nova Crystallis weighs in on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - citing it as one of the best entries in the series in a long time.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359524/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn-review-nova-crystallis

News::High Strangeness video interview

Michael speaks with Ben Shostak about their upcoming 16/8-bit adventure game High Strangeness



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359339/high-strangeness-video-interview

News::New Dark Matter Screenshots Revealed

Set for release on PC in the near future, Iceberg Interactive has revealed a selection of new screenshots taken from the forthcoming Dark Matter. Developed by Interwave Studios, Dark Matter is a side-scrolling survival horror videogame set to be released this autumn.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359245/new-dark-matter-screenshots-revealed

News::Project Reality 2 Announced

Project Reality team "Since its inception over 8 years ago, Project Reality has built a large, dedicated community which has watched the mod evolve from a single forum post into one of the most successful and decorated modifications of its time. As Project Reality has continued to grow and branch out onto multiple game engines, one question has been continuously asked; Will Project Reality ever produce an independent game? Well, today we are pleased to finally answer that question. The Project Reality team is proud to officially announce that we are currently developing a completely standalone PC game, Project Reality 2!"



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359371/project-reality-2-announced

News::You can date Lolo from Klonoa in Namco High

Shifty Look's upcoming browser-based dating sim Namco High will welcome recurring Klonoa character Lolo to the cast. She has broke out to make guest appearances before (PS2 game Namco x Capcom), but now she's going to school with other game characters in what's sure to be her best role yet.


What Pumpkin, creative directors and art production on Namco High, are excited about putting Lolo in their crazy mashup: "Klonoa is a series we really like, and Lolo has a (spoilers!) character flaw built into the Klonoa series we felt would fit perfectly built upon in this type of game."


Artist J.N. Wiedle is responsible for the Lolo rendition you see here.


Namco High is being headed up by Homestuck creator Andre Hussie, set to release before the holiday.


You can date Lolo from Klonoa in Namco High screenshot






via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/you-can-date-lolo-from-klonoa-in-namco-high-262277.phtml

News::The TGS Titanfall stage is awesome

Respawn Entertainments Titanfall shows off at the Tokyo Games Show, by putting on display a life sized Titan robot. To get an idea of the actual size just compare it to the showgirls that are standing next to it.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359348/the-tgs-titanfall-stage-is-awesome

News::[Dota 2] Orange Lose Their Dota 2 Team

Malaysian organisation Orange Esports had a remarkable run at The International 3 with their Dota 2 team, placing third and proving that the Asian scene still had something to offer during the absence of the Chinese teams. Unfortunately the team is now not having the best of luck, first losing Mushi to team DK and today announcing the the remaining players will be leaving the team and reforming under the umbrella of a new sponsor that goes by the name of Team T*.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359415/dota-2-orange-lose-their-dota-2-team

News::Candlelight A New Light for The Indie Game Industry

During this generation of gaming, we have seen independent, or indie games rise in relevancy and popularity. Small development teams have made big noise with games such as Minecraft, Fez, Journey, and Braid. Indie games have become so relevant that indie developer support for next-gen systems is favored upon and has even become a factor in which next-gen console people are choosing. Clearly, Indie games are a big part of the video game industrys future, but what does it take to get them there?



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359429/candlelight-a-new-light-for-the-indie-game-industry

News::AMD Curacao Pro Volcanic Islands Graphics Card Pictured Totally New Cooler Design

WCCFTech have already had two leaks detailing AMDs upcoming Hawaii and Oland GPU and surprisingly a third leak has appeared which reveals the very first pictures of AMDs mid-range Curacao Pro graphics card. The Curacao chip would be replacing the current Radeon HD 7800 Pitcairn based GPUs and would arrive in two variants, the XT and Pro.ftEjwH



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359442/amd-curacao-pro-volcanic-islands-graphics-card-pictured-totally-new-cooler-design

News::Indie Spotlight: Always Sometimes Monsters

Always Sometimes Monsters is a new indie game in development and it was shown off at PAX Prime earlier this month. I got my hands on the game as soon as I could, and damn, I was surprised on how good it actually was!



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359449/indie-spotlight-always-sometimes-monsters

News::Interview with Al Lowe and Paul Trowe of 'Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded' and Sierra fame.

