Gamescom-2013
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Sony PlayStation Gamescom 2013 liveblog!
While Microsoft continues to trip over itself in the lead up to Xbox One, Sony's PlayStation 4 message is staying on target and sailing straight into gamers' good graces. And, after an undisputed win at E3 this year, there's little doubt Gamescom 2013 will slow Sony's roll, instead giving the company yet another opportunity to increase its already positive mindshare and deliver on next-gen promises (PS Vita Remote Play, anyone?). So, what can we expect from Sony's center stage spectacle today? The company will probably dive a bit deeper into the particulars of its indie strategy and, hopefully, announce a hard date on that PS4 holiday release -- which is what most of us care about, anyway. Beyond that, it's anyone's guess. So, hang tight, we'll be back with the blow-by-blow (and every gloriously awkward corporate potshot) right here at 9AM PST / 12PM EST.
Watch Sony's Gamescom conference live right here
Sony's press conference is the last course in Tuesday's feast of Gamescom announcements and news, and it should feature a very sweet dessert to end on: the PS4 release date. Sony has stuck hard and true to the 'Holiday 2013' window since unveiling its next-gen console back in February, but which side of the Xbox One it ends up is a very big deal; Microsoft's console is still scheduled for sometime in November. Sony will probably have a few other meaty announcements, and some should be for the Vita - but is one of them the long-rumored price cut? How about which new games are lining Sony's Gamescom sleeves? You can find out right here on Joystiq. The live stream above starts at 1PM ET (10AM PT, 6PM UK, and 7PM CET) and we'll have all the news on the site as it comes. Also, make sure to check back through the week for our Gamescom coverage from lovely Cologne.
FIFA 14 getting legendary players for Ultimate Team on Microsoft consoles
FIFA 14 will include legendary players from the sport's history in its ever-popular Ultimate Team mode, EA announced at its Gamescom press conference. The legendary players will be exclusive to Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and will first be available in random Ultimate Team gold packs when the Xbox One launches this November. We have the full list of players available after the break. FIFA 14 will launch in North America on September 24 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, then in Europe on September 27. What's more, European players that pre-order the Xbox One system will receive a copy of FIFA 14 as well.
Your guide to MMOs at Gamescom 2013
Can you believe it, Gamescom is this week already! The massive trade show in Cologne, Germany, will run from August 21st to the 25th. Of course, if you're reading this, then you have one pressing question in mind: Which MMO studios will be there, and what will they be talking about? While we can't answer the second part of that, we can give you a heads-up regarding the studio attendance. Hit us after the jump for the run-down of which studios will be there along with their Twitter handles because you just know that any big news from the show will be insta-tweeted two seconds later.
Mobile versions of FIFA 14 will be free to play, console demos arriving September 10 [Update: trailer]
The mobile version of FIFA 14 will be free to play, EA announced during its Gamescom press event today. Series Executive Producer David Rutter also noted during the press conference that the demo for console versions of FIFA 14 will arrive on September 10 in North America and September 11 in Europe. The game arrives on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on September 24 in North America. The game will be a launch title for PS4 and Xbox One, and will include several "upgrade" options for players that purchase current-gen versions and want to carry Ultimate Team and career data to next-gen systems. European fans that pre-order Xbox Ones will receive a copy of FIFA 14 with their purchase.
Firefall announcing next open beta, starting sale during Gamescom
If you are eagerly anticipating the next stage of Firefall's open beta, your wait is nearly over... for the details, that is. Red 5 Studios plans to unveil the details of Stage 2 during Gamescom this week. Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5 Studios, also noted that a hinted-at feature will be included, and stated, "Players will directly have a hand in shaping this new phase while playing the game. It's a game changer for shooters, let alone MMOs." In conjunction with the announcement, Firefall's $100 Starter Pack will be 25% off starting August 21st. However, come August 31st the packs will be permanently discontinued when the sale ends; then the studio will instead focus "on new in-game cosmetic and convenience products." [Source: Red 5 Studios press release]
Arcade shooter Alien Rage locks and loads a gameplay trailer
City Interactive's Alien Rage is an unabashed arcade first-person shooter, its space station setting, big bad guns, and armies of aliens evoking memories of playing too much Doom and Quake (as if you could ever play too much Doom or Quake). Alien Rage brings the fury to XBLA, PSN, and PC on September 24.
Watch EA's Gamescom conference live right here [It's over!]
