Category: Gamespot

Pokemon Snap, the acclaimed Pokemon spinoff originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, is coming to the Wii U virtual console in Europe, Nintendo has announced.

It will launch this coming Thursday, August 18, Nintendo of Europe said on Twitter. Pricing was not announced.

There was no mention of a release in North America. Pokemon Snap launched for the Wii U virtual console in April in Japan. A release for North America seems likely, but this has not been confirmed.

Pokemon Snap sends players on a virtual trip to Pokemon Island where they go on a safari to take pictures of Pokemon in their natural habitat. Things like weather effects, environmental considerations, and the shyness of some Pokemon makes snapping pictures trickier than you’d imagine.

After snapping shots of Pokemon in the wild, players send them to Professor Oak, who judges the photos on the basis of size, pose, technique, and the number of creatures captured.

The new Wii U version of the single-player game supports GamePad, Classic Controller Pro, or the Wii U Pro Controller. Pokemon Snap is already available for the original Wii’s virtual console, priced at $10.

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[UPDATE] The creators of Pokemon Uranium have removed all download links for the game. In a statement posted on the game’s website, developers said they have not been personally contacted by Nintendo’s lawyers, but are taking the game down out of respect for the rights-holders.

Pokemon Uranium reached more than 1.5 million downloads.

Here is the full statement:

“After receiving more than 1,500,000 downloads of our game, we have been notified of multiple takedown notices from lawyers representing Nintendo of America. While we have not personally been contacted, it’s clear what their wishes are, and we respect those wishes deeply.

“Therefore, we will no longer provide official download links for the game through our website. We have no connection to fans who reupload the game files to their own hosts, and we cannot verify that those download links are all legitimate. We advise you to be extremely cautious about downloading the game from unofficial sources.

“We are blown away by the response this game has received, and we thank you all so much for your outstanding support. We will continue to provide Pokemon Uranium-related news and updates through our official channels. You are welcome to continue discussing and sharing content related to the game on our forums and Discord, where there is a very active community.

“Thank you for reading, and let’s share the love of Pokemon!”

The original story is below.

A fan-made Pokemon RPG has finally been released for PC after almost a decade in development.

Pokemon Uranium consists of the usual Red/Blue formula, but introduces a lot of new things, including the region of Tandor, more than 150 Pokemon, and a Nuclear type. The goal of the game is to “recapture the classic Pokemon experience” with some twists. You can see many of the new Pokemon in the trailer below, which was released in July.

The game is now available for free to download from the Uranium website and does not require an emulator. It’s available for PC, with a Mac version still to come. As of this writing, the site is down due to the sheer amount of attention it’s been getting now that the project has been released, according to a tweet.

Uranium appears to be an incredibly impressive project, which makes what seems like the inevitable cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company so unfortunate. The website and videos make it clear that Uranium is a not-for-profit fan project unaffiliated with the official Pokemon brand.

But as we’ve seen time and again, that has little bearing on lawyers deciding to shut down these types of fan-made games. Another impressive project, a remake of Metroid II called Project AM2R, was recently released and quickly served with DMCA takedown notices. According to a blog post on August 9, its creator had not received a cease-and-desist letter, but the DMCA requests has forced the game to essentially go underground. That may end up being the fate of Uranium as well.

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[UPDATE] Following the initial reports, Kotaku now has heard from a “number of sources” that Final Fantasy XV is delayed. Additionally, Gamnesia has posted a picture of marketing materials that show the rumored November 29 release date. Kotaku says it has also seen other marketing materials apparently referencing a delay. The GameStop signage will reportedly go up on Monday, August 15, so the delay announcement should come very soon, it seems.

Square Enix has not responded to a request for comment.

The original story is below.

Multiple reports are claiming Square Enix’s long-in-development RPG Final Fantasy XV has been delayed to November 29. A source at GameStop told Gamnesia that the game is now coming on November 29.

“Promotional materials with the new date have arrived at some GameStop stores with instructions that they are not to be put up until after Sunday, August 14th, so an official announcement could be coming then,” the report said.

Additionally, Gematsu, which accurately reported Final Fantasy XV’s September 30 release date before it was announced, has heard from a source that Gamnesia’s report is accurate. The site’s source is apparently the same one who tipped them off to the September 30 release date.

GameSpot has contacted Square Enix in an attempt to get more details.

The GameStop website still lists the Final Fantasy XV release date as September 30. Additionally, the Gamnesia report didn’t include images of the reported marketing materials. For now, take this with a grain of salt. If the report is accurate, we should know one way or the other soon.

