BioWare "discussed" Mass Effect PS4/Xbox One remasters

March 3rd, 2014, 18:42 Posted By: wraggster

BioWare has discussed internally the idea of remastering the Mass Effect series for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.A fan asked BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn on Twitter what he thought about a next-gen, 1080p, high-resolution texture, 60 frames-per-second version for PS4 and Xbox One.Uh huh.

Flynn's response: "We have discussed that internally. If we can put solid plans together we'll share."It's being thought about, at least.The Mass Effect series started life as an Xbox 360 exclusive. Eventually, PC and later PS3 versions were added - even Wii U got a look-in. Would a next-gen audience want to play it again so soon?A fourth Mass Effect game - don't you go calling it ME4 - is in development at BioWare Montreal, the second BioWare studio. Headquarters are in Edmonton.We've glimpsed a few images associated with the fourth game, but we're still awaiting a proper reveal, and BioWare may want to wait until Dragon Age: Inquisition is released this autumn to start talking about it.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-one-remasters

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Xbox One update preview adds new audio, Kinect options and a fix for UK TV

March 3rd, 2014, 01:14 Posted By: wraggster

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Could Microsoft sell off the Xbox?

March 3rd, 2014, 00:18 Posted By: wraggster

And if it makes sense for Microsoft, is Amazon in the market to buy?
It is, for the moment, just a conspiracy theory, and it goes something like this: Microsoft wants to get out of the games console business. It's planning to package up the Xbox part of the Devices & Studios division and separate it off from the rest of the company, so it can be sold as a going concern. Who's buying? Amazon, which views acquiring Xbox as a step towards dominance of the living room. If there's anything to this theory at all, the coming year or two could see the end of Microsoft Xbox and a warm welcome for Amazon Xbox.
Let's lay all the cards on the table. The evidence is sketchy and circumstantial. We know that Microsoft is looking at some pretty major strategic changes in the wake of the appointment of new CEO Satya Nadella. Nadella's focus throughout his career has been on the business end of Microsoft - servers, cloud services and enterprise tools - which remains in robust health compared to the troubled state of the firm's consumer divisions. Choosing him as CEO could suggest that the company is aiming for a future focused on enterprise tools and platforms, not consumer products.
Then there's the man who wasn't chosen as CEO, Stephen Elop. Elop used to work at Microsoft, then became CEO of Nokia. Now that Nokia is selling its mobile phone division to Microsoft, Elop is back where he started. Moreover, he saw himself as a strong candidate for the CEO job when Steve Ballmer resigned. With Nadella in the CEO's chair, Elop's consolation prize is that he's taking over as head of Devices & Studios. That's a logical choice, since Devices & Studios will include Nokia under its umbrella, at least to some extent, so Elop will continue running his old Nokia team alongside the Xbox and Surface teams at Microsoft.
Given that, it would perhaps be more surprising if Elop wasn't put in charge of Devices & Studios. His presence ought to ease the transition as Nokia is absorbed into Microsoft, a major acquisition that's likely to cause some indigestion along the way. However, during the CEO selection process, while Elop was still in the running, Bloomberg reported that he had some very interesting plans for the company if he was running it. The reported plans included, notably, a willingness to sell off business units Elop viewed as distractions from Microsoft's main goals - business units including the Bing search engine and the Xbox. As logical as his new job at Devices & Studios may seem, you can't blame people for raising an eyebrow when a man who supposedly wanted to sell off the Xbox division is put in charge of the Xbox division.
"given the plethora of Android consoles currently underwhelming the market and failing to gain a foothold, it's not unreasonable to suggest that Amazon would want to make a much bolder move into the console space"

