Author: Thomas Ortsik

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

Steam Prices Could Go Up Down Under

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A so-called "Netflix Tax" is a planned extension to Australia's Goods and Services tax. Originally adding 10% to the cost of most goods purchased since its introduction in July of 2000, the Value Added Tax could soon be applied to digital services such as Steam game purchases.
Netflix and other foreign based services have long skirted these taxes by hosting entirely offshore, causing unbalanced pricing compared to rivals with a local presence such as Quickflix. Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey confirmed the plans to rectify this in a recent budget outline.
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Already having a history of price disparity with retail games costing the equivalent of $100 USD, players wishing to save by purchasing through online services such as Steam may no longer find the option as tempting as it previously was. Some Australians are already speaking out on forums, threatening to turn to piracy.
Source: PlayerAttack

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: The Omen

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Damn, Monday already. Probably not the best sign that the WWWrup is late and, well, this week isn’t great. No gaming PA and I personally only really liked 2 of the featured ones. Is it time to get Brawl in the Family back into the boat again? Nah!

Still, enjoy those webcomics!

ReadySoup (Who Witches the Witcher)
Nerd Rage (Infinite Crossover Potential)
ActionTrip (Mad Max premieres on Pandora)
Double XP (Forward to the Past)
Nerf NOW!! (Rollin)
Boss Nostalgic 64 (Earned a break)

Fallout 4 Is Happening At E3, But…

Yes, it seems that Fallout 4 is going to be at E3 this year. With Bethesda's very first panel, it is looking increasingly good for the game to appear, right? Well, don't get your hopes up too much.

While it has been confirmed that some games will appear at E3, and it's still rumored that games like Dishonored 2 and DOOM will be there, we have some slightly disappointing news among all the rumors.

Head below to read.

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The rumors have been floating around on the internet for a while now, and even industry insider Shinobi602 confirmed that Fallout 4 will be at E3. Unfortunately, with today's news - Guillermo del Toro being the Cinematic developer for the trailer (see above) - it seems that this is the sad thing. It looks like we will only get a trailer.

Putting together the rumors - a behind the scenes demo, and this recent one - we can only conclude four things:

1. Yes, Fallout 4 will be announced at E3
2. No, we won't get to see more than just the trailer (unless you're special).
3. No, we won't get a release date.
4. Yes we will hear Ron Perlman say "War... War never changes".

Source: XBA

Do Not Delete P.T. From Your PlayStation 4

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Unlike most games which have been de-listed from the PSN Store, P.T. has been completely wiped from Sony's servers. Contrary to what was previously reported, if you've deleted it from your hard disk to make space, you can no longer re-download it through your Library. 
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When I first noticed the official message on my PS Vita, I was honestly surprised. Out of all of the games that I've downloaded across various console services, this was the first time I've been told that an application in my library is no longer accessible.

I realize that this was something given out for free, and meant as promotional material for a game that no is no longer in production. Why should Konami spend any resources or money to make it available? Why throw good money after bad? Still, I'm a bit annoyed, and also concerned. I've always been partial to purchasing retail physical copies of games specifically because of worst case scenarios such as this. If I own the disc, I can keep on playing it as long as the hardware works.

A game that you could never play again? As a retro enthusiast, that actually bothers me. Especially considering how much enjoyment I've got out of P.T., it seems like something I'd want to go back to and re-experience, if only to reminisce. Catching me completely by surprise, P.T. turned out to be one of my favorite PS4 experiences.

Tell us, how do you feel about the security of your digital library? Do ever go back to older games, or do you live in the moment and only look forward?

The Twinstiq Game Club Talk

Took some time, but we finally managed to do our first talk on Deus Ex. Watch it, enjoy it, and complain about the sound/resolution.  The next podcast will also feature some very bad sound, but after that, things will look much better. Sorry in the meantime.
Part 2 after the break.

