Call of Duty co-creator Jason West rumoured to have left Respawn Entertainment

Jason West, co-founder of Infinity Ward, co-creator of Call of Duty, co-plaintiff in an Activision law-suit, and co-creator (again) of Respawn Entertainment is reported to have left the company.

Jason West, co-founder of Infinity Ward, co-creator of Call of Duty, co-plaintiff in an Activision law-suit, and co-creator (again) of Respawn Entertainment is reported to have left the company. Anonymous sources for both Kotakuand Polygonare claiming that West left Respawn, founded with Vince Zampella, due to family issues.

Respawn was originally founded following West and Zampella's rather spectacular split from Infinity Ward and Activision. The pair sued Activision, Activision sued EA, exciting terms like "corporate espionage" were thrown about, and lawyers laughed heartily as money tumbled towards them. In the end, all suits were settled for undisclosed sums, and everyone got back to making games and angrily simmering. One of Kotaku's sources claims that West left just after the settlement, back in May 2012.

More recently, Zampella revealed that the company would be at E3, and had "no intention of showing up empty handed". Whatever game Respawn are making has, presumable, been developed largely without West, who was working with Zampella as far back as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for 2015, Inc.

Tomb Raider's GeForce performance issues being looked at by Nvidia and Crystal Dynamics

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Call of Duty creators' claim against Activision grows to $1bn

Earlier this week, as reported by Bloomberg , EA settled with Activision over accusations that EA attempted to poach Call of Duty creators, West and Zampella before Activision fired the pair for breach of contract and insubordination in 2010.

, EA settled with Activision over accusations that EA attempted to poach Call of Duty creators, West and Zampella before Activision fired the pair for breach of contract and insubordination in 2010. The West/Zampella vs. Activision case is still alive and kicking, however. Now Developnote that their damages claim for unfair dismissal has grown to ONE BILLION dollars.

West and Zampella initially sued their former employers for $36 million in 2010 for unfair dismissal and unpaid royalties. It was revealed earlier this week that Activision have paid royalties of $42 million to the Infinity Ward employee group, but on Wednesday Giant Bombdropped a payload in the form of a leaked court document which seemed to suggest that Activision were looking to get rid of the Call of Duty creatorsway back in 2009.

The document even implied that senior figures in Activision asked members of staff to monitor Infinity Ward's email exchanges as part of an ominously named "project Icebreaker" plan, a scheme outwardly set up to improve the fractious relationship between the publisher and Infinity Ward.

The West/Zampella vs. Activision trial is set to start on May 29. It's going to be a massive case. Their dismissal in 2010 prompted a big exodus of developers and programmers from Infinity Ward. Since then, West and Zampella have set up another studio called Respawn Entertainment. In between lawyer meetings and court appearances they're busy building a team and making a new game.

Tomb Raider film to model Lara Croft after new game

Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot tuck-rolled today into a well-received reception (on the console side, at least—our review is still forthcoming ), but the silver-screen restart of the action-adventure franchise has been planned since 2011.

), but the silver-screen restart of the action-adventure franchise has been planned since 2011. Tinseltown bills it as a retelling of Lara Croft's origins, a convenient mirroring of the just-released Raider's narrative. Speaking to Variety, Crystal Dynamics head Darrell Gallagher says the team is working closely with studio GK films to model film's heroine after her younger, more rugged virtual counterpart.

"[GK is] working from this new take that we've given them,” Gallagher says. “It's a good partnership. We're seeing the challenges through the same lens. It was important for both of us to have a cohesive version of the franchise. We didn't want to see a film version that was a continuation of the old Tomb Raider films."

A couple years ago, film producer Graham King explainedthe movie focuses on "telling the story before she became Lara Croft," turning the agile action and tomb-raidering into "a character piece."

"It does have a lot of really great characters, but it's a lot of action and a lot of fun, and for me, it's something very different," he continued. "I've not really done a movie like that before, but I really gravitated to rebooting this franchise, and we're going to give it a shot."

It's unknown when the film is expected to debut nor who will become the new face of Lara Croft after Angelina Jolie's 2001 performance, but Iron Man writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby have signed on to pen the story.

Life is Strange dev reveals new studio and Battlecrew Space Pirates, a competitive online shooter

I'll give this much to Dontnod: It's doing a heck of a job avoiding pigeonholes.

I'll give this much to Dontnod: It's doing a heck of a job avoiding pigeonholes. From the small-town adventuresof a time-warping young woman and her best friend, the studio moved to an early 20th-century action adventure about a doctor who's also a vampire. And now it's off to make a competitive multiplayer shooter, with “high-paced gameplay, both accessible and deep,” called Battlecrew Space Pirates.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Variety is nice, but I need another competitive online shooter like I need a hole in my head.” And I sure wouldn't argue with you on that point. But Battlecrew Space Pirates, going by the brief bits of gameplay seen in the teaser video—which I'm relying on because neither the press releasenor the Steam listingnail it down one way or the other—is actually a 2D sidescroller.

Battlecrew Space Pirates is being developed by new-ish studio Dontnod Eleven, a Paris-based outfit formerly known as Hesaw (or He Saw, as it's listed on Steam) that previously developed the rail-shooter Blue Estate. It will launch with two game modes and four unique classes, and feature “charismatic heroes” like a bidepal shark, a tiger with techno-goggles, and a cybernetic-eyepatch-wearing oldster named John Trigger. Dontnod promises the game will offer “regularly updated community challenges,” with unlockable characters, maps, skins, taunts, and game modes.

“We are very excited about the announcement of Dontnod Eleven and its game, Battlecrew Space Pirates,” Dontnod CEO Oksar Guilbert said. “The goal of our collaboration is to help those talented independent developers and benefit from their know-how. They’ve been working on this game for about a year and we’re happy to help them achieve their goal of releasing this fun, exciting and innovative gaming experience.”

Battlecrew Space Pirates will go live “soon” on Steam Early Access.

Thanks, CGM.

Activision were "looking for excuses to dump" ex-Infinity Ward heads in 2009, document claims

According to a court document supplied to Giant Bomb , Activision's former IT director was asked to hack into the e-mail, phone and computer accounts of former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella.

The document in question is a court filing that forms part of the imminent trial between Activision and the Modern Warfare creators. In it, former IT director Thomas Fenady claims that he was asked to "dig up dirt on Jason and Vince" in 2009 by George Rose, Activision's chief legal officer at the time. During his deposition, Rose denied that this was the case.

Activision have subsequently attempted to exclude Fenady's evidence, and the court filing in question argues on West and Zampella's behalf that the motion should be rejected. The significance of Fenady's testimony is that it suggests that Activision were moving against West and Zampella in 2009, earlier than previously suggested. If true, this assists West and Zampella's case that they were let go "in bad faith".

The hack was allegedly part of Activision's cringe-inducingly named 'Project Icebreaker', an ongoing attempt to secure the relationship between Infinity Ward and the publisher. According to Giant Bomb, this was in part a positive effort to improve relations - to break the ice, as it were. At a certain point, however, the document claims that Activision's focus shifted away from diplomacy towards - as Fenady reportedly put it in a Facebook message - "looking for excuses to dump [West and Zampella]."

Thomas Fenady also claims that Rose told him to disregard the legal implications of the hack. "Bobby [Kotick] will take care of you. This comes from Bobby directly ... don't worry about repercussions." Fenady allegedly tried to enlist the help of third-parties to crack into Zampella and West's computers and e-mail: Microsoft refused to help without a court order, and a private network security firm, InGuardians, "didn't feel comfortable doing it".

Activision recently paid out $42m in delayed bonuses to the 'Infinity Ward Employee Group' as part of a separate case. It was also suggested last week that Black Ops 2's settingcould violate the agreement between West and Zampella as laid out in Infinity Ward's original Memorandum of Understanding.

Tomb Raider PC settings overview: any port in a storm?

Good news, everyone.

Good news, everyone. Having played a couple of hours of Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raiderreboot following its release last night, it looks like the PC version lives up to the standards set by Nixxes' successful work porting Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Sleeping Dogs. It's a really good looking game, and it caters to PC gamers who want to tinker.

