 Update: The UK pricing details have emerged. It's a little bit harder on the wallet than we expected at £689 but, given the pedigree of the companies involved in its development, it should be a solid piece of kit. The original story follows. Pre-orders for Valve and HTC’s Vive virtual reality headset are set to open at the end of the month, before the device releases in early April. The Vive will be delivered as a complete kit, including two wireless controllers, 360 degree tracking and room scale movement sensors.
Vive Phone Services allows you to combine virtual reality with actual reality, affording you the ability to respond to phone calls, send and receive text messages and check incoming calendar invites through the headset. For a limited time the consumer edition will come with two virtual reality "experiences" to get you started. Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs puts you in a world where robots have replaced all human workers and invites you to step inside the Job Simulator to see what it was like to work. Fantastic Contraption, a collaboration between Northway Games and Radical Games, has you walking around a grassy island floating in the sky, building a machine the size of a horse with your own hands and then watching it roll out into the world. You can have a gander at the trailers for each below: Offering more than just gaming, HTC is working with developers with the goal of creating content that spans many sectors, including retail, education, design, healthcare and automotive. Whilst entertainment may be the focus of virtual reality for now, it's not hard to imagine a world in which it's a vital tool in education and training.
With the high price point causing a degree of backlash, Head Writer Sam maintains his stance that Sony and their PlayStation VR will undercut the competition in order to maintain the goodwill they have built with gamers. We'll update you with the UK pricing as soon as we get some solid info, in the meantime feel free to continue this discussion in our forums.  We're back again with another round-up of some of the week's other stories.
The developer explained that it was its decision to delay the PC version as it didn't want to split focus between patching one version and developing for another. The title seemingly owes a little to the Dark Souls series. The controls are almost identical, any Souls veterans will be right at home with the combat mechanics, and death is a certainty. Although the four player co-op should help make it less frequent. The aesthetics however, are somewhat different. Bright neon hues replace deep, dark browns and there's an almost futuristic look about it, thanks partly to the way light, shadow and colour are used and partly to the purposefully unnatural environment. Feast your eyes upon the trailer below. 101 Ways To Die launches 22 March on PS4.  Vision Games' gory, physics-based puzzler assigns you the role of lab assistant to a crazy scientist (are there any other kind?). Despite years of dedicated research the scientist has nothing to show for it, excepting his book 101 Ways To Die. Unfortunately a lab accident destroys his life's work and it's up to you to help him recreate it and ensure his legacy. In each of the 50 plus levels you are given an inventory of tools and traps to place down during the preparation phase. Then, when the Splatts - strange creatures created in the lab to aid with experiments - are released you must activate said traps to cause as much carnage as possible. With such a huge range of tools at your disposal - death logs, spikes, fans, lava pits, cannons, bumpers, bombs, boulders, mines, cakes, harpoon guns, conveyor belts, switches and teleporters - you can really get creative and let your sick, twisted imagination run wild. Here's a taste of what's to come. Also coming to PS4 is Salt And Sanctuary, and developers Ska Studios have shared some info on the multiplayer aspect of the game.  According to the husband and wife development team, Salt And Sanctuary is "an insanely ambitious platformer that aims to capture the “Souls-like” genre, faithfully reimagine it as a mechanically solid 2D platformer and explore and develop the interplay of wonderful mechanics and themes like difficulty and danger, stylistic action and complex combat, and diverse, branching, and versatile character building." Sounds like quite the undertaking. Salt And Sanctuary is centred around (wait for it) sanctuaries. A sanctuary is a place to rest, replenish and respawn and each can be populated with NPC villagers. Statues are littered throughout the world and placing one of these statues on an altar will permanently summon a villager of that type to the sanctuary. Check out the rather charming multiplayer trailer. New Pokemon games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, will be hitting the 3DS later in the year. There's not a whole lot of info at the moment but both games will allow you to import Pokemon that you've captured in Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow into the game via the Pokemon Bank. We'll give you more details as they are released. Until then, check out the trailer below New to the Xbox One's Preview program is The Solus Project, a first person, narrative driven, survival-adventure game from Teotl Studios and Grip Digital. Stranded on a distant unknown planet, you're tasked with not only surviving the ever changing, alien landscape but also finding a way to save all mankind. The finished version of the game is due this spring for Xbox One and PC, but you can try the free trial right now via the preview program and, if it takes your fancy, purchase it for £10.97. Here's the early access trailer. As always you can find us over in the forums.
 Capcom have announced that they’re bringing Resident Evil 4, 5 & 6 to current generation consoles this year in celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary.
