General Gaming Article

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• GDC 2015: Getting to Know the Realm Resistance Training Controller [VIDEO]
• GDC 2015: Oxide Games and Stardock Discuss Mantle, DirectX 12, and Vulkan [VIDEO]
• GDC 2015: An Epic Discussion on Unreal Engine and VR Technology [VIDEO]
• GDC 2015: Meeting Up with Crytek (and a T-Rex) [VIDEO]
• Newegg Daily Deals: Acer B286HK 28-Inch 4K Monitor, MSI GS60 Ghost-470 Gaming Laptop, and More!

GDC 2015: Getting to Know the Realm Resistance Training Controller [VIDEO] Posted: 06 Mar 2015 10:03 AM PST Adding physicality to gaming One of the things that motion controllers have helped popularize is the fitness gaming category. We've seen it on consoles and the PC alike, and it's a trend that isn't going away. Just the opposite, there are new products coming out to make gaming even more physical. While at GDC, we stopped by to check one of them out -- the Realm resistance training controller, which is intended to make you forget you're getting a workout. Whether it's slashing zombies with a knife or boxing an opponent, the greater the force you put into your swings, the harder you'll hit your virtual opponent. According to Realm, the fitness benefit is simply a byproduct of playing whatever particular title has you working up a sweat. The controller consists of a strap that goes around your waist. Hand grips attach to both sides. Inside the hand grips are a bunch of sensors that communicate with a camera, be it a Kinect or a webcam, to measure how much force is being used when you flail about. It's also a wireless control scheme that communicates with a USB dongle. Check it out below, and if you like what you see, you can back the project on Kickstarter.

GDC 2015: Oxide Games and Stardock Discuss Mantle, DirectX 12, and Vulkan [VIDEO] Posted: 06 Mar 2015 09:40 AM PST Take a peek at the first game using Oxide's Nitrous engine The future of AMD's Mantle is up in the air since AMD recently told developers to focus on DirectX 12 instead. However, it doesn't appear as though AMD is ready to completely dismantle its API, which will have a future in Vulkan, the next version of the OpenGL API. You may recall that Oxide Games was a big proponent of Mantle -- check out our interview from a year ago. How does Oxide feel today? To find out, we headed to Oxide's booth at GDC and talked about a number of things. The first thing Oxide showed us was a forthcoming game called Ashes of the Singularity. It's a massively large RTS game developed with Stardock and the first to use Oxide's Nitrous engine, which the company claims can render 10,000 individual units at the same time. The goal with Ashes of the Singularity (other than to make money, of course) is to bring "an unprecedented scale" to the RTS category. Oxide tells us the Nitrous engine has been ported to DX12. The company is also working with Vulkan to make sure it emerges as a top class API. Unfortunately, Oxide wasn't willing to divulge much about Vulkan at this early stage. One thing gamers with high-end rigs will be happy to know is that Oxide developed Ashes of the Singularity to take advantage of top-shelf hardware, if you have it. The beefier your rig, the more settings you can crank up. On the flipside, owners of lower end hardware can dial things down for a playable experience. Early Access will be available this summer, and if all goes well, the game will release this winter. Here's more.

GDC 2015: An Epic Discussion on Unreal Engine and VR Technology [VIDEO] Posted: 06 Mar 2015 09:12 AM PST An Epic perspective on VR Epic Games earlier this week announced that it was dropping its subscription fee to license Unreal Engine 4. Now instead of paying $19 per month on top of any applicable royalties, developers can dive in and get access to UE4's complete C++ source code hosted on GitHub. They can even make a little bit of pocket change without sharing the wealth -- up to $3,000. After that, a 5 percent royalty per quarter applies. Not a bad deal, and we caught up with Epic at GDC to talk about this and more. General Manager Ray Davis was manning Epic's booth. He explained that the subscription removal and 5 percent royalty above $3,000 is designed to remove any barriers that developers might have from using UE4. Not all projects are going to be hits, and so Epic set up a model where it succeeds when and only if developers succeed. "These days there's a wide diversity of developers and the types of products we're going for and so we want to make sure that there's no friction for people to get started, to pick up the tools and start actually building whatever their idea may be," Davis explained. Davis also touched on UE4 supporting multiple VR technologies, including the new Steam VR hardware, Oculus Rift, and others. With so many hardware options, we asked if he was concerned about a standards war. For right now the answer is no, as Davis noted that until there's a clear de facto standard, they're all helping to push VR forward. Here's more: We also have some footage of Epic's Crescent Bay Unreal Engine demo. Here it is:

GDC 2015: Meeting Up with Crytek (and a T-Rex) [VIDEO] Posted: 06 Mar 2015 06:17 AM PST Going face to face with a T-Rex What is it like to experience VR's latest prototype called "Crescent Bay?" How does it feel to have a T-Rex breathe down your neck as you stand in a pile of her unhatched eggs? Does the T-Rex really have a walnut-sized brain? Awesome, scary, and watch Land of the Lost. Those are our quick answers if you're in a rush. For everyone else, let us elaborate a bit about what we saw at GDC. We stopped by Crytek's booth to check out its T-Rex demo, which is a modernized version of Dinosaur Island, a 14-year-old demo that was originally designed to show what Crytek could do with graphics. Crytek overhauled the graphics and cleaned it up for a VR demonstration using CryEngine. The response was so overwhelming positive that Crytek extended the demo to three and a half minutes for GDC, while collaborating with Oculus VR. Here's a look at the demo in action: So, why doesn't the T-Rex go postal in the above demo and swallow us whole? The demo is actually in the perspective of a baby dinosaur that just hatched. You're surrounded by unhatched siblings when all of a sudden the mother T-Rex comes charging over to investigate. We spoke with Crytek's director of production, David Bowman, who told us that the responses from the T-Rex demo have been mixed. Some people have yelled when the dinosaur comes running up to them, others have tried to play it cool before flinching, and yet others have tried to crouch down and hide behind an egg. All of these are natural responses to what's ultimately a realistic VR experience. Bowman wasn't allowed to talk about Crescent Bay's hardware, but one thing he noted, and that we experienced, is the lack of nausea. Of course, this is a standing a demo without a lot of motion, but previous to Crescent Bay, a user might feel nauseous by swinging his or her head from side to side. Here's more of what Bowman had to say:

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MMORPG News

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• General: GDC 2015 - Kabam's Spirit Lords
• Landmark: What's Coming Soon, the Short Road Ahead
• Crowfall: Todd Coleman on Being Funded
• Skyforge: Live Stream Event to Feature Berserker Class
• General: Nexon to Release Five MMOs This Year
• Vainglory: Closed Beta Begins
• Star Trek Online: Spock Memorial is Breathtaking
• Crowfall: $1M Raised, Mounts & Caravans Stretch Goal Added
• Bionic Marine Command Online: Greenlight Achieved
• General: Eisenhorn: Xenos GDC 2015 Preview
• Valiance Online: Superheroes Wanted!
• General: 8th Annual G.I.R.L. Scholarship Submissions Open
• Elsword: Deal with PWE Brings Game to Arc Platform
• Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Big News for the Eldar
• Camelot Unchained: Mark Jacobs on the Alpha Delay and Progress
• Sword Coast Legends: GDC 2015 Preview - We Are Excited

General: GDC 2015 - Kabam's Spirit Lords Posted: 05 Mar 2015 03:47 PM PST At this week's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, freemium publisher Kabam showed its latest project, a soon-to-be-released fantasy action-RPG called Spirit Lords. Afew hours playing the Spirit Lords beta revealed that it's a vivid and humorous dungeon crawler that successfully combines traditional role-playing mechanics with the quick-play sensibilities of mobile games.

Landmark: What's Coming Soon, the Short Road Ahead Posted: 06 Mar 2015 06:18 AM PST The Landmark forum has been updated with a look at what players can expect in the very near future as development continues on the game.