Prankster101 interviews Al Lowe and Paul Trowe of 'Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded' and Sierra fame.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359469/interview-with-al-lowe-and-paul-trowe-of-leisure-suit-larry-reloaded-and-sierra-fame

News::The Ur-Quan Masters PJ retro review

PJ: "Let me tell you about the greatest game you haven't played. Back in 1990, Star Control, a sort of a starship Mortal Combat game with minimal backstory, was released. It received a sequel in 1992 in the form of Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, which was later improved and re-released for the 3DO console...and it kicked ass. Back in 2002, the game developer studio Toys For Bob gave up the ghost, but released the games source code (unlike, say, Interplay...). Thus the free open source game Ur-Quan Master was made. And lo and behold - it was good."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359470/the-ur-quan-masters-pj-retro-review

News::FortressCraft Sequel Confirmed for Steam Launch This Year

"DjArcas, the head of Projector Games and developer of Xbox Live Indie Game hit FortressCraft: Chapter 1 has confirmed that the sequel to FortressCraft, working title FortressCraft: Unity, will be released on Steam later this year."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359453/fortresscraft-sequel-confirmed-for-steam-launch-this-year

News::Even Your Mom Can Play 'Need For Speed: Rivals'

8CN: So says Need for Speed: Rivals creative director, Marcus Nilsson. In an interview with 4Gamer at the Tokyo Game Show, Nilsson talked about the "AllDrive" system and the simpler control scheme.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359464/even-your-mom-can-play-need-for-speed-rivals

News::The Making Of: Omikron: The Nomad Soul


French game developer David Cage isn’t enjoying his trip on the London Underground. It’s 1998 and he’s southbound on the District Line. Destination: Wimbledon, home to the Lawn Tennis Association and also, more importantly, the HQ of Eidos Interactive. In a backpack he carries a PC – a monster of a machine, powerful enough to run the demo of his passion project Omikron: The Nomad Soul.


Cage is, understandably, on edge. The rig on his shoulder is heavy, but his hopes weigh heavier still. He desperately needs this to go well; across the Channel, Cage’s start-up company Quantic Dream is running out of time.


Omikron began with an impossible vision. Cage, a professional musician with a background in commercials, wrote an initial, 200-page concept document outlining the kind of game he wanted to play.


“I was dreaming of a game with an open-world city where I could go wherever I wanted, meet anybody, use vehicles, fight and transfer my soul into another body,” he tells us. “When my friends read it they said: ‘David, this is impossible. It’s not technically feasible, don’t even think about it.’”


Visionaries don’t waste time wringing their hands over something as passé as feasibility, however. It didn’t matter to Cage that PC 3D cards were still in their infancy. He took the money he’d made from scoring commercials, hired a team of six friends with development experience and started production in a sound-proofed studio that once belonged to Belgian singer Jacques Brel. There were thick doors, no windows and everyone was crammed into a 15m square space.



Cage insisted on paying the team, not for altruistic reasons, but so that he could be the boss. “I wanted to be able to demand something of them, ask them to be there on time in the morning and work long days.” They went into instant crunch mode, having just six months to make the impossible demo; if they didn’t finish it before then, Cage would be broke and the dream would be over.


In the penultimate week of development, Cage got on the phone and asked publishers in the UK if they were interested in seeing his realtime 3D demo. Eidos said yes and when John Kavanagh, the VP of product development, saw the impossible demo with its dynamic city environment and motion-captured, canoodling pedestrians he signed Quantic Dream immediately – just three days before Cage’s start-up money ran out.


Omikron: The Nomad Soul showcases more ideas in its first ten minutes than most games achieve in their entire duration. Released in November 1999, two years before Grand Theft Auto III popularised the 3D open-world concept, Omikron invited players into an awe-inspiringly dynamic, futuristic city. It also featured a story about demons, hell and the transmigration of souls. “It’s the world’s first Buddhist game,” quips Phil Campbell, who was then senior designer at Eidos. “Buddhist with guns, I call it.”


Set in a totalitarian city ruled by a supercomputer and replete with RoboCop-style satirical ads (“Drink Quanta Cola, the energising drink with radioactive quanta extract”), the game possessed a subversive, cyberpunk edge. Imagine The Fifth Element crossed with Liberty City and a dash of Parisian red-light district Pigalle: among the supermarkets, temples and libraries are strip clubs populated by kabuki-faced pole dancers and sex shops crammed with dildos. The subversive quality seeps into the story too: starting out as a cop interrogating enemies of the state, you eventually join the resistance. One avatar’s terrorist is another avatar’s freedom fighter.



“There were many new ideas, probably too many,” admits Cage. “I wanted to mix different genres but I wouldn’t say we were 100 per cent successful.” Seesawing between adventure game, RPG, firstperson shooter, 3D fighting game, and the odd bit of driving, Omikron was about ten games in one.


