Technology Blogged, News » Gaming

Halo 4 details emerge online, reboot series to span 10 years

Jakk — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:50:21 +0000

If you thought Halo was all over you were totally wrong, which is a fantastic thing (being that the games are great), because 343 Industries have thrown us some new details of the highly anticipated next iteration. Shown off at the gaming franchise at the Halo Fest, Halo 4 is to feature brand new weapons and suit capabilities however keep in touch with the previous 3 versions by keeping a lot of the features similar. According to 343 Industries, Halo 4 is the first in a reboot gaming series which is to span over 10 years.

“You’re going to see things in this game that are both familiar and new. We do look across the entire trilogy of games as we look at the past sandbox that has existed. You will see things that are familiar from past games but also things that are new,” said 343 Industries creative director Josh Holmes.

Hit up the video below for some Halo 4 action.

The Sorry State Of Gaming in 2011, And What The Future Beholds

Jakk — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:43:32 +0000

If you are interested in video games and want to go to a conference then LA is the place. There’s E for All, E3, and Games Day just to name a few. But if you weren’t able to get to a conference this year but want to know some of what people are saying about the direction of video games then there are quite a few thoughts that are floating around – some good, some bad, but all interesting.

Perhaps one of the most popular trends, and one of the most threatening to big gaming (and gaming consoles) are companies like Zynga and games like Angry Birds and Farmville. Cheap (or free), purely time-killers and useable on mobile devices. These casual games and casual gamers are inundating the market, pushing prices towards zero, and starting another trend that has been taken note of. Micro-fees and virtual purchasing.

Want your Farmville farm to grow cupcakes? .99 cents. Want your character in that Sims-eqse game to wear a new outfit? $2.99. And if you can’t charge it to a credit card, no worries. They’ll start up a retail game card for you and you’re golden. This is great for companies like Zynga that are reportedly making $50 or $60 million off of these micro-fees. But they’re bad for the kids on Facebook (who shouldn’t be on Facebook anyway) that don’t own credit cards and perhaps don’t even realize who is being charged or that they are being charged for these purchases.

It’s real money, kids, and your parents pay it. There was a story that ran not too long ago about a parent who sued someone (Apple, Zynga – someone, can’t remember) because their kid racked up $200 in an afternoon on micro-fees for a game where they weren’t being asked to verify the payment every time because there was an attached credit card on the account. Ouch. Flipside of that – parent – don’t have an attached credit card to your kid’s gaming (or Facebook) account!

Falling flat

Another interesting (and perhaps failing) trend is the prevalence of motion-sensors instead of controllers. While this may seem very cool in theory – the execution falls flat a little. As David Wong puts it on Cracked -

“Therefore, it completely wipes out about 90 percent of your input options. Things like the ability to actually move your character. Because there is no stick or control pad, you literally can’t navigate around the game world (you kind of slide from one fight to the next). So for most of the game, your Jedi stands there like [an idiot] while stormtroopers stupidly amble into your flailing lightsaber.”

Not having to use controllers sounds great, right? I mean, we’ve seen it with the Wii, and it works. But only in very limited applications where it actually makes sense to use motion control. Like bowling. Or golf. Or that dance game. But the rest of the time, it’s pretty idiotic and inaccurate. But its the next love affair of games because they’ve run out of plot.

That’s another trend – everyone scratching their heads and going, “Where do we go from here?”.

Most games these days are usually shooter games, and they’re usually a reboot or a sequel. A game needs to come out that does something innovative with plot structure!

Finally, the most double-edged sword is the switch from one-off buys of games to subscription services and digital versions. While this is great for the companies, it’s not always so great for the customer – read – the Sony hack, constant login, sometimes no offline mode, servers being weird, paying monthly, and so much more. But that looks like where everything is going.

So brace yourselves, because it looks like we’re going into a creative landfill where everyone has to pay for everything all the time and people are more intrigued by crashing colorful birds into wooden crates. Have fun in 2012!

This has been a guest post from Amber Daniels, a freelance writer with a gamer soul – her Steam account is loaded and she never plays anything involving chucking birds around. Wide screen monitors, conventions, conference LA is the home of her nerdy heart.

Sony talks about the future of handheld gaming, 3D may come to Vita

Jakk — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:47:10 +0000

Sony’s senior director of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide has said in an interview with Develop Online that they may look to build a 3D experience on a handheld in the near future, citing that the technology is rapidly evolving and Sony’s aim ‘is to build the most capable handheld games machine on the market’.

In the interview, Develop Online quizzed Mick Hocking on the prospect of 3D on the PS Vita, Sony’s upcoming handheld gaming console which finally brings dual analogue sticks, and on this Hocking said that “Of course in the future we may look to build the 3D experience on a handheld. The tech is rapidly evolving, so we may well in the future include a high-quality 3D experience on the small screens. Whether this comes to Vita will have to be seen.”

The words that really caught our attention from the above quote are ‘whether this comes to [the] Vita will have to be seen’ as this points at the upcoming handheld being 3D ready, however with current glasses free 3D being not all that great currently, Sony would most probably in our eyes hold off for a few years before they introduced this technology as a key selling feature to their product line up. For the full interview follow the source link below.

