Thursday, December 28, 2017

News:: FCC extends waiver for video game accessibility for the last time

The idea behind 2010's 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) is to make sure that federal accessibility laws created in the '80s and '90s were updated to include new digital and communications technologies. The part of the Act pertaining to video games and advanced communications services (think gaming chat and the user interfaces around gamer communications) has been given a year's waiver. As reported by Gamasutra, this is the third and final time games will be exempted from accessibility requirements. The new deadline is set for January 1st, 2019.

Via: Gamasutra

Source: FCC



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News:: Zelda producer 'kind of scared' to say where Breath of the Wild might fit on the timeline

The whole Zelda timeline, to me, is a sort of "extra credit" type of deal. The meat of my love for the series is the games, the dungeons, and the adventure. If I can get some sort of meta-timeline thing out of it where years later people are discussing where a game fits, that's cool.

But Nintendo's own stance on timelines has been confusing. Sometimes, they're almost against them, saying they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. In other occasions, they're officially sanctioning books that detail them. But in a rare few cases, they're clearly explaining in the game's core narrative where something fits, with Wind Waker and Skyward Sword being the most obvious examples.

We've been through all of this before with Breath of the Wild. Just a few months ago the team was "unsure" of where it would end up, but now (presumably after tons of pestering) we have a tad more insight.

Famed Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma just plain doesn't want to mess it up. He explains it clearly speaking to GamesRadar, stating: "We published a book with the timeline, but we definitely got comments from users saying, ‘Is this really accurate? I think this should be this way. It’s different.’ And history is always kind of imaginative. It’s left to the person who writes the book. So that’s how we approach it as well. It’s not necessarily that we come up with a game and think, ‘Oh, this is where it fits in the timeline.’ Honestly, lately, we’re kind of scared to say exactly where things are in the timeline for that reason. But we like to leave things to the imagination most of the time."

Director Hideomaro Fujibayashi backs that all up, explaining: "I wouldn’t say that we’re not concerned with the timeline. It’s obviously something that we know is very important to people, and they do a lot of research on. But I think at this point, we’re not really at the stage where we want to talk about where Breath of the Wild is in the timeline. I think, as with the pixelated food, it’s something that at this point we want to leave up to people’s imaginations." Ha! Cute joke there at the end.

I think most people would find this to be a reasonable line of thought. You don't want to forgo an entire game because you aren't sure where it fits on the timeline. Likewise, there's no sense in rushing things out of the gate when you can have an in-house lore-master figure it out for you (seriously, I'd visited a few studios and have seen them in action myself -- they're like walking Encyclopedias). While Hyrule Historia was a really big bombshell at the time, I think a lot of people at the top regret all of that information is out there.

After Breath of the Wild, is Nintendo still interested in the Zelda timeline? Here's what they said [Gamesradar]

Zelda producer 'kind of scared' to say where Breath of the Wild might fit on the timeline screenshot



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News:: Holy frijoles 2017 had some amazing new characters

We're just a few days away from capping off 2017 and what an awesome year it has been. Well, for video games that is. From beginning to end, it's been a non-stop wallet-walloping parade of great titles from Sony, Atlus, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, Bandai Namco and more. Many of the best games of the year were filled with familiar faces, but those new titles with their new characters also found ways to worm their way into the zeitgeist and hopefully establish themselves as a new fan favorite.

In fact, there were so many awesome new characters this year that everybody featured in the headline image for this article failed to make the cut. That's just how good the last 12 months were.

These are our favorite new characters of 2017.

Holy frijoles 2017 had some amazing new characters screenshot

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News:: GOG excavates Titanic: Adventure Out of Time from the oceans of 1996

It has been 105 years since the Titanic sank, and it has been 21 years since Titanic: Adventure Out of Time released. Both a long time! You can relive the latter right now.

GOG has resurrected 1996's Titanic: Adventure Out of Time for play on its DRM-free platform. It's a classic point-and-click adventure game about one of mankind's finest displays of hubris. In an even more hubris-filled twist, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time has the gall to try to stop the Titanic wreck and prevent an event that's even more historically important and awful. Points for ambition.

Anyway, it costs $6 to see if you can do what Leo couldn't. 

Titanic: Adventure Out of Time [GOG]

GOG excavates Titanic: Adventure Out of Time from the oceans of 1996 screenshot



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News:: Valve loses appeal over Steam refund policy in Australia

Valve will have to pay the piper over its former Steam refund policy. Australia's Full Court of the Federal Court has dismissed Valve's appeals of a ruling and accompanying fine (worth $2.2 million US) over its allegedly misleading Steam customer guarantees. As the company conducts business in Australia, the country's Competition and Consumer Commission said, it's beholden to national consumer protection laws -- and that means getting your money back if a game's quality isn't up to snuff.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: ACCC



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News:: If Takayuki Yamada has a gift for you, you'd better use it for the right reason...

Sony Japan have released a very amusing advert featuring actor Takayuki Yamada, who has been appearing in PlayStation 4 adverts in the East for some years now.

