Intel’s Haswell begins bridging the graphics gap

Intel’s HD graphics have previously been notoriously bad since they began integrating them on motherboards and in notebooks. Over the years they’ve improved and the first real shot at Intel having “good enough” graphics was reached with the HD3000, which allowed for 1080p decoding and could run browser-based games with little trouble.

Beyond that, however, was still a slideshow. HD4000 brought that up even more and even made some games playable at 720p. Now, with Haswell, Intel’s going for better performance with the HD4600. Chinese site ITOCP released a preview of Haswell’s performance and it looks like the latest pre-release drivers have solved some performance issues. Hit the jump for more details.

Tags: AMD, Core i7-4770, Haswell, Intel

Posted by Wesley Fick May 21, 2013

0 Comments

Blink and you’ll miss it; Sony releases teaser trailer for PS4

Today, Microsoft plans to reveal the successor to the Xbox 360 during a live-streamed event held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Not to miss out on any of the excitement and hype, Sony has released this epilepsy-inducing teaser trailer for the PlayStation 4 console.

If you recall, when Sony “unveiled” the PlayStation 4 all the way back in February this year, they never actually showed the console. We did, however, get to see the controller with its built-in PS Move lights and touch-pad. At the time, Sony said they still hadn’t finalised the look of the PlayStation 4 console. Many people said that it didn’t really matter that Sony didn’t show off the console because it’ll essentially be a black box that sits under your TV; the controller is what really matters anyway.

Now we get this teaser trailer that’s been carefully designed to show off bits of the console, but not enough to allow you to piece the whole thing together without it looking like it came out of a botched cloning experiment. Also there’s a lot of stuff that’s blurred out. Spoiler: you’re going to see practically nothing other than a hunk of black plastic with some fancy vents. You’ll have to wait until E3 to see the thing properly. Hit the jump for the teaser.

Tags: PlayStation 4, Sony

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 21, 2013

0 Comments

EA Sports developer says Wii U is “Crap”

In this month’s edition of “industry people who lost their jobs because of saying dumb stuff on Twitter”, we turn our attention away from Adam Orth to watch the surely imminent employment meltdown of one Bob Summerwill.

Earlier, EA confirmed that they have absolutely nothing in pipelines for Nintendo’s Wii U console. This is likely due to the fact that the über massive Frostbite engine will not be making an appearance on the Wii U; that’s problematic when you remember that EA is using Frostbite to power pretty much everything, including the company filter coffee machines.

In the wake of this information, Mr. Summerwill of EA Sports’ Canada studios fired out a couple of foolish tweets in response to a prompt for information on why EA isn’t supporting the console: “The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an XBOX360. Poor online/store. Nintendo are walking dead at this point.”

Tags: EA Sports, Nintendo, Wii U

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 20, 2013

12 Comments

It’s Diablo III’s Birthday (Play if you want to)

If you play Diablo III, then you likely already know that from May 15 to May 21, players have a “Happy Anniversary, Diablo III” buff in-game that boosts Magic Find and +EXP by 25% (that does stack with Nephalim Valor and Paragon Levels). There’s never been a better time to level some alts and make use of that stash of crafting materials you’ve been hoarding. If you didn’t know about the buff: there’s only one day left, don’t waste it!

Unfortunately, the Anniversary buff doesn’t contribute to the drop chance of Keywarden keys, so if you’re still trying to craft your Hellfire Ring, I feel you. I’ve a pretty competent Witch Doctor, but running Monster Power 10, and getting 5 stacks of NV, before engaging the Keywarden, is no easy task. The Matchmaking Tags introduced in 1.0.8 help with finding groups to do Keywarden runs, but it’s still a pretty high-risk endeavor.

It’s almost time for Blizzcon (November 8-9), and I’m sure I can’t be the only one hoping they’ll announce a big content update for Diablo III (previously known as “expansions”), because even though the game gets much right, it does need more content first and foremost.

