Updates from the Gaming World
July 31, 2013
Batman: Arkham Origins multiplayer announced, in development by Splash Damage
Batman: Arkham Origins Online Component Confirmed
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today confirmed that Batman: Arkham Origins will ship with a mode that allows players to take the franchise’s award-winning gameplay online to play with friends and foes. The online component blends the traditional Arkham gameplay with third-person shooter mechanics and is in development by Splash Damage.
The online mode will be available for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC. The game is scheduled to launch worldwide October 25, 2013.
The Batman: Arkham Origins Online mode offers players the chance to hunt as Batman or Robin against the most challenging opponents yet, friends and other gamers online. Players can also take on the role of a Super-Villain Elite and get a peek behind the curtain of what it’s like to side with The Joker or Bane as they establish their legacy by taking down Batman and Robin, and anyone else who gets in their way. Fans will even be able call in the ultimate reinforcement to help turn the tide in any match by playing as The Joker or Bane themselves.
Developed by WB Games Montréal, Batman: Arkham Origins features an expanded Gotham City and introduces an original prequel storyline set several years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Taking place before the rise of Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals, the game showcases a young and unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight. As the story unfolds, players will meet many important characters for the first time and forge key relationships.
Batman: Arkham Origins will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, the Wii U system, and Windows PC. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, the handheld version developed by Armature Studio, will be available for PlayStation Vita handheld entertainment system and the Nintendo 3DS handheld system. The game will release on all platforms worldwide on October 25, 2013.
July 30, 2013
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag PlayStation-exclusive Aveline missions detailed
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Aveline
Returns
The star of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation will
return to the series in Assassin’s Creed IV:
Black Flag. Aveline de Grandpré will appear in
a series of missions found exclusively in
PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 copies of the
game. Jill Murray, writer of Liberation, has
also returned to pen the continuation of
Aveline’s tale.
Aveline’s missions in Black Flag pick up a
ways after her story in Liberation ends. “It’s
a ways forward so Aveline is a bit older,”
Lead Writer Darby McDevitt explains. “It’s not
directly related to the end of her story. If
Assassin’s Creed IV is like a novel, Aveline’s
missions are like a short story.” Providing
about an hour of exclusive content, Aveline’s
narrative is broken up into three missions,
according to Game Director Ashraf Ismail.
McDevitt explained during the San Diego
Comic Con panel that these missions are
made possible thanks to some of Abstergo’s
Animus upgrades. Abstergo Entertainment has
been digging through genetic memories of the
Assassin’s, supposedly in the search for a
good product. “The present-day is set in
Abstergo Entertainment – which is this fun,
hip company to work for… at first,” McDevitt
says. “You are able to access the Aveline stuff
because your coworkers are working on
retrieving different genetic memories from all
kinds of different people.” Of course, this
being Abstergo, there’s something much
darker at play.
July 29, 2013
Nvidia unveils Cloud Based Indirect Lighting
CloudLight: A system for amortizing
indirect lighting in real-time rendering
We introduce CloudLight, a system for
computing indirect lighting in the Cloud to
support real-time rendering for interactive
3D applications on a user's local device.
CloudLight maps the traditional graphics
pipeline onto a distributed system. That
differs from a single-machine renderer in
three fundamental ways. First, the mapping
introduces potential asymmetry between
computational resources available at the
Cloud and local device sides of the pipeline.
Second, compared to a hardware memory
bus, the network introduces relatively large
latency and low bandwidth between certain
pipeline stages. Third, for multi-user virtual
environments, a Cloud solution can amortize
expensive global illumination costs across
users.
Our new CloudLight framework explores
tradeoffs in different partitions of the global
illumination workload between Cloud and
local devices, with an eye to how available
network and computational power influence
design decisions and image quality. We
describe the tradeoffs and characteristics of
mapping three known lighting algorithms to
our system and demonstrate scaling for up to
50 simultaneous CloudLight users.
July 28, 2013
July 27, 2013
PS4 developers can access up to 5.5GB of RAM
PlayStation 4 gives up to 5.5GB of RAM to
game developers
PlayStation 4 reserves 3.5GB of its 8GB
GDDR5 memory for the operating system,
leaving 4.5GB of space for game code,
according to current PlayStation 4
documentation shown to Digital Foundry by a
well-placed development source. However,
further sources suggest that an additional
1GB of "flexible memory" may be reclaimed
from the OS reservation, based on
availability.
