Category: Gamespot

Oculus VR executives have for a long time now spoken about the potential for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to impact non-gaming industries such as film. But now the Facebook-owned company is going further, this week announcing the formation of an internal unit that will make VR movies.

Oculus Story Studio is the name of the company’s newest division. And while it may only just be getting off the ground, its leaders have high hopes. Oculus Story Studio guest director, Rom Stromberg (Maleficent) says about VR in general in the video above: “This is going to change everything.”

A collection of artists, creators, and technicians, Oculus Story Studio is a fledgling group formed under the grand ambition to push story-telling forward. The group sees VR as the next era of filmmaking. First there was moving pictures, then sound, color, CGI, and 3D. Next is VR, according to the company.

VR movies, at their best, will allow viewers to connect and interact with characters in a way not possible with traditional movies. There are a number of hurdles to overcome, its developers freely admit, such as lighting, music, and actor performance, but the company is aiming high.

“Our goal is to make art and to show people that virtual reality is an art form,” producer Edward Saatchi says.

Oculus Story Studio plans to release five movies this year and each aims to help the studio explore and learn something different about VR. The movies, and their creative ambitions are: Lost (magic and wonder), Kabloom (humor), Bullfighter (sense of presence), and Dear Angelica (what would it feel like to be inside an illustration?). Some of these movies were shown during the Sundance Film Festival this week in Utah.

Oculus VR co-founder Nate Mitchell adds that, with the recent advancements made to VR over the past few years, the technology is growing beyond just gaming.

“When we started Oculus, we really thought that the major focus for VR was going to be games,” he said. “Now that the Rift is sort of maturing as a technology, and really virtual reality as a whole, the potential is really there to take people to these virtual worlds.”

Oculus Story Studio creative director Saschka Unseld (Toy Story 3) added: “I think there are going to be stories that touch you in a very different way than normal films do. And that’s the ultimate goal of a lot of stories–is to enhance people’s lives.”

For more on Oculus Story Studio, be sure to read GameSpot sister site CNET’s full coverage.

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Capcom has announced a brand-new Dragon’s Dogma game, Dragon’s Dogma Online. Due out in 2015 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC, the open-world game is a free-to-play title supported by microtransactions.

Capcom is putting some of its top people on the project, as Ace Attorney veteran Minae Matsukawa is producing Dragon’s Dogma Online while longtime Resident Evil developer Hiroyuki Kobayashi is working on the game as its executive producer.

As detailed by Gematsu, Dragon’s Dogma Online sees players taking on the role of an “Awakened” character in a new region called Lestaria. Players will journey through the world in four-member parties made up of either of other humans or AI-controlled characters. A “Quick Matching” feature is also included.

Like other online-based games, Dragon’s Dogma Online will also feature chat and party functionality, while the game’s lobbies will support up to 100 people.

Similar to the original Dragon’s Dogma (2012) and its follow-up, Dark Arisen (2013), Dragon’s Dogma Online’s combat will see players squaring off against hulking enemies, and monsters can become enraged, meaning their attacks will grow in power over time.

The four “jobs” confirmed for Dragon’s Dogma Online are Fighter, Hunter, Priest, and Shied Sage. Players can change their job association at will.

What’s more, Dragon’s Dogma Online also features upgrades to the franchise’s character creation system, giving players more choice regarding how they want to build a unique character.

Capcom plans to support Dragon’s Dogma Online post-release by releasing major updates that expand the game’s open world with new areas to explore and missions to take on. Teased for future updates are eight-player missions and limited-time quests.

Dragon’s Dogma Online was announced in the latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. It is unclear if Capcom plans to release the game in the US or Europe. We’ll have those details for you as they become available.

Image Credit: Gematsu

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The latest feature Blizzard Entertainment added to its genre-defining PC MMO World of Warcraft may not be what you expect. The developer has launched a new camera option that allows players to take self-portraits, more commonly known today as “selfies.”

The functionality, available via the S.E.L.F.I.E. item, rolled out recently as part of World of Warcraft’s 6.1 patch. This update is available now on the game’s Public Test Realm.

World of Warcraft players can pick up the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera by completing a new, level 100 mission titled Field Photography. The pictures players take are saved to their screenshots folder. Characters can even emote so that players can capture all manner of facial expressions.

The S.E.L.F.I.E. camera can even be upgraded to the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera Mk II, which includes three filters: “sketch,” “black and white,” and “death.”

WoW Insider reports that World of Warcraft Patch 6.1 also introduces new Twitter in-game functionality, though it remains to be seen if players will be able to share their selfies directly through the social networking site.