It takes two to tango, so how about the Amazon side of the deal? Well, whispers of Amazon's keen interest in the games market have flown around for months now, including rumours that the company has discreetly hired a number of veterans from the games industry while keeping their involvement quiet - for now. Last month, Amazon bought games studio Double Helix, fresh from working closely with Microsoft to prepare Killer Instinct as a launch title for Xbox One. Something is afoot. Occam's Razor suggests a "Kindle" console, an Ouya-style box under the TV linked to Amazon's digital content platform, but given the plethora of Android consoles currently underwhelming the market and failing to gain a foothold, it's not unreasonable to suggest that Amazon would want to make a much bolder move into the console space. Plus, Amazon certainly isn't scared of making big acquisitions when it wants to open up a new market opportunity for itself - it's hard to conceive of a cash value for Xbox, not least given how obfuscated the financials of the console business are, but I don't doubt that Amazon could afford it if it really wanted to.
That's it - that's the conspiracy theory. I don't deny for a second that the evidence, if you can call it that, is pretty thin. Microsoft is probably going to refocus on enterprise; a guy who wanted to sell Xbox is the new boss of that division, but he's also the most logical choice for the job. Amazon is setting itself up for a big move into the games space and may (or may not) have hired some senior games people on the down-low. That's the sum total of the evidence, and we should all bear that in mind. Even this article exists not to promote this theory, which I view as interesting but unsupported by the available information, but rather to evaluate, hypothetically, whether there is any real possibility of an Xbox spin-off and sale. In short, there's no real evidence that Microsoft is going to do this thing, but it's an interesting academic exercise to evaluate whether they could do it if they wanted, and whether a motivation to do so might exist.
So how hard, in theory, would it be to spin off and sell Xbox? The answer to that depends on what exactly Microsoft is proposing to sell. Xbox, as mentioned earlier, is part of the Devices & Studios division, which also houses Surface and will shortly be joined by Nokia. Some other odd things are rolled into this division, apparently. It was claimed last year that the patents which force Android device makers to cough up a fee to Microsoft for every handset they sell are held, for financial purposes, in Devices & Studios, thus accounting for a big chunk of the division's revenue.
"it's plausible that Microsoft could sell the entire Devices & Studios operation, thus putting itself out of the hardware business entirely"

If Microsoft's new management had come to view Xbox as a distraction that doesn't fit with their new enterprise focus, one might reasonably ask if they'll take the same view of Surface. That product which hasn't performed well and has reportedly soured relationships between Microsoft and other hardware vendors, who aren't terribly happy with the company from whom they license the Windows operating system suddenly being in direct competition with them. The company wouldn't be happy about losing the patents related to Android, not least since Windows and Windows Phone presumably use the technology described by those patents as well, so that probably wouldn't be included in any sale, but aside from that it's plausible that Microsoft could sell the entire Devices & Studios operation, thus putting itself out of the hardware business entirely.
Alternatively, Microsoft could decide to hold on to Surface and simply divest itself of Xbox and the various Microsoft Game Studios operations. Surface would then be joined by Nokia in the much-reduced Devices division (no more studios!), which would be entirely focused on tablets and smartphones without the "distraction" of games. Such a disentanglement wouldn't be terribly difficult, either. Xbox is actually fairly well divorced from the rest of Microsoft's operations. Its operating system shares a visual language with the "Metro" interface of Windows 8 and Windows Phone, while various game-related elements of Microsoft's other operating systems have also been given the "Xbox" and "Live" monikers. Bing, of course, runs on the Xbox dashboard. By and large, though, the technology and services which drive Xbox are divorced from the rest of Microsoft - although it's worth noting that the much-vaunted Cloud functionality of Xbox One relies in part on Azure, Microsoft's cloud services platform. Any buyout of Xbox would include various contracts ensuring that any Microsoft technologies or services upon which the console relies would continue to be provided to the new owner, so this would not be a major stumbling block.
A bigger question might be, would Microsoft even want to do this? That really depends how seriously you take the idea of "distraction". Xbox One has had its thunder stolen by PS4, but is still selling well - and Xbox 360 was a major success. In fact, it's the only success Microsoft has ever had in the consumer hardware space. Xbox proved Microsoft's ability to create a great consumer brand and sell hardware to people. It's a real bright spot in a few tough years for the company - especially compared to everything else it has attempted in the consumer space, from Zune and Surface to its latest operating system, Windows 8.
Why would you get rid of that? Well, you probably wouldn't - but let's brainstorm a motive. You could argue that Xbox is a bright spot that doesn't have any real relevance to the rest of the company. Microsoft in the early 2000s wanted to reinvent itself as a consumer-facing company, but with Xbox being the only success in a small sea of failures, Satya Nadella is likely to try to bring the firm back to focusing on the enterprise market. As the oil tanker slowly turns around to head into more corporate seas, Xbox will be more and more at odds with the culture and mission of the rest of the company. It will arguably be a distraction both internally, where it won't fit with Microsoft's culture, and externally, where it will detract from a brand message that promotes Microsoft as a serious, corporate, business-focused partner for enterprise (as distinct from the more consumer-led branding of rivals Apple and Google). Selling off Xbox would generate cash (not that Microsoft needs it), streamline the company and start the new CEO's tenure with a dramatic gesture that sets out his vision more clearly than any speech or press release.
"Plenty of pundits seem to expect that PS4 and XB1 will be the last generation of consoles. Would a company as smart as Amazon get sucked into a market that's about to collapse?"

