Gaming

Ubisoft has shed a little light on its new Tom Clancy open-world RPG for Xbox One and PS4, The Division. First and foremost, the game has no predefined classes. Players are allowed to assign skills to their characters as they see fit and those skills are "totally changeable." So, you're able to spec your character as a healer or tank or whatever the situation demands. The publisher also detailed The Division's second screen experience, which allows players to join games via a mobile device. Joining a game via a tablet allows players to take on the role of a drone that can provide a number of benefits to players on a console. The drone is able to heal and provide buffs to players, tag and debuff enemies, and it can even summon a missile strike. Drones have their own progression system as well. As did many of the games shown at E3, The Division will employ a seamless multiplayer system, allowing online squads to play cooperatively or engage in PVP without leaving the game world. A "black-market economy" system will allow players to create weapons and items and trade them with others.The Division has 'classless characters,' second screen detailed originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Square Enix game director Tetsuya Nomura has elaborated on the choice to bring Final Fantasy 15 - previously known as Final Fantasy Versus 13 - to next-generation consoles instead of PS3, the original platform when the game was first announced in 2006. In an interview with Famitsu (via Polygon), Nomura said Square Enix moved the game to Xbox One and PS4 because "the lifespan of the current generation of consoles was starting to pose a problem" to Square Enix. "We had originally thought about making this announcement last year, but due to assorted reasons that got delayed. This meant that the lifespan of the current generation of consoles was starting to pose a problem to us. If we were a year later, other companies will have more time to research the next generation, and releasing the game against their products on the older generation could have caused us to look inferior when people inevitably compared us." Keeping Final Fantasy 15 on the current generation posed too many concerns to Square Enix - concerns that the final game wouldn't match what the company set out to do. "With current-gen systems, we couldn't fully express what we wanted to do in this project," he said. "There were more and more things that we would've had to change the form of. However, the assumption was that we'd go ahead with a current-gen release, so went through a trial-and-error process to do as much as we could. So we built an alpha version about a year ago, and the company response was 'If you remained bound to the current generation, will it will be the product you envisioned?' They suggested shifting fully to next-gen, and that was the spark that led to the move." As for a PC port, Nomura says it largely "depends on the demand" - if enough people want it, then Square Enix may pursue it. The full interview can be read through the source link below.Nomura: Final Fantasy 15 on PS3 may have 'caused us to look inferior' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ever since Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One and the new Kinect sensor, privacy advocates have been up in arms about how the Kinect watches and listens to its users at all times in order to be at the ready when a voice command or hand gesture is initiated. Lawmakers are also joining in, proposing a Read The Full Story

Got some spare time on your hand and maybe a bucket of popcorn lying around? Good. You're going to need both to dive into all of these trailers Sony has pulled together from last week's E3 conference.

Gosh, what a big happy family everyone is on PC. Hello Games today announced that it's buddying up with Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft for the PC editions of its Joe Danger games. You'll be able to be blockmen and make blocky levels in Joe Danger 2, and play as TF2 characters in both.The full cast of TF2 classes are available for your racing enjoyment, which Minecraft's offerings are Steve and the eerie Pigman. Minecraft blocks are available in the level editor too."Just for fun Aaron started adding TF2 characters into Joe Danger and I was in love with how good they looked. We completely had to make them happen for real, so we called Valve, and now it's a real thing!" Hello manager director Sean Murray explained. He added, "Is this the first time Minecraft is on Steam? Is this legal?"Joe Danger and Joe Danger 2 somersault onto Steam next Monday, June 24.

Remember all the insane games you used to play at slumber parties? Remember how much fun you had? Well the Danish do as well, and they made a video game about it. Enter Spin The Bottle: Bumpie’s Party, an indie game made by KnapNok Games in Copenhagen. It’s kinda like WarioWare, but even more hilariously awkward and played exclusively with a Wii U Gamepad and remotes. In the clip above, watch Lau Karsgaard demonstrate the game and get, well, uncomfortably close to another E3 attendee. It’s a strange sight to behold, but oddly exemplifies the kind of off-beat experiences that the Wii U is perfectly suited for. To contact the author of this post, write to chrisperson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @papapishu.

Sony is trying to figure out what went wrong with PlayStation 3 firmware update 4.45, which was offered to PS3 users last night but then pulled when it appeared to start breaking consoles. "We are aware of reports that the recent PlayStation 3 system software update (version 4.45) has caused the XMB to not display on a small number of PS3 systems," a PlayStation spokesperson told Kotaku. "We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating the cause of the problem. We will announce when the system update is available for download as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience." The firmware was supposed to improve the PS3... PS3 system software update 4.45 coming soon, Trophy notification options and improved system stability are on the way — PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 19, 2013 ... but as soon as it went live, we got reports from readers that it was rendering some systems inoperable. As of this morning, the firmware was no longer available. Console firmware is routinely updated to add functionality, squash bugs and/or foil homebrew developers and pirates. The PlayStation platforms have been notorious for receiving a lot of firmware updates, though Sony has introduced auto-updating of firmware updates to ease that hassle. New games tend to only run on PlayStation systems that are running new firmware. A Sony rep said the company is currently "confirming the number" of PS3's affected by the now-pulled 4.45 firmware. As for those who downloaded 4.45 and currently have a bricked system because of it, Sony tells us, "We kindly ask PS3 users to wait for further details. We will announce when ready." Good luck to those of you whose systems got mangled by this. If anyone out there comes up with a fix, let us know. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.

Quote: Nordic Games today revealed the cover art as well as new screenshots for their blockbuster release of Deadfall Adventures, out on the Xbox 360 and Windows PC September 27th. In keeping with the style of Deadfall Adventures, the beautifully created cover-art takes its inspiration from the Lost World genre of literature, popularised in the early 20th century through novels such as King Solomon?s Mines and The Land That Time Forgot, which depicted the discovery of unexplored and exotic worlds. The cover art also pays tribute to the science fiction and adventure ?Pulp? magazines of the same era that gave rise to one of the greatest treasure hunters and pulp action heroes of all time - Indiana Jones. Developed using Unreal Engine 3, Deadfall Adventures is full of spectacular jaw-dropping moments, as players battle natural and not-so-natural enemies across stormy deserts of Egypt to the icy depths of the Arctic and all the way to the steaming jungles of Guatemala. Assuming the role of adventurer Quatermain, players will encounter fiendish puzzles, deadly traps and stunning set pieces, making this one of the greatest adventures ever told ? let alone played. Click on the image to view the screenshots and cover art.

Just as the carrier brings the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active to the scene for waterproof/dustproof everyday use, so too does the manufacturer NEC claim their place in the segment with the “Terrain”. This device works with Android and 4G LTE to bring AT&T Enhanced Push-to-Talk technology to the business user. In other words – Read The Full Story

HTC’s original J Butterfly was a phone of firsts for the company, most notably the 1080p display. It may not have been the only phone to feature Full HD resolution, but it pushed HTC back into the limelight and helped us forget devices like the Sensation XL, which got the big-display part right but then Read The Full Story