Rather than run through the options here, I've produced a short video showing them off - plus a bonus side-by-side comparison of Lara's normal hair and her hair with AMD's TressFX techenabled. Sorry about the audio quality - blame the midnight launch and my headset microphone.

[VAMS id="85vWfwot9xC22"]

I'll be posting a full review later this week but so far my feelings are mixed. It's strictly linear and many sequences won't accept any input from the player other than the one that makes Lara go forwards. QTEs abound and there's a brief instant-fail stealth sequence in the first hour.

I don't have a problem with a scripted experience if it delivers something well-directed and meaningful and there's still time for Tomb Raider to live up to that, but so far the game has mostly succeeded in making me feel uncomfortable: not in the sense that I'm sharing Lara's pain, but that I'm the asshole pushing forwards on the analogue stick and watching her suffer. She does have very fancy hair, though.

This footage was taken on a machine with an ATI Radeon HD 6970. Running the game on a comparable machine with a GeForce GTX 560 Ti, there's a substantial performance hit with TressFX enabled - so much so that it's unplayable. The 6970 is a more powerful card, but not by a huge margin - I wonder how much of this is down to TressFX being AMD's proprietary tech. If you're running a GeForce card, you may need to disable Fancy Hair.

Ark: Survival Evolved is free to play this weekend

Open world survival game Ark: Survival Evolved is free on Steam this weekend, meaning you can hunt, tame, and ride its dinos to your heart’s content for the next two days.

Open world survival game Ark: Survival Evolved is free on Steam this weekend, meaning you can hunt, tame, and ride its dinos to your heart’s content for the next two days. The deal runs from right now until Sunday 1pm PST/8pm BST, and if you like what you see, the prehistoric sandbox is also subject to a 50 percent discount until Thursday August 4.

Since its Early Access launch just over a year ago, a tonne of weird and wonderful stuff has made its way into Ark: Survival Evolved—from rideable giant kangaroos, to Christmas-themed raptors; from zombie dodos, to scores of neat user-made mods. Studio Wildcard’s Jesse and Forest Rapczak showcased the latest update at the PC Gaming Show this year, which adds dinosaurs so big you can build bases on their backs. If you think that sort of thing is a good idea.

You do? Well, head on over to Steamto do so free-of-charge for the next couple of days. At full price, the Early Access-dwelling Ark: Survival Evolved costs £22.99/$29.99, which means it’s £11.49/$14.99 until August 4.

Speaking of free weekends, you might also have spotted Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege is going for freeuntil the same time this coming Sunday. Happy weekend.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 trailer shows co-op cyborgs

Activision and Treyarch have gone full sci-fi with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, a game which, by the looks of it, bears no relation to the Cold War shootybangs of the original entry in this COD sub-series.

in this COD sub-series. The words 'Black Ops' just don't conjure images of rocket-launching, robot-battling cybermen, but maybe that's just me. Regardless, I'm appreciating the open spaces, special abilities, and adorable enemy robots shown in the above trailer, which could easily be for a new Crysis game.

It is, of course, showing off the 'Cyber Core' tutorial for CODBLOPS 3's co-op campaign, illustrating a few of the technomagic powers you'll be able to wield during the game. Here's Activision talking about that:

"Designed for four-player online co-op or solo play, players will encounter epic cinematic moments and open-area gameplay, allowing players to approach the game with a different strategy each time they play. And now your campaign character is completely customizable: from weapons and loadouts, to abilities and outfits, all with full progression systems and a personalized armory to show off accomplishments."

This latest BLOPS is out on the 6th of November.

Rovio: Chinese Angry Birds Will See 100M Downloads

Battlerite is the spiritual successor to Bloodline Champions

Remember Bloodline Champions ?

? You know, the 2011 free-to-play Dota-styled MOBA that Tom once saidhad a “steep learning curve and lack of starting characters” but also boasted “fun and frenzied arena battles.” Well its creators, Swedish outfit Stunlock Studios, have now released the first in-game footage of its “spiritual successor” - Battlerite.

Heading to Early Access on September 20, Battlerite echoes its source material as “an action-packed Team Arena Brawler focused on highly competitive PvP combat,” so says its official blurb. In 2v2 and 3v3 battles, you’ll fight alongside teammates in bouts running up to 15 minutes, where you can “select rites to unlock powers to strategically customize your playstyle.”

The blurb continues: “It doesn't matter if you are a veteran or a rookie on a rampage, all champions have the same fighting chance. Dodge bullets and pull off massive ultimate attacks with the use of smooth WASD movement & cursor based aiming. Battlerite is about skill-shots, timing and quick reactions.”

When it arrives on Steam Early Access on September 20, Battlerite will also come with VR support. Fancy that? This could you be you:

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 multiplayer has robots, teleportation

Well, it wouldn't be E3 without some Call of Duty, right?

Well, it wouldn't be E3 without some Call of Duty, right? Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, developed by Treyarch, is set in the year 2065, and we got a look at some of its futuristic multiplayer combat. The gameplay footage showcased drones, wall-running, someone's arm transforming into a machinegun, and even teleportation.

Unfortunately for PC gamers, PlayStation owners get first crack at both the beta and new map packs. Fine, Sony. Be that way.

Have a look at the multiplayer trailer below.

Diablo 3 auction house closing in March 2014

Blizzard has announced a plan to close Diablo 3's real-money and gold auction houses next year, according to an announcement today by game director Josh Mosqueira and production director John Hight.

by game director Josh Mosqueira and production director John Hight. Hight called the auction houses, where players could pick up hard-to-find, in-game items for real money or in-game currency, "a double-edged sword."

Although they were successful at creating a marketplace inside the game, the auction houses also affected something central to the action RPG's central appeal, according to Mosqueira. He went so far as to say the auction houses affected the "integrity" of the gameplay itself. "At the core of the Diablo experience is a promise of killing monsters, killing demons, for the promise of finding those epic items," Mosqueira said in the video above. "The auction houses made that experience way too convenient and really short-circuited our core reward loop."

It's not the first time we've heard about the way the auction houses can unbalance the game. In February developers had already announced that they were working to"refocus players away from farming the auction house and onto farming monsters." And back in the March, former Diablo 3 game designer Jay Wilson said the marketplace"really hurt the game."

For the players still heavily invested in that economy, however, there's still time to sell off their big-ticket items. The auction houses won't be closed for good until March 18, 2014, according to Blizzard.

Latest World of Warcraft: Legion animated short visits Khadgar and Medivh

Scheduled to arrive on August 30, World of Warcraft’s new chapter Legion is just around the corner .

. In preparation, Blizzard released a pretty substantial 'pre-expansion' patchearlier this month—making “significant changes to classes and their specs”, among other things—and also launched a series of coinciding animated shorts, the first of which debuted at Comic Conlast weekend.

Named Harbingers, the series' latest episode is out now and visits Khadgar as he plans to take down the Legion. Things get complicated, though, when Medivh shows up. Let's take a look:

The Harbingers series is designed to prime players ahead of WoW’s latest chapter—the sixth expansion which follows the events of Warlords of Draenor. Episode one was centred around Gul’dan, a key-player in the in-coming Legion, and a few more shorts are expected to run between now and the add-on's release to get players up to speed.

World of Warcraft: Legion is due to launch August 30—is your system up to scratch?

Black Ops 3 to feature FOV slider, dedicated servers

CODBLOPS 1 and CODBLOPS 2 both featured adjustable FOV sliders and dedicated servers, but if you were worried that the third BLOPS would abandon those features, don't be—the Director of Development of the PC version has confirmed they'll be in the game, via Twitter .

"BlackOps3 PC will use 100% dedicated servers for all ranked matches. (Same as previous BlackOps PC titles.) This is how we do it." ( Link)

"BlackOps3 will ship with an adjustable FOV slider. (Same as previous BlackOps PC titles.)" ( Link)

As for the thorny issue of FPS caps, 'pcdev' thinks it will be a similar situation as that with Black Ops 2, ie uncapped in single-player and zombies mode, and with a max 200 FPS cap for multiplayer. However, "it's too early to say" about that.

Black Ops 2 is out November 6th, and the minimum system requirementshave already been announced.

(Cheers, VG247.)