In Resident Evil 4, you take control of Leon Kennedy, a man on a mission to rescue the president’s kidnapped daughter. This game marked a turning point in the series, ditching the fixed camera angles and infamously clunky tank controls for an over-the-shoulder perspective and modern control scheme. It’s released on a plethora of consoles in the past and is widely considered a classic.
Resident Evil 5 casts you as the muscle-bound Chris Redfield, posted in Africa to investigate a terroristic threat with his partner, Sheva Alomar. It’s recommended you tackle this one in co-op thanks to your computer controlled partner's artificial lack of intelligence. Resident Evil 6 is told from the perspective of four characters; Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Jake Muller and Ada Wong. They must (you guessed it) face a bio-terrorist attack courtesy of the newly developed C-Virus. Whilst it’s possibly the least popular of the 3, it was a competent action game, home to a respectable amount of content. Each title will set you back £15.99 and come bundled with all DLC - unfortunately, they’re digital only releases, unless you reside in the Americas. With Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zer0 already available, plus a Resident Evil 2 remake on the way, we have to wonder if Nemesis will be next to receive the treatment and this bring all of the mainline Resi games to a modern audience. Will you be buying any, or all, of these? Which is your favourite? Let us know in the forums.  Ubisoft management, along with founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, have been meeting with potential investors hoping to build support for the founders and current management team in the face of a potential hostile takeover.
3000 Canadian jobs are at stake, as well as hundreds of millions in capital invested since the company opened its first studio there in 1997. Even though Ubisoft are based in France, their biggest development studio is in Montreal. That team have worked on some of Ubisoft's biggest franchises, including Assassin's Creed and Far Cry. Although Mr. Guillemot thinks it unlikely that Vivendi would shut down the Canadian studios, he believes that the assets would be better protected if Ubisoft remained independent. The publisher has "a decision-making and operational agility" according to Guillemot, one that would apparently be lost under Vivendi. Ubisoft are hoping to increase the number of Canadian shareholders to strengthen their control, and would even welcome government backing in resistance. The latter may yet come to fruition, with Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, touring the offices recently.  Mr. Guillemot and his brothers own about 9% of Ubisoft’s equity and 16% of the voting rights. Major shareholders Blackrock and Fidelity, which together own about 15% of the company, side with the brothers, but Guillemot believes they need 50% or more of the votes to block Vivendi from making board changes during the next annual shareholders meeting.
Ubisoft is one of the industry's giants, so how do you feel about the news? Let us know in the forums.  If you yearn for the days when competitive multiplayer was simpler, when soldiers wore Khaki instead of Kevlar and couldn’t wall run, double jump, or ground pound, then you may be interested in the Kickstarter project Battalion 1944.
The Kickstarter funded campaign met its development target of £100,000 within three days and the figure raised has continued to rise since then, with the total amount currently standing at just over £250,000 with six days of funding to go. Today, Bulkhead Interactive announced a number of new stretch goals after listening to community feedback. These include smaller perks, such as additional maps and greater character customisation, as well as larger additions, most notably a fully-fledged single player campaign. The complete list of stretch goals is as follows:
Bulkhead make it clear on their Kickstarter page that multiplayer is the core focus of Battalion 1944, and with all the work involved in creating a decent single player campaign, they would only consider adding one to the game should the target of £1.2M be met.
The developers also state that more details will be given on the Pacific Theatre addition and the inclusion of Japanese forces if funding reaches the £600,000 target. More than 8000 people have currently backed Battalion 1944, and if you’re tempted to help see these stretch goals realised, Bulkhead are offering a little extra incentive to those who back £25 or more by giving away an exclusive digital artbook for the game. Are you intrigued by Bulkhead’s plan to bring classic WWII-era multiplayer back to the fore? Will you be helping Battalion 1944 meet its stretch goals? Let us know your thoughts over in the forums.  Halo 5: Guardian’s latest multiplayer update Hammer Storm went live today, adding new REQ’s, game modes and couple of fan-favourite weapons.
