Friday 17 January 2014

GTA Online Cheaters to be targeted by Rockstar

Rockstar has made an announcement containing information  on the measures they are going to take to prevent cheaters on GTA Online. See below for more details.


In recent weeks, a small number of Grand Theft Auto Online players sought to exploit the game by generating and distributing game-breaking amounts of in-game cash, disrupting the experience for other players.

We will continue to issue title updates on an ongoing basis to counter the negative impact this has had on game play, and as part of today’s maintenance period, we are removing the counterfeit GTA$ from the game's economy. Anyone that innocently received GTA$ as a result of these exploits but did not engage in cheating to acquire it will not face any further action - the funds will just be removed , and you'll be able to keep any items you currently own.

Those who actively engaged in cheating and exploiting the game in this manner will, however, be subject to in-game penalties at our discretion. This may include being placed in isolated cheater pools or banned from GTA Online altogether.

Should you ever encounter someone in GTA Online that appears to be taking advantage of exploits in your session, we ask that you alert us directly via the in-game reporting functionality. In the Pause menu, under the Online tab, select Players and scroll to the offending player. From there, select Report and choose Exploits from the violation options.

We're grateful for the community's continued support in dealing with these issues and once again apologise to anyone that has had their Grand Theft Auto Online experience sullied by these exploits that broke the game's natural flow. Please stay tuned for lots more news about GTA Online in the weeks ahead.

Saturday 17 August 2013

Grand Theft Auto Online Gameplay Video

Take a look at the Official Gameplay Video for Grand Theft Auto Online below.



Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with every retail copy of Grand Theft Auto V and launches on October 1st.

Sunday 11 August 2013

How old people react to Grand Theft Auto V

What do senior citizens think about the controversial and very popular Grand Theft Auto series with a new game coming out? It's time to find out!


Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 - Apocalypse

The final DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will hit the Xbox 360 on the 27th August with two new multiplayer maps, two re-imagined fan-favourite maps and the ground breaking 'Origins' Zombies Experience.

The full PR can be seen below:

ACTIVISION AND TREYARCH REVEALS APOCALYPSE, THE HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED FINAL DLC PACK FOR CALL OF DUTY®: BLACK OPS II COMING FIRST, EXCLUSIVELY TO XBOX LIVE ON 27th AUGUST
 
Treyarch Caps Its Epic Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Season Pass Offering with Two All-New Multiplayer Maps, Two Re-Imagined Fan-Favourite Maps and the Groundbreaking "Origins" Zombies Experience
 
World Famous Rock Band Avenged Sevenfold and Renowned Comics Painter/Illustrator Alex Ross Lend Their Talent in support of Call of Duty®: Black Ops II: Apocalypse
 
The epic climax of Activision and Treyarch's Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Downloadable Content (DLC) Season Pass culminates with Apocalypse. Available first on the Xbox Live® online entertainment network from Microsoft on 27th August, the game's fourth and final DLC Pack delivers four thrilling, diverse multiplayer maps and the all-new wildly creative Zombies experience - "Origins".

With Apocalypse, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) and its award-winning studio Treyarch have partnered with award-winning Warner Bros. Records rock band, Avenged Sevenfold, who contribute the song, "Shepherd of Fire" from their upcoming album, "Hail to the King," to the Zombies experience, which will be featured in the intro cinematic video for "Origins". Along with Avenged Sevenfold, famed comics illustrator and painter, Alex Ross, has also lent his talent to "Origins", providing original art that features the original Zombies heroes. One of the most esteemed comic book artists of all time, Ross is most famous for his work with DC and Marvel Comics and has won many notable awards for his artistic design.

"Apocalypse is Treyarch's grand finale to Call of Duty: Black Ops II", said Treyarch Studio Head, Mark Lamia. "It is the perfect culmination of our efforts and fan feedback, with two all-new multiplayer maps for players to experience for the first time and two fully reimagined fan-favourite multiplayer maps from past games - and Origins, our most epic Zombies experience to date. Apocalypse is a DLC pack that our fans will never forget."