In the forty-second short, Yamada, looking dapper af (as the kids say), kindly gifts three of his friends some cash to celebrate New Year. However, things take a turn for the worst when his friends reveal their plans for the money.

Yamada doesn't give you cash for some damn watch. In his mind, it's for one thing and one thing only...

If Takayuki Yamada has a gift for you, you'd better use it for the right reason... screenshot

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News:: Don't get got by the Ghillie Guy

There's nothing quite like having an entire town to yourself. One time, our crew landed at Primorsk with no one else around. Soon after, a crate dropped in the ocean. I swam out to the floating treasure. Inside, an M24, a 15x scope, and a ghillie suit. We won that round. I'm not sure anyone ever saw me.

This though, this is not that round.

Don't get got by the Ghillie Guy screenshot



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News:: Review: Floor Kids

There’s nothing else out there quite like this game. Floor Kids attempts to meld the free-flowing body squirming of breakdancing with the much-loved rhythm genre, succeeding surprisingly well.

It’s a project created by an artist named JonJon and a musician called Kid Koala (most well known for his part in the hip-hop supergroup, Deltron 3030). Floor Kids is positively brimming with passion. A lot of love went into this thing, and it truly shows.

Review: Floor Kids screenshot

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News:: Reports suggest 64GB Switch carts pushed back to 2019

Despite the incredible sales of the Nintendo Switch throughout 2017, one issue frustrated a lot of owners: the struggle to fit large-scale titles onto the consoles 32GB SD cards. This limitation meant that some games not only needed the original cart, but also required space on the Switch's (limited) memory to download the extra game data.

Of course, this issue could be circumvented if bigger-scale games were released on 64GB SD carts, bringing them up to the storage capacity of Blu-Ray discs. Unfortunately, a report from The Wall Street Journal suggests that developers are being told no such carts will be made available until at least 2019.

Developers had been hoping to get their hands on the larger carts sometime next year, preventing the need for Switch owners to buy games, then download and store the remaining data elsewhere, ala DOOM, L.A. Noire and WWE 2K17. But it seems that "technical difficulties" will prevent Nintendo from making the tech available to studios anytime soon.

Analysts are also suggesting that Nintendo will be forced to charge higher-prices for games delivered on 64GB cards. Gadgets360 gave the example of Dragons Quest 1 and 2 which, in Japan, cost ¥1,000 more on Switch than its PS4 equivalent, due to its 32GB cart delivery method.

Nintendo themselves have yet to comment on the matter but, if true, its going to be a frustrating 2018 for developers attempting to optimise big, multi-platform games. Whether such titles will be delayed until the larger carts become available, or whether the Buy-then-Download system will continue, remains to be seen.

64GB Switch carts delayed until 2019 [Wall Street Journal / The Verge]

Reports suggest 64GB Switch carts pushed back to 2019 screenshot



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News:: Gran Turismo 6's online portion will end next year

The final laps are drawing ever closer for Gran Turismo 6. The penultimate installment for PS3 will see all online services cease on March 28, 2018. All available DLC will also stop being sold on January 31 to prepare for the inevitable closure of the game's online portion.

What this entails is everything relating to community features, multiplayer lobbies, the track editor and seasonal events. To be clear, you can still use the track editor offline, but you won't be able to share any new courses online or download any currently available ones. If you'd purchased any microtransactions for your save file, you'll need to navigate to the PlayStation store download list to redownload them if you uninstall the game and its updates.

Gran Turismo 6 online services to end on March 28 [Gematsu]

Gran Turismo 6's online portion will end next year screenshot



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News:: Chris Carter's personal picks for Game of the Year 2017

Crafting a personal Game of the Year list is one of my favorite holiday traditions. It's my chance to get weird and profess my love for several projects that might not be all that popular, and give people a window into how I spend my time. Much of my schedule is dedicated to working on assignments and sifting through new releases each week, but there's a handful of games I keep going back to -- whether it's by myself, with friends, or with my lovely wife.

Here are some of my favorite things from 2017.

Chris Carter's personal picks for Game of the Year 2017 screenshot

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News:: Xbox's lack of compelling games won't be fixed next year

Microsoft's 2017 started six months early. At E3 2016, Xbox chief Phil Spencer closed out the company's keynote by teasing the "most powerful console ever." At this year's show, he finally revealed the Xbox One X, and in November, the hardware was at retail. In the time it takes to earn a bachelor's degree, Microsoft addressed one of the internet's loudest complaints about the Xbox One: that it wasn't powerful enough compared to the PlayStation 4.



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News:: Atlus release details on 'even more erotic' Catherine: Full Body

Atlus have released some more details on the PS4 remake of the block-puzzle-meets-social-drama title, Catherine: Full Body. The revamped PS3 and Xbox 360 title was announced a fortnight ago, and raised eyebrows with its bizarre trailer last week.

The new details are a little scattershot, coming across, frankly, like a page of catchphrases and buzzwords than actual info. But, reading between the lines, we learn that Full Body will feature new episodes that will push the "Catherine-style path of righteousness" forward. New endings have been created for all three Catherines, who are all apparently "Even more aggressive and even more erotic and even more stylish". The game will feature new anime movies, even more "sexy events", and should be considered the definitive Catherine experience.

