Daily Scoop: March 20, 2014 – Sunshine

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Nicole Kline

Here in Philadelphia, it’s been staying lighter later and later, especially (obviously) since daylight saving time. And it’s really doing wonders for me! Though I keep losing track of time at night… since it doesn’t get dark until later, I don’t realize that it’s after midnight until, well, it’s about 2:00am. Whoops!

There’s a brand new Humble Weekly Bundle, and this one’s all rhythm games! Pay what you want for Symphony, Sequence, and Bit.Trip Runner. Pay more than the average to unlock Audiosurf, Beat Hazard Ultra, and Retro/Grade. And, of course, you’ll be getting some soundtracks as well.

Over at Steam, the free weekend of Payday 2 has begun, and runs until Sunday at 1:00pm PDT. The Daily Deal for today is Men of War: Assault Squad. It’s marked down 75% off, making it $3.74.

There are half a dozen great shirts today!

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

The Last of Us wins Game of the Year at 2014 GDC Awards

Posted on March 20, 2014 by John Scalzo

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The 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards were handed out last night and The Last of Us took home “Game of the Year.” Naughty Dog’s unquestioned dominance in this year’s awards season really makes you wonder, does it ever get boring for Neil Druckmann and company? I’m guessing no, but after winning several BAFTAs, multiple DICE Awards, the Writer’s Guild Award for Videogame Writing, and a Warp Zoned Golden Pixel Award, it stops being surprising. In addition to being selected as “Game of the Year,” The Last of Us was also honored with the “Best Game Design” and “Best Narrative” awards.

But The Last of Us wasn’t the only winner last night. Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was picked as the “Best Handheld/Mobile Game” while IGF darling Papers Please took home the award for “Best Downloadable Game” as well as the “Innovation Award.”

The only other multi-award winner of the night was BioShock Infinite, which was recognized for its sights and sounds with the “Best Visual Art” and “Best Audio” awards. Finally, the low-key Gone Home (and its developer, The Fullbright Company) was picked as the “Best Debut” while the bombastic Grand Theft Auto V took home “Best Technology.”

The full list of this year’s winners can be found after the break.

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Papers Please wins big at the 2014 Independent Games Festival

Posted on March 20, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Lucas Pope’s Papers Please was the big winner during last night’s Independent Games Festival. The 2014 edition of the annual awards show honoring independent games gave three awards to Pope’s game including “Excellence in Design,” “Excellence in Narrative,” and the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.” Who knew taking control of a border control agent living under a harsh dictator could be so fun?

Five other games were also honored with awards last night. The “Excellence in Visual Art” award went to Jason Roberts for his puzzler Gorogoa. If you’re more of a sound guy, you’d probably like to know that Simogo was given the “Excellence in Audio” award for their beguiling mobile game, Device 6.

The “Nuovo Award,” which recognizes “abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development,” was given to Tale of Tales for Luxuria Superbia. According to the IGF, Luxuria Superbia is “a musically and visually resplendent title that uses the player’s touch to stimulate in-game sensations of pleasure and joy. Absent any characters or underlying narrative, the game is focused entirely on the experience of traveling through a series of tunnels to make them “feel good” and affect their colors and plumage through the player’s tactile inputs.” Certainly sounds unconventional to me.

The final two awards of the night went to Hopoo Games and Galactic Cage. Hopoo Games is made up of students from the University of Washington and, obviously enough, they took home the “Best Student Game” award for Risk of Rain. Finally, the “Audience Award” went to Galactic Cafe for their work on The Stanley Parable, their heavily-narrated first-person game.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.

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Xbox 360 edition of TitanFall will now be released on April 8

Posted on March 19, 2014 by John Scalzo

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The Xbox 360 edition of TitanFall has been delayed again. Originally set to launch on March 11, the previous-generation port was first pushed back two weeks to March 25. Today, it received another two-week delay and will now be available in stores on April 8.

EA’s Patrick Soderlund has confirmed that the main reason for the delay is to give the Xbox 360 version of the game a little additional polishing:

I’ve been playing the game a lot, and it is fantastic. But we see a few things that can be made even better, so we’re giving Bluepoint a little more time to do just that and deliver an epic Titanfall experience for Xbox 360 players.

You can read more thoughts from Soderlund at TitanFall’s official website.