Diablo 3 devs want to "refocus players away from farming the Auction House"

The auction house has been the most consistently-criticized element of Diablo 3.

The auction house has been the most consistently-criticized element of Diablo 3. Many players feel the hack-and-slasher has been balanced around throwing you a bunch of gear you don't need or want, so you'll sell it to players who do and hand-pick your upgrades from a spreadsheet. This process isn't as fun as getting the gear you want from the half-exploded corpse of a demon. Blizzard agrees that this is an issue, stating in a massive community Q&Aon the official forums that it's something they're addressing.

"Something we discuss frequently is how the Auction House has impacted the game and how we can refocus players away from farming the Auction House and onto farming monsters," Game Designer Travis Day wrote. Working toward that goal, today's 1.0.7 patch introduces a new crafting system that utilizes a new resource: Demonic Essence. The DE craftables will be account-bound, removing them from the auction house economy.

"Demonic Essence was made account bound to encourage players who wish to create the new items to play the game instead of simply going to the Auction House and buying all the mats necessary to mass produce the items," Day continues. "For that same reason we wanted the product of the recipes to be account bound as well. We want players to not only find or produce their own items more often but also diminish the impact the Auction House has on the game, and we felt like this was a good opportunity to take our first steps in that direction."

The full Q&Agoes in-depth into a variety of topics from PvP rewards to class changes.

Emily's all-new powers reflect her different personality, says Dishonored 2 lead designer

When Chris visited Dishonored developers Arkane earlier this year, he told us the incoming follow-up is “very much a sequel to the original” and that we shouldn’t expect an overhaul.

earlier this year, he told us the incoming follow-up is “very much a sequel to the original” and that we shouldn’t expect an overhaul. I’m totally fine with that, and the more I learn about what Corvo Attano and Emily Kaldwin will be doing in new setting Karnaca, the more excited I get.

In a newfeatured on Bethesda.net, Arkane’s co-creative director Harvey Smith and the game’s lead designer Dinga Bakaba explore both Corvo and Emily’s characters. They detail how the events of the first game have impacted the sequel, and how this has shaped Emily in particular—a child in the original, now 15 years older and a playable character for the first time.

“Jessamine’s assassination casts a shadow over both games,” says Smith. "It’s ambitious to bring two protagonists to the game and let the player choose between them, but we’re really excited that we did. When we approach a character like Emily, we need to know her history, her attitude, even her hobbies. But at a meta level as a game developer, we need to know what her pillars are, and so for Emily we arrived at: Dunwall, Empress, Assassin.”

Her playable debut means she comes packing an arsenal of all-new special skills too. Mesmerize summons an entity from “the Void” that “enthrals Emily’s foes, allowing her to eliminate them or simply waltz past them untouched.” Domino, on the other hand, links people together allowing them to be affected by one single action.

“In a way you can say the Outsider marks people according to their personalities,” says Bakaba. “She’s an Empress. She’s younger. She has a different personality. So her powers reflect that. She has a lot of powers that allow her to subdue the will of others. Emily is pretty good at crowd control.”

Corvo’s original powers return extended and enhanced, and he now has a power tree. Although a silent protagonist in the first game, Stephen Russell will voice himthis time —who you may remember from the original Thief. “I’m super excited about our choice for Corvo,” says Smith. “We were lucky to get Stephen Russell, who was the voice of Garrett in the first Thief. It’s 15 years later, and he’s going out to protect Emily one more time. Stephen just nailed it.”

One thing I absolutely loved about Dishonored was its variety and choice—that it catered for both gung-ho and non-hostile approaches. With two playable characters that can now hold conversations, it seems Dishonored 2 is sure to handle this better still.

Dishonored 2 is due to launch November 11.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 screenshots show fancy new war gadgets

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World of Warcraft Armory app updated with guild chat

iPhone-owning World of Warcraft owners rejoice!

iPhone-owning World of Warcraft owners rejoice! Blizzard's already excellent Armory Apphas just been updated with Guild Chat. That means you can keep up-to-date with your Guild's current affairs no matter where you are or what you're doing. Convenient.

Read on for the details.

The Armory app itself is free, but you'll need to be signed up to World of Warcraft Remote to access the Guild Chat and Auction House services (which gives you the chance to create auctions and bid on items). It costs £2.50 or $2.99 per month. The chat functionality is temporarily available on the free version of the app. Paying Android users can fiddle with their auctions via the WoW Remote Auction House App, though it doesn't support Guild Chat quite yet (it's coming "soon"). All subscribers can tweak their bids via the official WoW website too, so don't feel too left out if you haven't got a fancy phone.

Blizzard's official siteis down at the moment due to a high volume of traffic, but check back later for more info.

Capcom teases ‘Project Palm’ which might be Dragon’s Dogma-related

It sure took its sweet time, but 2012’s console action RPG Dragon’s Dogma finally landed on PC earlier this year .

. Without obvious warning, developer Capcom has now launched a teaser sitefor a new game—currently named Project Palm— that’s written almost entirely in Japanese and makes mention of August 2, 2016. This is probably when we’ll learn more. With the few clues we’ve got right now, the internet reckons it’s related to Dragon’s Dogma.

Those of you familiar with the original will recall the glowing scars many characters boasted on the palms of their hands—much similar to the header image featured on the Project Palm site. The folks at NeoGafreckon this heralds a sequel to Dragon’s Dogma, or at the very least another series entry.

The site also features a profile and coinciding video starring one of the game’s voice actors, detailing his previous work. I unfortunately can’t speak Japanese, so I can't say if there's any useful information in there. I will however leave this here on the off-chance one of you guys can:

Anyway, if Project Palm does turn out to be a Dragon's Dogma follow-up, the warm reception Arisen receivedearlier this year hopefully means it won't take quite as long to arrive on PC this time round.

I guess we'll find out more this Tuesday, August 2.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 minimum system requirements revealed

So hey, there's a Black Ops 3 in development, and it all seems a bit Deus Exy .

. The next Call of Duty is going to take place in a "dark, twisted future" where cyborgs are a thing, and where there are probably a few new killstreaks. Weirdly, even though it's only just been announced, the game's minimum specs have already been revealed—here's how tall your PC will need to be in order to play it.

Operating System: Windows 7 64-Bit / Windows 8 64-Bit / Windows 8.1 64-Bit Processor: Intel Core i3-530 @ 2.93 GHz / AMD Phenom™ II X4 810 @ 2.60 GHz Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 470 @ 1GB / Radeon HD 6970 @ 1GB DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

That doesn't seem too bad, considering—the only real sore point I can detect is the DirectX 11 requirement. Are you still rocking DirectX 10? Well, you'll need one more X to be able to join this club. Watch the first gameplay trailerto see how it looks. Black Ops 3 is out November 6.

Rovio 'Betting Everything' On Angry Birds , Targeting 1 Billion Fans

Doom: The Board Game brings the demonic bloodbath to your table

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Yeah, Doom is cool, but it would even cooler if I could play it on a tabletop, with dice and cards and little plastic miniatures?” No, of course you haven't.

is cool, but it would even cooler if I could play it on a tabletop, with dice and cards and little plastic miniatures?” No, of course you haven't. But now that I've put the idea in your head, it sounds fun, doesn't it? Luckily for you, that's an itch that can soon be scratched.

Doom: The Board Game, announced today by Fantasy Flight Games, is “an asymmetrical board game of tactical combat” based on the famous id Software shooter. Two to four players suit up as UAC Marines, who must complete a series of missions with unique maps and objectives, while another controls the hordes of Hell, with the more straightforward goal of killing them.

The game shares a few similarities with the Doom board game released by Fantasy Flight in 2004—which I did not know existed—but mechanically it's “almost entirely new,” the publisher said. “It is designed to capture the feel of the videogame's most recent incarnation, complete with fast-paced action, aggressive combat, relentless suspense, and even Glory Kills that allow marines to swiftly execute wounded demons and recover damage at the same time.”

Doom: The Board Game is slated to come out in the fourth quarter of this year. Find out more at fantasyflightgames.com.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 teaser has a big crush on Deus Ex

The new Call of Duty: Black Ops III teaser doesn't show off any gameplay, as is seemingly the trend this week , but still provides plenty of dark sci-fi fun.