Halo Chief Admits Master Chief Fumble

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Frank O'Connor, Franchise Development Director at 343 Industries feels bad about the Halo collection's state upon release, and how it was subsequently handled. "Halo: The Master Chief Collection is definitely a black eye for us," is how he starts out in an interview with XboxAchievements. "We’re not going to rest on our laurels or hide from the mistakes we made." That much is true, as we can tell from his rather candid attestation.
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Says O'Connor, “To be perfectly honest, there were a lot of things that happened when we got it into a retail environment that we simply didn’t see in a test environment, so that’s what really caught us by surprise."

Most of the issues have been with the multiplayer portion of the game, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume this was correct, however considering the amount of polish previous entries received, it's entirely possible that it was difficult to recreate test scenarios that reflected regular use within the scope of the testing environment.

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"Halo 5 is being made by a completely different team. It’s a singular product. It was built from the ground up for this new technology, rather than being sort of dragged kicking and screaming from 2001 and forced and shoehorned into a 2014 console."

That's a statement that should reassure fans who are looking forward to the next entry, but at the same time it casts disparity upon the effort to enshrine Microsoft's hallmark IP in a compendium. Nonetheless, a gargantuan effort has been made to bring the Master Chief Collection up to snuff, as well as compensating early adopters with a free pass to Halo 3: ODST.

Here is the entire XboxAchievements interview for your viewing pleasure. Frank O'Connor seems to be adamant about the quality of the final version of Halo 5. "I think the beta is already a decent first step, in a retail environment, showing that we don’t have the same problems."

Please tell us your experiences with the collection, and what you are hoping for in the upcoming sequel!

Mario Kart 8 Producer in Charge of Mobile Games

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As a Nintendo alumnus since Doki Doki Panic, having worked on most Super Mario and Mario Kart titles, Hideki Konno is heavily involved with some of Nintendo's hottest properties. Nintendo's serious intentions for producing quality experiences for phones and tablets are being backed up as Konno has been appointed to head up their mobile game development.
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"Regarding the number of the titles, you may want to know that we will release approximately five titles by the end of the next fiscal year, which is the end of March 2017", said Iwata in Nintendo's financial report; "We aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases" he continued.
It's difficult to tell what type of titles Nintendo's cooperation with DeNA will result in, but the desire to specifically craft games optimized for mobile from the ground up is probably the right approach, rather than shoehorning existing titles and slapping on a touch interface.

What franchises would you like to see, and how should they be handled for bite sized touch-focused gaming?

Source: GameSpot

Tekken 7 Gets Yoshimitsu May 12th

Bandai Namco announces Yoshimitsu's arrival in Tekken 7 arcade units in this trailer. He'll be playable starting May 12th, bringing the total number of confirmed playable characters to 26. One of the more popular characters, he is one of four to return for all subsequent games since his introduction, and was even carried over into the Soul series of fighting games.
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Yoshimitsu is also one of the only fighters in Tekken to use a weapon, carrying a naginata. He also channels supernatural powers, making him a formidable and versatile opponent.

Rumored for release in August 2015, console owners who can't find a local arcade are surely looking forward to the Unreal Engine 4 based fighter's home release.

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OutRun The Live

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Yep. This guy really loves OutRun. And is also insane. Garnet Hertz created an arcade cabinet that you can drive around, and maps actual city streets to the 16-bit classic. Check out his real life version of the game after the jump.
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Whew, it looks like you can see through to the road!

Hertz's golf cart mounted with an arcade cabinet combines the arcade classic with the actual experience of driving around on city streets. Custom augmented reality software tracks the world through GPS navigation sourced from an iPhone, combining it with twin cameras mounted on top of the unit to project the image seen here.
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One of the goals of the project is to explore fault tolerance

It does not seem like the cabinet will map a real life parked car to the actual game, so it seems important to pay attention to what is actually going on. Although OutRun exceeds speeds of 180mph, the golf cart can only accelerate to about 13mph, meaning that the simulation does not match reality one-to-one.
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Running at 13mph, it seems like pedestrians can easily be avoided

Using this cabinet, Hertz intends to explore the idea of using only a computer representation to explore real life. Research like this may prove instrumental in developing the future of automobile HUDs.

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With self-driving cars on the horizon, we're thankful that more scientists are putting research into how computers view cars, and how real object tracking can translate to a virtual representation.
Source: ConceptLab