EA's press conference in Cologne, Germany for Gamescom will be live in mere moments. Not only can you watch it right here, but we have a liveblog set up to track every little word uttered by Andrew Wilson. Watch with us as games such as Battlefield 4, Need For Speed Rivals, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, FIFA 14, EA Sports UFC, Command and Conquer and The Sims 4 are shown off. Update: Show's over, folks!
EA Gamescom 2013 liveblog!
As one of the big three third-party publishers working on next-gen games, Electronic Arts is understandably making a big push at its annual Gamescom press event. Per usual, we'll be on the ground bringing you an enthralling liveblog straight from Cologne, Germany. Keep your eyes locked to this post and your browser refreshing feverishly, as the goings get going at 10AM EST.
EA live at Gamescom: 10AM ET with BF4, NFS Rivals, FIFA 14, UFC
Tune in for EA's live press conference from Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, at 10AM ET (7AM PT, 4PM CEST) today, August 20. Our liveblog from the event will be right here, so keep this tab open and it'll be like you're sitting next to us, schnitzel in hand ... feeding it to us. EA promises to bring Battlefield 4, Need For Speed Rivals, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, FIFA 14, EA Sports UFC, Command and Conquer, and it plans to unveil The Sims 4. EA announced The Sims 4 on May 6, but we've yet to see any footage from within the game. It's due out in 2014 for PC and Mac. We still need concrete launch dates for The Sims 4, Garden Warfare, next-gen versions of NFS Rivals, EA Sports UFC and Command and Conquer, though a lot of this would be cleared up with release dates for the PS4 and Xbox One. No, there's no Dragon Age: Inquisition on the docket. There aren't dragons in Germany, silly.
Sniper dev unveils debut trailer for next-gen RPG Lords of the Fallen
Polish-based developer City Interactive, which recently rose to greater prominence through its Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, revealed the first trailer for its next-gen project, Lords of the Fallen. The Xbox One, PS4, and PC game is spearheaded by former Witcher 2 producer Tomasz Gop, who left CD Projekt in 2011 to join CI. There he's looking to once more craft a deep, dark and challenging RPG. "Challenge is what defines Lords of the Fallen," Gop told Joystiq. "Players who are going to be taking time to cross that gap between doing random things at the beginning because they don't know the tactics, to being a fully-fledged, skillful Lords of the Fallen player at the end, is how we look at fun, entertainment and pleasure from playing Lords of the Fallen." As the trailer hints, there are elements of From Software's Souls games in Lords of the Fallen's combat; fights look to reward tactical players and punish those who go rushing in. However, Gop said the combat draws inspiration from a number of challenging, medieval-themed games, including older, more obscure games like Moonstone, Vagrant Story and Severance: Blade of Darkness. The game's wide array of inspirations includes Borderlands, which Gop drew parallels to when describing the class-based supernatural action skills - "We like to think of them as sort of a smart bomb." Unlike Borderlands, however, classes in Lords of the Fallen are not set in stone. Instead, skills are tied to weapons and gear, making classes a "very relative construct in Lords of the Fallen, the weapon actually representing some sort of profile or allegiance," as Gop put it. The player-definable approach to classes may again resemble the Souls games, but unlike From's RPGs there's a clearly defined character and story in Lords of the Fallen. The grizzly hero in the trailer is Harkyn, a man journeying a world that has seemingly forgotten the terrible 'Fallen God' it once fought against - but will remember soon enough. "We do want to tell the story and brag on the world that we have. We want to show it to the players," Gop said. Lords of the Fallen drops onto Xbox One, PS4 and PC sometime next year.
Gamescom 2013: World of Warplanes announces September 26 release date
Wargaming.net has announced today that its flight combat MMO, World of Warplanes, will be released to North America and Europe on September 26, 2013, while the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States will see the game launched on September 25. The studio boasts close to three million beta registrants for the game so far, and Gamescom attendees can get their hands on the game early, starting tomorrow at the Wargaming booth. Be sure to check out our gallery of screenshots below as well as the Gamescom 2013 trailer just after the jump. [Source: Wargaming press release]%Gallery-130862%
Seen@GDC Europe: How information flow has changed
In a GDC Europe session about the changing relationship between customers, publishers and media, Boris Schneider-Johne presented some interesting "then and now" slides. Schneider-Johne's 30-year career, which spans journalism to marketing, gives him the long view of the video game industry's information structure changes. In the first slide (pictured above), Schneider-Johne took the classic flow of interaction between the various actors in the video game industry in the pre-internet era. After the break, you can find the modern version, which he eventually gave up on because it's so convoluted. If you're ever wondering how/why messaging and interactions get so off-track nowadays, just go ahead and reference that second slide in the future.
