Category: Gamespot

Join in us over the next few days as we look at all of the leading games consoles and platforms out right now and try to convince you why you should spend your hard-earned cash. Today, Kevin VanOrd tells you why the PlayStation 4 is the console to own in 2015.

The PlayStation 4 has had undeniable market success, so it seems pointless to regale you with tales of sales numbers and game attach rates. Needless to say, if you buy one, you will have no trouble finding a community for the online games you love, and you’ll have all of the multimedia applications you should expect: YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, yadda yadda yadda. But it’s the games that make the console, and the PlayStation 4 excels in a vital area: variety. The system isn’t primarily for shooters, or for kids’ games, or for action-adventures, or for retro platformers: it’s for all of these genres and beyond. To own a PlayStation 4 is to gain access to scores of games, both past and present, that fulfill different needs–the need to compete, the need to relax, the need for emotional fulfillment, and the need to explore and discover.

The Right Side of the Great Resolution Debate

To own a PlayStation 4 is also to have access to the best-looking version of multi-console games. It goes without saying that the upcoming Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will look best on the PC, but where consoles are concerned, the PlayStation 4 version seems the obvious choice because it boasts a 1080p resolution, as compared to the Xbox One version’s 900p. Whether or not you are swept up into the melodramatic console resolution wars raging across the Internet, it’s natural to want your games to look their best. Not only does the PlayStation 4 allow you to play excellent multiplatform games like Dragon Age: Inquisition, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, but it does so at higher resolutions than does the console competition. This is true of most multiplatform games on the PlayStation 4, as it happens. You may not think you notice much of a difference, but it’s human nature to pamper yourself when possible–so why not pamper yourself with higher-resolution games when given the opportunity?

Diverse Exclusives

Sony delivered a fantastic array of interesting exclusives on the PlayStation 3, and that machine’s successor looks to be no different. Break down the exclusives already released, and you discover racing (Driveclub), open-world adventuring (Infamous Second Son), and off- and online shooting (Killzone: Shadow Fall). Look towards the horizon, and the list grows when you add heavy-hearted role-playing (Bloodborne), explosive cinematic action (Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End), and lighthearted exploration (Rime). The diversity isn’t just impressive because these games come from different genres, but also because they strike such different emotional tones. The Order: 1886 looks like any one of the CW’s dark-fantasy dramas come to life, while No Man’s Sky‘s deep colors give it an otherworldly vibe. If it’s hard to nail down the PlayStation identity, that’s due in part to the varied choices lying before you.

There’s another aspect to consider as well: the huge promise of games we’ve only seen bits and pieces of. We know very little about Wild, but promising an explorable area the size of Europe is an astounding claim that piques curiosity. The Tomorrow Children‘s unique mix of resource collection, creation, and creepy youngsters makes it almost impossible to describe at this early stage. And of course, there’s always the hope that The Last Guardian might one day re-emerge as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Game-lovers are nothing if not a faithful bunch.

Let’s Go Shopping

The PlayStation 4’s digital shopping experience is so improved over the PlayStation 3 that it isn’t even fair to compare them. Regardless, it is so easy to buy and download games from the privacy of your own living room that traveling to a local game retailer has become a last-generation memory. At the time of this writing, the most popular downloadable games in the PlayStation Store include Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Dying Light, and Grand Theft Auto V. We used to wonder why console games weren’t so readily downloadable, and looked to Valve’s Steam service on the PC if we wanted to download big-budget entertainment at the moment of release. Of course, the PlayStation Store is still home to plenty of digital-only gems like Race the Sun and Secret Ponchos. But if you stick to the big guns from big publishers, why not just stay at home in your underwear and download Destiny instead of braving the crowds?

Of course, there’s another bright side to the console digital age: free-to-play games aren’t just for PCs and mobile phones anymore, and the PlayStation 4 excels when it comes to freemium choices. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and DC Universe Online grant us access to massively multiplayer worlds, while games like Warframe and Loadout cater to those of us with itchy trigger fingers. So long, retail chains. We’ve found a better way.