, but still provides plenty of dark sci-fi fun. You might even say it's "revolutionary," as Call of Duty games go, albeit in an oddly familiarway. Maybe Activision is trying to change something?

"We will set the technological foundation for an enhanced human experience," the man in the video says. "And we will end disability."

But then another man expresses a different perspective. "In our pursuit of progress, if we undermine the morals that define us, what good is our beloved progress then?" he asks.

The US Supreme Court declares that discrimination against modified humans is unconstitutional. But the human revolution has already begun, and mankind is divided. And as augmented soldiers wage an invisible war, one question remains: Did we ask for this?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will be revealed in fullon April 26, and will launch later this year.

Update: We aren't the only ones having a little bit of fun with the similarities between today's Black Ops 3 teaser and the Deus Ex games. In fact, Jonathan Jacques-Belletete, the art director on Deus Ex: Human Revolutionand the recently announced Mankind Divided, got into the action himself on Twitter.

"Hey @Treyarch, Adam Jensen says welcome on the bandwagon! The liquor bar is at the back ;)" he tweeted. A little while later, he added, "We lied guyz. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided actually takes place on the Eastern Front during World War 2. We felt inspired."

Amusing though his comments were, the undisputed champion of the day came from the official Deus Ex Twitteraccount, which tweeted a simple image in response to the announcement of the trailer. I will let it speak for itself below.

That, I believe, is what we call a win.

DC Universe Online interview - Part 4: UI and modding

Today, we talk with DC Universe Online's Game Director Chris Cao about player's issues with the UI and future plans to add mod support, which would let the community solve the problem.

Today, we talk with DC Universe Online's Game Director Chris Cao about player's issues with the UI and future plans to add mod support, which would let the community solve the problem. You can read the earlier parts of the interview, where Chris talks with us about animation glitching and developer priorities, the planned monthly content updates, and Power Sets we can expect to see in the future.

PCG: Mod support is a great way to let the players' create their own workarounds for UI issues. Are there any plans to add mod support in the future?

Chris Cao: Possibly. We made a decision to not have a modifiable UI because [it's easier on] the development side. We already cleaning up some issues with the UI, but the updating the UI on the PS3 is the unfriendliest thing that there can be. So we've had to be really careful with it. What we thought we would do is, "First off, let's launch the game and figure out what works well, then [see what] options we have to work with it."

I think that's a good reason why we split the two platforms. Not the UI specifically, but because sometimes there are things that need to go to one audience that doesn't need to go to another. That said, there are things we could do that are much more PC-sensible, without necessarily trying to create a disparity between the products. [For modding in particular], we want to make sure, that that we're allowing it because we really value it, not just "Hey, the PC guys want to be able to mod their UI," but more, "As a product, how are we going to make DCUO for both audiences? And what can we do to customize it to each one?"

We had discussions internally about allowing modding, but haven't come to any decision yet. It's the obvious that a lot of other games allow modding, but they don't have the same constraints that we do: we have to keep making stuff for both audiences. I don't have a final word on it, but we're watching and seeing what's going to be the most important thing.

I think i some cases [we'll do platform-specific changes] even the little things like, we've now added support to make it easier to use a keyboard if you have a Bluetooth keyboard for PS3. Quite a few people are using it for text chat, so we've said, "OK, for that audience we need to do PS3-specific things to make it easier to communicate there." On the the PC, we've done some of the same things to help people have better access to slash commands. Overall, for the customization, we're going to start off with careful steps to improve the UI, and then look at the other things. I don't want to say there won't be mods, because these games live for years and obviously more stuff is gonna be added, but we have to be careful that it doesn't create such a disparity between the services that suddenly the game gets different at a root level.

PCG: Do you think it's possible to keep the two platform versions similar in the long run, with only small deviations along the way?

CC: I think the big deal is that there will be camera and control and UI changes that will be at the forefront of everything as we find what works better [for both platforms]. Moving social elements to the Quick Menu is a good example: having a few extra steps of delay whenever you wanted to look at your PDA [or friends lists] was clunky. So we moved it to the Quick Menu, because the Quick Menu has become a great place for us to put the things we do repeatedly.

Those types of changes are easier to make because what it comes down to is: if we do anything that starts to affect gameplay balance in PvP or PvE, we have to start balancing the game in two different ways, and that starts to create two different experiences. As soon as I start to imbalance the experience on the PC vs the PS3, one is easier than the other. I think a good example of this is our races. Some people find races easier on the PC than the PS3. We didn't intend for that to happen, but because of the nature of the race [which you hurdle around the city at break-neck speed following through a series of rings -Ed.], having a mouse point where you want to go directly is easier, with some movement modes, than controlling the camera independent of movement with a stick [on a gamepad].

In those cases that [the controls cause the difficulty to] actually diverge, and we have a case where in some ways its easier on the PC than the PS3, we aren't gonna try to forcefully lock-step them. We're going to take that in stride and do what we can, but we want to be careful of those because we don't want it to be so radically different that when you're talking to your friend about playing DCUO and he looks at you funny because on the PS3 it was completely different. We still want it to be one universe conceptually, because then its easier to tell the story and keep things going.

MiniDayZ is a free, top-down DayZ

Bohemia Interactive has released a free version of DayZ.

Bohemia Interactive has released a free version of DayZ. Sort of. It's MiniDayZ: a top-down, singleplayer take on DayZ's zombie survival.

The game was originally a fan project, but has since been taken on by Bohemia. You can play it in-browser, although first you'll need to register for a Bohemia account.

Once inside, you'll be confronted by familiar needs. Your food and water meters will be dropping, and so you'll need to leave the coast to scavenge for items. Also: there are zombies. While you can punch them out slightly more effectively than in DayZ proper, doing so will almost certainly cause bleeding. Both guns and melee weapons can eventually be found.

It's also a bit like DayZ in that the inventory is a pain in the ass. Still, it's a charming recreation, and a nice web-based distraction for when you're not able to journey into the human-filled world of the main DayZ.

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Tactical Advantage: How visuals can affect strategy games

Rob Zacny gathers his troops in our monthly Tactical Advantage column to examine the complexities of strategic gaming and development.

Rob Zacny gathers his troops in our monthly Tactical Advantage column to examine the complexities of strategic gaming and development. This month, Rob explains how pretty visuals don't necessarily make a better strategy game.

A PC upgrade can make everything feel new again, even something as minor as using Microsoft Word. I'm giddy at how much information my new 27-inch monitor can display. With enough desktop space to write in one window while others show me sources and chats with editors, I feel like the world is at my fingertips. I wish strategy games gave me that feeling more often, since they actually do put a world at my fingertips. Too often, strategy developers take the wrong approach to visual design and misplace their priorities when it comes to graphics.

Take a game like Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy, where developer Battlefront.com clearly poured considerable effort into their detailed models—you can literally count the rivets on a German Panther tank. But details like this don't show me what I need to see: elevation changes, patches of dense foliage, and which units are in trouble. Combat Mission tries to offer wargamers some eye candy, but it leaves them starved for the kind of information that could streamline play. That's a recipe for recurring frustration in a game with so many moving parts, where battles can turn on the smallest of details.

The master of excellent visual design is, of course, Relic. Most strategy games can't approach the beauty (or budget) of games like Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II, but it's not the polygon counts that make Relic's visuals so great. It's how much they communicate, even resorting to comic-book touches like a “!” over the heads of broken troops, or a flashy overlay showing that someone just tossed a grenade. Troops fight with distinguishable weapons and expressive animations that broadcast what each unit does and how it's faring. Before I even glance at the info panel, I have tremendous situational awareness.

Not every developer has such a fine understanding of what players need to see, much less how to show it to them. Paradox, in particular, has struggled with visuals in games like Victoria II and Sengoku, where looking at a map doesn't show what's actually happening. Take Sengoku, a game of dynasty building in feudal Japan: three-quarters of the screen are given over to a map, but the real battlefield is one of family ties and feudal obligations. Territory is just a way of keeping score, yet the map dominates the display while crucial information is confined to a series of cramped, unhelpful windows. In a game all about lineage and lieges, Sengoku doesn't include a single family tree, nor an easy way to see who owns what on the main map.

