Owners of AMD hardware have been kept in the dark in terms of detailed specs for the upcoming Oculus Rift headset. Officially Oculus recommends that potential owners have a “Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater” but that does very little except give the reader the exact processor that they might need if they were gaming on an intel based rig.
Thankfully AMD has stepped in with their own list of recommended processors for a smooth virtual reality experience. In general AMD is recommending that VR pioneers have at least a quad-core CPU running at 3.9GHZ minimum that is based upon the 2012 Piledriver architecture which continues to power the company’s existing high end desktop offerings.
Here’s the full list of recommended VR Ready processors according to Advanced Micro Devices:
FX-9590 (8 Core @ 4.7GHZ)
FX-9370 (8 Core @ 4.4 GHZ)
FX-8370 (8 Core @ 4.0 GHZ)
FX-8350 (8 Core @ 4.0GHZ)
FX-6350 (6 Core @ 3.9GHZ)
A10-7890 APU (4 Core @ 4.1 GHZ)
A10-7870 APU (4 Core @ 3.9 GHZ)
Athlon X4 880 (4 Core @ 4.0 GHZ)
Athlon X4 870 (4 Core @ 3.9GHZ)
Does your CPU meet the minimum recommended specs for VR as outlined by AMD? Thankfully Oculus’ official minimum specs do recommend an AMD graphics card – a Radeon 290 or greater.
Square Enix’s closed beta for their upcoming next generation Hitman title went live over the weekend and I got the chance to play around with the game on PlayStation 4 over the last couple of nights. Fans are calling 2016’s version of Agent 47 a return to form combined with some worries that IO Interactive’s choice of episodic content for their latest game may leave them with little content to play between optional updates. If the closed beta is any indication than even the $15 intro pack will provide hours of shenanigans.
At its core, Hitman is an assassination simulator where players are rewarded for executing inventive kills with little room for error. Unlike other stealth titles, like say Metal Gear Solid, 47 isn’t able to down a ration to gain back his health. One bullet from an enemy is enough to send good old baldy to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The method of eliminating a target is just as important as the deposal of the evidence. If a player chooses to lace a target’s drink with rat poison be prepared to suit up as their personal waiter because often the key to a successful hit is being able to blend in with your surroundings and knowing who to impersonate.
Hitman’s closed beta featured two prologue missions set during Agent 47’s initiation into the ICA. The first training mission has 47 boarding a mock cruise-liner, creatively constructed out of planks of wood, in order to eliminate his target. The open-world nature of the game becomes readily apparent – sure Agent 47 could run headlong onto the cruiser but surely the party guests would I was out of my element within seconds. During my multiple trials at this mission I found two different ways to gain access to the boat: Pose as a member of the maintenance crew and slip in undetected through the engine bay or pretend I was a part of the security detail and walk right up through the entrance ramp.
After some trial and error I had a rough chain of individuals that I would direct 47 to knock out, pose as and blend to get to my target. This, is of course, easier said than done because it can mean either waiting for the mechanic or cook that I needed to become to enter a place on the map that wasn’t surrounded with NPCs or creating a distraction to lure them away from whatever activity they were currently doing. To make the stealth element of assassination even more prominent there are a number of NPCs marked on your HUD that can detect Agent 47 even through a disguise. Not only do potential contract killers need to plan out their disguises ahead of time but also need to be able to navigate through a sea of NPCs that is ever changing all without arousing suspicion.
Throughout my four hours with the Hitman Beta I completed maybe 10% of the feats & challenges on offer. Once you’ve successfully completed a mission once you unlock the option to replay the same mission but with a list of pre-defined ways to kill your target. One might have you cause a short in a projector – thus frying your target, another might have you modifying an ejection seat so that it appears your target died in apparent aircraft malfunction. The sheer variety of toys and methods of mayhem did provide a level of replayability I wasn’t expecting from what is essentially just the opening tutorial to an episodic game that hasn’t been released. I also had the games’ music completely disappear on me once and the entire application lock up my PlayStation 4 in another instance – clearly this was not final code that IO Interactive invited players to try. Hopefully, they’ll get some of these kinks ironed out before Agent 47 makes his first trip to Paris in the debut of Hitman on March 11th.
Canadian retailers might be receiving a new round of permanent discounted Nintendo titles thanks to the ‘Nintendo Selects’ label. Originally posted on the twitter account for retailer Video Games Plus before being permanently deleted. The below image has been making the rounds and if it’s accurate than games once considered rare, one off prints, like Super Mario All Stars for Wii & Pikmin 3 for Wii-U could be getting a new lease on life.