It didn’t always work, not least the switches between third- and firstperson perspectives for the awkward shooting sequences. “I’m in the 15 per cent of people who can’t play games in firstperson because I get sick,” Cage explains. “Initially we wanted to have the shooting in thirdperson because firstperson gives me headaches and we didn’t think it fit with the style of the game. But Half-Life was very successful at the time and Eidos really pushed for firstperson. I think it was a mistake.”


Flawed as it might have been, it was flawed genius. Campbell, who’d later leave Eidos to join Quantic Dream as its chief creative officer, was among those who were wowed by Cage’s vision. “I went out with him at E3 and got him drunk, worming my way onto the project,” he recalls. “We invented an alter-ego for David, calling him ‘Foggy.’ It was primarily intended to start the cult of ‘David Cage’!”


Designing the parameters of an open world wasn’t easy. A lot of questions came up in development: would players be able to drive the game’s taxis – ‘sliders’ – and use them to ram-raid shops or police mechs? Would they be able to start fist-fights with passers-by? Ultimately, none of those options was pursued and Omikron’s open world shipped mayhem-free – to the detriment of its potential profits. “Perhaps GTA got it right, at least from a commercial point of view,” muses Campbell today.


For Cage, such concerns were trivial. Unlike Rockstar’s anarchic mafia sandbox, Omikron maintained a rigid sense of itself as an emotional, ambitious epic. The problem was that an open world didn’t lend itself to the demands of linear drama.



“It’s very difficult to forge a real sense of narrative in an open world,” the designer explains. “As a player you want to explore the world and drive around it but it destroys any sense of pace in the story. That was the first lesson from Omikron: if I want to tell a good story, I need to give more constraints to master the pace and rhythm of the narrative, otherwise the player can destroy it.”


David Bowie didn’t play videogames, but he knew a lot about virtual identities. He’d been Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke and, once upon a time, just plain old David Jones. When he saw Omikron, he knew he wanted to be part of it.


In early development Cage had scribbled down a list of artists he’d love to have compose the game’s score. Björk, Massive Attack and fellow trip-hop band Archive were all on the shortlist. So was Bowie.


“We put him on there although no one thought we’d even be able to talk to him,” laughs Cage. Instead, Bowie responded immediately to their approach and came to Eidos with his son, Duncan Jones, an avid gamer and the future award-winning director of Moon. Not just content with writing music for the game, Bowie wanted to inhabit the virtual space and offered his services. “I can see now how a game like Omikron can jolt you into an altered state – with few of those messy side effects!” he joked in an interview with Playboy. He contributed ten original songs to the game.


Bowie also spent a month in Paris, where Quantic Dream filmed him with the help of a French motion-capture studio. He played two parts – the youthful lead singer of The Dreamers, an underground band who held furtive concerts in the city’s clubs; and the older Boz, a blue-skinned, digital entity who leads the resistance fighters.



“We wanted to capture Bowie doing his signature moves,” recalls Campbell, a paid-up, lifelong member of the singer’s fan club. “But he didn’t think he really had any signature moves so he gave us his choreographer [Edouard Locke] and we captured him doing ‘Bowie’ routines.” They also captured guitarist and regular Bowie collaborator Reeves Gabrels; the rest of the band members were hand-animated. Cage then spent 30 hours on each concert, filming the mo-capped avatars within the game engine using a virtual camera.


It was the first time a real-life performer had gigged inside a videogame, a decade before GTAIV’s comedy clubs. Bowie’s dual role also tied into Cage’s obsession with schizophrenic identities, something that was only underscored by the game’s fluid shifting between avatars. Like Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain, Omikron experimented with the emotional potential of such perspective shifts.


Cage particularly liked the early moment when the player, occupying the body of policeman Kay’l, beds his wife. “The idea of being in the body of a guy and making love to his wife – when she believes you’re her husband, even though you’re not – was a very strange position to be in. That’s exactly the kind of thing that I try to explore in all my games today. How can we put you in the shoes of someone else?”


Bowie, a legendary chameleon, totally understood the pleasures of the virtual realm and its Dorian Gray potential. He even roped in his wife Iman, who appears as a bodyguard. “He sometimes joked about leaving his Bowie character in Omikron forever,” says Campbell. “He would have totally transcended to the digital side – and ‘come out the other side’ as just David Jones again.”



For a game with such ambition, Omikron’s commercial fate was painful. “The titles I create seem to be too weird for the American marketing guys,” says Cage. “In the US, Eidos didn’t support the game at all, which was really disappointing. The big sales were mainly in Europe, where we sold between 400,000 and 500,000. It was too arty, too French, too ‘something’ for the American marketing department.”