Strategy developers need to think holistically about visual design. Art and animations aren't eye candy—they're the thousand words that will do the heavy lifting for the interface. When my girlfriend asked what was going on in my Tropico 4 game, I was able to take her on a tour of my island and explain to her exactly what was happening and why. Visuals told most of the story. Here was a crowd around a protester, and over there was a packed beachfront restaurant. In a few places, I would open a window just to show her a little more detail, like why the protester was angry, or why my tourist town was doing so well.

During a tense battle for succession within Sengoku's Clan Shimazu, my girlfriend brought me up short by asking the same question. I looked at the screen, but there was nothing that could illustrate my situation. Like many strategy games, Sengoku relies on spreadsheets, vague icons, and a plethora of map overlays to communicate fragments of information. The player's job is to assemble those data shards into a picture of what's happening. This leads to one of the greatest frustrations for a strategy gamer: the knowledge that no matter what you're looking at, there's probably something else you need to see.

Reinstall: Star Wars Battlefront II

Reinstall invites you to join us in revisiting classics of PC gaming days gone by.

invites you to join us in revisiting classics of PC gaming days gone by. This entry was originally published on April 1st, 2014—with the recent reveal of the new Battlefront, we've updated Sam's return to the massively popular Star Wars: Battlefront II, which lives on even afterthe end of GameSpy .

There's been some serious money left on the table with Star Wars: Battlefront III's ongoing non-existence in the last ten years. Lucasarts' changes in management, Free Radical's collapse and EA's purchase of Pandemic probably didn't help matters, even if DICE's versionis at least in production now. What it means is that 2005's Battlefront II is still somehow the best way of having large-scale Star Wars multiplayer battles on land (not so much in space), but despite that merit it's been outstripped by most modern class-based multiplayer shooters.

Arriving just over a year after the original Battlefront, Battlefront II added new classes to the original's straightforward soldier-heavy-sniper focus, notably the overpowered fire-spewing menace that is the Bothan Spy (I don't recall Mon Mothma mentioning invisibility cloaks and flamethrowers when remarking that many of them died to bring the Rebels information, but as I'll get into, it's far from the daftest off-brand offence in Battlefront II).

They also toned down the jetpack-powered Dark Trooper from the first game, too, but where balance issues were hammered out in some areas, other equally problematic ones found their way in. The introduction of playable Jedis and other hero characters as killstreak rewards represented the next natural creative step for the series, but Pandemic made a mess of their implementation. There's not a single Star Wars fan alive today who wouldn't find the sight of Yoda doing a quadruple jump and accompanying flying animation to be quite funny.

Battlefront II's larger ground maps are the design highlight of the game, even if some of them, like Hoth and Endor, were just overhauled from the first installment. I still think this is the best interactive Hoth, complete with towering AT-ATs, gun turrets, Snowspeeders and the snow-strewn tunnels of Echo Base, even if some movie-based levels—the Death Star interior is particularly cheap in its lack of fan service and detail—look pretty flimsy given the potential of the source material. There's little consistency in the quality of the multiplayer maps, which you wouldn't get away with today, unless you were selling them as DLC to fans later on.

Battles are too chaotic to encourage strategy or teamwork, which makes it feel very dated next to PlanetSide 2 or Battlefield 4 where there's a logic to working in groups. The systems of Battlefront II are easy to abuse, with people camping on spawn points, and Boba Fett waiting for me with a flamethrower when I respawned in Mos Eisley this afternoon. There's no structure: you grab a vehicle or just charge with a rifle, trying to capture as many spawn points as you can in the midst of the chaos. Snipers and support classes have a strategy in Battlefront II. Everyone else invariably turns up with a laser or a rocket launcher and dives around.

Space battles are slightly more refined to control, but even more throwaway. As we noted in our review at the time, X-Wing this ain't, as players spin round in circles trying to lock each other in their sights amidst a fleet of larger vessels. All the maps are pretty much the same. They are, however, still the best looking bits of Battlefront II, as illustrated by my X-Wing foolishly going to battle with an Imperial Fleet up top, plus it's still fun to land an A-Wing in a Star Destroyer hangar and blow their systems up from the inside, even though that never happened in the films ever .

And it is still Star Wars, though what it does with Star Wars is so silly and what I would assume to be off-brand that it should theoretically make the licensing team at Lucasarts hurl. Then again, we live in an age where this happenedalongside a no doubt wiki's worth of merchandising nonsense. There's a Mos Eisley Assault mode in Battlefront II that is a hero character-only melee, where Jedis, Sith, smugglers and bounty hunters cross timelines to all fight in this construct of identical buildings. It's amusing, seeing Darth Vader force choke Yoda to death, or killing Emperor Palpatine with a laser pistol as Han Solo while two Chewbaccas contend with a Darth Maul and a Jango Fett.

Characters jump to Spider-Man heights, force powers toss budget-looking models of silver screen icons around and every single death is greeted with an identical bowing animation. I'm not a stickler for Star Wars canon or anything like that, but I'm sure someone got angry about it in 2005. It's what would happen if Dark Horse commissioned me to draw a Star Wars comic at the age of 10: fan service channeled through unrelenting waves of awful. I must admit, I hate Assault in Mos Eisley, but it seems to be a mode with enduring popularity among the game's online audience.

One mode no-one seems to be interested in (and for good reason) is Hunt, which I admit I've only ever played offline. In this, the species of the chosen map fight the invading forces. Today, for example, I watched twenty Wampa ice creatures plod through Echo Base on their way to take out a Rebel outpost, which is made ten times worse by the human-like animations on the Wampas. They actually look like job-for-hire extras wearing costumes, especially when you activate the sprint animation. It's amazing how Pandemic extrapolated this ludicrous scenario out of those six films, but I almost admire the audacity of an idea that's this entertaining to watch. When, exactly, did Wampas start attacking Rebel turrets on Hoth?

But then, this slightly obscure stuff sort of makes sense as part of the language of a rough shooter like Battlefront II. It never felt that credible, and always seemed angled towards a console audience than either a Battlefield or X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter PC fanbase. I thought that in 2005, as well, having played many stronger Star Wars games on PC, trying to figure out why this had broader appeal than the likes of X-Wing Alliance, Jedi Knight or Rebel Assault II (joking on that last one).

I think it's because this kind of multiplayer shooter still scratches an itch that no other Star Wars game does. I recognise Battlefront II hasn't aged well, but there are some evenings where only killing 100 stormtroopers in a hijacked AT-ST or devastating Kashyyyk's wookie population will do, and the catharsis of being able to re-enact set pieces from the movie within a relatively big sandbox is undeniably engaging.

I'm just glad another team is getting a chance to do a better job of depicting this important tenet of Star Wars conflict. In truth, I think the new Battlefront may benefit from falling somewhere between this and Battlefield 4 in complexity—to some extent I think being throwaway and immediately gratifying is now part of what fans will be expecting from any further entries in the series. It's meant to be accessible, but it also wouldn't hurt for the third one to be better than Battlefront II in every single way.

There's still a small but active community playing the game. Every time I've logged on in the past three weeks there's been at least three servers populated enough for a decent match [ Note: This was written before GameSpy shut down, but Battlefront 2 is still playable online through other services ], and since it only costs $10/£7 on Steam, it's worth revisiting if only to see how utterly bizarre Pandemic's interpretation of Star Wars lore was. You've got a barely-there Mos Eisley cantina with the appropriate music and a sprawling Endor where all sounds are drowned out by a cacophony of ewok squeaks justifying the species' extinction. That studio clearly loved Star Wars, even if flying Yoda wouldn't make it into my pitch for the perfect interactive take on that universe.

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DreamHack Winter 2014 CS:GO preview: the top teams

DreamHack Summer 2014 photo by Rikard Söderberg.

Article by Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen.

