Media Molecule, the studio that brought the world the popular Little Big Planet series today showed off their newest game in a developers session at Eurogamer Expo today.

Tearaway, a game being developed for the Playstation Vita, takes place within a world designed to look and act like paper. The character models are papercraft based and indeed as part of the game you are able to win the patterns for creatures such as the squirrels to download and make for real. Within the gameworld you control a character known as the Messenger (male version called Iota, female called Atoi), who only has one task: simply to deliver a message to you, the actual real-life player who is observing this papery world through the sun (and gets glimpsed at various parts of the game).

However while the gameplay takes part within the papercraft game world, the studio has utilised features of the Vita such as the rear touchpad and the tilt to allow the player (called a ‘You’ by the gameworld’s inhabitants) to interact with the world. Tilting the Vita makes the world tip slightly and the rear touchpad allows the player to stick fingers into the gameworld through a certain type of paper to allow you to knock out enemies (little creatures known as Scraps) or move objects such as blocks and cylinders to allow the player character to progress; all in order to give the feeling the player is ‘holding a small world in their hands’. In a way you are very much like a god within this world as you aid the Messenger past puzzles and obstacles and help him defeat Scraps.

There is also scope to customise the player character using a collectable resource scattered about the world called confetti to buy pieces to add to your character or replace existing features such as the eyes, in the form of what was described during the presentation as bits of paper you can stick onto the Messenger. Confetti can also be used to purchase lenses and filters for the camera item that is used in the game to take photos of the world (which can then be shared online) or solve puzzles (certain items in the gameworld are white for example and only regain colour when snapped). Present collectables can be found in the world that give a larger amount of confetti then the amounts scattered along the path.

Tearaway is scheduled for release on November 22nd 2013.

Indie developer studio Futurlab showed off the latest version of their game Velocity in a presentation today at Eurogamer: a sequel called Velocity 2X.

The game, which is being released on Sony’s latest console the Playstation 4, was talked about by members of the development team who discussed the journey that Velocity had gone through up until now from Playstation Minis onwards, and what had changed from the game’s last incarnation Velocity Ultra which was a game for the Playstation Vita. The major changes talked about were the improved graphical appeal of the game (with the game’s engine being rewritten for this purpose during production of the game) as well as the decision to include some on-foot platforming elements into a game that was up until now top-down style (although this type of gameplay is also present in 2X as shown in the pre-alpha footage played during the presentation).

The team also talked about having added a richer story to 2X as compared to previous Velocity games and even discussed a new enemy in the game, a species called the Vokh, as well as methods for fighting them. The creatures, described as ’15-foot monsters’ are fast and shielded and players need to find a way to disrupt the shield before they can dispatch the enemy.

2X makes use of the same ship movement features as past games, namely fast and fluid steering, teleportation and many other features but now each one has an equivalent action during the platformer parts. For example, teleport becomes teledash, a move that allows the player character to pass through walls and avoid enemies or obstacles. The levels have also been designed with making the player feel in control of what is happening, and to flow using the level design, ‘breadcrumb’ pick-ups and other things to give the game a sense of rhythm and keep the players engaged.

The original Velocity, a top-down shoot ’em-up game, was released on Playstation 3, Vita and Portable as a Mini in 2012 and was praised for the mechanics being fairly unique and the gameplay engaging although at times repetitive. Velocity Ultra, a Playstation Vita native version of Velocity, was announced in 2013.

Minecraft, a game known for its vast world sizes, has been used as the building structure for a virtual map created using actual Ordinance Survey data to accurately resemble Great Britain.

The map, in area covering the equivalent of 224,000 sq km (86,000 sq miles) and using around 22 billion blocks, is the result of a fortnight’s work by intern Joseph Braybrook working with the OS’s Innovation Labs team and OpenData OS software to create a map that’s as accurate as possible and like all Minecraft worlds, completely breakable and customisable. The OS map products, OS Terrain 50 and OS VectorMap, create the 3D map of the earth’s surface with features such as rivers, forests and roads included.

Speaking about the map Graham Dunlop, the Manager for OS’ Innovation Labs said that this could be the largest Minecraft world ever created using real-life world data. He believes this proves that Minecraft shows ‘massive potential’ as a tool for geographical and computer technology use within schools, but also as a way to demonstrate the scope of OpenData and applications that could be created for it too.

The map covers the entire of the mainland part of Britain, comprising of England, Wales and Scotland as well as some islands but does not contain any parts of Ireland, North Ireland, the channel Islands or the Isle of Man. Upon download players enter the map through the OS’s building in Southampton and from there can explore the lay of the land around them, building upon the land with their own ideas or recreating British landmark buildings if they want.

The map download is located here: Download the Minecraft-GB.zip archive (this is a large file – around 345 MB)

Here are some locations to get you started:

Southampton Water --- X = 9000 Y = 100 Z = 26000
London -------------- X = 10632 Y = 100 Z = 24422
Mt Snowdon ---------- X = 5218 Y = 200 Z = 20913
Outer Hebrides ------ X = 2110 Y = 100 Z = 10000
Shetland Islands ---- X = 8900 Y = 100 Z = 4969
Poole Harbour ------- X = 8020 Y = 100 Z = 26235
Weymouth ------------ X = 7300 Y = 100 Z = 26440
Foulness Essex------- X = 12000 Y = 100 Z = 24174
Lake Windermere------ X = 6800 Y = 100 Z = 18080
Ordnance Survey ----- X = 8745 Y = 100 Z = 25695 

Use the values above with the teleport command, for example /tp 6800 100 18080.

The image below may help you find your bearings:

It shows the coverage of Minecraft GB expressed in world coordinates and the relationship with National Grid 100 km squares.

You’ll also notice in the image above the metal lines and brick on the map

The table below lists the materials used for each map feature:

So where there is a brick area, denotes a town/city so you can find where you live and the metal lines are roads that you can follow to where you want to go

We will be putting this map up on the station Minecraft server for a short time (starting tomorrow) to have a play with and if you like the map, we may keep it for later (or we could use the tool to make the world)

If you want to join us on the station Minecraft server, goto Multiplayer on the front screen of Minecraft and in the server address box, put www.sanitarium.fm and come and join us

Upgrading to the digital version of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs or Battlefield 4 on PS4? Then you’ll need to remember not to sell the PS3 version.

Sony has revealed that each of the above games on PS3 come with a single use code that can be entered on the PlayStation store for a discounted PS4 version, however for this digital PS4 edition to work the original PS3 disc must be in the drive.

Even though the PS3 versions do not actually work in the PS4, we’re guessing that Sony has implemented some code within the disc to allow this to work and therefore combat a huge amount of second hand games from flooding the market.

Check here for detailed instructions on how the upgrade from PS3 disc to PS4 digital will work. There is currently no mention of other titles being upgradable such as FIFA 14.

 
Originally posted by ShopTo.Net

Wow…  what a few days for ArenaNet…

First the staggered release of the Looking For Group system that should be released on Sept 17th, and now this…

 
Now surely the POINT of an official forum is to get feedback, yes there will be whitenoise of people upset/butthurt over something, but still…  Staggering…