Sony has released a new firmware update for PlayStation 4 that, among other things, promises to improve system software stability for some applications and features.
PS4 v2.03 was released last night. The official topline patch notes are brief, explaining only that “system software stability during use of some features has been improved.”
The PS4’s last major overhaul came in October in the form of the 2.0 “Masamune” update, which introduced a bevy of new features and functionality, including Share Play.
Today, December 3, is the 20th anniversary of PlayStation’s original launch in 1994. To celebrate the milestone, Sony revealed a limited-edition PS4 modeled after the PSOne. Preorders open December 6.
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A marketing executive at Microsoft’s Xbox One division has explained the company will not showcase any new platform-exclusives at The Game Awards on Friday.
Geoff Keighley, the show’s producer and host, recently claimed that the event will provide “more than a dozen world premieres,” which has spurred fans to ask Microsoft’s executives whether they have anything lined up.
But Aaron Greenberg, the marketing lead for Xbox, has poured cold water on the prospect by announcing on Twitter: “Since many have asked we are not planning any new game announcements @thegameawards. Looking forward to watching a great show however.”
Since many have asked we are not planning any new game announcements @thegameawards. Looking forward to watching a great show however
This does not rule out the possibility of multiplatform game reveals, however. One demonstration already announced for the show will be Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Online; the multiplayer component of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
The Game Awards 2014 will take place Friday, December 5, starting at 6 PM Pacific / 9 PM Eastern / 2 AM UK. GameSpot will bring you all the winners as they’re announced.
Dark Souls II, Hearthstone, Shadow of Mordor, and South Park: The Stick of Truth lead the way with three nominations each across all categories. Meanwhile, Nintendo was the most nominated publisher with 12 nominations.
Below is a breakdown of nominees by category. Nominees were selected by a jury of 28 international media outlets, including GameSpot and sister site Giant Bomb.
Sony has revealed a new custom PS4, designed with an original PSOne finish, to mark the twentieth anniversary of PlayStation.
The console will be available to pre-order from the US and Europe, priced at $499 and €499, with the supply limited to 12,300 units worldwide.
Packaged in a special commemorative box, the custom PS4 is resplendent with a familiar silver/grey finish, with a small insignia etched onto the chassis that shows each unit’s unique number. The DualShock 4 controller, meanwhile, is coloured in the same manner and brings back the original PlayStation logo. A closer look shows that the controller’s touch-pad has also been decorated with 20 marked in the pattern.
Pre-orders open on Saturday, December 6, with further details announced at the PlayStation Experience event on Saturday.
Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony’s game studio division, announced the new console on Wednesday morning to mark a two-decade milestone for the business.
In a note published on the PlayStation Blog, he wrote: “Sony Computer Entertainment, founded by my mentor Ken Kutaragi, was a project borne out of sincere passion and deep admiration for the craft of game development.”
Yoshida continued: “The mid ’90s were an exciting time for game developers, driven by the explosion of powerful but affordable 3D graphics rendering hardware and the birth of many young and adventurous development studios. The original PlayStation was meant to embody that sense of adventure and discovery, that sense that anything was possible.”
Look below for an unboxing video, and further down for additional images.
Click on the thumbnail below to view each image in full screen
Riot Games has shared the viewer statistics for this year’s League of Legends World Championship’s finals. Posted on the Riot Games website, overall unique viewers totalled at 27 million, marking a five million decrease from the total unique viewers of last year’s final, which totalled at 32 million.
However, concurrent viewers peaked at 11.2 million, which beat out last year’s peak viewership of 8.7 million. Despite the drop in overall unique viewer count, the numbers are still substantial when compared to the top ten most watched sporting events of 2013, listed below.
This year’s World Championship was hosted across Taipei and Singapore, with finals culminating in South Korea at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The venue was originally built for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and has a capacity of over 66,000 seats.
Riot Games has branched out in its support of competitive play in League of Legends, offering college students the chance to play the game for scholarship money. Qualifying rounds kicked off in October and will conclude in March next year, with the top four teams to compete for scholarship prizes.
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To get into the Dead Island 2 beta, you needed to have preordered November’s cel-shaded spinoff, Escape Dead Island. Publisher Deep Silver has not announced any other ways you can get into the Dead Island 2 beta, though it still has plenty of time to announce further plans.
A start date for the Dead Island 2 beta has not been announced, nor are there any immediate details on what the beta will entail.
YouTube user Ready Up Live has posted an entire hour of Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer footage, captured during the HaloFest in Los Angeles in November. Apart from an initial intro, there’s no commentary, so you can enjoy the sights and sounds of the Xbox One game without any interruptions.
The maps you’re seeing are Empire and Crossfire. You’ll also get to see how the range of new Halo 5 player abilities, including ground pound and thrusters, affect balance and overall play. Of course, Halo 5 is still about a year away from release, so what you’re looking at is a non-final version of the game.