DreamHack Winter 2014, one of the year's biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, will be held in Jönköping, Sweden on November 27-29, and will play host to the fourth community-funded $250,000 CS:GO major (livestream schedule here). 16 teams will be hoping to remain in competition come Saturday, and in this preview we will take a deeper look at the squads most likely to make a difference.

fnatic
(flusha, JW, KRIMZ, olofm, pronax)

Champions of the first major a year ago, fnatic changed two players in July and since then have won four of the seven tournaments they have attended, including three dominant victories in a row. They also placed second at the previous major in August. KRIMZ has been their best player recently, but virtually anyone aside from in-game leader pronax can carry them in a series. They are clear favorites going into DreamHack, but their players have been named as suspects in the recent cheating scandal, which could affect their play even if none of the rumors turn out to be true.

LDLC
(Happy, kioShiMa, NBK, shox, SmithZz)

Built in the French reshuffle in September, LDLC have made the final in four of five tournaments they have attended. They can’t seem to beat fnatic, yet consistently defeat everyone else. LDLC are favorites to reach the semi-finals unless they face their kryptonite early in the playoffs. Happy is the team’s in-game leader and a solid fragger, NBK is the most versatile player, and shox is the superstar of the team. They play a skill-heavy style that suits the current counter-terrorist heavy meta-game of CS:GO, but as a result struggle on the terrorist sides.

Virtus.pro
(byali, Neo, pasha, Snax, TaZ)

Virtus.pro won the second CS:GO major, EMS One Katowice, but have since then struggled to play at the same level. They won Gfinity 3 in August, but otherwise have mostly crashed out in the quarter-finals of the biggest tournaments. They are known for stepping up during the majors, but a win would require strong play from all three of their heavy hitters, namely pasha, byali, and Snax. The Poles haven’t been able to fire on all cylinders since Katowice, but a strong individual showing could propel this team over their competition. They may be the world’s best terrorist side team at their peak.

NiP
(f0rest, friberg, GeT_RiGhT, Maikelele, Xizt)

The most storied and successful team in CS:GO, they recruited Maikelele to replace Fifflaren earlier this month. Despite winning the most recent major, ESL One Cologne, they have struggled since then. GeT_RiGhT and f0rest are the superstars of the team, and if they wish to make the semi-finals they will need those two to play to their potential—which hasn’t been the case in recent months. Their current level remains a mystery as no one has seen them play much with Maikelele, thus adding to the intrigue surrounding the team.

Na`Vi
(Edward, GuardiaN, seized, starix, Zeus)

Na`Vi broke out in May with a victory over Titan and NiP at SLTV StarSeries IX Finals, and have since then been a consistent top five team with multiple top four finishes in recent months. Their team relies heavily on star AWPer GuardiaN, though riflers Edward and seized can also take over matches at times, but neither is very consistent. They play a very strategic style with one of the all-time great leaders Zeus running the show.

Cloud9
(Hiko, n0thing, Semphis, sgares, shroud)

After adding shroud, Cloud9 exceeded most expectations with their ESL One Cologne performance, but most recently failed to advance from the group stage at two tournaments in Europe. They have been bootcamping in Europe for all of November, so this is a do-or-die event for this team—it’s hard to imagine they will ever get better conditions than now to perform. Their star player is hiko, but n0thing and shroud are just as, if not more, explosive at times.

dignitas
(cajunb, device, dupreeh, FeTiSh, Xyp9x)

These Danes were one of the most consistent teams in the world for the first eight months of 2014, but have since then seen their level of play, as well as consistency, drop. They removed aizy to bring back former member cajunb, adding more skill to an already skilled lineup that may lack in leadership. Their star player device is one of the most skilled all-around players in the world, but often chokes in big matches. dignitas should be one of the teams competing for a top four finish, and this exact roster made top four at the second major.

HellRaisers
(ANGE1, Dosia, kucher, markeloff, s1mple)

HellRaisers are a team who seemingly hold endless potential, but can never realize it in a best-of-three setting, or at the right times. They are incredibly skilled with players such as Dosia, markeloff, and new recruit s1mple leading the way, but lack in team play and tactics. Since their last event they have added well known ex-dAT in-game leader B1ad3 as a coach, so depending on how effective he is we could see a much improved HellRaisers squad at DreamHack.

iBUYPOWER
(AZK, desi, nitr0, Skadoodle, swag)

iBUYPOWER failed to make the playoffs in Europe for a long time despite a few good showings in North America, until finally scoring a second place finish in late October. However, the team was then stripped as they cut their in-game leader DaZeD and another versatile member steel to add two inexperienced players, who likely still need more time. There is a lot of pressure on their star rifler swag, and very skilled AWPer Skadoodle. Making the playoffs would be a good showing for this American side.

Copenhagen Wolves
(cadiaN, gla1ve, Kjaerbye, Pimp, tenzki)

The second Danish team got into DreamHack Winter through the Last Call qualifier on Saturday, and therefore likely aren’t in the best shape going into this tournament. Their biggest strength is gla1ve’s leadership and the skills of Pimp and youngster Kjaerbye, but they are not favored to reach the playoffs from their group.

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Latest batch of Greenlit games includes Deadly Premonition, other, less insane stuff

Valve have given a new load of games their seal of approval - or rather you have, doing Valve's job for them so they have more time to make hats and trading cards and Half-Life 5.

- or rather you have, doing Valve's job for them so they have more time to make hats and trading cards and Half-Life 5. The headline here is that one of the 14 games greenlit is the...unique Deadly Premonition, Swery's ridiculous survival horror love letter to David Lynch. But that's not all! Roguelikey metroidvania Chasmis also heading to Steam, along with its good friends Among The Sleepand Operation Black Mesa. But that's still not all! There are also ten more. OK, that's all. Hear them in list form after the break.

A Hat in Time Among the Sleep Broforce Centration Chasm Darkwood Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut Divekick Operation Black Mesa Project Awakened Recruits Rekoil Shelter StarMade

If you hate games (and probably sunlight) and would rather populate your game library with software, you'll be pleased to hear that Dexster Audio Editor and GraphicEditor openCanvas are also on their way to the Steam machine. From the names, I'd take guess that the first is accounting software, while the second is a teach-yourself-juggling program. I am never wrong.

Diablo 3 patch 2.4.2 "coming soon", will let you hide the UI

Blizzard offered its preliminary patch notes for version 2.4.2 of Diablo over a month ago , and while that still hasn't made its way into the game proper, it's "coming soon", according to a that goes into the patch in more detail.

that goes into the patch in more detail. You'll remember, of course, that 2.4.2 adds a hotkey to hide the UI, letting you better appreciate the environment, and maybe build a photo journal of your adventures through Diablo 3's miserable world. Hey, I'd look at that.

But the meat of the update will surely be the new difficulty levels. Rather than stopping at X, Torment mode will soon go up to XIII, with better loot, and gold and XP bonuses rewarding players ready to take on the greater challenges.

There will naturally also be new treasure and so on across the board, the most substantial change being that Blizzard is "sweetening Adventure Mode rewards, starting with Nephalem Rifts. You’re now guaranteed a Greater Rift Key when completing any Rift, with a chance to get a second (or even a third) key as you increase the game’s difficulty". The developer has "also adjusted drop rates for Infernal Machines, with a 100% drop chance in Torment IV, and an increasing chance for a second machine to drop as you go up in difficulty".

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Virtuix Omni hands-on: running for your life

Photos by Norman Chan
I can't imagine ever having a Virtuix Omni in my living room.

in my living room. Donning a virtual reality headset such as the Oculus Riftis an isolating act—put one on while sitting on a couch with your roommate or spouse and you're off in your own world. They're not invited, and they're probably staring at you. The Viturix Omni isolates you in the same way, except you're wearing high tech slippery bowling shoes, strapped into a girdle, and completely cut off from the outside world.

Does it feel awkward? Absolutely. Silly? Oh yes. Unlike the Oculus Rift, sliding and walking on the Omni doesn't feel like the future of gaming the moment you experience it. And yet, once I accept the awkwardness and get a feel for how to walk on the Omni, I'm completely immersed in a way that I've never experienced before. With an Oculus Rift strapped to my head, a pair of headphones around my ears, and a fake plastic gun in my hands, I completely lost track of what direction I was facing. I know there were people standing five feet away watching. Filming me. But I'm so cut off from the outside world that I don't care.