Posted by Miktar May 20, 2013

9 Comments

Spicy Horse zombifying the Wizard of Oz

American McGee has this preoccupation with transforming popular children’s literature into twisted video games. He’s the guy behind the two Alice games as well as the more recent Akaneiro: Demon Hunters (based on Little Red Riding Hood) action RPG. McGee and his development team, Spicy Horse, have a Kickstarter campaign for a third Alice game; it sounds quite a bit different to the previous two. In addition to a potential new Alice (if IP owner Electronic Arts provides its blessing), Spicy Horse has revealed Ozombie – a zombie infested take on The Wizard of Oz.

Those of you with a good memory might recall the ill-fated Oz game American McGee first teased back in 2004. That game was supposed to be published by Atari, but it never actually materialised. Ozombie has absolutely nothing to do with the cancelled 2004 Oz game.

Details are slim but the game will feature Dorothy, Toto, TinMan, Lion and Scarecrow – although Scarecrow will likely be a zombie considering his search for brains. Overall the game will have a Steam Punk aesthetic; planned platforms are tablets, PC, Mac and Linux. Head on over to the official Facebook page for lots of concept art and updates. And in case you were wondering: yes, there’ll be a Kickstarter for this game too.

Source: Facebook
Via: Polygon

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 20, 2013

2 Comments

Wii U news from last week’s Nintendo Direct

Good news everyone! Nintendo held one of their budget-friendly and super-efficient Nintendo Direct conferences last week Friday. As such, we’ve got a couple of neat bits of Wii U news to share with you. If your brain has become programmed to associate “Wii U” and “News” with negative articles, then don’t panic just yet because we have another piece coming up later today that is sure to counteract all this wanton Wii U positivity. Boo!

First and most importantly, two games have release dates: Pikmin 3 is out on 04 August (which we already knew from the previous Nintendo Direct) and Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101 is out on 15 September.

Further details regarding Pikmin 3 included a finalisation of the control schemes. If you played the game at last year’s rAge, then you would have been using a Wii Nunchuck and Wii Remote; that control scheme still stays, but Nintendo has confirmed that the entire game will be playable with just the Wii U Game Pad or the more traditional Pro Controller. The game will star three new captains in addition to series’ staple Olimar: Alph, Brittany and Charlie. Together, the team of captains has to forage for food to aid their starving planet.

Tags: Nintendo, Wii U

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 20, 2013

3 Comments

This Week In Gaming

Hello fellow NAGians (NAGites?) and welcome back once again to your weekly dose of my opinion masquerading as objective journalism. This week was a bit slow, but I’ve got more news of the Wii U’s demise, a rant on Sony’s awful marketing team, the videos you actually clicked through for and your usual mix of whatever it is I felt like talking about.

Tags: This Week in Gaming

Posted by Chris Kemp May 18, 2013

1 Comment

Angry Birds movie planned for 2016 release

Sony Pictures Entertainment has picked up the worldwide distribution rights to the long discussed Angry Birds movie. The movie is very specifically scheduled to hit cinemas on 1 July 2016. It is unsurprisingly being created in 3D and is being developed, produced and funded by Rovio; the company responsible for the entire franchise to date. Iron Man and Despicable Me producers David Maisel and John Cohen have officially signed on to the project.

Sony chairpeople Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal said, “Every studio in town would love to add Angry Birds to their slate. There are few titles out there that bring this kind of excitement, brand awareness and built-in audience to the table.”

The idea of an Angry Birds feature film is one that I’m sure many will find disturbing. However, with downloads across the franchise to date (across all the platforms on which it appears combined) exceeding 1.7 billion, there’s no doubt that the movie will have an audience.

Posted by Nic Simmonds May 17, 2013

0 Comments

Review: Don’t Starve

Don’t Starve has redefined my relationship with digital death.

I mean, I’ve died a lot. There is only so much in the way of mauling, biting, goring, pecking and downright elephanting one can take before pulling the permadeath plug. Usually, dying this much in a game with (for the most part) permanent death would cause me to ragequit and never return ever.