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Apocalypse delivers four diverse multiplayer maps:

  • Pod: A failed utopian community from the 70's has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an abandoned cliff side in Taiwan. Its residents long gone, the modernist compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods, as well as navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.
  • Frost: Fresh snow meets explosive gunpowder in this snow-capped European city, where the bridge over a frozen canal separates it into two sides, requiring players to employ multi-level traversal strategies to outsmart and ultimately outshoot their enemies.
  • Takeoff: Fans of "Stadium" from the original Call of Duty®: Black Ops First Strike DLC will find themselves at home on "Takeoff." Marooned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this remote launch site is all about close-quarters combat, combining tight corners with open spaces for intense encounters.
  • Dig: An adaptation of the fan-favourite "Courtyard" from Call of Duty®: World at War, where two archaeological dig sites in Afghanistan become the perfect playground for combatants eager for hectic, unceasing confrontations. Treyarch, has retained the spirit of "Courtyard" with two major chokepoints, a wide open layout and raised platforms, but has provided fans with a fresh take on the multitude of paths.
In addition to the four maps, Apocalypse also reveals Origins, the most horrifying and imaginative Zombies experience to date. Players will be deployed to Dieselpunk-stylised World War I-era France where they will encounter the return of the four original heroes from the very first Zombies map, Tank, Nikolai, Takeo, and Rictofen, as well as hordes of zombies that have overrun trenches and fields, as well as the ruins of a mysterious and ancient location.

Unleashed after the Germans unearthed the mysterious "Element 115," this next chapter in the Zombies legacy will explore the saga's origins as players reunite with an unlikely band of soldiers that come together to defeat the greatest evil the world has ever seen, using a period-specific arsenal that includes Wonder Weapons that harness supernatural powers, a diesel-drone and Mark IV tank, as well a new perk machine and power-ups - and that's just the start. Players will need all the help they can get to succeed in defeating the undead, as well as evading an unprecedented 1,000-foot tall robot abomination. In this stylised undead adventure, they'll need every advantage if they have any hope of surviving one of Treyarch's deepest Zombies experiences to date.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Apocalypse will be available first, exclusively on Xbox Live for the Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft for 1200 Microsoft Points on 27th August, with other platforms to follow. Players who have already purchased the Season Pass can download Apocalypse as soon as it becomes available. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is rated PEGI 18. More information on Call of Duty: Black Ops II can be found at http://www.callofduty.com/blackops2 or on www.facebook.com/codblackops. Fans can also follow @Treyarch on Twitter.

Saturday 3 August 2013

Microsoft upgrades GPU speed and graphics drivers on Xbox One

Microsoft is upgrading the GPU clock speed from 800Mhz to 853Mhz in the retail units and also has greatly improved the graphics driver, and they promise more details later on this month at Gamescom.

A senior Microsoft executive has revealed that the clock speed of the Xbox One graphics processing unit has been increased. Speaking on the podcast of Xbox mouthpiece Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb, corporate vice-president Marc Whitten claimed that the speed had been increased from 800 to 853mhz, ostensibly providing a 6% increase in graphics processing performance.

Furthermore, Whitten has claimed that the graphics drivers provided to developers have been updated - meaning that studios should be able to better tune their code to the final architecture of the machine.

"Since E3, we've dropped in what we internally call our mono driver," he said. "It's our graphics driver that really is 100% optimised for the Xbox One hardware. You start with the base DirectX driver, and then you take out all parts that don't look like Xbox One and you add in everything that really optimises that experience. Almost all of our content partners have really picked it up now, and I think it's made a really nice improvement."

Sunday 26 May 2013

Forza Motorsport 5 Trailer

Forza 5 is going to be one of the launch titles for the new XBOX ONE console and the trailer is looking good so be sure to check it out below:


Thursday 25 April 2013

DualShock 4 Video

Here is a new video showing the DualShock 4 and various developers discussing the new PS4 controller.


Monday 22 April 2013

Pink Nintendo 3DS XL announced for UK

Last year Japan seen the release of the Pink Nintendo 3DS XL and now it's been confirmed that it will be coming to the UK.
The pink version of the Nintendo 3DS XL will be available from May 31 in the UK.


