Joystiq

Hitman: Sniper Challenge, Gyromancer line up on Core Online

Sinan Kubba — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:45:00 EST

PopCap puzzler Gyromancer and Hitman: Sniper Challenge are the latest targets for Square Enix's browser-based Core Online service. Sniper Challenge, if you remember, was a pre-order bonus for Hitman: Absolution.

What both games coming to Core Online does alert us to are changes to the service's payment structure. It was originally completely free-to-play, albeit with intermittent ads. However, free play is limited now to 20 minutes each day (still with ads). At 20 minutes a day, it's going to take about a month to complete Tomb Raider: Underworld.

You can pay $2.99 per month to get full access to Core Online's library, which at present includes Hitman: Blood Money, Hitman: Sniper Challenge, Gyromancer, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Mini Ninjas. Alternatively, each game can be bought individually for $4.99.

Hitman: Sniper Challenge, Gyromancer line up on Core Online originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 May 2013 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light now stationed on Core Online

Sinan Kubba — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:59:00 EST

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light has made the jump to Core Online, Square Enix's recently unveiled cloud gaming platform. It's the third game to find its way there, with Hitman: Blood Money and Mini Ninjas made available at launch. Core Online is accessible via Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome, making Guardian of Light available to Mac users.

Lara Croft's 2010 jaunt into isometric puzzling is free-to-play through Core Online, but only if you're okay with having play interrupted by ads. The service's help page indicates ads should generally appear every 20 minutes, as long as you watch a full minute of sponsored messages at each interruption. On our testing we were offered a selection of three ads, each with different running times. 1 minute and 14 seconds of a Mini Ninjas ad gave us 25 minutes playing time.

If you prefer raiding tombs without people intermittently trying to sell you stuff, you can remove ads from the full game for $9.99, or from individual missions for $0.99 each.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light now stationed on Core Online originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Coreonline: A new cloud gaming service from Square Enix [update: how to 'earn' play time]

Richard Mitchell — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:53:00 EST

Square Enix has announced a new cloud gaming service called Coreonline, which will bring "high definition" gaming to browsers. Specifically, the service will "allows users to easily play popular, console quality games on the web." Coreonline will be accessible via Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer thanks to "a combination of Google and Square Enix's proprietary technology."

Currently there are only two titles available, Mini Ninjas and Hitman: Blood Money. In the case of Mini Ninjas, the Coreonline site merely redirects users to the Chrome Web Store, where a streaming version of Mini Ninjas has already been available for some time. Blood Money, on the other hand, will play directly in the Coreonline store. We loaded the game, at which point we were asked to watch an ad, which "earned" us 10 minutes of play time. Ads can be skipped by purchasing individual levels or entire games, according to Square Enix.

Lara Croft: Guardian of Light will be released on the service in October. Gyromancer and Tomb Raider: Underworld are also in development. At present, Mini Ninjas, Blood Money and Lara Croft support Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7. On Mac, Lara Croft and Mini Ninjas will only work in Chrome, while Blood Money does not currently support Mac at all.

Update: It turns out that you "earn" minutes of play based on which ads you choose to watch. At the end of our initial ten minutes, we were given a selection of ads, each worth a number of minutes. A 1:17 ad for Kohl's for example, is worth 26 minutes of play time, whereas a 7 second ad for the Samsung Series 9 is worth 5 minutes.

Continue reading Coreonline: A new cloud gaming service from Square Enix [update: how to 'earn' play time]

Coreonline: A new cloud gaming service from Square Enix [update: how to 'earn' play time] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments