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More early bean-spilling has occurred, this time on the part of EA and Bioware.
A leaked post, which has since been taken down revealed the details of the new expansion coming soon for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will be called Knights of the Fallen Empire. Details are still sparse but we now know that you’ll be able to create a Level 60 character instantly, recruit new and existing companions and be able to play through a new “continuous story” which will be release on a regular basis. Also it’ll be free to all subscribers and launch October 27th.
“A man can have anything… If he’s willing to sacrifice everything. Step into an epic story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinematic storytelling, that kicks off a new player-driven story arc that puts you at the center of a conflict where your choices have impact on outcomes including unexpected twists and betrayals. Choose your path…join or betray companions, old and new…and shape the future of the entire galaxy as well as your own. Best of all, this is only the beginning…”
E3 is waiting on the doorstep right now, so expect more details to emerge during EA’s spot in the press conferences.
I love live broadcasts. If there’s technical difficulties the audience gets a smile and if a mistake is made, there no editing out that mistake. So sometimes people will leave on a microphone and you hear people talking that you shouldn’t.
This is exactly what happened during a Bethesda Twitch stream, in which an open mic broadcast picked up a discussion about Bethesda’s upcoming E3 press conference. It was unfortunate though because at the time they happened to be discussing a game that they were going to announce at that press conference – Dishonored 2. Whoops. At least they took the leak in good stride…
Twitch test a success. Tune in tomorrow night at 6:45 pm PT for more surprises. #BE3
Heard on the mic is Raph Colantonio, president of Arkane Lyons who were working on a follow-up to the first Dishonored game. He discusses with others about the presentation of Harvey Smith who was co-director of that first game and the new game itself. The mic only cuts out after someone comes in to inform the speakers that they can be heard on the stream itself.
People were expecting news of a Dishonored 2 to emerge during E3 anyway, so to most people it wasn’t that big of a surprise to know that it was coming. It’s just amusing the way the news actually came into the public light.
Lesson learned people – turn your mics off before having secret conversations!
Youtube had said in the past year that they wanted to concentrate on promoting the gaming side of their big video network. A lot of us probably rolled their eyes at that because Youtube’s record of looking after gamers’ videos hasn’t always been… great. Although some of that is down to copyright laws being a bit outdated, but that’s something for an entirely different article.
However yesterday Youtube announced Youtube Gaming, a seemingly streaming-based platform with dedicated channels for specific games and a new, moderated chat system. Which if you’ve ever heard of Twitch will sound mighty familiar.
Youtube are hoping to gain a slice of the streaming pie with this, and it is nice to see a place just for gaming videos and streams so that viewers interested in them can find what they’re looking for a bit easier. Subscribing to channels on the service will allow you to receive notifications when the channel is about to go live. And of course, Twitch’s response to its announcement on Twitter was golden.
Oculus Rift has been in development for what feels like forever. Today, on Twitch, the company took the wraps off of the final version of the Rift VR device and shared a ton of new information with its “Step Into The Rift” event.
Firstly, Oculus showed off the actual headset. Covered in fabric, and purportedly light enough to hold with one hand, the final version looks much different than the development kits most of us are accustomed to seeing.
They also detailed the 360 degree audio system built into the Rift. They have also streamlined and refined the constellation tracking on the front of the unit, promising to have low latency tracking of subtle movements via one unobtrusive desktop sensor.The new Rift replaces the familiar fabric straps with what look to be hard plastic ones. The team claims that putting it on is as easy as slipping on a baseball cap, and that the new ergonomic features reduce the pressure on the front of the face. They have also worked to allow users to adjust the distance of the lenses so that you can center them between your eyes. And, in a move sure to please many, they have also altered the design to be more accomodating to those that wear glasses.
They then moved on to reveal that you can stream Xbox One games to the Rift, and that every Rift will include a wireless Xbox One controller and adapter. Xbox head Phil Spencer then came out on stage to tout the Rift’s integration with Windows 10.
Much of the rest of the conference was spent showing off short trailers of games coming to the Rift. In attendance were CCP with Eve Valkyrie, Gunfire Games with Chronos, and Insomniac Games with Edge Of Nowhere. More mention was also made of Damage Core, VR Sports Challenge, Esper, AirMechVR and Lucky’s Tale. it was an impressive looking lineup, and more was promised to be revealed at E3.
Anna Sweet, head of developer strategy also came out to discuss some of Oculus’ strategy moving forward. She repeatedly affirmed that Oculus is committed to building the best platform for games. To that end, Oculus will be investing $10 million to “accelerate independent game development” on the Rift.
Another focus of the event was the announcement that the Rift will work right out of the box with Windows, Nvidia, AMD, Unity5 and Unreal Engine 4. All of this is a push on Oculus’ part to have the Rift be as user and developer friendly as possible, and it seems to be paying off as some of the biggest names in PC gaming are already firmly on board.
The final bit of time for the show was spent showing off the alternate control method for the Oculus, deemed Oculus Touch.
These controllers are meant to be held in the hand and allow the user to interact with the virtual game world in a more realistic manner. The can track hand motions through sensors inside the rings. An example given was being able to point, wave, give a thumbs up, and even pick up a gun off a table and fire it with a natural motion. The Rift team refers to this as “low mental load”, meaning that they want using your hands in game to be as natural as using them in real life.
All in all, it was a very interesting presentation, although I’m left with many questions. of course, Oculus will be at E3 nest week, so they might get answered then.
What do you think? Are you excited? Or still skeptical? Let me know!
Toy Soldiers has always been a blast to play. A mix of tower defense and third person shooter, taking place in a kid’s playset and fought by plastic toys and model vehicles? I’m sold. Last year, Signal Studios gave us a look at the newest installment in the series, War Chest. It featured Unicorns and fairies fighting it out against the Kaiser and his German army. This was already pretty cool. But then, today, Ubisoft casually informed everyone that He-Man and GI Joe will also be featured as playable armies. On top of that, they announced that there are two more armies left to reveal.
Naturally I’m excited. In fact, just watch the trailer while I try to cram 5 year old Digmbot back into his mental closet.
Are you excited for Toy Soldiers: War Chest after this announcement? Let us know in the forums!
