Provinciano's determination to port Grand Theft Auto 3 to NES hardware escalated into a love letter to video games and pop culture. While Provinciano hasn't announced his next project yet, he says we should expect more humorous open-world games.
Provinciano's determination to port Grand Theft Auto 3 to NES hardware escalated into a love letter to video games and pop culture. While Provinciano hasn't announced his next project yet, he says we should expect more humorous open-world games.
Developer Remedy has moved on to Quantum Break, but there is the possibility that Mr. Wake's influence will be felt in the upcoming game.
Futatsugi is best known for creating the Panzer Dragoon series, notably the much loved but hard to find RPG, Panzer Dragoon Saga, so the prospect of a Crimson Dragon RPG should be an exciting one for fans.
Right now the team is focused solely on finishing the current game, he said, but the story and atmosphere of Crimson Dragon have been crafted in such a way that it could easily be turned into an RPG. Grounding already has many team members who worked on the likes of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta, including Crimson Dragon's programming lead, design lead, art lead and sound team. When the decision was made to bring Crimson Dragon to Xbox One, the team also acquired the art designer from Futatsugi's original Xbox cult classic, Phantom Dust.
Of course, few people have played Panzer Dragoon Saga, and many may not understand what all the fuss is about. The game was released at the end of the Sega Saturn's lifecycle, and only 30,000 copies were produced for North America. I asked Futatsugi if he'd like to see Panzer Dragoon Saga re-released as a downloadable game, especially given Sega's recent retro push with games like Jet Set Radio and Nights.
He would like to see Saga re-released, he said, and the subject comes up from time to time at the Grounding offices. Usually, these discussions end with the team realizing that the game would be very difficult to remake. Still, Futatsugi said he would love to play it again.
Crytek dips its beautiful toes into iOS waters with 'The Collectibles'
by Jessica Conditt
(2 hours ago)
The Collectibles has players command a team of five through the ruins of war in a jungle environment, as shown by a series of screenshots with the report. The Collectibles allows for touchscreen or controller play, or both simultaneously for some features.
The Collectibles doesn't officially exist yet. Crytek's most recent foray into our headlines was with Ryse: Son of Rome, a third-person action game coming to Xbox One. We got a chance to play it during E3 and found it more aggressive than expected.
Spark founder Santo Politi and Matrix general partner Antonio Rodriguez are now on the board of directors for Oculus Rift, after they led the first funding round.
"In this business, there are only a few rare companies that can so perfectly embody the future you read about in science fiction novels," Rodriguez says in a press release. "What Palmer, Brendan and the team are building at Oculus so closely matches the Metaverse, we had to be part of it. Working with them to get this platform to market at scale will be enormously exciting."
A mere $16 million gets you access to the Metaverse. Not bad.
In Surgeon Simulator 2013, players attempt vital organ transplants from a first-person perspective using an intentionally awkward control scheme. It suffices to say that if you're squeamish, head-tracking and motion-sensing peripherals won't make the experience any less nauseating.
The peripheral-enhanced version of Surgeon Simulator 2013 will be playable at Rezzed 2013 in Birmingham on June 22 and 23. An update adding official support for the Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra will be released to the public "soon."
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE YOUR EYES. BE NIGEL, ON OCULUS RIFT!
Bossa Studios puts meat on the bones: Surgeon Simulator 2013TM now supports cutting-edge peripherals, playable at Rezzed show this weekend
London, 17 June 2013 - Bossa Studios announced today that Surgeon Simulator 2013 will soon support the hotly anticipated Oculus Rift™ and the Razer Hydra®, taking surgery to the next level of mayhem and creating the most immersive operating theatre experience ever. In addition, the game will be playable with the hardware at the Rezzed Show at the NEC in Birmingham on June 22 and 23 2013.
Released on Steam in April 2013 at £6.99 (or equivalent), Surgeon Simulator 2013 has quickly become nothing short of a phenomenon. The original prototype – developed in just 48 hours at the 2013 Global Game Jam in January 13 – challenged players to complete a heart transplant using a combination of keyboard and mouse actions, armed only with an arsenal of clumsy and inappropriate tools and a hapless hand that was diabolical to control.
Set to release soon and with development kits already with Kickstarter backers, the Oculus Rift allows players to step into game. It was one of the big hits at this year's E3 show in Los Angeles, impressing the audience with its stereoscopic 3D experience and a huge field of view.
