Category: Gamespot

A rudimentary modification to GTA 5 on PC has allowed Oculus Rift owners to view Los Santos in virtual reality for the first time.

Footage published on YouTube shows players stepping into the skin of protagonists Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, using an Oculus Rift DK 2 to simulate the game in first-person mode.

Though developer Rockstar North has not officially provided Oculus Rift support for its latest Grand Theft Auto title, players have found a way around this by using the latest version of VorpX, which is a software program that allows various game builds to be compatible with VR.

For now, the experiment only offers basic VR functionality, in that head movements are used to move the first-person camera. Due to the game’s code not being optimised for virtual reality, the results may be unpleasant and uncomfortable for some users.

Footage aired so far shows one player walk around Michael’s house in VR (below), while another captures a bike ride at night (above).

Grand Theft Auto V shipped on PC on Tuesday, April 14, and quickly became the most played non-Valve game published on Steam, with more than 300,000 people playing the game simultaneously.

GameSpot’s GTA 5 PC Review offered a strong recommendation to try the game: “GTA V shines on PC thanks to 4K-grade textures, the availability of additional post-processing effects, and an unlocked frame rate.”

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The long wait for the release of Project Cars should be over in a matter of weeks, as publisher Bandai Namco has “guaranteed” a specific launch date for the title.

Following a succession of delays to the project on at least three occasions, the racing sim is now due to ship on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on Friday May 8. This release date is specifically for the UK market, and while there is no official launch timings for North America yet, if convention is followed the game should arrive in the US on Tuesday May 5.

Developer Slightly Mad Studios has plans to ship a version on Wii U, but details on the release date for this remain vague.

Meanwhile, a guide for Project Cars’ minimum and recommended PC specs has been issued:

Minimum

• CPU: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400, 3.0 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 260, ATI Radeon HD 5770
• Memory: 4Gb RAM, 1Gb VRAM

Recommended

• CPU: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 3700, 4.0 GHz AMD FX-8350
• GPU: Nvidia GT600 series, AMD Radeon HD7000 series
• Memory: 8Gb RAM, 2Gb VRAM

Further below, a list of Project Cars’ supported steering wheels can be found (Slightly Mad Studios says this is not final yet).

Developer Slightly Mad Studios originally scheduled to release Project Cars in November 2014, though a month before release that date was pushed to March 2015. Then, weeks ahead of its postponed launch, the game was pushed back again, this time to April.

Ian Bell, the developer who heads up Slightly Mad Studios, said the further delay was initiated because detecting all of the game’s final bugs has proven to be a complex task.

“Despite our long heritage and pedigree in making critically-acclaimed racing games, Project CARS is by far the grandest and most intricately detailed of them all,” he wrote in a prepared statement.

Project Cars Supported Steering Wheels

PLAYSTATION 4

• Thrustmaster T300RS
• Thrustmaster T300 Ferrari GTE
• Thrustmaster T100 Force Feedback
• Thrustmaster T80
• Thrustmaster TH8RS
• Thrustmaster TH8A
• Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals
• Thrustmaster T500RS
• Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT2
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 v2
• Fanatec CSR (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec CSR Elite (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base v2

XBOX ONE

• Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition
• Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Spider Racing
• Thrustmaster TH8A
• Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base v2
• Mad Catz Pro Racing Force Feedback

PC

• Thrusmaster T300RS
• Thrustmaster T300 Ferrari GTE
• Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition
• Thrustmaster T100 Force Feedback
• Thrustmaster TH8RS
• Thrustmaster TH8A
• Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals
• Thrustmaster T500RS
• Thrustmaster RGT Force Feedback Clutch
• Thrustmaster F430 Force Feedback
• Thrustmaster Ferrari F1 Wheel Integral T500
• Thrustmaster GP XID Gamepad
• Thrustmaster GPX Gamepad
• Thrustmaster GPX LightBack Black Edition Gamepad
• Fanatec Porsche Turbo
• Fanatec Porsche Carrera
• Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT2
• Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 v2
• Fanatec CSR (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec CSR Elite (+ Pedals)
• Fanatec ClubSport Shifter (+SQ)
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base
• Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base v2
• Logitech G25
• Logitech G27
• Logitech Driving Force
• Logitech Driving Force Pro
• Logitech Driving Force GT
• Logitech MOMO Force
• Logitech MOMO Racing_
• SimRaceway SRW-S1

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2K Australia, developer of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, has closed its doors, a source within the studio tells Kotaku Australia.

According to their source, the entire studio will be shutting down, and every staff member will lose their job, saying “All hands are gone.” The costs of operating a AAA studio in Australia were reportedly the cause of the studio shutting its doors. Official comment is expected to be issued soon.

2K Australia was the country’s last remaining AAA studio. Most recently, the developer took the lead on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, but the studio has long played a large part in assisting the development of other 2K properties, such as the BioShock series, and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

Update: Official comment from a 2K representative has been provided to Kotaku Australia: “We can confirm we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams. We are very grateful for the team’s valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible.”