So why am I still playing?

Tags: Action Adventure, Klei Entertainment, Survival

Posted by Rogan Louwrens May 17, 2013

1 Comment

“Hardcore action-RPG” Lords of the Fallen unveiled

City Interactive Games, the Poland based developer and publisher responsible for the Sniper: Ghost Warrior games, has announced Lords of the Fallen for the PC, PlayStation 4 and next Xbox. The game is described as a “hardcore action-RPG” with combat and difficulty akin to Dark Souls, and a skill tree like those found in Borderlands.

The game is being headed by Tomasz Gop, who was the senior producer for the critically acclaimed The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings. “Our team is building Lords of the Fallen specifically for players who enjoy taking on huge challenges, where the odds are stacked against them,” explained Gop. “From the very beginning, Lords of the Fallen will intrigue and satisfy players’ hunger to explore each corner of a brand new world, freely customize and build their own character, and take down some of the most epic enemies ever seen.”

The game takes place in a “richly created fantasy world”. According to the game’s lore, the gods of this world have failed mankind and as such there’s an “apparently unstoppable supernatural force” which is causing all sorts of chaos. Players will take on the role of a bloke called Harkyn who decides to try and make a difference. The game will feature player decisions that will alter the state of the world around them. No release date as yet but we’ll keep an eye on this one; there’s potential here.

Source: CI Games
Via: Polygon

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 17, 2013

0 Comments

Domains registered for The Last of Us 2 and 3

There’s less than a month to go before The Last of Us hits the PlayStation 3. I’ve got this feeling that the game will be the final hoorah for Sony’s console before the PlayStation 4 begins to hog the limelight; a swan-song of sorts, I guess.

Despite the fact that the game is still a few weeks away, Sony Computer Entertainment of America is not wasting any time when it comes to planning the future of the IP. Domain names for lastofus2.com and lastofus3.com have just been registered. As Shacknews points out, every title that Naughty Dog has developed thus far has been turned into a long-running series, so it wouldn’t be surprising if The Last of Us maintained this tradition.

This could, of course, all just be cautionary planning. As we’ve seen in the past, private individuals regularly squat on domain names with the sole intention of selling it on to big companies. It’s likely that SCEA is moving to prevent this happening for the off-chance that the game gets two sequels. Hell, at least they didn’t go nuts like EA recently did when they registered domains for Battlefield13.com all the way to battlefield20.com.

Source: Shacknews

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 17, 2013

0 Comments

Three Blizzard developers talk Diablo III and PlayStation 4

In this episode of “Conversations with Creators”, Sony has rounded up three Blizzard folks integral to the porting of Diablo III to PS3 and PS4, and made them gush about how awesome the PlayStation 4 is going to be. They also make frequent assertions that the PlayStation 4 and Diablo III were practically made for each other in some infernal fire pit of hell.

While it’s easy to roll your eyes and sigh in the face of this rather gaudy PS4 marketing campaign, this particular episode of what will probably be a very long-running web series for Sony, actually manages to discuss some aspects of Diablo III as well. It is actually pretty interesting to hear how much the control scheme is going to be different, and how Blizzard realises that a change of control scheme fundamentally changes the connection one has with a character. I haven’t thought about it much until now, but there is this remarkable disconnect between player and character in the Diablo games on PC. When Diablo III is played on console however, there’s far more direct control over one’s character, and this will probably lead to a greater sense of connection. I found myself not really giving a crap about my characters in Diablo III, but my character in Skyrim I find myself quite firmly attached to.

Hit the jump for the video. Maybe grab some coffee beforehand because it’s about seven minutes long, which is practically a feature film by Internet standards.

Tags: Action RPG, Activision Blizzard

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 17, 2013

0 Comments

Microsoft's Xbox One has less powerful hardware

Intel's Haswell begins bridging the graphics gap

Possible slides for a future AMD server product leaked

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