For additional information on the game, please visit the following links:
Official game site: www.surgeonsimulator2013.com
Twitter: @surgeonsim2013
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OfficialSurgeonSimulator2013
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com//app/233720
About Bossa Studios
London-based Bossa Studios is led by a team of veterans from the worlds of gaming and entertainment. Proud creators of BAFTA-winning Monstermind, and the BAFTA-nominated Merlin: The Game, Bossa Studios has revolutionised the social gaming market. Its achievements of developing and publishing innovative games resulted in it being awarded the Develop Excellence Award for best 'New Studio' in 2012. As part of Shine Group, the Studio is also developing new transmedia experiences.
www.bossastudios.com
Bossa Studios puts meat on the bones: Surgeon Simulator 2013TM now supports cutting-edge peripherals, playable at Rezzed show this weekend
London, 17 June 2013 - Bossa Studios announced today that Surgeon Simulator 2013 will soon support the hotly anticipated Oculus Rift™ and the Razer Hydra®, taking surgery to the next level of mayhem and creating the most immersive operating theatre experience ever. In addition, the game will be playable with the hardware at the Rezzed Show at the NEC in Birmingham on June 22 and 23 2013.
Released on Steam in April 2013 at £6.99 (or equivalent), Surgeon Simulator 2013 has quickly become nothing short of a phenomenon. The original prototype – developed in just 48 hours at the 2013 Global Game Jam in January 13 – challenged players to complete a heart transplant using a combination of keyboard and mouse actions, armed only with an arsenal of clumsy and inappropriate tools and a hapless hand that was diabolical to control.
Set to release soon and with development kits already with Kickstarter backers, the Oculus Rift allows players to step into game. It was one of the big hits at this year's E3 show in Los Angeles, impressing the audience with its stereoscopic 3D experience and a huge field of view.
For additional information on the game, please visit the following links:
Official game site: www.surgeonsimulator2013.com
Twitter: @surgeonsim2013
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OfficialSurgeonSimulator2013
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com//app/233720
About Bossa Studios
London-based Bossa Studios is led by a team of veterans from the worlds of gaming and entertainment. Proud creators of BAFTA-winning Monstermind, and the BAFTA-nominated Merlin: The Game, Bossa Studios has revolutionised the social gaming market. Its achievements of developing and publishing innovative games resulted in it being awarded the Develop Excellence Award for best 'New Studio' in 2012. As part of Shine Group, the Studio is also developing new transmedia experiences.
www.bossastudios.com
The Nintendo 3DS finally edged out the Xbox 360 in May 2013 as the best selling console across hardware and portables, according to the NPD's monthly report on the retail sector.
In what the NPD claims was a slow month overall, the 3DS landed three different games on the top 10 (including Donkey Kong Country Returns at number three, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon at number five, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes at number 10), and saw a sixty percent growth in software sales overall since last May. 3DS hardware sales were only even year-over-year, but that was enough to finally supplant the Xbox 360 as the top-selling platform.
The other consoles didn't fare quite so well, with Injustice: Gods Among Us keeping the top spot for video game sales. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 jumped back up into the number two spot, and Battlefield 3 reappeared at number nine. Metro: Last Light had a relatively successful showing in the number six spot, while Trion's Defiance MMO fell right off the list, after starting off at number five in April.
Accessories saw a six-percent drop to $115.3 million, according to the NPD, with most of that money coming from Skylanders.
In what the NPD claims was a slow month overall, the 3DS landed three different games on the top 10 (including Donkey Kong Country Returns at number three, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon at number five, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes at number 10), and saw a sixty percent growth in software sales overall since last May. 3DS hardware sales were only even year-over-year, but that was enough to finally supplant the Xbox 360 as the top-selling platform.
The other consoles didn't fare quite so well, with Injustice: Gods Among Us keeping the top spot for video game sales. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 jumped back up into the number two spot, and Battlefield 3 reappeared at number nine. Metro: Last Light had a relatively successful showing in the number six spot, while Trion's Defiance MMO fell right off the list, after starting off at number five in April.
Accessories saw a six-percent drop to $115.3 million, according to the NPD, with most of that money coming from Skylanders.
The Cave on iOS doesn't have virtual analog sticks or buttons, but allows the player to tap and drag characters around the map, and choose characters with a poke on their respective icons along the bottom of the screen, the hands-on report notes.
The Cave features seven characters with murky morals and, at times, even murkier gameplay, we found. There's no word on how much the iOS version will cost, but the price shouldn't be any steeper than the walls of that deep, dark, sentient cave.
Double Fine is using a second (and already successful) Kickstarter to produce "Massive Chalice," an ambitious turn-based strategy game that hinges on the lineage of your kingdom. Project lead Brad Muir is candid about the early delta between the game's promises – allowing you to produce and raise multiple generations of heroes in a war against demons – and the reality anticipated by those committed to its crowdfunding drive.
"We're gonna mess up in public, and that's a little bit scary, but it's also like – I think it helps build trust too," Muir told me during E3 last week. "We're totally fallible, and we're gonna trip up, but we'll figure it out and we're gonna make the game the best game it can be."
Muir also responded to fears from backers who have yet to see the fruition of Double Fine's previous Kickstarter project, Broken Age, and expressed enthusiasm over developing a game with "the doors wide open on the studio."
