Author: Thomas Ortsik

Founder and Kinda-Editor-In-Chief at Twinstiq.
Also known as Dr. Strangethumb

Ubisoft Developing for VR

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Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, discussed plans to support VR technologies from various providers in an analyst call yesterday. With Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus coming in early 2016, Valve developing their own headset with HTC, and Microsoft's HoloLens on the horizon, Ubisoft wants to be at the forefront of all the hype.
"We believe a lot in virtual reality because we see that it is really giving a chance for gamers to be more immersed in worlds, and we are developing a certain number of games that are going to take advantage of this new possibility," said Guillemot, "We think it is going to bring more players to the universe of video games, and we are going to come with our brands. We will have a few titles in the first year and we will have regular games coming following that."

Supporting the Wii Remote and Kinect at launch with exclusive titles, Ubisoft has never shied away from new technologies. Which of their IPs do you think would be a good fit for the nascent technology? Let us know!

Source: Shacknews

Imageepoch Files for Bankruptcy

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Following the mysterious disappearance of Imageepoch CEO and the vacancy of their main office comes more bad news for the game developer. The CEO has still not been contacted, and its enormous debt continues to weigh on the company. With that, lawyer Tsuyoshi Nakano is administering the company's bankruptcy together with their affiliate Smile Online Games.
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Responsible for the Arc series of RPGs, Last Ranker with Capcom, and is due to release Stella Glow to celebrate their 10th anniversary.
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Stella Glow is a strategy RPG title for the Nintendo 3DS, and so far there are no official plans for a possible translation.
Source: Siliconera

Rumor: Bethesda’s E3 Panel Schedule

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We have already had confirmation that Bethesda is going to host their first ever conference at E3 on June 14th. The one thing we haven't entirely heard about yet is what they will talk about. Until now...

With recent rumors about Fallout 4 and Pete Hines keeping tight lipped about it all, it's time to begin the old E3 tradition of what will be there, and what won't.

Take a look after the break for a Mini-Bethesda scorecard.

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Battlecry is highly likely to appear at E3. This is a game which has already been announced, however the release date has not been set. We may hear more about it in just over four weeks time.

DOOM is also a likely contender to appear at the conference. Although it has been officially announced, not much is known about that game - other than if you pre-ordered Wolfenstein The New Order, you'll be able to play the Beta.

Dishonored II should hopefully appear, although there is nothing but rumor surrounding this title so far - Nothing has actually been confirmed.

The Elder Scrolls Online is likely to make an appearance but only to provide extra content. It is likely that it will not be the main focus of the conference.

Skyrim: Remastered Edition is a possibility, and although nothing has been confirmed, it's still a contender. The original rumor of this also implied a Morrowind remaster. However, out of the two, Skyrim is more likely.

A new IP could show up to the party, but given Bethesda's current resources, it isn't going to be their top priority.

Finally, after an abundance of rumors, Fallout 4 has been rumored to be the final item on the agenda for the conference. Although we are only likely to see the CG trailer, it will certainly get some people in the mood for some post-apocalyptic killing.

What we won't see

Okay, so here are some things we won't see, so don't even bother getting your hopes up. Some items on this list are just plain stupid, but have been thrown out there on the internet:

Elder Scrolls VI
Skyrim 2
Fallout 1 & 2 Remake
The Evil Within II
Rage 2

Disagree? Speak up below.

The possibilities of Fallout 4

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I'm a bit excited about this one, according to a post on PCGamer, Guillermo del Toro's production company Mirada Studios reported a Fallout 4 Trailer on the companies LinkedIn profile. An unnamed 3D artist that listed the cinematic on the profile has in the past worked on other cinematic trailers such as Far Cry 4 and Forza.  The artist updates show that he was working on the supposed Fallout trailer between the months of December and March.
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I spent the time Photoshopping this, and then we found an alternative. I'm still posting it anyway, STEVE.

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Long time followers of the series are hoping that Fallout 4 will be the big talk of the town at Bethesda's E3 this year. Not a ton of information has been released, about the game, trailer, or release date. Fans are just going crazy over the possibility of a new Fallout. I'll be sure to post any updated information as it comes out.