Source: Develop Online

Far Cry 3 will be better on the PC, developer admits

Jakk — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:27:45 +0000

Are you a die hard Far Cry fan? Do you smile every time you hear ‘how’d you like those apple’s? Do you own a gaming console? Well a developer behind the as of yet un-released Far Cry 3 has admitted that the PC version of the game will be better than that of console versions, despite as TechRadar reports the need for developing companies to concentrate on console gaming. The developer in question, James Keen, is the leading developer of Far Cry 3 and has been quick to point out that the main thing going for PC’s currently is that they are far more powerful than their gaming console counterparts. Talking to videogamer.com, Keen went on further to say that “The PC does have a lot more grunt under the hood – or it can have grunt – so there’s a lot more that we can push there”.

The need for gaming console hardware to be worked as hard as possible to maximise graphics and game play isn’t a new philosophy. When games first started coming out for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, the majority of them made use of around 85% of the hardware, whilst PC versions of games made full use of specifications.

Source: Videogamer.com

Sony’s Playstation 4 better look this this, concept design emerges

Jakk — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:13:35 +0000

In the world of concepts we’ve covered our fair share, however this is without any shadow of a doubt my personal favourite concept design to hit us fresh off the press. Imaged above, this Playstation 4 concept makes use of Sony’s PS3 style glossy black plastics and features rather sensual angled lines, making it a mild cross between the Nintendo Wii form factor and also the PS3 slim. The man you’ll be wanting to thank for the design above is Joseph Dumary, and in all honesty it looks extremely believable indeed.

If I was Sony’s director of design, I would seriously be considering giving somebody a call right now to discuss future positions.

Via: Yankodesign

Nintendo Wii U may be on shelves by April 2012

Jakk — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 08:05:27 +0000

Can’t wait to get your eager hands on a Nintendo Wii U? Well according to a Nintendo Executive you won’t have long to wait, because they claim that it will be on store shelves by April 2012 and will share retail space with the Wii, DSi, and 3DS. Nintendo will be selling the Wii U alongside it’s predecessor the Wii until they decide to discontinue it, or sales start to fall completely.

As for a date in April the Nintendo Executive states that an April 1st launch is on the cards for the Wii U, and it should be released in Europe and the US first, although the Nintendo Exec failed to confirm this.

PSN Pass official, pushes incentives to sway pre-owned buyers

Jakk — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:19:53 +0000

Sony has finally outed their brand new PSN Pass service which aims to offer exclusive content to consumers who purchase their PS3 games brand new rather than pre-owned. The service, named PSN Pass, uses code incentives which will allow people whom purchase brand new games to access extra gaming goods online (of which will probably be purchased game centric) by inserting a code they receive in the box in to the Playstation Network. According to Sony, and talking to Eurogamer, Sony says that this is an “important initiative” as to enhance their premium content services, however whether the service is fair to pre-owned buyers (or those who can’t afford brand new games, given the ridiculous rise in fuel pricing etc.) is another matter.

The first game to ship with PSN Pass functionality will be Resistance 3 set to be launched this September.

Source: T3

Next Generation Gaming, What Is In Store For Us?

Jakk — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:43:04 +0000

Gaming is an incredibly profitable market and comes in many forms. Increasingly, mobile gaming has been adopted by people all over the world in vast numbers, however you do have to say that there is nothing else like just crashing on the sofa and whipping out a controller to bash. In terms of usability, I rate gaming consoles on par with PC’s and way ahead of smartphones and tablet’s, but what exactly is in store for us next? And can Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo really improve that much on their already great current generation gaming consoles?

Nintendo Wii U

The Nintendo Wii U was the first next generation gaming console to be unveiled and shocked quite a few people (including shareholders, oops) with some of the features it is going to be bringing to the table in 2012. Amongst others, the major shock that Nintendo threw in our face with the Nintendo Wii U was the touch screen controller it is to ship with which allows gamer’s to carry on playing through an on-board 6.2″ LCD if for any reason their television breaks or your partner changes the channel. The Wii U will play 1080p video over HDMI and also be compatible with component, S-video and composite cables.

I am really looking forward to trying out the Nintendo Wii U and the controller it’ll come with.

Sony Playstation 4

The Sony Playstation 4 is the latest gaming console we have covered here, and we think it is set to be quite the machine. Although no official specifications or features have even been leaked yet, there is a hot debate around the world that Sony are going to be integrating some form of Kinect style gaming in to their next generation gaming console, after seeing the huge success Microsoft had with it. I personally expect that the PS4 controller will be widely based around the current generation, although it may feature an LCD display where the current select and save buttons are.

Naturally, Sony will be looking to increase the graphics performance from their current console and also try to keep the form factor down on the original PS3.

Xbox 720(?)

We won’t be surprised if you look at the above name (Xbox 720) and laugh, because it is quite simply double of 360, however right now this is the only name we have to go on. We expect the Xbox 720 to be similarly spec’d out in hardware when compared to the PS4 and would even go as far to say that Microsoft will probably integrate Kinect gaming in to their console. Moving on to controllers, and I think Microsoft might take Nintendo’s idea and adapt on it; don’t be surprised if your next Xbox controller has a touch screen with Xbox Live integration built in to it so you can stay social around the house.

Microsoft will almost certainly increase the media capabilities of their next console, possibly adopting Blu-Ray.