Viper Game Zone

28/01/2019

What just happened? Crytek, the developer of the Crysis series and Warface, has announced its collaboration with Improbable has led to the development of a “new AAA game” built with SpatialOS, a …

30/04/2015

Games division records operating profit of $404m; Nearly 15m PS4s sold in past 12 months; PS Vita sales continue decline.Sony's games division has recorded $404 million operating profit during the twelve months following April 2014.The upbeat financial results were in part due to strong PlayStation 4 sales, which reached 14.8 million units worldwide during the twelve-month period. Sony expects these numbers will accelerate upwards, predicting 16 million more PS4 units sold in the twelve months from April 2015.However, its portable division, which includes the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV, continued to slide. Sales fell to 3.3 million for the financial year, down from 4.1 million the year prior. PlayStation 3 hardware and software sales also continued to decline.Sony noted that the strong overall performance for its PlayStation division was also due to a "significant" increase in network revenue, as well as robust game software sales.Encompassing all its business performances, from photography to phones, the wider Sony corporation announced a $576 million profit, a figure up 159 percent year-on-year.This year's earnings mark Sony's biggest annual operating profit in the past seven years, a dour period for the company, in which it had to revise its income projections downwards on fifteen separate occasions.More promising news for investors came from Sony's FY15/16 projections, with the company expecting its profits to quadruple over the next twelve months.

28/04/2015

Publisher agrees that its refund policy breached Australian Consumer Law.Electronic Arts has admitted that its refusal to provide refunds for games purchased digitally via Origin was against Australian consumer law and is amending its refund policy after being warned by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Kotaku Australia reports.According to the report, the publisher will also be setting up a contact number for Australian consumers who digitally purchased a faulty video game via Origin after January 2012. At the time of writing, users are able to refund a game on Origin within 24 hours after it is first launched, within seven days from the date of purchase, or within seven days from the game’s release date if it was pre-ordered; whichever condition comes first."Businesses such as EA selling digitally downloadable goods cannot avoid their responsibilities under the Australian Consumer Law just because they are located outside of Australia," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement."It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that customers are not entitled to refunds under any circumstances. Where a product has a major failure, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their choice. Representations that this right has or can be excluded, restricted or modified are false or misleading," Sims said.In a statement sent to GameSpot, EA regional public relations manager for Asia Pacific Snezana Stojanovska said, "We're pleased to have worked co-operatively with the ACCC to resolve the ACCC's concerns and ensure our players in Australia have the best possible experience when purchasing and playing EA games. In addition to rights available to our players under the Australian Consumer Law, we are also proud to offer our global, industry-leading Great Game Guarantee that allows for digital returns within certain timeframes if anyone is not satisfied with a digitally-downloaded game from EA." More details on the EA's Great Game Guarantee can be found on the Origin website.EA came under fire in 2013 for its refusal to offer refunds for SimCity, a game which launched in March with various server issues that negatively impacted gameplay. At the time, the publisher's Returns & Cancellations page stated that it did not offer refunds. The Origin Great Game Guarantee feature was introduced in August 2013 to a selected list of countries, which included Australia.EA is not the only company to face warnings from the …

28/04/2015

Creative destruction aplenty in this new video captured "directly from console."Developer Avalanche Studios has aired the world's first look at Just Cause 3 gameplay, with a video montage said to be captured directly from a console.The video showcases the extent of Just Cause 3's potential for unrelenting destruction, with helicopter dog fights, high-speed car chases, planes ripping through pylon structures, and entire facilities going up in plumes of fire.Between these scenes of destruction, the short trailer also hints at the exotic splendour of Just Cause 3's Mediterranean archipelago, Medici. Players are tasked with finding enemy bases within this fictional set of islands, as well as its propaganda billboards and loudspeakers, all of which must be destroyed. As the trailer shows, such obliteration can be approached creatively:Publisher Square Enix said those who pre-order Just Cause 3 will be given the Weaponised Vehicle Pack, shown at the end of the trailer. This bonus content comes with three "exclusive luxury vehicles primed for action and fully loaded with the firepower to kick-start a revolution."Just Cause 3 launches this holiday for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. GameSpot recently visited Avalanche's offices in Sweden and got to play some of the game. You can read our impressions here.Recent screenshots can be found below, and click through the link for more Just Cause 3 details.