Omikron remains a key game in the evolution of open-world environments. Yet it also marked the arrival of a unique talent. “David Cage really is an auteur in the classic, French, Truffaut style,” argues Campbell. “He has such a strong vision that’s been there since day one.” For his part, the designer believes Omikron is the genesis of everything he’s done since. “The seeds of Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain are definitely in there,” he says. “They were conceived in reaction to what I discovered making this game. I’m really proud of it but what I learnt making it was what made me decide to choose another way.” Like Omikron’s nomad soul, Cage’s restless creativity remains constant, whatever its host.


The post The Making Of: Omikron: The Nomad Soul appeared first on Edge Online.






via Edge Online http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-making-of-omikron-the-nomad-soul/

News::Oooops. I Just Erased My Great, Great, Great Grandchild From Existence

US Gamer - Teleportation? Time travel? The Sims 3: Into the Future is full of surprises.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359076/oooops-i-just-erased-my-great-great-great-grandchild-from-existence

News::The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's "Weird Fiction"

US Gamer - An upcoming game from former Bulletstorm devs promises a creepy, horrific experience.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359081/the-vanishing-of-ethan-carters-weird-fiction

News::The 7 Most Special Bosses In World Of Warcraft

It is the 8th year of World of Warcraft. The level cap of WoW has been increased from 45 to 90 (and probably 100 in the near future). The epic storyline of it has always impressed and moved players, So do the stories of different dungeons. Undoubtedly, bosses of different dungeons play an important role in this. Some of them are cute, some are talkative, and some are provocative. Now it's time to review the special bosses in WoW.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359204/the-7-most-special-bosses-in-world-of-warcraft

News::Outlast | CheatMasters

By avoiderdragon : When it was released less than a week before Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, most people who played it treated it as a filler in order to sate their urge for horror before the more well known game came out. This is unfortunate as Outlast is a game that is scary in its own right and for its own reasons. As Amnesia is now the giant in the horror game genre, Outlast is kind of like the underdog.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359177/outlast-cheatmasters

News::Cognition Episode 4: The Cain Killer Review | FanGirlConfessions.com

Cognition Episode 4: The Cain Killer is the final chapter in Phoenix Online Studios supernatural crime drama game. Find out how this episode stacked up.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359084/cognition-episode-4-the-cain-killer-review-fangirlconfessions-com

News::Jaws: The Text Adventure eats yachts in your browser

Joystiq - Over the years, we've found that sharks are pretty awesome, and that text adventure games are equally great. A new browser-based game called Jaws: The Text Adventure seeks to combine the two.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359035/jaws-the-text-adventure-eats-yachts-in-your-browser

News::Irritum Review | Project Cognizance

Zach reviews Irritum, a recently released Indie game that looks at the subject of suicide.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1358377/irritum-review-project-cognizance

News::Deep Down is a free-to-play title

Capcom's upcoming next gen title Deep Down is a free-to-play title. Yeeeeeeep. Announced today at Tokyo Game Show, this PS4 game will see a public beta in February. Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida confirmed this on Twitter, and now that tweet is bouncing around the universe, falling on confused ears.



That...that is... Wow. But from what I saw this week I'll likely pay.

Deep Down is a free-to-play title screenshot






via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/deep-down-is-a-free-to-play-title-262252.phtml

News::GTA 5 Online Mode Supports 32 Players, Multiplayer Activities Listed

Gaming Blend "Scouring through the network configuration settings shows a number of administration tools and options that will be available. Given that this is the Xbox 360's configuration settings it surprised me to see that the game will support a max number of 32 players, even though the box indicates a max of 16 players. For those of you who have the common folder you'll find it in an XML for the network options you can look through the files if you need verification."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359203/gta-5-online-mode-supports-32-players-multiplayer-activities-listed

News::Arma 3 Releases Community Guide Video Explaining Combined Arms Warfare

Arma 3 from Bohemia Interactive gets a new community guide video that walks players through the combined warfare in the game.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359176/arma-3-releases-community-guide-video-explaining-combined-arms-warfare

News::Treyarch done for a while on Black Ops 2, but community events still planned

El33tonline writes: "In a new community update video studio head Mark Lamia has additionally revealed that the developer will be done for a while on Black Ops 2 once Apocalypse is made available for PlayStation 3 and PC gamers, but despite this there are still a few community events on the way from now and over the week of September 26th."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359170/treyarch-done-for-a-while-on-black-ops-2-but-community-events-still-planned

News::CoD: Black Ops 2 Double XP Weekend is now live

El33tonline writes: "If youve been waiting for a chance to make one last push towards the next Prestige level in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, nows the time because Treyarch has switched on the double experience bonus period for the weekend."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359169/cod-black-ops-2-double-xp-weekend-is-now-live