In short, Microsoft could do this and, if we assume that upper management take the notion of "distraction" seriously and are genuinely willing to abandon the firm's ambitions in the consumer devices space, there's a motive for doing it. How about Amazon's side of the table? This deal would cost billions; would Amazon stand to gain enough to justify that kind of outlay? After all, aren't consoles a dying space? Plenty of pundits seem to expect that PS4 and XB1 will be the last generation of consoles. Would a company as smart as Amazon get sucked into a market that's about to collapse?
Amazon, like Microsoft a decade ago, has major ambitions in the consumer devices space. The company built itself on the back of selling physical goods but has neatly sidestepped the so-called "innovator's dilemma" by being more than willing to disrupt its own business. The world's biggest seller of physical books became the world's biggest promoter of ebook readers. Music downloads, streaming video, cloud services; Amazon has taken an active and enthusiastic interest in every field that might disrupt its existing businesses, seeking not to shut down threats but to be the biggest player in whatever comes next. It supplemented the Kindle e-reader with Kindle tablet devices whose market performance is largely unknown, but is thought by analysts to be one of the only genuine competitors to the iPad's sales dominance. Anyone who owns a Kindle device knows that they are designed from the ground up to be a great interface to accessing and buying content from Amazon's ecosystem. That's Amazon's play; own the media ecosystem, building the devices themselves if that's what it takes.
That ambition is a pretty solid fit for the console business. Moreover, it can't have escaped Amazon's notice that Steam, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live together make up a big area of digital content provision in which it has no involvement right now. Amazon will also be paying careful attention to the interest around set-top boxes (like AppleTV and Google's TV efforts) and Smart TVs. Here there's huge potential for consumers to be accessing media ecosystems directly from their TVs and connected devices - again, a game in which Amazon has no skin. For Amazon, the ideal would be that when you want to watch or play something on your TV, you do so through Kindle interface that links right into Amazon's digital library, just like the Kindle tablets work. Of course, an Android microconsole would achieve that goal, but it wouldn't be of much interest to gamers - at best, it would capture a fringe of the market who engage with Kindle tablets.
Is appealing to gamers important? This comes back to the question of whether consoles are really dying - and honestly, who knows better about that question than Amazon? Amazon is the largest retailer in many countries. Not only does it see how many consoles and console games are sold, it also sees loads of connected information which is hidden from even game publishers. It knows how high-spending gamers are in other areas - whether they're likely to buy a lot of gadgets, a lot of books, a lot of movies or albums. It knows how much they engage with the brands they love, whether they cross-promote to friends resulting in more sales, whether they leave reviews and promote products on social media. Amazon can make an estimation of the actual value of the core gamer market more accurately than any other company.
What is that estimate looking like? I don't know, of course, but Amazon's actions in the coming months are going to tell us a lot about it. Regardless of whether the Xbox conspiracy theory pans out, Amazon is going to make some kind of game-related move relatively soon. It will be interesting to see how much importance and focus the company places on the games space at that time.
Until we see more evidence, though, it's impossible to construct a fully credible argument which places the future of Xbox anywhere but Microsoft. There's simply not enough information out there to support that kind of conclusion. That said, there is a possible motive to sell on the part of Microsoft, and a possible motive to buy for Amazon. If I had to pin my colours to a mast on this, I'd say Microsoft is probably discussing a sale with interested parties, including Amazon, but hasn't made a final decision on whether to start sale proceedings as yet. I also wouldn't read too much into that, given that it's the responsibility of management to consider such possibilities as part of their duty to the shareholders. Then again, under Microsoft's new management, perhaps such things are being considered rather more seriously than before.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...l-off-the-xbox

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There Came an Echo reverberating to Xbox One

March 2nd, 2014, 23:49 Posted By: wraggster

After Iridium Studios launches There Came an Echo, an in-development, isometric strategy game that can be controlled with spoken commands on PC, Iridium will say "Xbox, port ... no, Xbox, port! Xbox PORT!" Official Xbox Magazine has revealed Iridium's plans to launch an Xbox One version of There Came an Echo "shortly" after its PC launch.

Althougha June 2014 release date was suggested during the game's Kickstarter campaign, a backer update from last month states that October 2014 is a bit more likely. During Destructoid's recent e-mail exchange with Iridium, Iridium calculated that the delay would put the Xbox One version's launch near early 2015. Mac and Linux ports are also planned, but Iridium told Destructoid that they're unlikely to launch alongside the PC version.