As Always


~Tisnight

A Brilliant RPG Draws Near

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It's almost too good to be true, Dragon Quest VIII is getting a 3DS port, with many additional features to entice veterans! A new scenario, additional party members, and Street Pass support will be added to the already excellent main game. Read on for more details!
An August 27 release is planned for Japan, currently no western date has been set. New to the Japanese version is an orchestral score (the PS2 version's music synthesized), and voice acting. Both of these were standard in the original western release.
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New party members will include Gerda, a female thief, and Morrie, the owner of the monster arena.
Source: Gematsu

New PlayStation Store Releases: Project CARS

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Project CARS hits the US this week and if you're an American like me, then you no doubt can't wait to catch up with all of those lucky Europeans who inexplicably got the game a week early. I'll bet they've been having lots of fun over there, racing around on all of those legendary European racetracks with all of those powerful and stylish European sports cars...actually, I guess it does makes some sense why they got the game first. Also out this week, a couple of high profile rereleases, a new PixelJunk title, a cross buy twin-stick Robotron clone, an old arcade favorite, and more. It's actually a bit of a crowded course this week, so go strap yourselves in, fire up your engines, and then race past the break to see the complete list of new releases.
PlayStation 4

[Image: Bandai Namco Games]

Xbox One Witcher 3 is 1080p… Sometimes

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Although a previous error had resulted in 1080p PC footage being shown under the title of the Xbox One version, then pegged at 900p, new information shows that this console version is indeed capable of native full HD resolution, at least some of the time. More details after the jump!
Using a technique called Dynamic Resolution Scaling, the Xbox One version of Witcher 3 will display at full resolution whenever possible, while degrading to as low as 900p during more graphically intensive scenes, such as a fight scene with many characters or a complex far reaching vista. This offers the maximum possible quality at any given moment while maintaining an optimal frame rate.
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This is not a new technique, it was already popularized with the id Tech 5 engine, designed to deliver 60fps gameplay across all platforms, and more recently used in Wolfenstein: The New Order. Developer CD Projekt Red puts their utmost confidence behind this method, "We've been working to give gamers an even better experience on Xbox One and, on day 1, we'll bring you dynamic scaling from 900p to 1080p. We're not much more than a week before launch, but we're still fighting for every line of code - we want gamers to get the best possible experience we can deliver."
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The PlayStation 4 version is locked at 1080p, and the PC version can scale with any given hardware configuration. Considering most cross-platform ports, CD Projekt Red is going the extra mile to deliver optimal performance across all target hardware configurations. Hopefully this method will become the norm in establishing parity among cross platform releases, squeezing as much possible performance out of each console.
Source: Eurogamer

Visceral Games hit with layoffs, despite working on a new Star Wars game

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Visceral Games, the developer behind the Dead Space series and the recently released Battlefield Hardline got hit with some layoffs. According to a report from GameInformer, “a small staffing change” occurred today at the studio in an effort to “support the needs of the studio’s two current development priorities: content for Battlefield Hardline Premium and an unannounced Star Wars project.”
EA confirmed that Amy Hennig, who previously worked on the Uncharted series for Naughty Dog, but joined Visceral since, is still with the studio. Same goes for actor Todd Stashwick (Supernatural, Heroes).

The number of cut jobs is not yet known, but it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise to me. BF: Hardline isn’t doing well, so the development of Premium content probably took a big hit. I personally feared that the studio might get completely shut down, so I see this as somewhat good news, especially with the recent “announcement” of an unannounced Star Wars game.

Good luck to everyone who lost their job today.

Day 5 of the Humble Sale

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You know the deal, so let’s just mention the games I think are worth buying and insert a link to the Humble Store. No, we aren’t sponsored by them, but I wouldn’t say no if they made us an offer *hinthint* ;)
To the store!