News::Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Review: Life After Death | Polygon

Polygon: "I was cautiously optimistic that Square could turn around its failure with Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, but even with my fondness for the series, I never could have guessed it would put out something so successful. For MMO fans, this will put your best-honed skills to the test while telling a strong story in a well-realized world. For Final Fantasy fans, it will grant visions of the past without completely losing itself to fan service. Final Fantasy 14 is a great MMO; perhaps more meaningfully, it's the first Final Fantasy game in years to capture the energy and joy that made me fall in love with the series."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359167/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn-review-life-after-death-polygon

News::So Far, Titanfall Is Getting Thumbs Up from Japan

Kotaku: "Japan knows a good giant mecha when it sees one. And from the sound of it, the country's gamers are more than pleased with what they are seeing with Titanfall."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359178/so-far-titanfall-is-getting-thumbs-up-from-japan

News::Ubisoft announce Uplay 4.0, a 'full-featured' Steam rip-off

Ubisoft today announced the latest PC version of its in-house gaming client service Uplay. Uplay 4.0 will be available to PC users beginning October 2013.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1358658/ubisoft-announce-uplay-4-0-a-full-featured-steam-rip-off

News::Strider splits the difference between action and adventure | Polygon

Polygon: "Sometimes things happen in this job that don't make a lot of sense. Like, say, going to the Tokyo Game Show and checking out the Irvine, California-developed Strider. But here we are."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359074/strider-splits-the-difference-between-action-and-adventure-polygon

News::Final Fantasy XIV Has Over a Million Players: Info and Relevant Screencaps from the Live Letter

During the first Letter from the Producer Live held at Tokyo Game Show, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Naoki Yoshida Gave some interesting information about the state of the game and its future.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1359157/final-fantasy-xiv-has-over-a-million-players-info-and-relevant-screencaps-from-the-live-letter

News::The Daily Hotness: Bohemian Gravity


You could spend many years in grad school accruing massive amounts of debt to earn a master's degree in quantum physics. Or you could watch an a cappella parody of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that condenses all the material in six minutes. Your choice.


I've only got two words for you: Puppet. Einstein.


Today, Dale North continues his amazing tour of the Tokyo Game Show, new episodes of The Daily Spelunk and Now Bloody Playing beam into your brains, Chris Carter recommends some Vita games, Angry Birds Star Wars II gets reviewed, Grand Theft Auto V has made more money than Jesus, and La-Mulana 2 will kill us all.


Destructoid Originals:

So you just got a Vita? Here are some recommendations

Intestinal parasites - The Daily Spelunk

Shelter - Now Bloody Playing

Live show: Dtoid.TV hits 100,000,000 views


Community:

Friday Night Fights: Thefting all the grands and autos

Community blogs of 9/20

Forum thread of the day: iOS 7: An Update or Merely Andrapple


Contests:
Contest: Win Dragon Fantasy Book II on PS3 or Vita!

Contest: Win the Be Mine Special Edition bundle!


Reviews:

Review: Angry Birds Star Wars II


Events:

Digging for depth in Deep Down

Hands-on with the new PS Vita, remote play PS4 test

TGS: She doesn't look very Gung Ho about her job

Lightning Returns at TGS: Open worlds, cool costumes

Dead Rising 3 makes me happy with how crazy it is

Not bad at all! A Realm Reborn running on Surface at TGS

Yakuza Restoration looks incredible


The Daily Hotness: Bohemian Gravity screenshot


Read more...



via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/the-daily-hotness-bohemian-gravity-262251.phtml

News::Air Conflicts Vietnam Preview (Invision Game Community)

The Vietnam War, one of the most explosive and violent wars of all time. You are Joe Thompson, an intrepid and patriotic pilot fighting to uphold the values of his country. This war will be the ultimate test for Joe and will irrevocably change his relationship with his family.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1358491/air-conflicts-vietnam-preview-invision-game-community

News::The Elder Scrolls Forge: Graphics and Textures for Morrowind

PixlBit | "Welcome back, citizens of Tamriel! In this edition of The Elder Scrolls Forge, we take a look at the game that brought many into The Elder Scrolls fold, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. While Morrowind dropped some years ago, many uber-talented modders have worked tirelessly to bring this game up to speed. In keeping with that theme, we are taking a look at graphic and texture mods for the third installment in The Elder Scrolls Anthology. So grab a mug of you favorite Sujamma, say a quick prayer to Azura, and let's begin our journey back to the Red Mountain!"



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1358844/the-elder-scrolls-forge-graphics-and-textures-for-morrowind