The Gaming News Thread

[Crazed Rabbit]

A new 3D virtual reality headset designed for gaming - with endorsements from John Carmack, Gabe Newell, and others:
http://www.oculusvr.com/

Video of a guy experiencing the demo: (some adult language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uso6vxZ5O4c

It seems really cool.

CR

[Fisherking]

Wow! Yes it does. Looks like VR may actually progress. Oculus Rift!

[Gregoshi]

Wow! Yes it does. Looks like VR may actually progress. Oculus Rift!

I can already envision the multitude of YouTube videos showing immersed players wearing the Rift getting pranked by their friends and family.

[TinCow]

I've been following the Oculus since their Kickstarter. I guarantee you I will be one of the first in line to buy one. I don't care if it costs me a grand, it will be mine ASAP. I've wanted home VR since I first experienced the crappy arcade versions over 20 years ago.

[Fragony]

If Valve is so interested in it this could be a great device to sell the Steambox with

[Husar]

If the screens are close to the eyes it seems unhealthy for the eyes to use it for long (and since it embeds you into the game more, it seems likely you will use it for longer periods of time without a break). And how does it manage to look sharp at such a short distance? Or is there some trick? (Lenses?) You can probably tell I'm somewhat sceptical.

[Fragony]

I don't understand it either, but we'll see. If both ID and Valve are interested in it they must have something going here. It looks really uncomfortable to wear though

[TinCow]

Yeah, we'll have to wait for reviews once an actual consumer model comes out. Still, the very possibilities blow my mind. Can you imagine playing Skyrim with one of those things?

[Fisherking]

The developers kits seem to ship in Apr. Might maybe see them by Fall.

One for Skyrim would be amazing and think of flight sims with one. No more fumbling to see above or behind you any more.

[rajpoot]

If the screens are close to the eyes it seems unhealthy for the eyes to use it for long (and since it embeds you into the game more, it seems likely you will use it for longer periods of time without a break). And how does it manage to look sharp at such a short distance? Or is there some trick? (Lenses?) You can probably tell I'm somewhat sceptical.

The FAQ on their webpage actually addresses this.

Will the Oculus Rift cause eye strain after extended use?
The Oculus Rift causes very little eye strain, particularly compared to other standard displays or headmounts.
Normally, when you take a break from using a monitor or TV, the idea is to give your eyes a chance to focus and converge on a distant plane. This is a natural position of rest for your eyes.
With the Oculus Rift, your eyes are actually focused and converged in the distance at all times. It’s a pretty neat optical feature.

[Husar]

Thanks rajpoot, sounds good.

Can't wait to try Excel with this.

[Fragony]

The PS4 will apparently be released before summer, at a rather modest cost of 320 euro. Learning from your mistakes Sony?

[TinCow]

The PS4 will apparently be released before summer, at a rather modest cost of 320 euro. Learning from your mistakes Sony?

I find that very hard to believe, at least the release date part. Link please.

[edit] Did some scrounging of my own, it looks like the pre-summer thing is the announcement of the console, not the actual console itself. This indicates a Holiday season release, which I find plausible.

[Husar]

Metacritic ranks publishers to find the best publisher of 2012.

I suspect you're going to like the winner.

[Monk]

Metacritic ranks publishers to find the best publisher of 2012.

I suspect you're going to like the winner.

[drone]

Metacritic ranks publishers to find the best publisher of 2012.

I suspect you're going to like the winner.

Activision/Blizzard - Best Original Title: (none)

[Ferret]

Well technically Take-Two won...

[Fragony]

Bossfights, the guy who work Metal Gear Rising know how to do it http://www.gamespot.com/metal-gear-r...earRisingTheDe

Awesome. All bossfights in Metal Gear games are awesome of course, my favourite still has go be the sniping contest with The End in Metal Gear Solid 3

[Monk]

Normally I really dislike metacritic.. but today.. today is a day of mourning. A day when we look back upon mistakes made and wonder... how.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/al...critic-reviews

Did IQs at gearbox drop sharply while I was away? How did it go so wrong.. How could this happen..? It's a game. A game about shooting Xenomorphs. In the FACE. Playing as one of the original inspirations of the "space marine" trope in our pop culture. HOW DO YOU SCREW THAT UP.

Even the lackluster AvP (2010) managed a decent marine campaign.

[johnhughthom]

I hope you paid Games Workshop royalties for using their phrase in that post.

[TinCow]

Did IQs at gearbox drop sharply while I was away? How did it go so wrong.. How could this happen..? It's a game. A game about shooting Xenomorphs. In the FACE. Playing as one of the original inspirations of the "space marine" trope in our pulp culture. HOW DO YOU SCREW THAT UP.