Probably the most interesting news pertains to the gameplay itself, with Studio Zero suggesting that there will be options for people who are bad at, or do not enjoy, Catherine's puzzle-elements. Though no specific details are given, it is stated that "anyone will be able to enjoy the game from start to finish", heavily hinting that players "not fond of the puzzle genre" or who are "busy" will be able to enjoy the story without any stress. Interesting.

Catherine: Full Body is scheduled for release Winter 2018 in Japan on PS4 and PS Vita. A Western release is confirmed, but no date revealed as of yet.

Atlus release details on 'even more erotic' Catherine: Full Body screenshot

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News:: Nintendo Download: SteamWorld Heist (Switch)

We're reaching a post-holiday lull, the calm before the storm after everyone blew all the cash in their collective wallets.

Don't worry, January is looking to decimate us yet again, but for now, we can breathe easy. On the Swich you'll find Guns, Gore and Cannoli, Woodle Tree Adventures, NeoGeo King of Fighters '96, Arcade Archives: Vs. Super Mario Bros., and SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition. The 3DS is getting Style Savvy: Styling Star (which kind of snuck up on me).

Nintendo Download: SteamWorld Heist (Switch) screenshot

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News:: The best games of 2017

It had just turned April when we declared that 2017 was a great year for video games. The post-holiday quarter is usually fairly quiet for new releases, but in 2017 it brought us legitimate contenders for game of the year in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5 -- and that's not to mention Resident Evil 7's return to form. Now the year is almost over, and we've had a stunning Mario game, another great Wolfenstein title and even an Assassin's Creed game that exceeded all expectations.

Getting an entire editorial team to agree on just one game is tough, and ultimately not that fun, so we didn't try. Instead, we each picked the one game that stood out to us the most -- avoiding duplicates -- and then named the title we're most looking forward to for 2018.



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News:: A 'Final Fantasy' VR coaster is coming to Universal Studios Japan

Universal Studios Japan is launching a limited-time Final Fantasy ride and just released a video and other info to show what it'll be like. Called the Final Fantasy XR ride, it uses the existing Space Fantasy the Ride roller coaster, with the addition of VR headsets playing Final Fantasy content. Riders will board airships and warp between various Final Fantasy worlds, meeting up with heroes and jeopardy along the way.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Universal Studios Japan (translated)



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News:: King of Fighters '96 arrives today on Nintendo Switch

The third title in SNK's legendary King of Fighters series, KoF '96, is available for download today on Nintendo Switch, as part of Hamster's ACA Neo Geo range.

Although it suffers from some real balance issues, the 1996 iteration of the popular fighting franchise is the game in which the series really found its feet. It features the playable debut of some great characters, such as the sinister duo of Mature and Vice, Art of Fighting 3's Kasumi Todoh and Best Girl Leona Heidern (who is OP as hell in this).

KoF '96 was probably the arcade I put more money into than any other, as there was one situated at my college. It has great, dynamic stages, featuring awesome pixel art. The fight rewards aggression, with characters becoming more of a threat as their health lowers. I spent my formative educational years playing this instead of studying, which is how I got to where I am today.

If you kids want to ruin your own future, but have a lot of while doing so, then King of Fighters '96 is available today on Nintendo Switch, priced at $8.

Neo Geo ACA Range [Hamster]

King of Fighters '96 arrives today on Nintendo Switch screenshot



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News:: Mighty Gunvolt Burst, one of the best platformers of 2017, adds a host of playable villains

Inti Creates was low key one of the best developers of 2017.

They supported their games through free and paid DLC, and listened to their fans when issues arose or there were features that folks wanted implemented. Given that they're the same studio behind the Mega Man Zero and ZX series it makes sense, and even with just Blaster Master Zero and Mighty Gunvolt Burst this year, they rocked it.

The latter is getting its 1.3 update today, which adds in three villains for $1.99 each. Copen from Azure Striker Gunvolt, Kurona of Gal Gun fame, and Ray from Mighty No. 9 will all arrive this week, and once again the latter looks like a better version of what we got from Comcept.

Mighty Gunvolt Burst, one of the best platformers of 2017, adds a host of playable villains screenshot

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News:: 'Half-Life 3' fan venture 'Project Borealis' is taking shape

The team behind Half-Life's fan-made third instalment, Project Borealis, have been busy. In an update posted to Reddit, the developers revealed some of the progress they've made in their first few months of real pre-production, sharing screenshots of concept art, links to music samples and a few clues on the game's plot structure. But while it's no secret that the game is based on Marc Laidlaw's Epistle 3 tale, the team is adamant it's not going to leak any spoilers on the story "beyond what was originally laid out by Marc".

Source: Reddit



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News:: The Morning After: Thursday, December 28th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Good morning. NASA is already planning a mission in 2069, we watch an iPhone X camouflage your face, and combine sex, robots and popular culture.



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