Final Fantasy XV will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while Square Enix is “thinking about a PC version.” If the RPG does come to PC, fans should not expect this version to launch alongside the console editions in September, if it happens at all.

This post has been updated.

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Microsoft has announced that a future Xbox One update will let you turn off the console’s startup sound.

Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb announced the future feature on Twitter, also releasing images of what the new option will look like from the menu screen (via DualShockers).

“We’ve heard feedback re: the Xbox One startup chime,” Major Nelson said.

As you can see in the images, you will have the option of making it chime only when you turn the console on via voice or power button, in addition to turning it completely off.

There is no word yet on when the update that introduces this feature will be delivered. The Xbox One’s newest update added support for background music, among other things.

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If you’re caught using a bot program o GPS-spoofing service for Pokemon Go, you might find your account permanent banned. The game’s website now mentions that developer Niantic is permanently banning players who violate the game’s Terms of Service.

“This includes, but is not limited to: falsifying your location, using emulators, modified or unofficial software and/or accessing Pokemon Go clients or backends in an unauthorized manner including through the use of third-party software,” reads the line in question.

Niantic said it’s taking these steps because its ambition is to create a “fair, fun, and legitimate game experience” for all players. You can expect Niantic to continue its efforts here.

“We will continue to work with all of you to improve the quality of the gameplay, including ongoing optimization and fine tuning of our anti-cheat system,” it said. “If you believe your account has been terminated in error incorrectly, you can appeal that termination through this form. For privacy reasons, please do not post appeals on social media.”

Polygon reports that popular Pokemon Go bots, including NecroBot, are shutting down. The creator of that bot told Polygon that he took down the program’s files in light of the bans. NecroBot undermines the spirit of Pokemon Go by allowing players to perform the game’s actions without leaving their homes. Niantic has said its goal for the game is to get people out into the real world.

“Due to legal action being started against other bot creators/devs (we did not receive a letter yet) the Project development will be stopped. All Source Files / Downloads will be removed,” reads a statement on the NecroBot GitHub page.

HaxtonBot and PokeMobBot are also apparently moving to shut down. According to Polygon, the previous penalty for cheating in Pokemon Go was a “soft ban,” which allowed users to keep playing, though they couldn’t catch creatures or take part in gym battles.

In other Pokemon Go news, authorities in Canada released helicopter footage of an erratic driver who was reportedly playing the game while behind the wheel.

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Following the launch of long-awaited a hugely hyped space game No Man’s Sky on Friday for PC, people quickly reported performance issues. After initially responding to these issues, developer Hello Games has now provided another update on the subject.

“Whilst many people are enjoying No Man’s Sky, we are tracking several issues, and we’re working hard to resolve them as quickly as possible,” Hello Games said in a Steam forum post. Here is a rundown, as written by Hello Games:

• We have updated our support page with some common issues and workaroundshttp://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/08/pc-support/
• We have updated the auto response from support@hellogames.co.uk to help suggest common fixes, and help gather better info
• We have filed tickets for everyone who has mailed support and are responding to them in turn.
• We have gotten back to a lot of people already, who were trying to run the game significantly below min spec.
• Additionally your bug reports have shown us a handful of key issues we are working to resolve

The post, released late last night, also mentions that Hello Games is “pulling an allnighter” to fix as many issues as soon as possible.

The three most common crash scenarios, according to Hello Games, are these:

• Running the game with an Intel card. This is not supported
• No Man’s Sky is an OpenGL 4.5 game, and requires latest drivers on most cards, please update
• VC++ Redist 2010 was not included by default. We have updated in a patch, please restart

Hello Games added that it plans to create an “experimental branch” for No Man’s Sky that includes hotfixes for the most common known issues, which are:

• Shader Cache issue – means that framerate is initially stuttering on some cards. Whilst it resolves itself over time (~1 hour of play), we will fix this issue in a patch.
• SSE 4 – for CPUs that do not support SSE 4, it is causing the game to crash on boot (some of these area technically below min spec, but we don’t want it to crash!)
• Mouse controls jitter on foot – this caused by a combination of certain resolution and GFX card. A fix is in progress.

If the problem you’re facing is not covered in the post, you can reach Hello Games at this address: support@hellogames.co.uk.

No Man’s Sky’s PC release was apparently very rough. Yesterday, Steam Reviews stood at “mostly negative”; today, that has been downgraded to “mixed” after close to 22,500 reviews.

For more on No Man’s Sky, check out GameSpot’s review. We called it a “massive machine with broken and missing parts.”

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