Nintendo 3DS XL Pink

The Evil Within Trailer

Here is the debut teaser trailer for The Evil Within which is set to be released on PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and next generation consoles sometime in 2014.


Saturday 20 April 2013

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate review (3DS)

Castlevania: LoS - Mirror of Fate Review by Chris Michaels
   
Growing up during the Nintendo Entertainment Console days, many old school gamers remember playing classic Castlevania side scrolling, hack and slash games. The goal was always simple. Infiltrate Dracula's castle and destroy the evil monster. Over the years, the Castlevania franchise has evolved and most recently experienced a reboot back in 2010 that was titled Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. Mirror of Fate is a side story sequel to the 2010 game and continues the story being retold in Lords of Shadows.

The story of Castlevania is as connected to the evil villain, Dracula, as it is to the family of heroes tasked with destroying him...the Belmonts. In the rebooted story of Lords of Shadow, the Belmont family members are Knights within the Brotherhood of Light and each of them has a personal vendetta against the Dark Lord. The player assumes control of the Belmont lineage through three generations as each member battles the Dark Lord in an attempt to destroy the immortal villain.

Mirror of Fate is broken up into a prologue and three main Acts. The prologue begins by telling the story of Gabriel Belmont continued from the story told in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Act I jumps 40 years into the future and focuses on Gabriel's grandson, Simon Belmont. Simon is on a quest to destroy the Dark Lord as revenge for the death of his parents by the forces of Dracula. Act II switches the attention to the mysterious vampire hero named Allucard as he attempts to help Simon defeat the Dark Lord. Act III goes back to the past to follow the footsteps of Simon's father and Gabriel's son, Trevor Belmont. Trevor is also on a quest to avenge the death of his mother.

MercurySteam did an admirable job of trying to shake up the chronological order of the story to help add to the mysterious ending, but I felt it only complicated the story and did nothing to hide the predictable conclusion. It also hurt the game that the entire story was set in the same locations, meaning the player had to replay a lot of the same levels over and over as all three main characters had to revisit the same areas. By Act III, the game began to feel very repetitive.

The gameplay in Mirror of Fate is well done. The player can switch between the Belmont's iconic Vampire Killer Whip and magic abilities. Mirror of Fate also includes platform and puzzle questing elements and introduces Quick Time Events (QTE) that aren't too bad, but don't feel as natural as they do in other games. The 3D graphics work very well, although the overall graphical look of Mirror of Fate feels dated.

Overall, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate is a good game for anyone who enjoys classic side scrolling hack and slash platform games. Any old school Castlevania fan that also enjoyed the recent Lords of Shadow reboot will find much to enjoy with the fresh new feel Mirror of Fate helps Lords of Shadow add to the Castlevania franchise, while still having the same classic charm.
 
Ups
Solid classic side scrolling hack and slash gameplay
3D imagery is very well done
Interesting look at the Belmont family history
 
Downs
Story gets very repetitive after Act II with an obvious plot twist
Graphics look visually bland and dated
Quick Time Events feel forced on and unnatural
 
Scores:
 
Graphics 7.5
 
Sound 7.5
 
Gameplay 8
 
Fun factor 8
 
Online 0
 
Overall 7.8  (out of 10 / not an average)
 
Reviewed by Chris Michaels

Friday 19 April 2013

SimCity Update 2.0

An update for SimCity, which fixes a significant number of issues will be released on Monday.
Update 2.0 will contain a number of top-requested bug fixes and improvements.