Virtuix raised $1.1 million on Kickstarter for the Omni treadmill in 2013. Since then, the company has contracted game developers to work on a game prototype called TRAVR. The game is its big showpiece at this year's GDC. It plays like a stripped-down combination of Call of Duty and FEAR, for the former's follow-this-guy moments and the latter's creepy, flickery lights ambiance.

Walking on the Omni's low friction surface while wearing equally low friction shoes doesn't feel natural, but during my 20 minutes on the treadmill I feel like I'm finding my virtual legs. I have to lean into every step. As my feet slipp down the concave surface, I worry that my legs will slip out from under me and I'll smash my face on the ring that surrounds the Omni and supports its harness. Learning to trust that harness makes things easier. Then, I can put real weight into every step and really walk around a virtual world.

TRAVR's simplified first-person shooter demo feels like the wrong kind of game to make for the Omni. Is shooting shambling zombies ever going to be fun when movement is slower and more awkward than actually running, let alone using a mouse and keyboard? If the Omni's going to work for anything, it's a slow, deliberate exploration game like Dear Esther—a game where walking around is intrinsically fulfilling.

Before the zombies come for me, I get a taste of the Omni's potential. After bumping up against a wall, I have to awkwardly turn to my right and change directions, and in that moment I completely lose track of my real world orientation. I have no idea where I'm facing. I marvel at this for a moment.

Being that cut off from the world is novel. Given the right gaming experience, it might even be amazing. But it also exaggerates the isolation of virtual reality. I can't imagine keeping an Omni in my living room when using it means cutting myself off from everything and everyone around me.

I think most game experiences designed for the Oculus Rift will be better served by VR's head tracking than the ability to walk on an omnidirectional treadmill. The Omni isn't a must-have gaming peripheral, but it might hint at the future of the humble treadmill. Why watch TV while you jog when you could run in any direction, exploring the world of Myst or ducking punches in a VR boxing game?

I step off of the Omni, sweating like I'd just run a mile. I'm not sold on it as the next big thing for gaming, but I'm definitely sold on one thing: it's a hell of a workout.

For players or profit? Activision-Blizzard at odds over Diablo 3's cash auction house

Diablo 3's auction house is a contentious subject.

is a contentious subject. It'll let players trade in-game loot for real-life cash. Blizzard will take a set fee for each transaction. It's being described in very different ways to players and to investors. To players and the specialist press, Blizzard have repeatedly emphasised that the real-money auction house is meant to protect gamers from shady gold sellers. To investors, Activision-Blizzard are talking up the profit potential.

We spoke to Diablo 3's Jay Wilsonabout Blizzard's motivation for the feature in August. At the time, it seemed that making a profit from the auction house wasn't high on the game designer's priority list: “We expect it'll break even. We talked about this as a service we wanted to provide players and not primarily as a financial model. We don't know if it will make us money," he said.

"It would be nice if it did, but as long as we don't lose money; that's really what we care about: that we provide the players with a great experience that doesn't put us out of business," he continued.

That was three months ago. The auction house came up at Activision Blizzard's recent Q3 2011 Earnings Call multiple times, mostly when people were talking about profit margins and business models. It seems that the auction house could end up turning a profit, accidentally or not. And in corporate land, Activision Blizzard's CFO Thomas Tippl, is enthusiastic about the item-trading system's potential for generating cash.

Speaking about the World of Warcraft annual pass(which comes with a free copy of Diablo 3), CFO of Activision Blizzard, Thomas Tippl said: "The larger the Diablo community is, and the larger the marketplace around Diablo's real money auction house is, the greater the opportunity to also generate income and have a long tail behind Diablo."

"The general acceptance of gamers for a different type of business model has increased substantially over time. We're really looking for upper benchmarks outside of currently relevant microtransaction-based games so those trends have been very encouraging," continued Tippl. But for us, we'll have to see what happens when we get into the marketplace. If we didn't think there was a significant opportunity, we wouldn't be doing it."

That directly contradicts what Blizzard have been telling us. Back in April, we asked the Blizzard designer whether he would still launch a real-money auction house if Blizzard couldn't earn cash from each sale. "Absolutely," he responded. Thomas' emphasis on the Auction House's margins seems contradictory to Jay's take.

At least Blizzard co-founder, Mike Morhaime, got the final word at the Investor's Call. And reassuring words they were, placing the emphasis back on the game experience instead of cold, hard cash.

"Let me add to that. If you look at Diablo 2, and even Diablo 1 player bahaviors, there was a need to trade items between players. We found that a lot of our players were trading items on third party sites. The main reason we're doing [the auction house] is to provide them with a safe and secure environment which we think it going to make for a better game."

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The Cow Queen (and her secret level) comes to Diablo III

There was a hidden cow level in Diablo 2 , accessible through means which I've long since forgotten, filled with deadly herds of Hell Bovines—literally bipedal cows with spears—ruled by the Cow King.

, accessible through means which I've long since forgotten, filled with deadly herds of Hell Bovines—literally bipedal cows with spears—ruled by the Cow King. It was purely a novelty, although also a good place to hit up for experience, and so it didn't make it into Diablo 3. Until now.

In a Battle.net post entitled " Debunking the Cowspiracy," Blizzard said the rumors of an invasion of "bipedal, bardiche-bearing bovines" is obviously untrue and flat-out ridiculous. "There are no homicidal heifers. There is no invasion. And, more specifically, there is no cow level," it wrote "Anyone who claims otherwise is full of bull and simply milking this terrible prank for all that it's worth."

However, for the sake of caution, it also advised players to avoid the wilds of Sanctuary from today until the evening of May 21, and to most definitely not enter any strange portals "that may or may not lead to alternate planes of existence." Doing so, it warned, "cud be potentially hazardous to to your health."

The post doesn't actually reveal what's going on, but according to Eurogamer, players wandering the woods may encounter an Elite cow enemy called Herald of the Queen. Killing it will open a portal to "Not the Cow Level," which contains the Cow Queen, as well as a large number of Resplendent and Radiant chests, and a special Event. It's all to celebrate the third anniversaryof the launch of Diablo 3, which happened on this day in 2012, and will come to an end at midnight Pacific time on May 21.

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Project Eternity kickstarter: new donation tier nets you Wasteland 2

Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter continues to absorb all human wealth with a hunger that lies somewhere between The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly and a supermassive black hole.

continues to absorb all human wealth with a hunger that lies somewhere between The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly and a supermassive black hole. They've now announced an additional $165 digital-only contribution tier that promises donors a copy of Wasteland 2(inXile's Kickstarter-funded RPG sequel) as well.

And not only that! But contributions of $165 or more will snag you the first expansion pack for the game on top - which should ship six months after the game's release in April 2014.

Perhaps the collaboration between these two Kickstarter campaigns isn't all that surprising given the shared DNA between Obsidian and inXile: the founders of each, Chris Avellone and Brian Fargo respectively, are both Black Isle Studios alumni.

What continues to surprise me is that quite so many people are willing to pay so much for content that is still two years away from wholly existing. But people clearly trust Obsidian's word and have flocked to the Kickstarter page to help smash that original funding target of $1.1 million. Right now 55,563 backers have pledged $2,534,601 with six days left to go, and no doubt this figure will have gone up further by the time I finish writing this sentence.

If you feel like supporting Chris Avellone's steady accrual of the Western world's combined GDP, head over to the Project Eternity Kickstarterpage.

GDC 2013: Diablo 3 auction house "really hurt the game," says Jay Wilson

Well, this is a surprise.

Well, this is a surprise. During a panel talk at GDC (via Joystiq), former Diablo 3 Lead Designer Jay Wilson addressed head-on the ongoing controversy of the game's gold and real-money auction houses, saying the markets ultimately "really hurt the game."

The crux of Blizzard's troubles with the auction houses arose from an underestimation of user numbers and the scale of item pricing, according to Wilson. He also said the team initially thought the player-driven economy would combat scams and provide a useful service.

Eventually, Blizzard became strongly aware of the differences between its expectations and the actual performance and reception of the markets. Wilson claimed the entirety of Diablo 3's community—1 million players daily and around 3 million per month, he noted—used either auction house at some point, with "over 50 percent" of players using them regularly.

