Unless you’re some kind of prodigy who can solve one while juggling, making pancakes, and whistling Dixie, the Rubik’s cube is already difficult enough. So why on earth would someone go and add a numbered, spinning dial to each side? That’s just sadistic. More »
Julie Uhrman, the founder and CEO of Ouya, states that the gaming console will not support online multiplayer when it launches. She hopes that the the developers will be able to get the feature up and running by the end of the year. But fear not, local multiplayer will still be supported, so you’ll be able to play side-by-side with your friends (presumably up to 3 of them). Uhrman hopes to bring back the era of “back-couch” game play.
Ouya is the highly anticipated gaming console that runs on Android’s OS. The console is set to ship to its Kickstarter supporters on March 28th, and it’s goal is to take on its console gaming competitors, the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The system runs on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. You are able to increase its storage size by connecting an external USB stick or hard drive to USB port on the system.
Uhrman says that the $99 system is a major draw for gaming developers, because unlike the PlayStation or the Xbox, it won’t cost developers a fortune to release a game for it. There are currently 481 games being developed for the console, and the developers are able to monetize their games by adding in-app purchases, subscriptions, or freemium features, something that Uhrman says is very difficult to achieve with traditional consoles.
Online multiplayer is set to launch by the end of the year, and will include leaderboards and achievements. The addition of online multiplayer will help make MMORPG’s more successful on the Android operating system. Along with online multiplayer, Uhrman says that they’re in the process of hooking up video streaming services, like Hulu or Netflix, onto the system so that the console can double as a replacement TV box (similar to Roku).
[via Forbes]
Ouya online multiplayer to launch by end of the year is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Calling it an industry first, Rovio is launching a video distribution channel across all of the developer’s Angry Birds game titles on smartphones and tablets. Starting on March 17, gamers will be able to access the channel when it unlocks on that day. Angry Birds Toons will also be available from a handful of video-on-demand channel providers, as well as on select TV networks around the world.
In conjunction with today’s announcement of more Angry Birds Toons details, Rovio has announced that the Angry Birds series has racked up 1.7 billion downloads, which is absolutely unprecedented and it certainly made us do a double take. It’s not exactly said what counts as a download, but perhaps Rovio could be counting an update as a download in this case.
Because of the massive user base that Angry Birds has, bringing the Angry Birds Toons animated series directly to the game allows for “a far wider and more engaged global audience than traditional distribution would allow.” The show will consist of 52 episodes that will release on a weekly basis, and they will continue the saga about the battle between the Angry Birds and the green pigs.
Angry Birds Toons will also be available on Samsung Smart TVs, and on Comcast video platforms in the US. The show will make its way to Roku boxes and other devices eventually, but no timeline has been planned out just yet. And while the cartoon will be available on various devices starting on March 17, it will air on network television on March 16.
Angry Birds hits 1.7 billion downloads, “Toons” launching March 17 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Xi3 has just started taking pre-orders for its PISTON Console. The console is deeply integrated with Valve’s Steam and its Big Picture mode that allows gamers to play their favorite Steam games on the big screen using a gaming controller. Xi3′s PISTON Console is the first unoffical “Steam Box” to be announced, with Valve planning on working with more manufacturers to release their own version of the Steam Box in time for the holidays. While the PISTON Console isn’t the official Steam Box that Valve is planning on releasing in the future, Valve is still helping Xi3 finance the device.
The Xi3 PISTON console comes with a 3.2GHz AMD Quad Core A10 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. You can upgrade the SSD to 256GB for $340, or 512GB for $750. The price of the console at the standard configuration is $999.99, however if you pre-order the device anytime between now and the end of March 17th (when SXSW ends), you can get the PISTON for $100 off at 899.99. The console is expected to ship by the 2013 holiday season.
Xi3 is currently showing off its PISTON Console at the SXSW Gaming Expo where attendees can see a demonstration of the device in action. The PISTON console was designed to provide a medium between PC gaming and console gaming. It’s a small, compact system that looks like a console, but can be upgraded just like a gaming PC. The device received multiple rewards, including the Popular Mechanics Editors Choice award, Popular Science Product of the Future award, Men’s Health Coolest Tech at CES 2013 award, and many others.
While it is appealing to have a Steam Box that lets you play the entirety of your Steam library on an HDTV, Xi3′s price point can deter gamers from purchasing the console (even with the $100 discount). You can wait a little while to see the pricing of future “unofficial” Steam Boxes, or you can wait for Valve to shell out its official Steam Box. Whatever you decide on, you have plenty of time before the 2013 Holiday season rolls around before you make your decision.
[via Xi3]
Pre-order the Xi3 PISTON “Steam Box” now and get $100 off is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The creator of the hugely popular Ultima Franchise, Richard Garriott, is gearing up to launch a new online sequel to the game that is going to take the RPG world by storm. The game is called Shroud of the Avatar:Forsaken Virtues. In order to create his new sequel, Garriott has launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of accumulating $1 million in order to finance the project. Garriott hopes to launch the game by October 2014.
Shroud of the Avatar is supposed to focus more on the player and their choices rather than just boring, old level grinding. Portalarium Inc, the company that the game will be launching through, has stated that while games have become much more graphically beautiful since Ultima, they lack the immersive, fantasy-like feel that made the Ultima series so great. Shroud of the Avatar hopes to “reinvent the classic fantasy role-playing experience”.
The game has an emphasis on solo play and players developing their own, unique stories, but players are also given the option to adventure through their stories with friends and other gamers. The game won’t be an MMORPG, nor will it really be single-player. It’s described to be a mix between both, like a persistent online world similar to Bungee’s Destiny. Everything is in the player’s hands. They are able to choose how to play the game, whether they want to explore and discover new places, battle dangerous monsters, or stay within the safety of their homelands.
The game will be fully interactive. Portalarium says, “If it looks usable, it should do something”. It will also feature it’s own original story that is deep and complex, with interwoven stories, and there will even be an alternate, fully-developed language featured in the game. Players will have their own houses (which they will have to pay taxes on) that they can decorate and furnish. There isn’t just one cookie-cutter house layout, but several and all will be marked with varying price tags. Players will also be able to build their own businesses.
There are so many aspects to Shroud of the Avatar that make it sound like a promising RPG. Currently, the Kickstarter campaign has reached $557,600 in funding from 9,136 backers. There are still 28 days left, and it’s very likely that they will meet and beat their goal. There are varying levels of pledge backers, with each increasing level being more expensive (of course), but more beneficial. Go ahead and check out the Kickstarter page.
[via Portalarium]
Ultima creator launches Kickstarter for RPG sequel is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
You know things are really bad when Electronic Arts is actively suspending all of its marketing efforts on SimCity. The publisher has sent an email to its marketing affiliate partners asking them to “please stop actively promoting the game” until further notice. Specifically, EA’s Origin says they have “deactivated all SimCity text links and creative,” and they’re asking affiliates to remove all promotional material from their websites.
EA plans to resume their marketing and promotional efforts at some point, though, mentioning in the email that they will notify affiliates when they can start promoting the game again. However, EA says they will still “payout commissions on all SimCity sales that are referred,” which is certainly good news for affiliates still.
SimCity launched earlier this week, and it didn’t quite go as planned. Of course, no one can really plan for how a launch will go, but we’re sure Electronic Arts wasn’t expecting this much backlash and issues. It turns out demand of the new game was higher than expected, resulting in server crashes and downloading failures for gamers.
Amazon even ended up suspending digital orders of the game, while still allowing physical copies to be sold with an asterisk in hopes to temporarily cut down on the amount of gamers with access to the game and hopefully help out EA with the surge of those hankering to build their dream city. In the meantime, feel free to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign for Civitas, a cheaper DRM-free alternative to SimCity.
[via Polygon]
EA tells affiliates to “stop actively promoting” SimCity is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Angry Birds Trilogy for the PlayStation 3 Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS has received its second DLC pack titled “Fowl Tempered.” It features a whopping 135 new levels that are based on the game’s episodes Back to School, Bad Piggies, and Haunted Hogs. The DLC pack also features a new bird named Stella, who can trap enemies in pink bubbles and carry them away.
This is the second DLC pack for Angry Birds Trilogy, the first of which was the “Anger Management” DLC pack, which added 130 levels to the console game back in December. It also added new cutscenes and new orange bird that inflates. Angry Birds Trilogy was released in September for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo 3DS, with versions for the Wii and Wii U coming later this year.
The new DLC pack is available now for the Xbox 360 and PS3 at a price of 400 Microsoft Points or $4.99 on the PlayStation Network. No word on whether or not the DLC will come to the 3DS, but seeing as how Activsion only released “Anger Management” for PS3 when it initially launched, we doubt that 3DS users will get this second pack.
While the console version of the game is still a paid game, Rovio recently made the iOS version of Angry Birds free. You can download the game now on iOS and save yourself a dollar (or a few dollars if you’re getting the iPad version). Rovio also launched Angry Birds Space on Steam today for $3.99.
[via One of Swords]
Angry Birds Trilogy “Fowl Tempered” DLC out now with 135 new levels is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The SimCity launch earlier this week didn’t quite go as planned, as Electronic Arts experienced problems across the board, mostly due to servers crashing. Many gamers experienced download failures and weren’t able to play the game on launch day. Because of the outcry, a team of game developers is looking to make a SimCity clone, called Civitas, but they need your help to fund the project.
The developers are looking to create a DRM-free version of SimCity, with the ability to play the game completely while offline, something that SimCity doesn’t offer, and it’s the one feature that’s currently causing all of the problems. Plus, the game will only cost $15, at least if you back the project on Kickstarter right now.
Of course, the folks behind the project weren’t afraid to call out EA on their Kickstarter page, claiming that EA is “forcing the worst form of draconian DRM on its players.” Those are certainly some fightin’ words, but it seems the developers are confident that Civitas will be an excellent alternative to EA’s city-building offering.
Of course, the game will go into beta first for a few months, and you can join in on the beta fun by pledging $10 more on top of the $15 price of the game, which still isn’t a bad price at all, even if you didn’t get access to the beta. However, we’ll have to wait and see if the game can live up to its own expectations. So far, the project has raised almost $37,000 at the time of this writing, and they’re looking to raise $250,000 total, but there’s 24 days to go, so it can be easily achieved.
[via Kotaku]
Civitas is the DRM-free SimCity game you’ve always wanted is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Prepare for nostalgic fun, as the Age of Empires series is making a comeback this spring. Age of Empires II HD will be coming exclusively to Steam on April 9 for $19.99. The game will be based off of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, the Ensemble-developed and Microsoft-published real-time strategy game that released back in 1999.
While the game will officially release on April 9, those who pre-order the game will be able to start playing it on April 5, as well as receive a 10% discount when they pre-order. The game is being developed by Hidden Path Entertainment, the studio behind games like Defense Grid and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Ensemble Studios have shut their doors since the release of Age of Empires II.
Age of Empires II HD is a completely remastered version of the 1999 title with support for 1080p monitors, but it still includes all of the same features and gameplay elements from the original installment. Plus, the new game includes every single-player campaign from the original game, as well as the Conquerors expansion, making that a total of 18 campaigns.
Since the game will be available on Steam, Age of Empires II HD will include Steam achievements, leaderboards, and Steam Cloud support. Steam users can also play against each other in the game, and you can even share user-created content through the Steam Workshop. As for minimum spec requirements, the game will support Windows XP and up, 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a DirectX 9-capable graphics card. The game is just over a month out, so in the meantime, here’s a little something to get you prepared.
[via Gamespot]
Age Empires II HD coming to Steam on April 9 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Angry Birds Space has been out for awhile now, and while it’s been replaced by the more-recent Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Space still holds a special place in gamers’ hearts, especially since it was the first game in the franchise to incorporate more physics than just flinging birds from a sling shot. Now the game is available on Steam and it’s on sale for a limited time.
The game will be on sale for $3.99 (normally $4.99) until March 14 at 10 am PT. Of course, that’s not a huge discount, but it is 20% off, which isn’t too bad. The game has been previously available on PC via the Google Chrome web store, but this marks the first time that an Angry Birds game has made its way to Steam.
The Steam version also includes the same great features that you normally get with other Steam games, including Steam achievements, leaderboards and, Steam Cloud support, meaning that Steam will save your progress to the cloud, that way you can continue playing on a different computer if need be, a feature that should make any gamer happy.
Angry Birds Space reached 10 million downloads after just three days, and 50 million downloads within just over a month, which made it the hottest mobile game in history at the time. Eventually, the game hit 100 million downloads within 76 days of the game’s release. Of course, this isn’t too surprising, especially considering that the game was a collaboration with NASA.
Angry Birds Space now available on Steam is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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