Read the patch notes below:

What’s New

Mayors Mansion: Mayors will now drive their fancy cars to work. Mayors will take their helicopter, limo, or sports car if the modules are present.
HUD: Now color-corrects when in a colorblind mode.
Data map: Data maps show the filtered color when a color filter is enabled (unless in a colorblind mode)

Fixes and Updates

Cities not Processing: Mitigates some of the issues that were causing cities not to process. We are continuing to work on and improve this issue.
Region Filters: Now sorts regions with available cities to the top
Invitations: Invitations to join a region should be sent and received more quickly.
Tourism: Fixes for unexplained fluctuation of tourists. Tourists more smartly counted on transit.
- Cruise ships are now more effective at bringing medium and high wealth tourists in coastal cities.
- New tourists will now decide to come into a city once leaving tourists reach train stations, bus depots, or cruise ship docs instead of waiting for those tourists to go out to the region first.
- This change will reduce the downtime of tourist buildings.
Casinos: Casinos tuned so that Gambling will be a more profitable specialty. Players can bulldoze and replace existing casinos to see effects of tuning.
- The larger casinos now invite more tourists into the city which helps keep them full.
- Note that existing casinos will need to be replaced to take advantage of this change.
More Casinos: Raised module limit on Sci-Fi and Sleek Casinos to 6 modules.
Region Play: Cash gifts can now be received in a bankrupt city.
Education: Fixed school buses getting stuck at the high school. Existing Schools will fix themselves.
Education: Fixed school buses picking up students at neighboring cities that didn’t have school bus stops.
Education: Fix to more accurately track regional student population.
Education: Fix where kids leaving the school bus stop would teleport to the nearest pedestrian path instead of walking directly into the school.
Education: University wings now give the proper bonus.
Recycling: Fix for the Recycling Center where it would sometimes stop working, recycling services will visit other cities.
Air pollution: Fixed issue where air pollution would appear to come from nowhere. Fix issues where your regional air pollution would be reflected back into your box for a double penalty.
Fire Service: Fire Trucks don’t clump, dispatch to fires more efficiently.
Water: Water pumps are now capable of pumping water from rivers at a larger radius so they can take better advantage of the water table in a city.
Disasters: Cooldown for random disasters: Some players were getting hit too frequently with random disasters, this introduces a cooldown where no random disasters will occur.
Trade: Fix for trade ports that suddenly stop shipping.
Transit: Street Cars and Buses go to high volume stops first.
Transit: A city with residents and public transit will now provide the accurate amount of workers and shoppers to its neighbors.
Transit: A transit vehicle stuck in a pick-up or drop off loop will now go back to a garage instead of trying to pick up more people.
- Transit vehicles should recover automatically after the update. If players want to force the recovery, turn off the stops that are having looping issues, wait a few game hours, then turn them back on.
Transit: Neighbors buses will now come in lower numbers into the city and do a better job at picking up local passengers first.
Residential Tuning: Residential-only cities have failure state.
- Buildings are prevented from going up in density when they don’t have power or water.
- The amount of happiness gained from low taxes, police, fire, and health outreach has been lowered.
- Fixed some cases where buildings would not go abandoned when they should have.
- Higher density residential buildings are no longer blocked from going abandoned due to not having enough money.
- Happiness from low taxes does not double up every time it is given.
- Losing happiness due to not having a job is more impactful.
Budgets: Fixed bug that prevented systems like fire, abandonment, garbage, and sewage from turning on when they were supposed to.
Audio: Fixes issue where audio will stop working after creating a large city or where phantom audio sounds play in a city.
Demolish: Fixes issue that occurred when players demolished buildings that had service vehicles, delivery vehicles, or agents out in the city or region. Previously, the agents would be in a state of limbo and would not recover when new buildings of that type were placed. This will no longer happen.

Because this is our first significant Update, we wanted to inform you in advance that we’ll be taking down all servers for a few hours while these changes are being issued. Choosing a time to issue a major Update is never easy, but after looking our peak player time, we’ve concluded 1pm PST is the best window for us to make these improvements. As you can see from the list above, the wait will be worth it.

Thanks, Mayors!  

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Forza Horizon: 1000 Club Expansion Pack

Forza Horizon: 1000 Club Expansion Pack is now available in the XBLM.

"Free download! This game expansion adds fun new challenges for every car available to drive in Forza Horizon, over 1000 challenges in all! Every completed challenge awards you a gold medal. The more medals you collect, the faster you dominate friends on the new 1000 Club leader board. Do you have what it takes to reach 1000? Download today!"