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WayForward Technologies, the developer behind Aliens: Infestation, DuckTales Remastered, and Silent Hill: Book of Memories, has announced its next game–a new adventure game for the Apple Watch.

The studio is describing the game–Watch Quest!: Heroes of Time–as the “first adventure game made exclusively for Apple Watch.” WayForward says Watch Quest! Is a “new kind of game experience.” That’s for sure.

Watch Quest! isn’t exactly exclusive to Apple Watch, however, as it will play across both iPhone and the new wearable device.

“Gameplay revolves around choosing a hero and equipping them on the iPhone, and then guiding the Hero via the Apple Watch as he or she travels lands, battles monsters, solves puzzles, and searches for treasures,” WayForward explains. “Players are invited to play passively by selecting longer, easier quests and outfitting the hero up front–or by taking on more difficult quests which require foraging for items as you go.”

Watch Quest will be available as a free download with one training quest, while players will also be able to buy extra characters and missions with real-world money. The game is set to launch on April 24, the same day that the Apple Watch arrives worldwide.

For more on the Apple Watch, which starts at $350 and scales to above $10,000, check out GameSpot sister site CNET’s review of the device as well as what other critics are saying.

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That didn’t take long.

Just hours after Bungie released the latest patch for Destiny—1.1.2–players have mined the update and found what might be new details about the game’s upcoming expansion, House of Wolves.

The details are rounded up in this Reddit post. According to the post, House of Wolves will add two new social spaces–Queen’s Bay and Halls of Amentet–along with one new Strike called The Shadow Thief. House of Wolves will also reportedly add three new story missions, three quests, and up to five new PvP maps.

Bungie said earlier this week that House of Wolves will not include a new Raid. However, Destiny will introduce The Prison of Elders, a new co-op endgame activity, through House of Wolves. The Prison of Elders is described as a new activity “focused on variety, replayability, and skill.”

Also discovered in the Destiny 1.1.2 patch notes were 46 ship schematics and references to Treasure Maps, among other things. Check out the Reddit post for lots more on what might be coming to Destiny by way of the House of Wolves expansion.

One thing to note here is that, of course, this information is not coming directly from Bungie and could change. Responding to an earlier House of Wolves leak in February, Bungie’s community manager David “Deej” Dague urged caution to fans when looking at leaks of this nature, saying, “anything you know about [House of Wolves] can change.”

Officially, Bungie has committed to the scheduled listed below for when it will announce new information about Destiny’s House of Wolves expansion. The add-on launches May 19 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. It’s included with Destiny’s $35 Expansion Pass–which also includes December’s The Dark Below add-on–or can be purchased individually for $20.

Destiny House of Wolves Announcement Schedule:

• Wednesday, April 22 — “Walking tour of the The Reef, with a live discussion about the upgrade paths for your gear.”
• Wednesday, April 29 — “Reveal and live gameplay of Trials of Osiris and its collection of end game gear.”
• Wednesday, May 6 — “Reveal and live gameplay of Prison of Elders, a brand new three-player cooperative multiplayer arena.”
• Friday, May 8 — “Stay tuned!”

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4A Games and Deep Silver have announced that they have sold more than 1.5 million Metro Redux games worldwide, which includes Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux. Both are remastered versions of the last-generation games for current-generation systems and PC.

In addition, Deep Silver says that the Metro Redux bundle for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 has now outsold Metro: Last Light for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in “multiple territories.” This is an “unprecedented feat” for a remastered game (and there have been quite a few), Deep Silver says.

“When measured against sales of the previous generation release, Metro Redux is the best performing remaster of this generation,” Deep Silver claims.

Sales numbers of other recent remasters, including The Last of Us Remastered, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, and Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, have not been announced.

Deep Silver has also announced that it’s released Mac versions of Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux on Steam. These new versions were developed by 4A Games and use OpenGL 4 to offer up “one of the most technically advanced games to appear natively on the Mac platform.”

You can buy the games today on Steam, which are available until April 17 at 50 percent off. If you already bought a copy of any Steam version of Metro Redux, you’ll also receive a copy of the new Mac edition at no extra charge.

“We are thrilled with the performance of Metro Redux,” Deep Silver executive Menno Van der Bil said. “4A Games have created one of the benchmarks by which other re-masters will be judged, and we have seen their efforts rewarded with fantastic critical and commercial success. Metro Redux has introduced many new fans to the series, and we look forward to reaching a whole new audience on Mac.”

The Metro series is based on the Metro 2033 novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky.

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Xbox executive Phil Spencer, the top gaming boss inside of Microsoft, has spoken out to congratulate Sony on selling 1 million copies of the new PlayStation 4 role-playing game Bloodborne. Though the game was developed by a veteran team in From Software (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls), Bloodborne is a new IP. That makes the game’s strong initial sales all the more impressive, Spencer said.

Bloodborne was released exclusively for PS4 in late March. The game’s 1 million sales counts copies sold up until April 5.

Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa published his own post yesterday, thanking fans for their support.

“We are amazed and very grateful for the way in which the community has embraced Bloodborne,” he said at the time. “As you may have seen, we’ve just announced that Bloodborne has now sold through over one million copies worldwide. Thank you to everyone who has supported the project!”

Looking ahead, From Software will release a new patch for Bloodborne later this month that should reduce load times and more.

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With just one day to go before the Star Wars Celebration kicks off, Verizon and Disney have announced that they will live-stream certain parts of the event for all to see.

This includes panels with Star Wars director J.J Abrams and actors Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

It also includes Electronic Arts’ reveal of Star Wars: Battlefront, which is scheduled to take place during a presentation on Friday, April 17 at 10: 30 AM PDT / 1:30 PM EDT.

The Star Wars Celebration website has also been updated with an official description for the Battlefront panel, which is expected to last one hour.

“Join the talented team from DICE as they give fans their first look at Star Wars Battlefront and debut the official reveal trailer for this highly anticipated game. Learn how unprecedented access to the Lucasfilm archives and the award-winning Frostbite technology is helping to create an immersive experience that is truly ‘most impressive.’ DICE will also show fans how Star Wars Battlefront will give them the chance to live out their epic Star Wars battle fantasies.”

The Star Wars Celebration begins tomorrow, April 16, in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center. Live-streaming programming begins at 10 AM PDT on April 16 through StarWars.com. The show wraps up on Sunday, April 19.

Battlefront, in development at Battlefield maker DICE, is scheduled for release during holiday 2015 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Earlier this week, we learned that–like so many other EA games–Battlefront will be available to play first on Xbox One by way of EA Access.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is set to release next month on May 19, but will it be worth picking up the game early? We already know Wild Hunt could be over 200 hours long, and that it will include “dynamic beard growth,” but the real deciding factor generally comes down to what you get out of the box and what you get if you pre-order.

Regardless of when you order the game, the standard edition includes quite a bit of content:

• CD with the official soundtrack
• Developer-created “The Witcher Universe: Compendium”
• Physical map of the in-game world
• Set of Witcher 3 stickers
• Protective sleeve

And we’ve seen the $150 collector’s edition before, but here’s a quick look at the more expensive box.

And everyone who purchases the game, pre-order or not, will have access to free DLC. The team plans on releasing 16 DLC packs total, with a new bundle available each week after launch. The first is the Temerian Armor Set, which includes horse armor, and a Beard and Hairstyle Set for Geralt.

Pre-Order Bonuses

Preorder from GameStop for an “exclusive Witcher keychain.” The tchotchke will either ship with your game if you order online or be available in store when the game is purchased.

Amazon pre-orders will net you “the Amazon exclusive Witcher comic created by Paul Tobin, with art by Max Bertolini and covers by Joe Querio.” According to the Amazon listing, “This 48-page hardcover comic describes the events preceding the Killing Monsters trailer.”

Best Buy pre-orders get access to the SteelBook case pictured above.

But if you decide to forego physical editions, digital orders come with their own set of pre-order incentives and perks.

The list of perks for the Steam version include:

• 10% off
• An additional 5% off if you own either The Witcher Enhanced Edition or The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
• Digital game soundtrack
• Digital wallpapers
• Digital world map
• Digital artbook
• Digital “artworks”

GOG.com is running a similar digital promotion, but with a few specific additions:

• Everything included in the above Steam version including the 10% discount and additional 5% for previous franchise ownership
• Total of 20% off if you own both The Witcher 1 and 2 and GOG
• Digital download of Neverwinter Nights (available now)
• Digital comics House of Glass and Reasons of State
• Witcher PDF templates for papercraft toy figurines
• Extended soundtrack with four exclusive tracks
• Avatar pics
• A video about the game’s creation and all trailers in 1080p

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launches on May 19 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. And for even more information about the game prior to its release, you can read GameSpot’s previous Witcher coverage here.

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Bill Paxton, an Emmy-nominated actor who’s had prominent roles in films such as Apollo 13, Aliens, and Titanic, is in talk to join the cast of the upcoming BBC drama about GTA developer Rockstar Games.

The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which writes that Paxton is “in negotiations” to take on the antagonistic role of Jack Thompson. A Miami attorney, Thompson made headlines in the mid-2000s as an outspoken opponent of violence in video games; he also attempted to prevent the release of Rockstar-developed titles such as Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Thompson was disbarred in 2008 for his behavior during those court proceedings.

Earlier this month, the Hollywood Reporter revealed details that Daniel Radcliffe, known for his starring role in the Harry Potter films, is in talks to take on the role of Rockstar CEO Sam Houser.

Rockstar is not actively involved in the production, and former writers for earlier GTA games have expressed some trepidations that the project may be overblown compared to the true experience of development.

But in other film-making GTA news, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V released today, which includes a host of in-game video editing tools. That makes it possible for you to create your own personal documentary of GTA from within GTA.

Meta.

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