Don Mattrcik of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division has revealed to us the newest Xbox, the Xbox One. The Xbox One will feature an 8-core CPU, 8gb of RAM, USB 3.0, 500gb HDD (unspecified speed), a Blu-ray drive, multiple WiFi chips and an HDMI input for live TV. Along with the Xbox One console, a refreshed Kinect and redesigned controller were also shown off.
Head past the break for everything you need to know about the new Xbox One.
Sony’s PlayStation Japan studio has revealed that the previously teased “Panopticon” title is a Vita-exclusive “multiplayer action” game entitled Freedom Wars. The game centers around a seemingly totalitarian society with complete video surveillance of citizens and imprisonment with no trial.
The trailer also reveals mechanical dragons, giant mechs and several different game characters – some of which seem to wield robotic or artificially created limbs. You can look to get your hands on the game in 2014.
Reveal trailer after the break.
Footage of EA’s upcoming Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, Dawngate, has emerged through Machinima’s YouTube channel. Dawngate is currently being developed Waystone, a completely new game studio, for Electronic Arts. The game comes on the heels of the successful Defense of the Ancients “clones” that have in the eSports community, including League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth.
The game shares an art style and direction similar to that of one of the most popular MOBA games, League of Legends with its bright and saturated colors. The developers however have promised some tweaks to the standard MOBA formula that exists across the genre. As a seasoned player of MOBAs I was pleased to see the addition of resource mining for each team. Both sides will have access to a resource mine on the map and the AI will automatically mine its resources for you – requiring no additional micro-management of your units. In turn, the opposing team can attack your resource generation and stall production.
Other changes to the standard formula include the regeneration of defense towers and an even larger focus on the lore of a map and its characters. It’ll be interesting to see what this new developer can bring to the newly formed genre and if these changes really can improve upon it.
Interested? You can apply for a beta invite at Dawngate’s website and hope that you’ll be invited in time for the May 24th start of the closed beta. You can check out the Machinima gameplay and developer commentary footage after the break.
As part of today’s Nintendo Direct, Reggie-Fils Aime announced that the public will have an opportunity to demo some unreleased Wii U titles at their local Best Buy during the week of E3. Nintendo’s “E3 for the People” will only be available in the United States and Canada through Best Buy.
Rather than reserve the privilege to E3 attendees only, Nintendo has bypassed the LA expo and gone straight to the consumers with this surprising move. Nintendo has also previously announced that they will not be holding a press conference this year, although we can still expect to see a large Nintendo presence at E3 like we always do.
You can catch the full Nintendo Direct report after the break.
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Black★Rock Shooter: The Game is an action RPG title for the PlayStation Portable based on the Black Rock Shooter franchise created by Ryohei “Huke” Fuke. The franchise includes an Original Video Animation (OVA), Manga, Anime, iOS game and the focus of this review, the PSP title. The PSP title was first released in Japan on August 25th, 2011 and finally localized for the US and UK on April 23/24th.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, it’s based around a character aptly called the Black Rock Shooter (BRS) who wields a massive cannon, firing rocks at enemies. Each entry into the BRS series occurs in their own unique universes – with no continuum between them. The only thing these varying universes have in common is the Black Rock Shooter herself.
EA spokesperson Jeff Brown told Kotaku yesterday that there are no EA titles currently in development for Nintendo’s Wii U. Brown did not rule out the fact that EA may develop titles for the Wii U in the future but at this time it seems to not be in the publisher’s best interest.
EA launched multiple Wii U titles at the console’s launch, including Mass Effect 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Madden and FIFA titles. EA pledged early support for the system at the 2011 media briefing but seems to be backing away at this point, probably due to lackluster Wii U system sales.
I’m not sure about you guys but it’s been a long time since I was genuinely addicted to a game, really in to one sure but “give me a sec” responding when something you’d otherwise put down the controls for? Something THAT addictive, which brings me nicely along to the game we’re reviewing today, Velocity Ultra by Futurlabs.
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Today whilst minding our own business on twitter, the user @neonbath asked if anyone would write up something on what exactly makes a scary game, well, scary – It’s actually a question that requires more than just a basic reply so we’ll dig in our heels in deep and investigate the disgusting and the scary.
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Following the general consumer resentment towards online passes, EA has decided to cut the initiative for all their future titles. Online passes were initially bundled with new games as a one-use code that would permit access to the online features of games, including online multiplayer.
The biggest point of contention was within the used-game market as consumers would have to shell out an additional $10 for an online code if they didn’t get one with their game – a cost that sometimes brought the total of a used game + online pass over that of a new copy.