14/03/2015

Soon after the BBC announced its intention to make a film about Grand Theft Auto, I read a few tweets and comments expressing disappointment about the planned production.Some are underwhelmed that the film, due in the fall, will tell the story of the making of the GTA games, rather than providing a lurid excursion to its fantasy gangster world.I take a different view. I'm delighted that the Beeb has decided to go in this docudrama direction. The story of how GTA came to be is vastly more interesting than the somewhat rote narratives of the actual games and their parade of derivative characters.Grand Theft Auto is the most important video game series in the world. It helped to bridge the divide between abstract gameplay and the richness of Hollywood / HBO productions. Its release coincided with, and contributed to, a massive explosion in gaming.GTA raises all sorts of questions about violence, crime and drug use in games. For better or worse, it is a focal point for discussions about the portrayal of women and minorities in games, and about the role of games in telling massive stories about the "real" world.GTA is a case study in both the bravery of artists who want to tell their own kind of stories on new platforms, and the cynicism of impresarios who understand the immense value of notoriety and shock publicity.I highly recommend David Kushner's 2012 book Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto. It tells the story of how Dan Houser, his brother Sam and close associates, took over an already popular game franchise and turned it into a cultural giant.It focuses on their skills as marketers and entertainers and their ultimate triumph over a confused and conservative establishment that failed to appreciate how far games had come as storytelling devices, and how much they meant to people.But the book also shows that the Housers were no angels. They drove their teams hard and, in Kushner's telling, they don't seem especially likable. They courted notoriety when it suited them, but didn't really rise to the occasion when things turned nasty.The tale of Hot Coffee, a hidden sexual scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas revealed by a modder, shows their strengths as well as their weaknesses. They wanted sexual content in the game, but then they canned it under pressure from retailers ... but then it got out anyway, and the publisher tried to blame the modder who discovered it. The sexual scenes themselves were embarrassingly bad.It's revealing that although …

08/03/2015

FORBES’ latest cover story, for the FORBES Billionaires issue, is on Markus Persson, aka “Notch,” the creator of Minecraft, which was sold to Microsoft for a whopping $2.5 billion last year.This propelled Persson to the FORBES Billionaire list, where he’s valued at $1.3 billion.(For some perspective, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, at the top of the list, is worth $79.2 billion.)Notch is one of the highest profile billionaires in the video game space.The only billionaire as famous in the West is Valve’s Gabe Newell, or “Gaben” as many devotees call him, the man at least partly responsible for such gaming phenomenons as Portal 2, the Half-Life franchise, and Steam.But there are other, much richer, names in video games. For the purposes of this list we’ll keep our definitions narrow.Bill Gates may be the founder of the company behind the Xbox, but his wealth was created by productivity software and operating systems, not Halo.Likewise, both Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook have their fingers in gaming—Amazon is developing its own games now, and Facebook used to be quite popular as a gaming platform, and recently acquired the Oculus Rift VR headset—but their fortunes were built on online retailing and social media respectively.The majority of video game billionaires aren’t American, or even Western. Notch is Swedish, and Newell is American, but most of this list’s members hail from Asia, where free-to-play online games have taken the world by storm.Let’s take a look.1. Ma Huateng – $16.3 B – #56 – Tencent – ChinaTencent is a giant in China, and Ma Huateng is its founder, chairman, and CEO. He’s also the fourth wealthiest man in the country according to FORBES.Tencent Holdings (Market Cap $135.41 B) is more than just a gaming company, and Huateng’s wealth is listed as “internet media” but there’s no doubt that its 440 million users are heavily tapped intogames. The company partners with western publishers like 2K and Activision to bring games like Call of Duty Online to China, and publishes numerous free-to-play titles in the Chinese market.The company also owns stake in Epic Games, and a majority stake in the huge free-to-play hit League of Legends.Read more about Ma Huateng here.2. William Ding – $6.6 B – #208 – NetEase – ChinaSecond on the list is William Ding.Ding founded NetEase (Market Cap $9.08 B) in 1997 with about a dozen employees. The company is now one of the largest online and mobile game companies in the world, with 8,000 workers and …

02/03/2015

Amiibo initially dubbed too big and too costly by Japanese distributors.Nintendo has attributed the success of its Amiibo figures in the West partly to Activision's Skylanders and Disney's Disney Infinity toys-to-life franchises, according to president Satoru Iwata. Speaking during Nintendo's end of 2015 fiscal year earnings call, Iwata answered questions about the regional disparity for Amiibo sales and their attach rates to compatible games."When it comes to the figure and video game entertainment category, there are two existing franchises: Activision released Skylanders four years ago, and Disney released Disney Infinity two years ago… However, before we actually launched Amiibo, the number of consumers who were aware of the overall concept of this product category, namely, toy figures are lined up on a store shelf in the video game section and when you buy and use it with a game, something very fun would happen, differed greatly in Japan from the rest of the world," Iwata said.According to the Nintendo president, the United States in particular had already established a large toys-to-life market, whereas the category had "yet to show results in [Japan]." Iwata also revealed that Japanese distributors had initially dismissed Amiibo toys as being "a little too big in size" and too costly for a figure in the Japanese market. Despite this, Nintendo decided to go ahead and launch the Amiibo we see today, saying it was "most appropriate for the global market."Iwata also revealed that Nintendo has been "testing various forms of Amiibo other than plastic figures" in addition to the card-format Amiibo products which were first announced in October last year during an earnings call.Over 5.7 million Amiibo figures have been sold since the toys were launched last year. Nintendo recently lowered the suggested retail price for select Amiibo figures, down to $9.99 from $12.99. A new wave of Amiibo is expected to be released this month and includes Charizard, Pac-Man, Lucina, and more.