Put Away the PS3

If you’ve got the bandwidth and still want to play the PlayStation 3 games you’ve missed for some reason or another, put away the PS3 and put something else in its place. PlayStation Now allows you to play a good number of PS3 games by streaming them directly to your PS4. You might have played the popular games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune that are available on PS Now, but what about the beautiful El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron? You might have already crossed BioShock Infinite off of your list, but you probably missed Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Why not rectify your oversight via PlayStation Now?

The library is limited, but poised to grow, and while Sony’s statements have been vague, it’s likely we will see pre-PS3 games added to the list, which would exponentially increase PlayStation Now’s value. Right now, all of the PSOne classics are playable only on the PS3 and the Vita; adding them to the PS Now library would make the service a no-brainer.

Now’s the time. If you don’t already own a PlayStation 4, you’re missing out on great exclusives, a cool streaming service, and the best-looking version of almost every multi-console game on the market.

• Why You Should Buy a Vita in 2015
• Why You Should Buy a 3DS in 2015
• Why You Should Buy a Wii U in 2015
• Why You Should Buy an Xbox One in 2015

Powered by WPeMatico

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates is worried about machines becoming super-intelligent one day and doesn’t understand why more people aren’t right there with him sharing his concerns.

As part of a wide-ranging and fascinating recent Reddit AMA, a fan asked Gates if he thought machine super-intelligence might become a concern going forward. Gates said, at first, machines will do human-helping jobs like picking fruit, but danger could come as they grow smarter and smarter.

“I am in the camp that is concerned about super-intelligence,” he said. “First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super-intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”

Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, said last summer that super-intelligent AI systems are “potentially more dangerous than nukes.”

Gates was also asked if he thought full end-to-end encryption of all Internet activity could do anything to protect humanity from the threat of super-intelligent machines. Unfortunately, Gates didn’t answer.

If you haven’t read Gates’ entire Reddit AMA, you should do that. It’s a great read.

Are you concerned with machines becoming super-intelligent one day? Let us know in the comments below!

Powered by WPeMatico

Green Man Gaming has the best new deal of the day with its 2014 Revisited promotion, which includes Alien: Isolation for $25, Wolfenstein: New Order for $30, Civilization: Beyond Earth for $30, and more.

Below you’ll find the rest of today’s best deals divided by platform:

PlayStation 4

Amazon has the PlayStation TV for $60

Amazon has a PlayStation 4 Bundle that comes with The Last of Us Remastered and Dying Light for $430.

Ebay has a PS4 for $350.

Other PS4 games deals:

• LittleBigPlanet 3 — $41.96 (Amazon)
• Bound by Flame — $20 (Amazon)
• Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell — $45 (Amazon)
• InFamous: Second Son — $27 (Amazon)
• Watch Dogs — $31 (Amazon)
• Far Cry 4 — $40 (Amazon)
• Dragon Age: Inquisition — $51 (Amazon)
• Assassin’s Creed Unity — $30 (Amazon)
• Killzone: Shadow Fall — $23.33 (Amazon)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor — $40 (Amazon)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare — $40 (Amazon)
• The Wolf Among Us — $20 (Amazon)
• The Last of Us Remastered — $22 (Amazon)
• NBA 2K15 — $42 (Amazon)
• The Evil Within — $30 (Amazon)
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — $30 (Amazon)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts Hardened Edition — $37 (Amazon)
• Shadow Warrior — $20.49 (Amazon)
• Murdered: Soul Suspect — $23 (Amazon)

PlayStation Plus free games for January:

PS4

• Infamous: First Light
• The Swapper

PS3

• Prototype 2
• DuckTales Remastered

PS Vita

• Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition
• Whoa Dave!

Xbox One

Get a year of Xbox Live Gold for $40 from Amazon.

Other Xbox One games deals:

• Ryse: Son of Rome — $23.45 (Amazon)
• Madden NFL 15 — $40 (Amazon)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor — $46 (Amazon)
• Watch Dogs — $31 (Amazon)
• Far Cry 4 — $40 (Amazon)
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection — $42.39 (Amazon)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare — $40 (Amazon)
• Just Dance 2014 — $18 (Amazon)
• Destiny — $40 (Amazon)
• The Evil Within — $30 (Amazon)
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — $30 (Amazon)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts Hardened Edition — $37 (Amazon)
• Murdered: Soul Suspect — $20 (Amazon)

Microsoft announced this week’s deals for Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners. Now through February 2, anyone with an Xbox Live Gold subscription can get a 40 percent discount on Just Dance 2015 and a 50 percent discount on Another World.