All titles are listed at an MSRP of $29.99 CDN but considering they span three different platforms and two generations this pricing shouldn’t be taken at face value.
We’ll find out if this expansion of Nintendo Selects is accurate closer to the March 11th street date. Do you think someone let the cat out of the bag early?
This year at the 30th Game Developers Conference the Game Developer’s Choice Awards & Independent Games Festival Awards will announce this years slate of winners on Wednesday March 16 in San Francisco, California. Now both organizations are asking their audience for their say – with the Audience’s Choice awards.
Capcom Releases Street Fighter V DLC Roadmap To Fans
The long running Street Fighter franchise gets turned on its head with the release of Street Fighter V next week. Sure gameplay additions like V-Triggers and V-Skills are going to force long time fighters to adapt to a new flow in combat but there’s something even more dramatic coming in the following months.
Instead of releasing Street Fighter V: SUPER ULTRA MEGA EDITION 2016 Capcom will roll out new characters on a monthly basis after the game’s release this Tuesday. Players will have the choice of either spending real world cash for each additional fighter or by using ‘fight money’ which they accumulate by completing single player content & playing online with others.
Not only has Capcom now outline it’s roadmap for future character releases for the next several months they’ve also said that players will able to buy the first additional character, Alex, with the fight money accumulated with just the on-disc story content.
Some of you may have heard the news that Alex will be available to all Street Fighter V players in March 2016 as well, and I’m happy to re-confirm that news here. At launch, playing through most of the single player content (in fact, just the Character Stories) will give you enough Fight Money to get Alex for free! We’ll have more information to share on Alex and the other post launch characters soon, so stay tuned.
The Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise has kept my interest for the past seven years thanks to creative writing, absolutely adorable characters, clever tongue-in-cheek lines and an intriguing battle system. With the latest adventure, Megadimension Neptunia V.II (that’s Vee two not “version 2”) the folks at Compile Heart have done an excellent job retaining what has made the series so great, while adding twists to the established formula with some new breakout characters as the icing on the Nep Nep cake.
Main characters (known as CPUs) in Megadimension Neptunia V.II represent consoles from the seventh generation (think Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii), just as they have for the entire series. This time around, the inhabitants of GameIndustri are preparing for the a time of change where the established nations of LeanBox, Planeptune, Lowee and Lastation transfer their belief to new CPUs. Returning characters like Noir and the ever peppy Neptune now must contend with the prospect of their shares (representing their land’s belief in them) shifting to the next generation of CPUs.
Narratively, the game’s story starts out quite interesting, especially when compared to games like Hyperdimension: Rebirth 1, whose story can quite awhile to kick into gear. What really helps Megadimension Neptunia V.II to stand out amongst the three main games in the series (their superior remakes) and multiple spin-offs is the use of three discrete “episodes” that all occur at different points in the series canon. The first, Zero Dimension Neptunia Z, transports Neptune and Nepgear into a doomed dimension from console generations past. If you thought that Compile Heart’s take on the 7th generation ere awesome just wait until you see their take on SEGA’s scrappy grey box from the late 90s! The second episode, Hyperdimension Game Neptune G returns us to the events in the “current” canon, focusing on the lives of the CPUs as a mysterious power causes ripples to appear in the bonds between all of them. It’s an interesting take to have all of the CPUs: Neptune, Noire, Blanc and Vert explore their private lives. The whole thing almost feels like anime episodes that give us small vignettes into the motivations of the main cast. I’ll leave the third episode as a complete surprise because it ties everything together. I feel quite refreshed that Compile Heart would take some risks in how it weaves the narrative and the multi-episodic approach is certainly welcome after the linear narrative of previous titles.
Gameplay in Megadimension: Neptunia VII shifts between two different styles – Visual novel style cut scenes with highly detailed 2D art and 3D dungeon exploration segments.
True to the presentation of other Hyperdimension titles, the 2D artwork fade as characters shift from pose to pose, if you’re looking for fluid 2D animation, the visual novel sections of Megadimension probably won’t do it for you. Thankfully compile heart’s characters are expressive as ever during the story scenes. Truly one of the great things about this series is how the writing makes self-referential material combined with jokes from the generations of games past without feeling like Neptunia is breaking the fourth wall too frequently. The English dub is also pretty great featuring the talent of Melissa Fahn reprising her on-going role of Neptune, Christine Marie Cabnos as NepGear, and Kate Higgins as Iffy, among other long time series voice talent. Interaction between light-hearted characters like Neptune and stern characters like Iffy really make this game for me. The voice talent and the writers have spent a lot of time with these characters and as they’ve matured and grown it becomes easier to appreciate the different dynamics that compose the bonds between our ensemble cast.