Sony's internal docs say that 4.5GB is the
baseline amount of guaranteed memory
available for game-makers - note the memory
usage of the Killzone: Shadow Fall demo -
and most likely what the lion's share of
launch titles will be using. However, other
sources close to Sony indicate that developers
can request up to an additional gigabyte of
"flexible memory", and use it to boost
elements of the game - but only if the
background OS can spare it. We're told that
incorporating this isn't trivial, and it may well
be that to begin with only first-party
developers target its usage.
Current PlayStation 4 dev kits have a "Game
Memory Budget Mode" in the debug settings
featuring two options: normal and large. The
normal mode setting confirms that 4.5GB of
memory is usable for game applications. The
large mode increases this considerably to
5.25GB, but the docs are clear that the extra
RAM here is only available for application
development, presumably in order to house
debugging data. From what we understand,
the extra gig of flexible memory appears to
work in addition to these allowances.
The news that the PS4's OS reservation is in
the same ballpark as Xbox One's equivalent
3GB allocation is sure to surprise many,
especially bearing in mind that previously
leaked Sony docs have only spoken of a
512MB allocation for the system software -
though this information hails from the era
where the new PlayStation was slated to ship
with only 4GB of memory.
There are many parallels with the Xbox One.
Both consoles allocate two Jaguar CPU cores
to the operating system, and what sounds like
a disproportionately higher level of RAM than
one might expect - especially in comparison
to PC, where Windows operates perfectly well
with less than a gig of memory at its disposal.
However, in a world where even the Wii U
reserves 50 per cent of its onboard RAM for
the operating system, the big bump in PS4's
OS allocation is perhaps not completely
surprising. The console's leap from 4GB to
8GB has seemingly opened the door for Sony
to be much more ambitious about what tasks
the PlayStation 4 performs in the background
and in parallel with gameplay.
Microsoft has already showcased Xbox One's
abilities in this regard, but our sources say
that PlayStation 4 is also capable of similar
feats, perhaps in a manner more closely
resembling that of PS Vita - the game is
paused, apps are switched over seamlessly
and, once exited, gameplay continues without
having to restart the code. The convenience
and functionality is undeniable, but it comes
at a cost to memory consumption.
As it stands, both next-gen consoles will
launch with 8GB of unified memory, but with
a significantly diminished amount actually
available to games developers. However, a big
area of difference between Sony and
Microsoft's approaches to OS allocation could
come in their future plans for the reserved
RAM. A Microsoft insider tells us that the
engineers behind the Xbox One specifically
chose 3GB in order to allow the background
platform to evolve over a ten-year life-cycle -
it's very hard to add features if the pool of
available RAM is reduced from its initial level.
The reserved RAM allocation there is set in
stone, and is unlikely to change.
However, sources close to Sony suggest that
the PS4 approach is perhaps more flexible -
the current allocation in terms of both CPU
cores and memory could be reduced once the
operating system is complete and then
streamlined. In short, while there is no
guarantee of change in the future, Sony is at
least leaving the door open to the
opportunity and the R&D team has
experience in reducing the OS footprint - just
as it did on PlayStation 3.
In the here and now, the template is now set
for the next-gen launch period, and the focus
from both platform holders is that while
games command the majority of system
resources, supplementary services and apps
are clearly very important indeed. Microsoft
has already set out its stall in this regard -
now it remains to be seen what additional
features PlayStation 4 brings to the table
above and beyond its core gaming functions.
Emperor Zinyak Announces Saints Row IV ‘Game of the Generation’ Edition
Attention All Sentient Members of the
Human Species
Hello. Emperor Zinyak here, speaking through
the abominable and lowly marketing and
public relations departments of Deep Silver,
which I assure you will be much handled now
that I am in control. It has come to my
attention that the so-called "Super Dangerous
Wub Wub Edition" of the upcoming Saints
Row IV title for PC and Consoles needed more
"wub" and rare items for the gamers of today
and therefore I have commandeered these
contemptible departments to issue news of
my own version of the Saints Row IV
collector's edition, one collector's edition to
rule them all. Today I present to you the
Saints Row IV Game of the Generation
Edition.