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Daily Scoop: March 19, 2014 – Video game movies

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Nicole Kline

Well, they aren’t video game movies in the traditional sense, but they are movies about the people who make and play video games. Valve’s documentary Free to Play is free right now on their website, and their Daily Deal is Indie Game: The Movie for $2.49. They’re also having a massive Bitcomposer sale, so be sure to check that out as well.

Other than that, some bundles are wrapping up, so you’ll need to work fast if you want to get in on them. The Debut 11 Bundle and the Humble Weekly Bundle: Sega are both ending soon. There’s also a massive Sega sale in the Humble Store, so check that out while you’re there!

Just two gaming t-shirts today…

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

XBL Store Today: MGS5: Ground Zeroes, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, more

Posted on March 19, 2014 by John Scalzo

metalgearsolidgroundzeroes-firstartThe Xbox Live Store has been updated with several new downloadable offerings and if you’re looking for a few new Xbox 360/Xbox One games today, your choices include:

  • Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Xbox One/Xbox 360) – Hideo Kojima’s latest mission for Big Boss will serve as a prequel to The Phantom Pain as well as serve as an introduction to the new. mechanics found in the game.
  • Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (Xbox 360) – Tecmo Koei’s latest Ninja Gaiden game promises cyborg-on-zombie battles and the ability to wield nunchucks made from zombie arms.
  • Constant C (XBLA) is a puzzle platformer that messes with gravity and time.
  • And Skydive: Proximity Flight (XBLA) is a Kinect-powered wingsuit simulator.

More information on all of these titles can be found after the break.

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MGS5: Ground Zeroes, Luftrausers, InFamous: Second Son, more added to PS Store

Posted on March 19, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Your eyes do not deceive you, this is reality… Sony has updated their virtual storefront, the PlayStation Store, with a ton of new games.

Leading the way is Sony’s next major PS4 release, InFamous: Second Son. Second Son will spin off with a new main character (Delsin) and a new locale (Seattle) because Cole McGrath lost his life at the end of InFamous 2. In a break from tradition, you’ll have to wait until Friday (March 21) to continue your infamous ways.

Also available for the PS4 this week is Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Hideo Kojima’s prologue to the next Metal Gear game, and Stealth Inc.: Ultimate Edition, a next-gen upgrade to the popular puzzle platformer. Ground Zeroes is also available to download from the PS3 section of the store. Finally, the mining platformer SteamWorld Dig makes the next-generation leap in a special PS4/Vita Cross-Buy edition.

But don’t think the PS3 is being left out in this week’s PlayStation Store update. The Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster has finally been released (it’s available on the Vita too), along with Tecmo Koei’s insane zombie slasher, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, and Vlambeer’s dogfighting sim, Luftrausers (which was released as a PS3/Vita Cross-Buy title).

More information on all of these games can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog.

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Sony officially unveils Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset for the PS4

Posted on March 19, 2014 by John Scalzo

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It’s been a long time coming, but Sony officially announced Project Morpheus, their virtual reality headset for the PS4, at the 2014 Game Developers Conference last night.

Like the Oculus Rift, Sony’s Morpheus is concerned with presence, a state where “players feel as though they are physically inside the virtual world of a game.” Unlike the relatively self-contained Rift, Morpheus is a head-mounted display that uses the PlayStation Camera to track head orientation so “as the player’s head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates naturally and intuitively in real-time.” The Morpheus headset can also connect with the PlayStation Move, allowing players to bring objects, such as a sword, into their virtual world and manipulate it using gesture controls.

The Morpheus headset also makes use of 3D sound to orient the player to the game world. Sony gave the example of sounds heard from above and below the player, such as “footsteps climbing up stairs below them, or engine noises of helicopters flying overhead.” Sound will also reach the player differently depending upon the orientation of their head in relation to where the sound came from.

If you’re attending this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Franciso, you’ll be able to test out the Morpheus headset at Sony Computer Entertainment’s booth. Four demos will be available including a virtual reality version of Square Enix’s Thief, as well as Eve: Valkyrie, a multiplayer dogfighting shooter set within CCP’s Eve universe, and two tech demos: “The Castle,” a Move-based medieval combat simulator, and “The Deep,” which places players in a sharkproof cage.

Sony eventually plans to release the Morpheus headset as a commercial product, but the release date is currently unknown and Sony would only say that development is continuing.

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