Managing director Adam Badowski confirmed with Gamasutra that the new 20-person studio will head up a smaller project while CD Projekt Red's core Warsaw-based team develops The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077.
"This July we are opening an office in Krakow," Badowski said. "As we informed in our strategy outlook some time ago, aside from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, the studio aims to develop two smaller (approximately 20h of gameplay) premium quality titles. Consisting of 20 people, the core team in Kraków will be responsible for developing one of these games."
CD Projekt Red previously announced plans to expand its catalog with a variety of smaller-budget multiplatform games through 2015. Further details regarding these projects are not yet known.
Microsoft owns the IP for Class4, following a deal that funded and developed State of Decay, Weathers said: "We cannot begin working on Class4 without a greenlight from Microsoft ... and a mutually agreeable contract." Undead is still talking with Microsoft about the specifics of Class4.
State of Decay was originally called Class3, and Undead viewed it as the first step toward that larger MMO project, Undead founder Jeff Strain told us in 2011. "The minute-by-minute core of the game will all be there in Class3," Strain said. "The only thing it won't have is the massive player participation the sequel will have."
Today, Weathers explained the negotiations with Microsoft regarding Class4. "We have to agree on where we think the technology is going to be in a few years (since the game will take a few years to develop); we have to agree that we have the same goals; and we have to agree on how we'll collectively run and support the final game," Weathers said.
State of Decay is doing well – since its launch on June 5, it's been crowned the fastest-selling original game on Xbox Live Arcade, ever, with 500,000 sales. We found State of Decay's premise and vibe to be tense (in a mostly good way), but we ran into some technical issues that Undead is currently having problems patching.
Dota 2 entered beta in 2011, and nearly anyone can now purchase an early access key and start playing immediately. The early access key costs $30 and adds some downloadable goodies, though Dota 2 is a free-to-play game and it should live up to that descriptor when it goes live sometime before August.
This rebranding – combined with the Final Fantasy 13 name getting second billing to its lead character – provides some compelling evidence that the developer might be a little ashamed of that "lucky" number these days.
Last week at E3, Sony detailed plans for PlayStation Plus moving forward. While it's required for online multiplayer on PS4, it won't be necessary for video services or certain free-to-play games, and won't see a price increase during its transition to next-gen.
Sony announced during E3 that a PlayStation Plus membership is required for online multiplayer in PS4 games, leading some to question whether free-to-play games would be exempt from the platform's subscription requirements.
"As far as free-to-play games are concerned, it's a publisher's decision whether they put it inside or outside of the PlayStation Plus requirements," Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said.
Yoshida additionally confirmed that the PS4 versions of Zombie Studios' Blacklight: Retribution and Digital Extremes' Warframe will be free-to-play, and will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to play.
State of Decay sells over half a million copies, update being re-patched
by Alexander Sliwinski
(8 hours ago)
But everything isn't headshots and restful nights with State of Decay, as the game's first title update did experience some hiccups. XBLA Fans reports the patch on Friday night didn't do everything as intended. Undead Labs' founder Jeff Strain went to the company forums and said, "Reports started coming in that other bugs we had verified internally as fixed were apparently not fixed on the live version of the game." No word yet when that patch will be patched.
The game is currently in development for a PC release on Steam. Strain says Undead Labs "just need to integrate with the Steam platform and add native support for keyboard and mouse control."
Xbox boss says $500 Xbox One is 'over-delivering on value,' name-drops Halo 5
by Richard Mitchell
(8 hours ago)
"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said. "We're over-delivering value against other choices, I think, consumers can get. Any modern product these days, you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think that they're going to love it when they use it."
What will convince consumers to opt for Xbox One, he said, is the breadth of services the console will have available. Specifically, he mentioned Twitch streaming, Skype and SmartGlass.
During the same interview, Mattrick also referred to the next Halo game as Halo 5. At Microsoft's E3 press briefing, a reveal trailer referred to the game simply as "Halo."
This is Co-Opinion, where two Joystiq editors play a game and discuss their experience.
Dave Hinkle: As far as piggy back rides go, I think I've had the best one of my life in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Wii U. You made me feel safe during our E3 demo, Jordan. You protected me.Jordan Mallory: Well it's Donkey Kong's responsibility to protect the well-being of his little nephew Diddy, Dave. There are a lot of dangerous viking walruses and perilous pits around this tropical paradise.As for the competition, Sony's Jack Tretton has stated that pricing on PS4 games will range between $.99 and $60. Wii U games are also priced at $60, a $10 increase over the suggested price of games on the Wii.
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'You know what? We're Blacklist, let's try to build on it.'
— Splinter Cell: Blacklist Producer Sébastien Ebacher on evolving Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer.
The Joystiq Podcast
Super Joystiq Podcast Special: E3 2013 Day 2
Latest episode: Thursday, June 13th, 2013