Category: Platforms

Parent Category for All Gaming Platforms discussed on Twinstiq

NPDs: Xbox One is US Top Seller in April

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According to the NPDs, the Xbox One outsold the PS4 and Wii U during the month of April. Microsoft was happy to spread the news of its first victory over Sony since last December. "As the best-selling console in the U.S. in April, fans set record April sales and engagement for Xbox One last month," declared Xbox Marketing chief Mike Nichols.
Console software spending increased 20% in the month of April. The PlayStation brand as a whole lead in game sales, perhaps owing to the larger cumulative user base in this current generation, as well as its presence in the handheld gaming sector.
Source: VentureBeat

Microsoft Temporarily Bans Gears Leakers From Live

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When videos of an early build of the Gears of War Remaster leaked yesterday, it didn't take long for Microsoft to react. Because of their actions breaking non disclosure agreements, leakers of the footage will be prevented from signing in to Xbox Live for an indefinite amount of time.
Testing partner VMC Games released a statement which described the punishment as rendering the affected users' consoles "entirely unusable," but this was later refuted by Microsoft, who responded to news outlets saying "To be clear, if a console is suspended from Xbox Live for a violation of the Terms of Use, it can still be used offline. Microsoft enforcement action does not result in a console becoming unusable."
Source: Neowin

New Nintendo eShop Releases: New Super Mario Bros, Mega May (Week 2)

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This week, the Nintendo eShop has several great items to choose from. For starters, New Super Mario Bros hits the Wii U Nintendo DS Virtual Console. Then Mega May continues with a Wii U Game Boy Advance Virtual Console double shot consisting of Mega Man Battle Network 3 - Blue and Mega Man Battle Network 3 - White. Sega adds another 3D classic to the mix. And finally, there is Nintendo's surprise Stretchmo release. All this and more is now available for your purchasing/gaming pleasure. So push your 3D slider up, eat a mega mushroom, and then jump past the break to see this week's complete list of new releases.
Wii U

3DS

[Image: Nintendo]

Andrew J Amideo
[Source: Business Wire]

Nintendo’s Surprise Stretchmo Release

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Up now on the eShop is Nintendo's follow up to Pushmo, called Stretchmo. Purchased either in bite sized chunks for $4.99 or $2.99 (depending on which world you choose to play in), or in one complete package for $9.99, there's a total of 250 new puzzles to experience.
Once the main component is downloaded, you can play the first seven levels for free, after which you must purchase one of four level packs to continue. A level editor is available, allowing you to share fan-made stages, but at least one of the add-ons must first be purchased.
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Source: Nintendo's YouTube Channel

Uncharted 4 Has Surprisingly Detailed Face Animations

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Uncharted 4's developers are raising the bar for facial animation. With twice the granularity in motion capture detail, more complex models, and finer skeletal control, expressions come across very convincingly.
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In an interview with GamesTM, Naughty Dog describes their achievement by comparing it to their well regarded hit, The Last of Us. "Think about that, how detailed Joel and Elli's pained facial expressions were, how well the game captured the respective actors ... Now, the faces have anywhere between 300 and 500 bones," says Josh Scherr, writer on Uncharted 4. That's almost five times the complexity.

Uncharted 4 is targeting 60 frames per second, and although animation is recorded from actors at 30 frames per second, interpolation will be used to smooth it out during gameplay and cutscenes, a technique that was also used in previous games.

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"If you look at the first Uncharted and how that looked versus how The Last of Us looked versus how The Last Of Us looked... I have difficulty fathoming that we'll have that kind of graphical leap in the next several years. The reality is, we probably will as we learn the systems better, so it's all up from here, and that's exciting."
Source: GamesTM

Gears of War Remaster Footage Leaked

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GameDVR direct video captures have leaked through Xbox Live users ElitistPath05 and SpongyPlains6, showing Gears of War Remaster running at 60 frames per second with improved lighting effects and texture work. Hit the jump to check it out!
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In this side by side comparison you can see the drastic changes made to overhaul the third person shooter for current generation hardware. According to YouTube user EMK KrAuSeR, improved smoke and blood effects are also in place.

Here are direct links to clip 1, and clip 2, via NeoGAF. Both have been mirrored on Mega, and Gematsu.

Source: Gematsu

Nintendo World Championships 2015

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Reggie Fils-Aime is excited to announce the comeback of the Nintendo World Championships, "it'll be the first time we've done it in 25 years!" Qualifying rounds will take place May 30th, and the most skilled Nintendo fans will move on to a head to head showdown in front of a worldwide audience (via stream) on June 14th.
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Aside from this exciting tournament, Nintendo will have a live Treehouse presentation at E3, featuring many guest appearances from game developers.

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

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.