World of Warcraft isn’t the first high-profile game to feature a selfie camera, as Rockstar Games’ open-world action game Grand Theft Auto V also includes such a tool.

Image credit: Reddit user Arionii

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Microsoft has begun rolling out a new software update for the Xbox One controller, which adds some minor tweaks and improvements.

The latest firmware (version 1.2.2236.0) is currently being tested by members of the Xbox Preview Program, though there’s no public release date yet. The two key changes and tweaks, according to Microsoft, are:

• Quick Connect: Previous controller connections to an Xbox One took 4-5 seconds when powering on a controller, now they should occur in around 2 seconds.
• Stability improvements: The firmware also provides a number of fixes that address issues submitted by customers and preview participants.

In order to update the controller firmware, users must connect the pad to their Xbox One with a USB cable (Microsoft advises players keep their headsets connected too), then connect to Xbox Live, press Menu, go to Settings > Devices & accessories, and select the controller icon.

After this, the new firmware will be downloaded onto the pad.

Microsoft has a proactive policy of gradually improving the Xbox One via numerous software updates. The console’s platform software is usually updated once a month, while, less frequently, the controller is tweaked for enhanced performance.

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An esteemed economics professor who Gabe Newell personally headhunted in 2011 to join Valve has been sworn in as the finance minister for Greece.

Yanis Varoufakis joined Valve after Gabe Newell sent him an email discussing the challenges with virtual economies. Varoufakis had only read the email by accident, he later remarked, but decided against deleting it after reading Newell’s issue with virtual currencies.

The email, sent amid the trauma of the Eurozone economic crisis, explained that Valve’s problem was similar to that of Greece’s dependence, and negative effect on, Germany’s economic security.

Newell wrote in his email: “Here at my company we were discussing an issue of linking economies in two virtual environments (creating a shared currency), and wrestling with some of the thornier problems of balance of payments, when it occurred to me ‘this is Germany and Greece’.”

Varoufakis became a consultant for Valve in 2012 and, along with his work behind the scenes, went on to publish articles on the nature of digital economies.

Now, days after the election of Greece’s new Prime minister Alexis Tsipras, Varoufakis has been named the country’s finance minister–an immensely important role as the nation looks to return to economic stability.

Tsipras has vowed to end “the humiliation and pain” of the last five years, with Greece plighted by both its crippling national debt, and the painful measures it must take in order to remain in the European Union. One measure that the country needed to deliberate was a six-day working week.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Varoufakis outlined new measures that he hoped would to restore the country’s debt and 26 percent unemployment rate.

He said: “We will take to the Eurozone a plan for minimising this Greek debacle, we are going to put three or four things on the table: genuine reforms and creating a rational plan for debt restructure, we want to bind our repayments to our growth.”

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Not to be outdone by the gold-plated Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles we heard about last year, the team at ColorWare (via Kotaku) recently released 24 Karat gold Xbox One and PS4 controllers.

The extremely limited batch of gold-plated controllers–only 25 of each were made–have already sold out. They went for $300 apiece.

“The extraordinary new controllers undergo a complex process to achieve a rich, glossy finish. These products look amazing and have outstanding ergonomics,” ColorWare writes about them.

There’s no word yet on if ColorWare will replenish stock.

At least we can look at some images of the controllers, which are either amazing or silly–I can’t decide. Check out the gallery below to see some pictures, and be sure to click each image for a full-size version.

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“I don’t think it’s just about representing a wide range of people. It’s just good design” — Gearbox concept artist Amanda Christensen

Gearbox Software’s Borderlands series is known, in part, for its wide variety of diverse characters. During this past weekend’s PAX South, the developer outlined the advantages to making games that feature a “huge spectrum” of characters instead of just a few that fit into traditional molds.

“I don’t think it’s just about representing a wide range of people. It’s just good design,” Gearbox concept artist Amanda Christensen said when asked if Gearbox purposefully designs its games to be as inclusive as possible. “We want to create worlds that feel real and authentic, and that means having people of all different body types, gender, sexuality, ethnicity–and it’s way more fun to design people in a huge spectrum than the same, generic bro and hot chick over and over again.”

Borderlands creator and franchise director Matthew Armstrong added: “We don’t actually have an agenda–we’re just doing what’s cool.”

Christensen and Armstrong made their comments during a PAX South panel yesterday captured by IGN. Gearbox made a few other Borderlands-related announcements this weekend at the show, including the reveal of more DLC for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and even a tease for Borderlands 3.

The next Borderlands game is March’s Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which includes remastered version of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (and all DLC) for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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