Included in the stupendously triumphant
Game of the Generation Edition - $129.99
while supplies last, only 5000 copies
produced - is a rare and coveted Display Case
of Everlasting Glory: a light-up rotating
display case with an individually-numbered
plaque indicating exclusiveness, elitism,
AAAAA quality and other highbrow words
describing your unwavering dedication to my
ultimate reign over humanity. Additionally,
because you love the finer things in life but
will never be more than a tiny, insignificant
human being and therefore lesser than the
greatest being of them all, myself, the Game
of the Generation Edition comes with a "Top
Shelf" velvet pouch for you to protect this
treasure and pass it down to any offspring I
may or may not allow you to produce. And in
a show of my truly magnanimous nature, the
Game of the Generation Edition includes all
items in the previously announced Super
Dangerous Wub Wub edition as well. You're
welcome.
And in the event that you need a reminder,
since I know human brains are far less
powerful than my own perfect and luxuriously
sculpted brain, included in the Super
Dangerous Wub Wub edition - $99.99 - is a
12-inch Dubstep gun replica capable of
rendering your enemies absolutely speechless
with the power of music. The ultra-high
quality weapon replica with its sleek design,
delightful "wubs" directly from the in-game
Dubstep Gun and a laser sight. Yes, it's a
replica. You don't really think I'd allow you to
have an actual weapon, do you?
Additionally the Super Dangerous Wub Wub
Edition comes with an awe-inspiring 8-inch
Johnny Gat Memorial Statue for all Saints to
be able to pay tribute to the greatest Saint.
Future generations will gaze upon Johnny's
grandeur while learning the history of his
glorious murdering sprees with the Third
Street Saints.
And because no President, especially yours,
America, is ever without 'the button,' the
Super Dangerous Wub Wub edition comes
with a pocket-sized Dubstep Doomsday
Button so fans can drop bombs on the go.
Look at you. So powerful!
Fans of the game and citizens of Steelport
who purchase either collector's edition will
also receive all in-game items from the
Commander in Chief pre-order bonus, which
include a Screaming Eagle that fires rockets
out of its talons and can invoke the "Sonic
Scream" attack, a limited-edition American-
iconic "Uncle Sam" uniform decked out in
those horrendous American flag colors and a
stimulus package of epic proportions – the
'Merica gun – a massive compilation of
primitive human firepower.
The Super Dangerous Wub Wub edition and
the Game of the Generation Edition of Saints
Row IV are now available for preorder in
North America and will only be available as
long as supplies last.
Saints Row IV launches August 20th, 2013
across North and Latin America and August
23rd in the rest of the world. While you still
have a world, anyway.
July 26, 2013
F1 2013 launching October 4 in Europe and October 8 in North America
Codemasters today announced that F1 2013, the latest entry in the award-winning series of officially licensed FORMULA 1™ videogames, will launch on October 4 in Europe and October 8 in North America for the Xbox 360 video games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. To mark the release date announcement, Codemasters has released a hot lap video using work-in-progress in-game footage featuring the Hungaroring circuit which is set to stage the FORMULA 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2013 this weekend. The video shows Toro Rosso– Ferrari’s Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo taking on the famous circuit and is narrated by Anthony Davidson, former Formula One driver and Technical Consultant on F1 2013, who describes how drivers should attack each corner and carry as much speed as possible through the tight and twisty track in the battle for points this weekend. F1 2013 will feature a new gameplay mode called F1 Classics giving fans the chance to race classic cars on iconic circuits against legendary drivers for the first time in Codemasters’ award-winning series. Introduced by legendary broadcaster Murray Walker, F1 Classics features a new fictional racing series allowing players to race cars, drivers and circuits from the 1980s. Classic content is also available in a range of other game modes, including split-screen and online multiplayer modes. Further content will be available in a premium edition of the game, F1 2013: Classic Edition, featuring 1990s Content and Classic Tracks. These two packs will be made available for purchase as optional DLC for players of F1 2013. F1 2013 will also feature all the cars and stars from the 2013 season, allowing gamers to race as Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes and Segio Perez in the McLaren-Mercedes for the first time, and includes all of the rule changes, tyre changes and remodelled handling to authentically reflect the challenge and exhilaration of racing 2013’s stunning roster of cars. A range of enhancements, improvements, split-screen and online multiplayer, plus new and returning game modes deliver the most complete simulation of a Formula One season in videogame history, with more detail to be revealed.
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