The delay will allow Iridium to add gesture controls, but if you're worried about the technology being unable to pick up the eyerolls you've been practicing over the aforementioned speech controls, know that you'll be able to use a keyboard and mouse for the PC version. Presumably, that suggests controller support will also be available for those who don't want to use the Kinect.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/02/th...g-to-xbox-one/

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Dust: An Elysian Tail pulls off 1 million sale combo

March 2nd, 2014, 23:47 Posted By: wraggster

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The Spy In Our Living Room

March 2nd, 2014, 00:42 Posted By: wraggster

"Ben Kuchera at Polygon ponders the surveillance capabilities of our gaming consoles in light of recent NSA and GCHQ revelations. 'Xbox One Kinect can see in the dark. It can keep a moving human being in focus without motors. It knows how to isolate voices from background noise. The privacy implications of having a device that originally couldn't be removed pointed at your living room at all times was always kind of scary, and that fear has been at least partially justified.' Kuchera, like many of us, habitually disconnects cameras and microphones not currently in use. But he also feels a sense of inevitability about the whole thing: 'If the government wants this information they're going to get it, no matter what we do with our gaming consoles. It's important to pay attention to what our government is doing, but this issue is much bigger than our gaming consoles, and we open ourselves up to much greater forms of intrusion on a daily basis.'

http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/0...ur-living-room

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UK agency violated privacy of webcams, explored Kinect surveillance

March 1st, 2014, 23:51 Posted By: wraggster

Classified documents published by The Guardian reveal that British surveillance agency GCHQ surreptitiously gathered webcam images from more than a million Yahoo user accounts, while also evaluating the surveillance potential of the Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral.

"In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally," the Guardian reports, before noting that this operation (codenamed "Optic Nerve") was only one of the agency's attempts at biometric recognition via consumer camera technology.

A separate GCHQ project explored the possibility of gathering images from the Kinect peripheral. "[O]ne presentation discusses with interest the potential and capabilities of the Xbox 360's Kinect camera, saying it generated 'fairly normal webcam traffic' and was being evaluated as part of a wider program." It's unclear if GCHQ ever attempted to intercept Kinect data on a large scale, but as The Guardian points out, the idea isn't entirely novel. Earlier documents published by the paper detail similar exploratory efforts by the American NSA.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/28/uk...ect-surveilla/

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Civilization Revolution, Dungeon Defenders free on Xbox Live Gold in March

March 1st, 2014, 23:51 Posted By: wraggster

Xbox spokesperson Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has revealed the next two games to join the slate of free titles offered to Xbox Live Gold members: console strategy hit Civilization Revolution and co-op action-RPG Dungeon Defenders.

Civilization Revolution will shed its standard $30 price point on March 1, and will remain free to all Xbox Live Gold subscribers until March 15. Then, on March 16, Dungeon Defenders will take its place as the service's gratis offering.

Like previous free games, both Civilization Revolution and Dungeon Defenderswill be yours to keep once downloaded, even if you let your Xbox Live Gold subscription lapse. However, you only have two weeks to initiate the free download, after which time these games will revert to their original prices.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/28/ci...xbox-live-gol/

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Titanfall launch party at SXSW includes devs, Childish Gambino

March 1st, 2014, 23:48 Posted By: wraggster

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New GTA Online 'Verified Jobs' race around Nurburgring

February 28th, 2014, 01:44 Posted By: wraggster

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Microsoft lists 65 developers in ID@Xbox program

February 27th, 2014, 23:57 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft has revealed 65 of the independent studios working with its ID@Xbox self-publishing program for Xbox One.
Among the studios listed are BattleBlock Theatre creators The Behemoth, War of the Vikings dev Fatshark, Roundaboutstudio No Goblin, and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile house Ska Studios, among many more. The full list is included below.
ID@Xbox director Chris Charla said in a news release that more than 200 developers have been provided dev kits through the program, and the first batch of games is in certification now.
Two of the first games confirmed to arrive via ID@Xbox are Worms Battleground and Nutjitsu. Charla said in December that the self-published titles will start rolling out on Xbox One within the first quarter of 2014.
ID@Xbox was Microsoft's answer to calls for developer self-publishing on Xbox One. More than 30 studios were previously confirmed to have signed on with the program, including Crytek, Double Fine, and Vlambeer.
Studios that publish through the program can make their games accessible on Xbox One without paying any fees, and will even be given access to the Unity game development system's Xbox One tools free of charge later this year.