Ridiculous Fishing reels in 300,000 sales at $3, but it was almost F2P
Ridiculous Fishing has sold 300,000 copies on the Apple App Store, Vlambeer founders Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail announced during their GDC Europe presentation. Ismail pointed out that the game sells for $3, so ... "It's nice," Nijman said. Ridiculous Fishing made a statement on the App Store by ditching the popular freemium model and simply charging $3 for a full game, rather than nothing (or close to it) for part of a game. When the game turned into a breakout mobile hit, its price point became a talking point and Vlambeer championed the full-game pricing approach. But Ridiculous Fishing was almost a freemium game. During brainstorming stages, developers Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman considered offering the game for free and then selling a $1,000 in-game boat. In this version of Ridiculous Fishing, players could see their friends' boats sailing around in the background, and they'd theoretically be tempted to collect all the cool boats they saw, even that $1,000 one. In the end, that didn't work with Vlambeer's development style. Nijman also wanted to add a feature that had some fish wearing hats, and when players shot those fish they could collect the hats and wear them. While the hat idea stuck, the rest of that pipe dream was flushed. In the end, it was all for the best, it seems.
Ryse revised: How Crytek altered combat for the better
Many people really latched onto Ryse: Son of Rome's execution system when Crytek showed off the game at E3 earlier this year – but probably not in the way the developer wanted them to. Ryse's executions, which grant the player various in-game perks – and see protagonist Marius stabbing, gouging, slicing, bashing and otherwise maiming barbarians – are performed via short quick time events. Even though the majority of Ryse's combat has an ebb and flow similar to the Batman Arkham games – flurries of attacks sprinkled with timely parries – many prospective players, myself included, worried about the QTE-infused combat getting stale. Crytek has responded to those concerns, and the build of Ryse being shown at Gamescom has a significantly altered execution system. Gone are the garish button prompts. Instead, enemies are subtly highlighted with the color of the appropriate button: Yellow for the shield (Y) and blue for the sword (X). By watching Marius' animations and keeping an eye out for each color, I easily slipped into the rhythm of various executions, something I can't say about the E3 build I played in June. The E3 reaction didn't directly inspire the changes to the execution system, design director Patrick Esteves tells me, but it definitely played a part. "We were already down a course. We already knew where executions were going. And, of course, in game development, we have to figure out what's the best way to do something." "People don't like the idea of a QTE-based combat system. Thank God we're not a QTE-based combat system," says Esteves, alluding to the fact that there is more to Ryse's combat than people may have perceived from the E3 demo. Just as I did in June, players will eventually discover that the combat is more about a dance-like back-and-forth between Marius and foes than it is about executions. "That was the first thing," says Esteves, "and the second thing is, is the communication language good enough for the game?" Crytek decided it wasn't.
Ryse enters the arena with co-op multiplayer mode, 'Gladiator'
"Gladiator" is the cooperative multiplayer mode in Ryse: Son of Rome, Crytek's ancient Roman action game due out for Xbox One at launch. Gladiator puts players inside the Colosseum, where they participate in battles against an onslaught of enemies, while the crowd cheers on.
Xbox One launch day lineup
Although Microsoft sort of (totally) neglected to mention a launch day for the Xbox One during today's Gamescom presentation, here's the console's "targeted" launch day line-up of games...
All Xbox One pre-orders in Europe get FIFA 14
At Microsoft's Gamescom showcase, it was revealed that all European Xbox One pre-orders will receive a free copy of FIFA 14. Even pre-orders that have already been placed will be upgraded with a free copy of the game. Xbox 360 wannabe owners can also score their own FIFA 14 bundle, priced £199 and available when the game is released on September 27. As the handy image above shows, the Xbox One pre-order in Europe is £429.
Call of Duty has dedicated servers on Xbox One cloud
Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin announced at Microsoft's Gamescom showcase that Call of Duty: Ghosts will use the Xbox One cloud to host dedicated servers for multiplayer. He also revealed that the game's new Blitz muliplayer mode will be playable here at Gamescom, and we should be going hands on soon.
Peggle 2, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare hit Xbox One first
PopCap is bringing the exuberantly announced Peggle 2 and 3D shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare to Xbox One first, Microsoft just revealed at its Gamescom conference. Peggle 2 will be available on Xbox One at launch, while Garden Warfare comes to the system sometime next year.