I think the Aliens franchise is the Macbeth of the games industry. There have been numerous games done on the A/P license, and almost all of them have been actively bad. The only exception I can think of is the original AvP PC game from the 90s.

[Monk]

I hope you paid Games Workshop royalties for using their phrase in that post.

I think the Aliens franchise is the Macbeth of the games industry. There have been numerous games done on the A/P license, and almost all of them have been actively bad. The only exception I can think of is the original AvP PC game from the 90s.

I think you're right, it's one of those things that seems so obvious and so easily done and yet almost everyone who tries manages to royally mess it up in execution. A complete and total shame. What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties.

[drone]

I think the Aliens franchise is the Macbeth of the games industry. There have been numerous games done on the A/P license, and almost all of them have been actively bad. The only exception I can think of is the original AvP PC game from the 90s.

The original Aliens mod for Doom was probably the peak.

[TinCow]

I think you're right, it's one of those things that seems so obvious and so easily done and yet almost everyone who tries manages to royally mess it up in execution. A complete and total shame. What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties.

Part of the problem, I think, is that developers don't seem to understand what the Aliens movies are. They seem to think that just because Cameron busted out a whole buttload of Space Marines (Shhh... don't report me to Games Workshop for saying that!) and shot up some aliens in the second movie that it's all a shoot-em-up. That's completely wrong. The Alien movies (at least, the good ones) are good because of the suspense, the tension, the horror, and the things that the viewer cannot see. It's the anticipation of what is to come, followed by the panic of when it actually arrives. Very few games manage to do horror well, and even few manage it well as a shooter. A good Alien game would be survival horror where allies are few and far between, ammo is scarce, tactical placement is crucial, and no place is completely safe.

[Xiahou]

I think the Aliens franchise is the Macbeth of the games industry. There have been numerous games done on the A/P license, and almost all of them have been actively bad. The only exception I can think of is the original AvP PC game from the 90s.

Actually, I thought AvP2 was quite a good game.

I have some good memories of being scared in dark corridors with the eerie chirp of the motion detector.... The game also had some great MP.

[Fragony]

AvP 2 was awesome, heavily scripted but in a good way. The marine campaign was scary as hell. Does win the award for the oddest placement of a sniper rifle ever though, literally 30 seconds before the campaign ends.

[TinCow]

Some interesting (allegedly) insider info on what happened to the game:

First off, due to me breaking NDA, I can't provide any proof that I'm not just talking out of my ass. But I figure you'd be interested in hearing what I have to say regardless. I've been on the project for around a year and a half, so some of the following are things I've heard from more senior guys.

Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX and 20th Century FOX came to an agreement to produce an Aliens game around 6 years ago, after which SEGA almost immediately announced it, long before Pecan had even started production. The game has been in active development in the past, only to be shelved in favor of another project (Borderlands, Duke, etc), and each time it was resumed it would undergo a major content overhaul.
SEGA, naturally, wasn't super pleased about the delays, but GBX got away with it for a long time and the contract between SEGA and GBX kept getting augmented to push the projected release further and further back. The last time it was resumed, GBX outsourced a good portion of the game to outside companies. Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, GBX would take MP, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks. This decision was made mostly so that most of the developers at GBX could continue working on Borderlands 2, while a small group of LDs, coders and designers dealt with Pecan.

Somehow the schedules for Pecan and Borderlands 2 managed to line up and GBX realized that there was no fucking way they could cert and ship two titles at the same time. Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan's Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.

About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2. In that time, TimeGate managed to scrap together 85% of the campaign, but once Borderlands 2 shipped and GBX turned its attention to Pecan, it became pretty apparent that what had been made was in a pretty horrid state. Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch. There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn't enough time.

Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.

Beyond gameplay, the story has been raised as an issue several times. I can't really comment without feeling bad beyond saying that the script was approved by 20th Century FOX, and that the rush to throw a playable product together came at the cost of the story. Campaign does a pretty bad job of explaining a lot of the questions raised at the start of the game, and so hopefully there will be DLC to flesh that out a bit better.

I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.

Link

[Crazed Rabbit]

Beware, friends! For we venture into the zone of the ... Forbidden Numbers!

CR

[Fragony]

No news that all reviewers agree that Aliens: Colonial Marines sucks, but this is just fooling people into pre-ordering. Glad I didn't.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/1...ots-lie-to-you

Promotional shots indeed look amazing, actual game could run on last-gen probably

[johnhughthom]

System Shock 2 released on GOG.