  • Invisible Inc., 10% off - Not a great deal, but the game just got released. I didn’t play it, but Cody really liked it in his review.
  • Universe Sandbox, 80% - Not really a game, but an interesting planetary physics simulator. If you like to play around with orbits or learn a bit more about our universe, this is a nice Sandbox to play around with. Don’t expect too much though.
  • Mark of the Ninja Special Edition, 67% - Very good 2D stealth platformer. Liked the Assassins Creed China game? Then you will love this!
  • Hotline Miami, 75% - It’s brutal, it’s frantic, it’s confusing. A top-down shooter were you have one life and limited ammo, but unlimited respawns. A must have if you haven’t played it yet.
  • Thief (The new one), 75% - Granted, it’s a bad Thief game, it’s not even as good as Dishonored, but for 8 bucks or whatever it is in $, it’s still a worthwhile investment.
  • Just Cause 2, 75% - Great open world sandbox action and easily worth the money.
  • Sleeping Dogs, 75% - Interesting spin on the GTA formula. While the driving doesn’t feel great and the overall presentation is not on the same level as GTA, the melee mechanics are fun, the story entertaining enough and the world interesting. Ever wanted to bet on cockfighting in a video game? Here you can.
  • Sanctum 2, 85% - Tower-defense mixed with FPS. I didn’t actually play this entry, but enjoyed the first one and heard that the 2nd one is even better.
  • Tiny&Big: Grandpa’s leftovers, 90% - Great game for the price. It’s a bit rough, but offers some really cool mechanics and soundtrack. It’s a buck well spent!
  • Völgarr The Viking, 80% - The Bloodborne of retro 2D action games.
  • The Last Federation, 75% - Interesting spin on the space 4x genre, where you are the last survivor of your race, trying to establish a federation of planets and unite the galaxy under your banner through all sorts of means.
  • Auditorium, 89% - Nice little puzzle game that might get boring after a while though. Still, you should get a $ of entertainment out of it.
  • Strike Suit Zero, 83% - Arcade space shooter, takes 2-3 mission until it gets going but great fun for that price.
  • Brütal Legend, 85% - For less than $3, this isn’t actually as bad as everyone tried to tell you. It’s a nice homage to Metal, offering a fun story. The open world action/real time strategy mix maybe didn’t work out that well, but it’s still a good experience overall.
  • Sword & Sworcery, 76% - I really liked the combination of art style, camera work and soundtrack. The gameplay itself is a very basic adventure and won’t hold your attention, but it’s still a great piece of retro inspired art.
  • Joe Danger, 74% - Played that one on the PS3 and loved it. Great motorcycle platformer from the guys working on No Man’s Sky
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution, 75% - Just get it if you haven’t played it already. One of the best games of the last console generation.
  • Tomb Raider, 75% - Great reboot that’s closer to Uncharted than classic Lara Croft.


 

Puh, what a list.

Want any of those games streamed? Tell me in the comments. Yesterdays stream didn’t happen, but I should find some time today.

A Closer Look at Microsoft’s HoloLens

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HoloLens is Microsoft's Augmented Reality peripheral for the Windows PC and Xbox One. We've heard a lot about it, seen some of the promotional material, but until recently there haven't been too many discussions about hands on experiences with the prototype. A presentation at Build 2015 has pulled back the curtain a little bit, read on for the details.
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The HoloLens features a narrow field of view, projecting holograms within your focus, starting to fade in your peripheral vision. This means that where you're looking directly, you'll see objects, but you won't be able to see these same projections out of the corner of your eye.

There is a built in Kinect style camera, which is a huge leap ahead of the capabilities of the Xbox One accessory. This allows the device to pick up the environment, as well as your hands as you interact with objects. Since the objects you manipulate are only in the center of your vision, your hands will be in direct line of sight of the camera, which answers a lot of questions about how applications will allow you to manipulate models that could be littered all about the room.

This new camera will also allow you to record what you see, including the holograms, so that a new type of video will be possible to convey the entire augmented reality experience to others.

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Close to each ear are two red speakers, which will produce sounds reflecting the current game or application, and will still allow ambient sounds through so you get a mix of both while wearing the device. You'll also be able to get feedback from Cortana, which is integrated as a digital assistant to which you can give speech commands.

With development kits already in the hands of designers, and E3 coming up fast, hopefully we will learn about the actual gaming applications intended for Microsoft's futuristic prototype. Look forward to June for more information!

Source: Neowin