The convenience of amassing a fortune in gold from bartering items dimmed the game's primary motivation of experiencing its story and killing Diablo, Wilson explained. That echoes a previous sentiment from Blizzard Game Designer Travis Day earlier this year, who wrote on the team's efforts to "refocus players away from farming the auction house and onto farming monsters."

In hindsight, Wilson stated, Blizzard would "turn off [the auction houses] if we could." Whoa. However, Wilson went on to elaborate that the size of Diablo 3's playerbase makes the problem "not as easy" as abruptly unplugging item bartering. He said a solution is being worked on that avoids eliminating an existing feature entirely, but he didn't go into details.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Soldiers' Diaries locations guide

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Planescape: Torment is on Good Old Games

Hooray!

Hooray! Planescape: Torment has just appeared on GOG.com. They're calling it "the second most wanted game on GOG," and it's especially good news for gamers like me who haven't been able to track down a copy of Black Isle's classic RPG to try for themselves. It's $9.99 and you can get it here.

Diablo III Director Jay Wilson leaves team for other Blizzard projects

In a lengthy post on Blizzard's official forums , Diablo III Director Jay Wilson has announced his departure from the team he led for seven years to pursue another unspecified project at Blizzard.

, Diablo III Director Jay Wilson has announced his departure from the team he led for seven years to pursue another unspecified project at Blizzard. "I've reached a point creatively where I'm looking forward to working on something new," he writes. "This decision was not an easy one for me, and not one I made quickly, but ultimately it's what I feel is right."

Wilson's oversight of the much-hyped RPG wasn't immune from rocky periods. The clumsy, error-plagued launchfrustrated fans that had waited almost a dozen years for a follow-up, and many criticized the game's end-gameand real-money auction house.

But despite the difficulties, Wilson says he feels proud of Diablo III and its community, though he admits his communication could've been better at times. "I feel I have made many mistakes in managing that relationship, but my intent was always to provide a great gaming experience, and be as open and receptive as possible while still sticking true to the vision the Diablo team has for the game," he writes.

Wilson also promises future updates and support for Diablo III will continue, including the upcoming 1.0.7 PVP duelingpatch. He didn't name a direct successor for taking over directing duties, but he didn't rule out the studio posting a future opening for the job "as we want to make sure we explore every opportunity to find the best possible leadership for the project."

Read the rest of Wilson's farewell on the forums.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Pain Box locations guide

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Retailer drops GTA V due to depictions of violence against women

Overwatch director says Blizzard "failed horrifically" on canceled Titan MMO

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime was a bit vague when he spoke in 2014 about the studio's reasons for pulling the plug on the MMO Titan after seven years in development.

after seven years in development. “We didn't find the fun," he said at the time. "We didn't find the passion.” But in a recent interview with Gamespot, Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan was a bit blunter about the state of the game when the axe finally fell.

“You had a really amazing group that was working on Titan. They were really talented individuals, but we failed horrifically in every way... In every way that a project can fail. It was devastating,” he said.”You had these people who either came from other companies or from within Blizzard, and were used to working on games that were very successful like a World of Warcraft, for example. To go through such a complete and utter failure is very hard for people who are used to experiencing success.”

Kaplan said the Titan team felt pressure, not from external sources, but because of the wild success of virtually every other Blizzard franchise in existence. “Nobody said a word, everyone was super supportive, but I think there was this inward embarrassment of like, 'No, we need to prove that we’re worthy of being at Blizzard too. We can make something that makes the company proud',” he said.

Despite the ugliness, the ultimate outcome was positive: The wreckage of Titan helped lay the foundation for Overwatch, and Kaplan said the shared experience of “sitting on the smoking pile of a canceled project” actually helped bring the team together. “When it came to move to Overwatch there was an extremely tight bond on the team and a ravenous hunger to show the world that we’re not failures and we can make something really fun,” he said.

It's not often that you'll hear a high-ranking game developer refer to his previous project as a horrific failure, but I suppose it's a little easier to do when you're confident that your next project is going to be a killer—and so far, Overwatch is looking pretty good. It's set to come out on May 24, following an open beta that will run from May 5-9.

Why less is always more in game design

Although not without its good moments, structurally Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is a shambles. A directionless, lurching mess of a thing, on the whole it bears little resemblance to the original game, hardly even seeming aware of what made the first Lords of Shadow work. Even now, several weeks after finishing it, I’m incredulous as to the final shape of the game, and even more bemused as to what

Halo composer O'Donnell forms Seattle studio with veteran devs

Diablo 3's third season starts next month

Diablo 3 desperately wants you to keep playing it, and to that end Blizzard have been running a couple of 'seasons' full of challenges, conquests and of course loot.

Diablo 3 desperately wants you to keep playing it, and to that end Blizzard have been running a couple of 'seasons' full of challenges, conquests and of course loot. They've just announcedthat the second is about to end, on April 5th. Wasting no time, they've also announced that season 3 is set to start on April 10th, taking the time to note, in explicit detail, which of your rewards will carry over.

It's basically everything, except the rewards for Conquests, which aren't available for regular heroes (although "your mighty deeds will still be chronicled in the Records page of your profile for you to view at any time!" - yeah cheers Blizzard). Seasonal heroes created for season 2 will be converted to regular ol' Normal or Hardcore heroes, while the seasonal leaderboards will be wiped. There's a lot more detail at that link above.

Season 3 will kick off on April 10th, giving you five days to ruminate on your accomplishments before the whole vicious cycle begins anew. It's likely that the teased patch 2.2.0will be implemented during this downtime, so that it's ready and in place before the new season begins. (Thanks, Blue's News.)

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Sandbox gameplay" is one of those ambiguous terms in game development that is used a lot, but rarely defined.

"Sandbox gameplay" is one of those ambiguous terms in game development that is used a lot, but rarely defined.

EVE Online and the meaning of 'sandbox'

To Matthew Woodward, senior designer at EVE Online developer CCP, "sandbox" is just a mindset in which his studio operates on a daily basis.

"['Sandbox'] is really hard to define, because it's so ingrained in what we do, that we know what it is, but it's hard to put into words," he tells Gamasutra.

But he offers up a pretty good definition anyhow. "Basically it's three things: being social, goal-driven and emergent -- making a game open, giving players control, essentially, and if you're making a multiplayer game, making it as social as possible, because that's why they're playing the game in the first place."

Woodward posits that emergence is likely the most important aspect, and it's something to concentrate on whether you're making a single-player sandbox game or a multiplayer game.

CCP is a studio that knows a thing or two about open-ended MMOs. EVE Online is nearly 10 years old now, and its trademarks are exactly the three elements that Woodward uses to describe sandbox games. EVE 's player-driven economy, professions and close ties with the community have all helped the game standout from World of Warcraft copies, and carve a successful niche of its own.

Key to EVE 's success is grasping what it means for an MMO to be self-sustaining. Woodward explains CCP's approach. "Essentially, you need the emergence, you need the openness.

"The big enemy is rest states -- a place where players keep on doing the same things over and over again. That's the big thing that's going to drag down your open-endedness. That and obviously if a player can finish [the game], it's not open-ended," he says."

That open-endedness can translate into longevity for an online game. "[The game has to enable] an ongoing balance. Anything that supports competitive-type gameplay, trying to be the best at something, is really good for open-endedness, because you can have that back-and-forth between players, and you always try to get it back when you lose it," says Woodward.
Narrative vs. sandboxThere's one element that is not mentioned in Woodward's definition of "sandbox," or in his explanation of self-sustaining gameplay: narrative. There is in fact a lot of narrative that happens in EVE , but it's primarily player-driven. Woodward is skeptical that game-driven narrative can really work successfully in an MMO.

"It seems to me, from my very EVE -centric perspective, that there's a lot of value in narrative gameplay, and there's a lot of value in MMOs," he says. "It's not crystal clear to me how merging those two things together is the best possible way to enhance them both. It seems like they're pushing in different directions, and trying to be different kinds of games.

"For me, and for the way I look at games, those two types of games are not obvious bedfellows, and I wonder whether what kind of compromises you're making when you're trying to get those to mesh together nicely are worth what you're trying to achieve.

"If you're trying to achieve a single-player experience, it's not obvious to me how that's benefiting from a creative point of view from being embedded in a very highly-social multiplayer game."