Dungeon exploration sections allow players to put together teams of three characters to clear out pre-built dungeons filled with some returning enemies and several original baddies created specifically for the episodes of Megadimension Neptunia VII. The party of three is able to explore the dungeons with the “leader” being the only character on screen until you come in contact with an enemy. At that point the game shifts from a large dungeon map to a smaller battle arena. Typically during my play through I’d want to bring 2 damage dealers and at least one character that has support abilities to ensure that my party stood a chance, although this is probably sound advice for any dungeon exploration RPG. Once you’ve got your basic item usage, magical abilities and statistical management abilities down the combo system used in combat becomes a worthwhile investment. Each character has three different ability types – the multi-strike Rush abilities, the hard hitting Power abilities and Standard attacks. Managing to use the correct combinations at the right time can mean the difference between a successful dungeon run and having to start your progress all over again.
Megadimension Neptunia VII deserves praise for its willingness to take risks with the established series formula when it comes to narrative. The gimmick of interweaving episodes allows us to see the same events from not only several different perspectives but different periods in Gameindustri’s history. Mechanically Megadimension does not really introduce anything that could be considered groundbreaking for the series – instead, it brings enhances from Victory and the Rebirth remakes to the PlayStation 4. Experiencing the visual novel style story bits were probably the most enjoyable part of the whole experience. It can be frustrating to grind out dungeons for some of the best loot, and losing your progress after a 40-minute dungeon run can be discouraging, but for series veterans like myself this shouldn’t deter the Nep Nep faithful. If you’ve wanted more of the absolutely awesome Compile Heart light-hearted comedy with one of the best new characters introduced to the series in some time then Megadimension Neptunia VII is the game for you!
Do you have what it takes to best a boss with one trillion hit points? That’s the question that Idea Factory International’s upcoming PS Vita exclusive strategy RPG Trillion: God of Destruction. IFI has announced that the game will be available both physical and digitally on March 29th in North America and April 1st in Europe.
In the world of Trillion: God of Destruction peace in the world of demons, the Underworld, lasted over a thousand years until the demon god of destruction, Trillion, appeared with intentions to consume the entire world. Players will have six overlord candidates at their disposal to take down Trillion and possibly through forming strong bonds this goal can be achieved.
Alongside the announcement of the release date for Trillion: God of Destruction IFI also released several screenshots an official description of one of the characters in the game Levia:
Levia holds the Crest of Envy and is Zeabolos’ childhood friend. Fiercely loyal to Zeabolos (almost to the point of obsession), she chooses to fight for him to take vengeance against Trillion for harming her friend. When she’s around others, she respectfully refers to Zeabolos as “Great Overlord,” but when they’re alone she’s a lot more forward. However, she definitely lives up to the Crest of Envy when she sees Zeabolos talking with anyone else
Check out the brand new screenshots after the jump. We’ll have more about Trillion: God of Destruction closer to its release date. Read More
2016 may very well be the year that virtual reality hits the mainstream with the impending release of both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. With the Rift set to ship to customers who pre-ordered starting later next month, March 28th, ASUS and Alienware have unveiled their lineups of “Oculus Ready” PCs.
Both manufacturers will be offering their systems either bundled with an Oculus Rift Cv1 headset or without. In terms of hardware configurations most of the bundles will utilize the Intel i5 6400 processor while ASUS & Alienware’s most expensive offerings will use the more powerful Intel Core i7-5820 processor. Depending on price point these prebuilt kits will contain a minimum of 8GB of DDR-4 RAM being reserved for the more expensive configurations. All of these builds, save for the Alienware Area 51, come standard with the Geforce 970, the Area 51 comes with the more powerful Geforce 980.
Pricing will most likely vary depending on region but as PC World points out, if you are in the United States be prepared to spend $1049 for ASUS’ lowest tier Oculus Ready build and $1699 USD for their most expensive (all prices minus cost of Oculus headset). Alienware’s entry level system the X51 R3 is comparable at $1199 but their most expensive model the Area 51 comes in at a mind-blowing $2549 USD! Certainly if you have that much cash to spend on a PC you could build it yourself for much less.
If you want to pre-order any of these systems you can do so (at least in America) at Amazon, Best Buy and oddly enough the Microsoft Store. Alienware has also opened their own Oculus Ready mini site where you can pre-order the X51 (minus Oculus headset).