Sir Clive Sinclair, the revered inventor and entrepreneur who launched a range of seminal home computers in the 1980s, has backed a new project to revive the ZX Spectrum brand.
His team’s new invention is the Sinclair Spectrum Vega; a microconsole that comes with more than 1,000 ZX Spectrum games pre-installed. Resplendent with a familiar aesthetic, the Vega is a miniaturised version of the ZX Spectrum that is both a games controller and console in one.
Once hooked to television sets, the device is capable of running more than the 14,000 games developed during the Spectrum era.
Its creators, a UK firm called Retro Computers, seek £100,000 from the crowdfunding site Indiegogo to help commercialise the project and build the first 1,000 units.
Sinclair Research, the company responsible for the 1982 original, is a shareholder in Retro Computers.
Some 21 hours since the project launched, Retro Computers has raised about £6,800 of total funding. It will need to raise the remaining £93,000 within the next sixty days.
A ten percent royalty of Vega sales will go to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
Asher Vollmer, creator of mobile hit Threes!, has announced his next project, a real-time strategy game for PlayStation 4 called Close Castles. Vollmer says his aim for the title is to “fix” the RTS genre, and make it less sadomasochistic.
“Let’s face it: RTSes are miserable pain engines designed to give players the worst possible experience,” Vollmer says on the PlayStation Blog.
“They’re kind of fun (though deeply stressful) right up until the first interaction with another player and then it’s all downhill for the next forty-or-so minutes. You play until someone gives up. They are lonely exercises in sadomasochism. Anyway hello. My name is Asher Vollmer and I intend to fix all that with my new game, Close Castles.”
Close Castles is coming to PS4 in 2015, though PlayStation Experience attendees can play it this weekend.
Here’s the setup: you and your rival built your castles far too close to each other. Your task is to build up your kingdom (in the cramped confines) while at the same time dispatching your citizens to break down your enemy’s castle. Vollmer says he will reveal story details later that explain just why the castles were built so close together.
Vollmer adds that Close Castles is a fast-paced game, which meant that he had to make the controls “as simple as possible” to work on a controller.
“You move your cursor around the field and press a button to build structures,” he explained. “What you build and where you build it will determine you and your opponent’s collective fate.”
Close Castles was designed for local multiplayer, Vollmer went on to say, adding that the game will feel more like a fighting game at higher levels.
The game’s art (see the images below) was created with the help of artist Dominique Ferland. Close Castles’ characters and settings are meant to come across as “cute as heck.”
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Barry Burton, the surprise cult star of the first Resident Evil game, will be a lead character in the upcoming Resident Evil Revelations 2.
The classic S.T.A.R.S. operative, famous for his “Jill Sandwich” line, is revealed as a co-star for Revelations 2 in a new trailer from publisher Capcom (above). Joining him will be series mainstay Chris Redfield.
“Headed for the remote prison island in search of his missing daughter, Moira Burton, Barry meets brand new character Natalia Korda, a little girl who has a strange power that allows her to sense enemies and hidden items,” Capcom writes.
“Using this skill alongside Barry’s proven combat abilities, players will need to alternate between the two to survive the mysterious island and find Moira.”
Capcom’s plan for Resident Evil Revelations 2 is to split the game across four episodes, which will release between February and March. Bundled together, these episodes cost $25 / £20, or individually at $6 / £5 each.
The bundle offers bonus content, such as “two additional spin-off episodes that focus on telling the side stories of each of the two new Resident Evil characters: Moira Burton and Natalia Korda,” as well as an additional RAID mode character, Hunk. These can be purchased separately too.
Meanwhile, new enemies come in the shape of the Rotten and The Revenant. Capcom explains: “The Rotten have bones that are visible through their bodies and stop at nothing to hunt down the living, and the horrific Revenant are formed from parts of human beings sewn together.”
The release date details are below, and further down you’ll find a selection of new images.
PSN (US)
PSN (EU)
Xbox Live
Steam
Episode 1
Feb 17
Feb 18
Feb 18
Feb 18
Episode 2
Feb 24
Feb 25
Feb 25
Feb 25
Episode 3
March 3
March 4
March 4
March 4
Episode 4
March 10
March 11
March 11
March 11
Click on the thumbnails below to view the images in full screen
Developer Epic Games has announced the launch of the Alpha testing phase for its sandbox survival game, Fortnite. As detailed on the official website, the Alpha will run from December 2 until December 19.
According to the developer the purpose of the testing phase, which is called Online Test 1, is to ensure that various features work properly. This includes sign-ups, patching, and gameplay. Those who are interested in participating in the Alpha testing phase can sign up via the website for the chance to receive an invitation.
Fornite is described as a co-operative sandbox survival game with gameplay divided into day and nite sections. During the day, players will work together to build fortifications using scavenged materials. Once night falls, they can retreat into their forts and fight off waves of monsters in order to survive until morning. The game will be free-to-play when it launches sometime next year.
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