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BioShock Infinite getting '1998 mode'

February 27th, 2014, 23:53 Posted By: wraggster

Irrational Games will introduce a new difficulty mode to BioShock Infinite called '1998 Mode'.
Players will already be familiar with the existing '1999 Mode', an unlockable bonus that serves as the hardest difficulty setting in the game. The new 1998 mode will up the difficulty level further by restricting players to using non-lethal tools only.
1998 Mode will be released as part of the upcoming BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two DLC expansion, which is due for release on March 25.
Irrational Games head Ken Levine said, "In Burial at Sea - Episode Two we put a focus on balance and stealth mechanics. As we were developing this new style of gameplay, we started to see people self-impose non-lethal playthrough's. Given the fan reception of 1999 Mode, we thought it would be cool to give them another way to play Burial at Sea that challenged their mastery of stealth tools."
The second episode of the DLC story - which is said to last around six hours - is played through the eyes of new player character, Elizabeth, and features new stealth-oriented gameplay, as well as new weapons and modes.
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two will release on PSN, Xbox Live and PC starting March 25 priced at $14.99 USD / £11.99.
Levine announced on February 18 that Irrational Games will close downas he commits to a "new venture" with a smaller studio.
Levine detailed plans to shut the BioShock studio and form a new outfit made up of "about fifteen members of the Irrational team", with a focus on "narrative-driven" digital games "that are highly replayable".

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ing-1998-mode/

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January transfers come to PES 2014

February 27th, 2014, 23:37 Posted By: wraggster

Konami has released a new data pack for football game PES 2014 that updates the roster to include the January transfers.So now ex-Chelsea fan favourite Juan Mata plays for mid-table mediocrity at Manchester United.There are also new kits, including 1899 AC Milan, 1982/83 Roma, 1961/62 Benfica and Manchester United's treble-winning 1998/1999 strip. Remember that? That's what they played in when they were good. In total 13 new kits have been added and 43 updated.There are new ball and boot styles, too.The data pack is out now for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and will be available for PC soon.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...me-to-pes-2014

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New Batman: Arkham Origins DLC dated

February 27th, 2014, 01:32 Posted By: wraggster

Warner Bros has confirmed the release date of its Arkham Origins DLC Cold, Cold Heart.
It will be available for download across PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 22nd
Wii U owners will miss out on the new DLC following Warner Bros' decision to scrap the platform's Arkham Origins Season Passes in January, citing a lack of demand.
The story-add on DLC will focus around Batman's encounters with villain Mr. Freeze and will introduce new locations including Wayne Manor, along with more of the hero's tech such as the Batman Extreme Environment suit and Thermocharged Batarangs.
Cold, Cold Heart is expected to offer the same level of additional content as previous DLC offering Harley Quinn's Revenge.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/new-b...-dated/0128756

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Former Mob Wives star sues Rockstar for $40m

February 27th, 2014, 01:31 Posted By: wraggster

Mob Wives personality Karen Gravano is suing Rockstar to the tune of $40m, alleging the studio used her likeness and personal history in Grand Theft Auto V.
New York Daily News reports Gravano's suit claims Rockstar used the former reality show star's likeness and story for the character Antonia Bottino – a character featured in a random encounter mission titled “Burial.”
The report further reveals Gravano feels Rockstar could have licensed her story “with relative ease,” instead of facing the suit. The lawsuit breaks the $40m figure down to $20m in compensation and $20m in punitive damages.
“Notwithstanding the fact that plaintiff has the utmost respect for the writers and creators of the Grand Theft Auto 5 video game, her story is unique and is hers to tell,” the lawsuit reads.
Like the game character Bottino, Gravano’s father Sammy Gravano was an underboss for the Gambino crime family – later becoming a government witness as part of a plea bargain.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/forme...or-40m/0128759

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GTAV – forget the killing sprees and find beauty in a digital rambling holiday

February 27th, 2014, 01:27 Posted By: wraggster

The search for letter fragments brings Michael to ‘Camp Dignity’, one of many Los Santos delights you might have missed.