It’s a bit odd that AMD hardware is nowhere to be found in any of these bundles despite the fact that AMD chipsets and Radeon Graphics Cards appear in the minimum specs released by Oculus. Perhaps this is an oversight? Regardless if you’re on a tighter budget and opt for an AMD rig over an Intel/NVidia combo you might be building it yourself.
Below are the specs for all of the rigs mentioned in this article:
Asus G11CD Intel Core i5-6400
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
8GB of DDR4 RAM
1TB hard drive
Asus ROG G20CB Intel Core i5-6400
GTX 970
16GB of DDR4 RAM
Alienware Area 51 Intel Core i7-5820K
GTX 980
16GB of DDR4 RAM
128GB SSD
2TB hard drive
Alienware X51 R3 Intel Core i5-6400
GeForce GTX 970
8GB of DDR4 RAM
1TB hard drive
When EA unveiled Unravel to the world last year during E3 I wasn’t exactly enthralled with the idea of yet another side scrolling platformer featuring a main character made out of cloth. To be honest, I always kind of pegged that as Sony’s thing and comparisons between Unravel and Little Big Planet are almost inevitable (creation tools aside) given the similarities between the two titles. This past weekend I sat down with the final build of Unravel and played through the first two of the game’s stages. After experiencing part of Yarny’s adventures, I can see what makes this game so unique from its peers.
Mechanically Unravel can easily be described as a physics-based side-scrolling puzzle game but that kind of distilled description does absolutely nothing to convey the sense of wonder, joy and happiness that will swell up inside of you when the music, art direction, and main character all work in harmony.
Unravel stars the charming Yarny who is a small doll made out of red yarn probably no bigger than the size of your hand. As players traverse the environments the doll slowly leaves behind a single thread of red yarn that trails behind. Managing your amount of yarn is absolutely pivotal to succeeding in the two stages that I got the chance to play. As the material that comprises Yarny begins to literally unravel Yarny’s appearance becomes thinner and thinner until you can no longer travel any further. Thankfully players do have at least trick up their sleeve to help manage the output of yarn – by pressing the left skin our little red friend will pull taught on the yarn tail until there is no more slack, increasing the amount of space you can move.
Because Yarny is so small the world’s sense of scale a more of a micro scale when compared to other platformers. Things like chairs, seesaws, cupboards and gates are quite the obstacle for our little yarn friend to overcome. This is a game all about environmental puzzles – the game will set you up with all of the tools that you’ll need but it is up to you to put all the pieces together. Yarny might just be heavy enough to tip an empty seesaw when standing on it but the little doll will have to find an apple or another object to weigh down the playset. There is no way to throw items or really attack enemies, instead, gameplay focuses on finding clever ways to your environment while avoiding enemies or tricking them with distractions.
Upon first glance Unravel is a charming game with unique yarn based mechanics like limiting player movement, adding more yarn to our hero with checkpoints and the ability for players to lasso themselves from tree branch to tree branch. Not wanting to spoil what little the initial levels teased me with in terms of story it feels like Unravel is going to spin a narrative that will tug at the heart strings. The developers at ColdWood have taken the time to craft the world that feels interesting, unique and also warm – like visiting an old friend’s house after being away for a long time. After playing the first few levels, you’ll surely be wanting to return to his beautifully colorful world to find all of the secrets that Unravel’s world has to find.
Bad news for Mad Catz the folks behind last Fall’s Rock Band 4 peripherals as well as the Heavy Precision Control System which was aimed at the hardcore Farming Simulator crowd. President / CEO Darren Ridchardson resigned ahead of the company reporting a profit of $1.2million for the last quarter of 2014.
This quarter was reportedly one of the best that the company has seen with sales jumping 114% over the previous year. Despite these sales increases and profits the new board has decided to layoff 37% of their total worldwide work force amidst the board restructuring. This massive reduction in workers will cost the company a $3 million “restructuring charge”.
The situation at Mad Catz perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with AAA publishers, despite making more money than their initial costs for new products like Rock Band 4 those steering the company have decided that because the game had a lower sell-through rate than initially expected reducing their workforce is the only recourse. That’s bigtime gaming in 2016 folks, massive corporations can generate one of their biggest quarters in their history and then fire more than a quarter of their workforce as if it was nothing. How is this sustainable. again?
Regarding todays developments new CEO Karen McGinnis had this to say:
“These changes will allow us to operate more effectively and help create an organization that is more agile, able to pursue growth and regain share in our core markets by simplifying our processes and reducing our operating costs, thus increasing our competitiveness and profitability without compromising the quality of our product offering. This realignment of our resources will also enable us to better support strategic initiatives that will make our product slate more competitive, help us gain added consumer interest, and create sustainable shareholder value.”