23/02/2015

In Neil Patrick Harris’s opening song and dance number, the comedian and host of the 87th Oscars mentioned he hoped Kanye West would show up. Of course, as we all know, when Kanye shows up to an awards ceremony it’s to give award to somebody he thinks is more deserving of the honor.Fortunately for last night’s winners, Kayne was nowhere to be seen, and the ceremony went off without a hitch (John Travolta face-touching Idina Menzel notwithstanding.)So allow me to play Kanye for the moment, without upstaging anyone, and without any hard feelings toward the winners, all of whom no doubt deserve their shiny statues.Here are my top picks for some of the biggest categories for the past year in film. If a category isn’t listed it’s because I don’t feel like pulling a Kanye in that category. Or can’t make up my mind. Or don’t care.Now, without further ado, this year’s Alternative Oscars….Best Animated Feature Film: ‘How To Train Your Dragon 2′As much as I loved Big Hero 6—I still do the Baymax fistbump any chance I get—and as much as I loved a lot of the animated movies up for “Best Animated Feature Film” and some that weren’t (LEGO Movie!) none were as ambitious and powerful and stunning as the sequel to How To Train Your Dragon.A great cast of characters, a story that’s in turns thrilling and tragic and hilarious, and some of the best animation in any film to date, all make How To Train Your Dragon 2 the best animated film of the year.I’m not alone in this, either. FORBES’ Scott Mendelson was rooting for the film to win as well. Hopefully the third in the series can pull off its very own Return of the King.Read More – “How To Train Your Dragon 2 Deserves A Really Good Video Game”Best Supporting Actor: The Puppy From ‘John Wick’Okay, yes, maybe this is a little tongue-in-cheek, and maybe I’m just trying to find a way to give John Wick an award without actually giving it Best Picture (if the Academy gave out Best Action Film it would win hands down) but I defy you to find a more moving performance than John Wick’s puppy.For a film largely about killing people (with two shots to the chest and one to the head) that little dog made it rain.A runner-up might be straight-faced lobby boy Tony Revolori from The Grand Budapest Hotel. But I’m sticking with the puppy.Read More – “Birdman” And “Budapest” Lead A Predictable List Of Oscar NomineesBest Director: Wes Anderson for ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’Anderson’s made a lot of great films and a few middling films as well, but The …

23/02/2015

Love this game

NHL 94 was programmed in a cabin in Maine by a guy who knew nothing about hockey.Professional hockey game NHL Hockey 94 is considered to be one of the most iconic and influential sports games of all time. So you might be surprised to learn it was developed in a barn in Maine by a man who knew nothing about hockey.Maine news publication The Bangor Daily News has profiled NHL 94's lead programmer, retired game developer Mark Lesser, offering a fascinating look into his life and career."I'd never watched a hockey game, I didn't know anything about it," Lesser, an MIT graduate with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, said.To get up to speed, Lesser took a trip to Electronic Arts' campus in California. Other developers working on the NHL franchise--intense hockey fans--took Lesser to a professional hockey game and taught him more about the sport."I didn't know what the heck they were talking about. I just smiled a lot," Lesser recalled.Armed with this knowledge, Lesser returned to his cabin in Brooklin, Maine to get to work programming what would become NHL 94. It wasn't uncommon back then for a single person to program an entire game, with others working on art and other elements.NHL 94 turned out to be a breakaway hit, introducing franchise-firsts such as one-timers and goalie control. A sailing slapshot could shatter the glass behind the goal, something never before seen in the NHL series.Lesser, now 66, developed NHL follow-ups through 1999. His final game for EA was a motocross title released in 2000. He is now retired, living in his coastal Surry home overlooking Union River Bay.NHL 94 is so beloved that 2013's NHL 14 included an "NHL 94 Anniversary" throwback mode that brought the look and feel of the SNES/Genesis game to modern consoles.The full story is a fascinating read and is well worth your time if you're interested in video game history.