If you don’t have a Gold subscription, you can still get a ton of great deals this week, including Titanfall for $10, Dragon Age: Inquisition for $36, Battlefield 4 for 13.20, and more for low prices. Find the full list this week’s deals for Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners here.

Free Games with Gold for January:

Xbox One

• D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die

Xbox 360

• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
• MX vs. ATV Alive

Wii U

Ebay has a 32 GB Wii U with Super Mario 3D World and Nintendo Land for $260

• Toys R Us has a 4 for $44 deal on Amiibo.
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge — $7 (Walmart)
• Preorder Mario Party 10 for $50 from Newegg

PC

GOG.com has a weekend sale on Devolver Digital games, including Hotline Miami for $5, Serious Sam: The First Encounter for $3, and Shadow Warrior for $20.

The Humble Weekly Bundle is promoting games made in Spain. If you spend $10 or more you can get Deadlight, Unepic, and more.

Theme Hospital is free on Origin.

Sunday is your last chance to get a free Rockstar game with a purchase of Grand Theft Auto V on PC.

Get a 20 percent discount at Green Man Gaming with the code 20PERO-FFDIGI-GAMESX.

Other PC games deals:

• Alien: Isolation — $25 (GMG)
• The Evil Within — $30 (GMG)
• Borderlands 2 GOTY Edition — $10 (GMG)
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel — $30 (GMG)
• Civilization: Beyond Earth — $30 (GMG)
• Wolfenstein: New Order — $30 (GMG)
• Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris — $10 (GMG)
• Sleeping Dogs — $10.19 (GMG)
• Never Alone — $9 (Steam)
• Ryse: Son of Rome — $20 (Steam)
• Lego Batman Trilogy Pack — $20 (Steam)
• The Walking Dead — $6.24 (Amazon)
• The Walking Dead Season 2 — $6.24 (Amazon)
• Watch Dogs — $25.28 (Amazon)
• StarCraft II Battlechest — $34 (Amazon)
• South Park: The Stick of Truth — $17 (Amazon)

PS Vita

• Resistance: Burning Skies — $5 (Best Buy)
• 16GB Memory Card — $31 (Amazon)

Mobile

• Monument Valley — $1 (Amazon)
• 80 Days — $1 (Amazon)

Hardware

• Xbox One Stereo Headset— $45 (Amazon)
• Glacier White DualShock 4 Wireless Controller — $50 (Amazon)
• Logitech – G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — $100 (Ebay)
• Logitech G27 Racing Wheel — $248 (Amazon)
• Logitech G105 Gaming Keyboard with Backlighting — $48.36 (Amazon)
• Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury FPS Gaming Mouse — $48.59 (Amazon)

GameSpot’s gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site. Got questions? Email news@gamespot.com or ask us in the comments!

Powered by WPeMatico

New Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 triple-pack bundles featuring a range of Square Enix games will launch in March, the publisher confirmed on Friday. These bundles are listed below.

• Ultimate Action Triple Pack: Tomb Raider (2013), Sleeping Dogs, and Just Cause 2.
• Ultimate Stealth Tripe Pack: Thief, Hitman: Absolution, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Both launch March 31 and will cost $30 each, according to Joysitq. Gamers in Europe got these bundles last year.

GameSpot’s gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site. Got questions? Email news@gamespot.com or ask us in the comments!

Powered by WPeMatico

As Gearbox Software starts to ramp up hiring for the next Borderlands game, Borderlands 2 writer Anthony Burch has announced his departure from the Texas-based development studio.

He’s leaving Gearbox to move to Los Angeles and join the writing team for a new Hulu long-form comedy show with YouTube star Freddie Wong and his RocketJump Studios brand, creators of Video Game High School. Little else is known about this new show at the moment.

Burch isn’t quitting games altogether, however, as he explains in a series of tweets that he still plans to “do video games stuff on the side.” In addition, he admits there’s a chance everything falls apart and that he’ll return to Gearbox. Check out his tweets below.