Arriving alongside the pistol in Halo 5 will be the Gravity Hammer, which will be available in Arena, Warzone and Forge for all your Spartan smashing needs. And wherever there are Spartans wielding Gravity Hammers, Grifball isn’t far behind. Joining the community-favourite game mode will be Assault and Fiesta Slayer, the former a larger take on Grifball with additional guns and the latter bringing random starter weapons to Halo’s Deathmatch variant. To cap it all off 343 have also thrown in a new map for Arena called Torque, a space station that features a symmetrical design and moving cover in the form of pistons. According to Halo Waypoint, the map will favour Capture the Flag and Assault game modes. Head on over to Halo Waypoint for the full list of contents featured in Hammer Storm, including new stances, armour designs, weapon skins and a Legendary Storm Rifle that fires explosive plasma bolts. Snazzy. Halo 5’s multiplayer has had numerous content added since its November launch, with updates Battle of Shadow and Light and Cartographers Gift both proceeding Hammer Storm. Xbox Wire today released a few more details of the updates coming later this year, including the return of Firefight, a PvE mode which rose to popularity in Halo’s ODST and Reach. Let us know what you think of 343’s latest update, the return of Grifball and Halo: CE’s iconic sidearm over in the forums.  Today Naughty Dog released a new trailer for their upcoming blockbuster, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
There's one visual in the trailer Naughty Dog seem to have added by mistake, one taken straight from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The offending image has since been removed from the trailer after it was not so subtly pointed out to Naughty Dog on twitter, who have apologised to Ubisoft. What could the trailer mean for the game? Naughty Dog’s creative director Neil Druckmann said in a recent interview with The Sun: “I feel like the best way to honour him is to go out on top, to finish his story.” It seems highly likely that this will be the last game in the series, or at least for Nathan’s character, so what narrative surprises lay in store for us? Will he finally meet his maker? Or perhaps bump into Harrison Ford? Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will release on April 29 for PS4. Let us know your thoughts about the latest in the series over on the forum.  PC players could be getting official mod support for Fallout 4 as early as April, with console support arriving a month or two later.
There are more than a few unofficial mods currently available for the PC version of the game, but Bethesda’s plan to release an official mod kit this spring will make creating and distributing mods a heck of a lot easier.
Todd Howard said in a recent interview that Bethesda are aiming to get mod support out between the first two DLC packs, stating: “It’ll go up at that time on PC. In April." Howard confirmed that official mod support is currently going through testing, before adding: "It’ll probably be a good month before it hits Xbox One, and another month for PlayStation 4.” This could mean we'll potentially see mods on Xbox One in May, and PS4 in June, hopefully with most of the teething problems ironed out. Previously, modding has been a pastime enjoyed mostly on PC, but with Fallout 4 leading the charge this could be the start of a new era for console owners, with Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3 the most notable console game to feature mods. Bethesda's games have always attracted some of the more creative members of the modding community. There's an incredibly long list of mods available for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Some make very minor changes to the base game - such as adding Nicholas Cage as a follower or making the dragons fly backwards - whilst some are more substantial, adding new perks, weapons and even quests. Given the already generous amount of content in Fallout 4 it'll be interesting to see what the community can produce. No longer will we lament the absence of Nicholas Cage in our role playing games. Are you excited to finally see mod support on consoles? Any in particular you're hoping for? Let us know in the forums.  Star Wars Battlefront’s February update went live today, and sneaking in alongside the usual tweaks and adjustments coming our way is the inclusion of a new multiplayer map.
The new map will be available on a number of game modes, including those featuring 40 players such as Walker Assault, Supremacy and Turning Point, and will also go into rotation for the smaller multiplayer variants of Drop Zone, Blast, Fighter Squadron and Heroes Vs Villains.
The game mode Turning Point came as part of the free Battle of Jakku update last December and has so far been exclusive to the map it arrived alongside, Graveyard of Giants. Today’s update allows Turning Point to be played on all current maps that support Walker Assault and Supremacy game modes. Also included in the update is the addition of new survival mission for solo and co-op play called Ice Caves, and like the new multiplayer map it will also be based on Hoth. Twilight on Hoth is the fourth free map added to Battlefront since the game released last November, with EA sticking to their plan of supporting the game with free content and updates alongside paid DLC. EA intend to release another new multiplayer map and mission map next month for free, set on Endor and Tatooine respectively. March also sees the arrival of the first paid DLC, which comes included with the games £39.99 Season Pass. Called Outer Rim, the add on brings new weapons, heroes, maps and a new game mode. Free stuff is always nice, right? Let us know what you think of Battlefront’s latest update over in the forums.  Stainless Games have announced a new Carmageddon game for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
The fifth game in the vehicular combat series is due out mid 2016 and you can check out the brutal trailer below. People of all ages can be viciously slain for points; some in wheelchairs, some on mobility scooters and cyclists too. Even bears, penguins and aliens are potential targets. No sentient being is safe, it seems.
There are a variety of events across three game modes. You can race, chase and kill your way to the top of the leaderboards in Multiplayer mode, rise the ranks in Career mode or just see how much destruction you can cause in Freeplay. There's something for everyone, as long as your thing is mayhem. Last year's Carmageddon: Reincarnation gained mixed reviews at best, with performance issues often being cited as the reason. However, Stainless Games have stated that anyone who purchased Reincarnation through Steam, or chipped in to the kickstarter fund, will receive a copy of Max Damage on PC for free. Are you a fan of the series? Looking forward to its return? Let us know your thoughts in the forums. |
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