19/02/2015

You’ll never believe number seven!The Order: 1886 is one of the biggest releases of the first part of 2015. The game lands on Friday February 20th, and it’s inspired all sorts of debate.The game’s makers, Ready at Dawn, have gotten pretty defensive about a lot of the speculation and accusations flying around. And gamers and the press are divided in all the usual ways.Many in the Sony camp are pinning their hopes and dreams to The Order: 1886. Though why anyone would unflinchingly be in the “camp” of a massive corporation outside of its investors, I truly do not know.Impressions of the game have been mixed. Some fairly positive, others fairly negative. We won’t know much until reviews—including my own review of the game—land tomorrow morning.And ultimately, I fear that this will continue to be a divisive game well after release. Reviews will shed some light, but only some. And reviewers and gamers will undoubtedly butt heads.In any case, here are eleven helpful non-review-thingies you should know about the game before reviews themselves sail in, and before you count out $59.99 for a copy.1. It’s the perfect game to pair with Mountain Dew and Doritos!Here’s why: There are so many cut-scenes and moments where you don’t have to do anything but sit and watch, you’ll have your hands free. This makes it super easy to wolf down super delicious Doritos which can only be properly washed down with gulp after gulp of frosty fresh Mountain Dew!Just be aware that there are also….2. Quick Time Events!I know, crazy right? Even after other developers like CD Projekt RED have sworn to never again use this horrible mechanic, Ready at Dawn has used tons of QTEs in The Order: 1886. I’m still scratching my head about this one. I’ll have lots to say about it in my review, which lands tomorrow morning at 5 am PST.3. You don’t really notice the black bars.Honestly, the game looks phenomenal. I don’t care what anyone says about a visual downgrade. And the black bars, while offputting at first, quickly fade into the background. The frames-per-second should be higher, though.4. You can seriously admire the guns.When you pick up a new type of weapon for the first time, you can rotate it around in your arms and marvel at its beauty. Then you can go shoot people with it. But I’ve never played a game that paid such homage to its arsenal. I wish there were swords to marvel over in this same fashion.Read More – Predicting 2015′s Biggest Video Game Disappointments5. The game doesn’t use the …

19/02/2015

The winning bidder of Sony's limited edition 20th anniversary PlayStation 4 has backed out from the auction after placing a bid of ¥15,135,000, or around $129,000, for the rare console earlier this year, Famitsu reports.It's unclear why the bidder, who remains anonymous, has pulled out. Sony, however, will donate the same amount to the Save The Children Japan charity as planned. The company will also keep the machine, which you can see in the gallery below.The special edition of the PlayStation 4 was designed to look like the original, gray PlayStation and comes with a matching controller. Only 12,300 of the special edition consoles are being produced globally.Sony began its auction of the console, which features the coveted "00001" unit number, earlier this year. According to the official Yahoo! Auction page, the console received 1,585 bids starting with a bid of ¥1.

19/02/2015

You'll soon be able to take screenshots on your Xbox One, according to a post on Xbox Wire."Earlier this month," the post reads, "we added a host of new features and improvements on Xbox One and starting today, members of the Xbox One preview program will get to check out even more new features — some of which are planned for the March system update."The post, called "Xbox One March system update: Screenshots and suggested friends now available in preview," counts screenshots among a "list of features in the March system update preview that are starting to roll out tonight."The long-awaited feature, one of several planned for March, works like Xbox head Phil Spencer’s screenshot teased early this month. According to an Xbox Wire post, double-tapping the glowing Xbox button and pressing Y will save a screenshot. Or, if you have a Kinect and you’re not into thumb movement, you can also just say, "Xbox take a screenshot," and the console will obey.Microsoft is updating its Upload app to allow users to manage screenshots, which can be used as the console’s background image.Must ReadSpencer on Xbox One's new dash, updates and how Windows 10 will arrive on your Xbox"In coming preview builds," the post reads, "you will be able to use Upload to share screenshots to your activity feed, attach to messages, add screenshots to your showcase, and eventually share to Twitter. Also, your screenshots will be visible in your profile alongside your game clips. In the initial preview build, the sharing functions are not yet enabled, but you can start capturing screenshots and using them for your backgrounds."The March update also includes a suggested friends feature, which is designed to help Xbox players find friends. Those suggestions will include "top broadcasters and clip creators." Xbox One users will also be able to share their real names with all friends or everyone on Xbox Live, set the transparency of background images, and report spam in the Messages app.Microsoft announced the Xbox One beta program in February 2014. By May, Spencer said that the screenshot feature was on the company’s list for its steady monthly software updates. Sony's PlayStation 4, Microsoft's current-gen console competitor, launched in the same month as the Xbox One and has included a screenshot feature since its release. Spencer said last October that adding screenshots to Xbox One was "technically challenging" for a variety of reasons.The Xbox One preview program allows players to test …