Collectibles may not ruin games, but they don’t exactly help. They’re the tedious make-work at the heart of modern game design that substitutes padding for content, the taunting fraction lurking in some number-ish recess of the pause screen showing you how little you’ve actually achieved. Very few are as tedious as GTAIV’s pigeons. They distort progress – thought you were only 30 per cent of the way through the story? Tough luck sir, the remaining 70 per cent is killing 200 pigeons – and hold players in contempt, asking them to exterminate a city-full of grey, stub-legged sky-rats for no reason and scant reward. In a Saints Row game, you might get away with arguing that this was parody; with GTAIV’s dour tone, it just felt like sadism – or worse, as if Rockstar didn’t care.With Grand Theft Auto V, everything was bigger, with more ground to explore, more protagonists to control, and, ominously, several additional sets of arbitrary things to find. The risks were obvious – could this lead to six hundred pigeons to kill? Eight hundred? Two thousand, spread out over an entire state? Collecting all of this tat sounds like at least three of the twelve labours of obsessive nerd Hercules.In practice however, it’s a little different. The Rockstar Social Club includes a helpful map showing which items you’ve found and, crucially, which ones you haven’t. While GTAIV’s pigeon-eradicating was like an anxiety dream, GTAV’s letter and spaceship part-hunting, planned out on a laptop or tablet, is manageable and even engrossing, the map taming San Andreas’ colossal scale. The end result is a digital rambling holiday that’s unique, beautiful and weirdly relaxing.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...bling-holiday/

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Arkham Origins 'Cold, Cold Heart' DLC stars Mr. Freeze on April 22

February 27th, 2014, 01:09 Posted By: wraggster

Cold, Cold Heart is an open-world, narrative-driven chunk of DLC for Batman: Arkham Origins, and it's due out on April 22 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Cold, Cold Heart tells the backstory of classic Batman villain Mr. Freeze in a brand new mission, and it gives Batman himself a new suit "that will actually change gameplay and help you be more resilient" against cryogenic weapons, according to WB Games VP of Production Ames Kirshen.

WB prioritized work on this DLC over fixing bugs, Community Manager "Mercury" said on the Arkham Origins support page earlier this month, and the studio canceled the Wii U version of Cold, Cold Heart in January, citing lack of demand. Since it was part of the Arkham Origins season pass, Nintendo of America offered full refunds to anyone who bought that bundle, even though some pieces of DLC had already launched.

And to those who had already guessed that Cold, Cold Heart would feature Mr. Freeze: The Penguin's heart is probably pretty chilly, too. It totally could have gone either way.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/25/ar...eeze-on-april/

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Battlefield 4 enlists platoon support on February 27

February 27th, 2014, 00:55 Posted By: wraggster

The chaotic, virtual warfare of Battlefield 4 is about to grow more organized with tomorrow's addition of platoons.

Despite the thematically-appropriate name, these platoons are best thought of as the Battlefield 4 equivalent of officially supported online clans. Up to 100 soldiers can join a given platoon where they will share a unique name tag and emblem with their fellow grunts. A private Battlelog feed will be available to each platoon, alongside a public feed useful for kicking off fights with other other groups of virtual soldiers. Developer DICE also notes that each member will have the "ability to earn stats for your platoon and rank it up," though those ranks are ornamental and offer no tangible reward beyond bragging rights.

Hoping to avoid another Battlefield 4 server crush, DICE plans to roll out platoon support gradually over the course of a week. Both Premium and Standard iterations of the game will receive the feature at the same time, though a Premium membership and a rank of at least 10 will be required to create your own platoon.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/ba...n-february-27/

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Microsoft: "no plans" to release an Xbox One without Kinect

February 26th, 2014, 00:52 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft has insisted it has no intention of selling Xbox One without Kinect.It is thought that without the new Kinect, which lets players control games and navigate the Xbox One user interface with voice recognition and motion, the Xbox One would be considerably cheaper, but Microsoft has so far resisted calls from some quarters to sell a version of its next-gen console without the sensor.Speaking with Eurogamer yesterday ahead of the announcement of the first Xbox One price cut, Xbox UK marketing chief Harvey Eagle said Microsoft was sticking with Kinect because the company feels it's "integral to the Xbox One experience"."[A Kinect-less Xbox One] is not in our plans at all," he stressed."As we've said from the very beginning, we believe Kinect is an absolutely integral part of the Xbox One experience."Eagle pointed to Xbox One's Upload Studio, which lets players record, edit and publish game clips to Xbox Live, as an example of how Kinect is, in his words, integral to the Xbox One."Look at all the thousands and thousands of game clips that have been posted by gamers to Upload Studio, of their gaming highlights, captured by speaking the words 'Xbox record that', which has already become part of Xbox vocabulary," Eagle said."It's a really great example of how Kinect makes the experience on Xbox One even better."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...without-kinect

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This is how Xbox One's game broadcasting works

February 26th, 2014, 00:19 Posted By: wraggster

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