After seeing the latest bit of news on the size of PS4 launch title Killzone Shadow Fall, I think we should all consider ourselves, and our wallets, lucky that both Sony and Microsoft are sticking with games on discs for the next generation of video game consoles.
Sony Computer Entertainment UK revealed that the digital download of Killzone Shadow Fall will be a 50 GB download. For comparison, that’s almost twice the size of The Last of Us and about 10% of the PS4’s hard drive capacity.
In 1997, Sony completely changed the way that controllers were designed and console games were played with the launch of the Dual Analog controllers. From there, we’ve seen some tweaks to controller design but very little in meaningful controller innovation outside of the recent move to motion controls.
While Valve’s announcement of Steam Machines was a bit underwhelming, their third announcement was a definite game changer. Their new Steam Controller looks to be the first big change in controller design in the last sixteen years.
People looking forward to the next installment of EA Sports’ annual college football franchise will just have to do the annual roster update themselves. EA has cancelled next year’s edition of EA Sports College Football (formerly NCAA Football) and may be cancelling the franchise altogether as a result of player likeness lawsuits and licensing withdrawals by the NCAA and some of it member conferences.
Monday’s surprise announcement of the SteamOS was followed by a logical second of three announcements. Yesterday’s big Steam announcement was Valve telling us what we already knew. Valve is working on Steam branded hardware to bring gaming to the living room.
Valve promised us three announcements this week. People are hoping for things like the long-awaited Steam Box, an official debut of the Source 2 engine and, as always with a Valve announcement, Half-Life 3.
However, Valve’s major announcement caught everyone completely off guard. While we were expecting hardware or a game, we instead got a new computer operating system that Valve calls SteamOS.
Now that Kickstarter has opened up their crowdfunding platform to projects based in Canada, we’ve seen a massive influx of groups looking for money to make projects real. The one that has piqued my interest is a new game from a new indie studio based out in BC.
Hinterland Studio has brought together a core team that includes developers whose previous work experience includes time at BioWare, Volition, Relic, Riot and more triple-A games and studios to make a first-person survival sim called The Long Dark.
Alright, here’s the review roundup you guys were looking for this week. I know you weren’t that interested in Greater Toronto Area V or whatever that other game is called. This week saw the North American release of The Wonderful 101, another Wii U exclusive that Nintendo hopes will convince people that there actually are games available for the Wii U. I won’t call it a system seller because those Mario Kart and Smash Bros. games in the pipeline will move consoles while a new IP isn’t likely to do that unless it’s a GOTY candidate.
Well, I guess that is unless you’re at Gaming Age who have deemed this a killer app for the Wii U. They’re one of three outlets to give the game a perfect score. Not all praise is that high. The scores bottom out at 55% and go all the way up to 100%. Reviewers agree that they like the charm and fun of the game but there are bugs and control issues that hold the game back.
There aren’t that many surprises in the games industry any more but EA certainly caught people off guard with their choice of a new CEO. Andrew Wilson, the current Executive Vice President of EA Sports and EA’s Origin digital distribution client and store, has been named Electronic Arts’ new Chief Executive Officer.
Since I’ve looked at a bunch of GTA5 related stuff to start the day, let’s segue to something a bit more comical.
The Saints Row series was originally considered to be a GTA clone though SR4 certainly distanced itself from Grand Theft Auto. That doesn’t mean that they can’t still have a little fun at GTA’s expense.
Today, Saints Row is getting the GATV DLC pack which is a Johnny Gat themed customization pack. If you missed it the first time, re-read that DLC’s name slowly, though, if you’re like me, you probably did a double-take to make sure you read the DLC’s name correctly. I thought this was worth a bit of a chuckle.
It’s currently available for free on Steam for a very limited time. If you have SR4, get on that now.
Source: CVG
Given how much we all focus on the scores that games get in their reviews, it’s generally a good idea to know how outlets come up with their scores. Sure, you could look that up yourself but where’s the fun in that when you can get industry insiders to tell you how it works. During Rev3 Games’ PAX panel, Anthony Carboni explained the agreed upon industry-wide methodology behind review scores.
Because we can’t embed with a specified starting time, click forward to 37:56.
et geekera 