We’ve got one last chance to try out Tom Clancy’s The Division before the game’s official launch on March 8. The open beta will be available to all PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. In the past Ubisoft has said that some game modes will be locked out for agents who do not subscribe to PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live.
All of the content from the closed beta – which included the Madison Square Gardens Field Hospital single player mission and the Dark Zone multiplayer component up to level six. Agents will also get to try out a second single player mission in the open beta that hasn’t been included in any previous closed test.
Here are the dates for the Open Beta:
Xbox One – Feb 18th
PS4 / PC – Feb 19th
All servers will close at the end of February 21st
Today it was announced that PlayDeck the developers behind Yasumi Matsuno’s spiritual successor to the PlayStation classic Final Fantasy Tactics, Unsung Story, has ceased active development. This shocking revelation that the once promising strategy RPG would see no further development came in the form of an update to KickStarter backers who helped fund development efforts.
Several key staff members left the developer after their last update to backers in October 2015. PlayDeck released a short statement about the financial viability of continuing work on Unsung Story and that in time they may be able to get a third party to finish work on the game.
“After we posted our latest development progress, we unfortunately lost a few key staff members that were part of Unsung Story development, and that has had an impact on any progress since then, as well as our product focus”
Unsung Story launched their KickStarter campaign in 2014 to much fanfare. Playdeck originally pitched the game as a immersive single player strategy RPG that would explore the history of the world that Matsuno envisioned. In the fall of this year development priorities appeared to suddenly shift with PlayDeck announcing that they would be rolling out a PVP online combat mode prior to releasing any single player content.
The closed beta for Tom Clancy’s The Division was so enjoyable that I thought it was more polished and better constructed than the first year of Destiny. Although the beta might be a week behind us we haven’t forgotten what a great experience it was.
I captured over 90 minutes of footage while playing and due to some intermittent internet issues wasn’t able to upload them until today. Below you’ll find 15 minutes of gameplay from the closed beta’s only story mission – the rescue of a very important doctor from the Madison Garden field hospital.
Look forward to more Tom Clancy’s The Division coverage as the game’s March release date draws near. For those wondering this footage was captured at 720P with high settings and a 30 FPS lock on the final video for consistency’s sake.
Square Enix has revealed more details about the upcoming beta for Hitman on PlayStation 4 and PC. The beta will contain the opening prologue mission that is included in all editions of Hitman and will allow players to experience just how Agent 47 joined the ICA.
Alongside the announcement of the beta’s content Square Enix also posted a Beta FAQ and a brand new trailer. The beta will be available on Feb 9th for PlayStation 4 pre-orders and February 12th for PC.
Here is a brief synopsis that Square Enix released:
Play the beginning. The HITMAN Beta is set at a top secret recruitment and training facility and revolves around how Agent 47 joined the ICA.
Pre-order the game to guarantee access to the PS4 Beta on Feb 12th or PC Beta on Feb 19th. http://buy.hitman.com
It looks like the planned DirectX 12 support for Square Enix’s recently released PC port of Rise of the Tomb Raider may still exist in the game’s files. By updating the game’s Steam version to the latest build and then replacing the main executable with the 1.0 found on the installation DVD an Enable DirectX 12 option will appear.
Reddit user -Olek found out how to enable these menu options and quickly posted them to the /r/PCGaming sub-reddit. Files referencing DirectX 12 can be found in the V1.0 files on the original installation DVD. Here are the exact steps that -Olek followed:
Wanted to post this asap.
Messed around with the Rise of the Tomb Raider files on the latest Steam version.
“Monitor” launches the game and it stops working after the developer startup screen.
“Exclusive Fullscreen” opens the setup menu.
“Display” opens the official website page for the game.
“Graphics” opens the official Tomb Raider facebook page.
“Options” opens the official Tomb Raider youtube page.
“Stereoscopic 3D” opens the Square Enix support page.
“Enable DirectX 12” closes the launcher.
Forgot to clarify that this was achieved by replacing ROTTR.exe with the original executable from the retail version.
Earlier last year there was some speculation that Rise of the Tomb Raider might be the first Xbox One title to use DX12 technology however it appears as if that was never formally confirmed. Could Square Enix unveil a DX12 patch for Rise of the Tomb Raider somewhere down the line? Or are these references to DirectX 12 simply left overs from the development process?