The next Borderlands game is Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which includes remastered versions of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It launches on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in March.

Looking further ahead, last weekend at PAX South, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford announced that the studio is ready to start work on the next Borderlands. Pitchford didn’t say whether this next Borderlands game is Borderlands 3, but given the fact that he called it the “big one,” it seems likely.

Powered by WPeMatico

Australian airline Qantas has announced a partnership with Samsung to bring the technology company’s Gear VR headsets to the cabin, beginning with a trial run for first-class fliers starting next month.

As part of the test run, Gear VR headsets will be available to Qantas fliers in the Sydney and Melbourne International Airport first-class lounges, and also in first-class on select A380 flights from Australia to Los Angeles.

Qantas points out that it is the only airline anywhere to offer in-flight VR.

This trial run will span three months, and Qantas will seek fliers’ feedback to see if offering VR to customers is something the company wants to take on in a larger, more official capacity.

“This technology gives us a completely new way to connect with our customers,” Qantas marketing executive Olivia Wirth said.

Some of the Qantas VR experiences will include virtual tours of the company’s new first-class lounges at Los Angeles Airport, as well as a VR simulation of landing. Other in-flight entertainment options will include movies and audio experiences.

Qantas will also use the Gear VR headset to let passengers take virtual trips to one of the airline’s other destinations, which they say should inspire travel and promote tourism.

It’s already happening. Qantas points out that Australian company Tourism NT has already partnered with the airline to create a 3D VR experience for Kakadu National Park that will be shown to fliers.

The Gear VR headsets will be available on select Qantas flights for first-class passengers beginning in mid-February, with another rollout in March for trips between Australia and Los Angeles.

For long-haul flights such as the trip between Australia and LA, it’s not hard to see the appeal of being able to totally block out other passengers and virtually escape for a while. And for Qantas, letting travelers virtually experience other destinations instead of just looking at a tourism brochure seems like it could have some upside for ticket sales.

Samsung’s Gear VR headset launched in December, and is available now for $200 through an “Innovator Edition.” The device requires a Note 4 to function as the screen.

Powered by WPeMatico

Microsoft has announced its plans for the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC), a developer-focused industry event that will be held in early March 2015 in San Francisco.

Microsoft has more than 16 planned sessions, with featured speakers including Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Microsoft technical evangelist Amanda Lange, and various other engineers and developers.

Among other things, Microsoft will talk about developing games for Windows 10, the unique features of DirectX12, cross-platform matchmaking and gameplay for Xbox One and PC, and how Fable Legends manages its cross-device gameplay. Microsoft will even hold a presentation titled “Beyond: Binary Choices: How Players Engage with Morality” at GDC this year.

The full list of Microsoft GDC presentations is available at the company’s website.

GDC 2015 takes place March 2-6 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Microsoft isn’t the only company with a lot planned for the show, as Valve also intends to make its line of Steam Machines “front and center” at the event, and may also reveal the final iteration of the Steam Controller during the show.

GameSpot will be on the ground at GDC 2015 bringing you all the news as it happens.

Powered by WPeMatico

Following the announcement Thursday that the Battlefield Hardline open beta will begin on February 3 across all platforms, developer Visceral Games has now confirmed that progress in the pre-release trial will not carry forward to the full version of the game. The detail was confirmed in a new Hardline beta FAQ.

“Progression doesn’t carry over, but your expertise surely will,” Visceral wrote.

Visceral also confirmed that the Hardline beta file size on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 will be between 10-11 GB. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 download size is around 4 GB.

The FAQ also touches on pre-loading details, with Visceral confirming that PC players can pre-load the beta through Origin beginning Monday, February 2 at 10 AM PDT. Pre-loading details for the console versions were not announced.

Finally, Visceral confirmed that the Hardline beta will not feature any kind of level cap. “You can experience the game’s full progression system during the 6 days the beta is live,” it wrote.

For more on the upcoming Hardline open beta, which will be available across all platforms on February 3, check out GameSpot’s previous written coverage and the video above.

The Battlefield Hardline release date is March 17 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.

Powered by WPeMatico