Crowfall: Todd Coleman on Being Funded Posted: 04 Mar 2015 05:43 PM PST After passing their initial funding goal, Crowfall's Todd Coleman chats with Red Thomas about what being funded means for the team as they moving and how they plan for what comes next.

Skyforge: Live Stream Event to Feature Berserker Class Posted: 06 Mar 2015 05:30 AM PST The Skyforge team will be on hand today in a live stream event to show off the Berserker class and the Thais Temple. The Twitch broadcast is expected to kick off at 11:30 am Pacific / 2:30 pm Eastern in the Skyforge channel.

General: Nexon to Release Five MMOs This Year Posted: 06 Mar 2015 02:41 AM PST According to the recent financial statement by Nexon, five MMOs will launch in Korea in 2015. This is fantastic news for Korean players, with the hope that the games will move Westward not long after.

Vainglory: Closed Beta Begins Posted: 06 Mar 2015 02:33 AM PST Super Evil Megacorp has announced the commencement of the closed beta for its mobile-specific MOBA, Vainglory. Those interested in participating can head to the official site and sign on for testing.

Star Trek Online: Spock Memorial is Breathtaking Posted: 06 Mar 2015 02:26 AM PST To honor Leonard Nimoy who immortalized Spock in Star Trek lore and who passed away last week, Cryptic Studios has placed an in-game memorial to honor his contribution to the Star Trek IP and to the game itself. The monument is gorgeous, a true testament to design. We will simply leave its image to speak for itself.

Crowfall: $1M Raised, Mounts & Caravans Stretch Goal Added Posted: 05 Mar 2015 02:52 PM PST As the Crowfall KickStarter soared over the $1M mark after just a week, Artcraft announced that the $1.3M stretch goal will be the addition of mounts and caravans to the game.

Bionic Marine Command Online: Greenlight Achieved Posted: 05 Mar 2015 02:49 PM PST The B.M.C.O. team has let us know that the project has been Greenlit on Steam after just over a month. Steam gave the go ahead to the ambitious title despite it being in its very early alpha phase of development. Congratulations to the team.

General: Eisenhorn: Xenos GDC 2015 Preview Posted: 04 Mar 2015 11:20 AM PST What does the inside of a Warhammer 40K hotel look like? That's the kind of question that the folks at Pixel Hero Games are asking in the development of their new 3D action adventure game, Eisenhorn: Xenos. Eisenhorn follows the adventures of the titular character from the 40K trilogy by Dan Abnett, and explores a side of Games Workshop's universe that has heretofore taken a backseat to more popular aspects like Space Marines: that of the Imperium.

Valiance Online: Superheroes Wanted! Posted: 05 Mar 2015 11:49 AM PST Our friends at Valiance Online have reached out to us to reach out to YOU about job openings on the project. See where you fit in.

General: 8th Annual G.I.R.L. Scholarship Submissions Open Posted: 05 Mar 2015 10:26 AM PST Daybreak Games Studio has announced that submissions are now being accepted for the 8th annual G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) Game Design Competition. This year, two scholarships will be awarded, one for Art & Design and the other for Programming & Engineering. Each recipient will receive $5,000 that can be applied to offset course work or other educational expenses at the winner's college or university.

Elsword: Deal with PWE Brings Game to Arc Platform Posted: 05 Mar 2015 10:05 AM PST KOG Games and Perfect World Entertainment have entered into a deal to bring Elsword to the Arc platform. Elsword is already available on Arc and the team will be on hand later today to conduct a live stream event to celebrate the occasion.

Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Big News for the Eldar Posted: 04 Mar 2015 11:14 AM PST Well met, fellow Crusaders, the time has come, once again, for us to talk about Eternal Crusade, the upcoming MMO/Shooter hybrid being developed by Behaviour Studios, in Montreal. If you recall, our last article, bemoaning the lack of communication between the devs and the community, was published on the same day as Nathan Richardsson's "State of the Crusade" post.

Camelot Unchained: Mark Jacobs on the Alpha Delay and Progress Posted: 04 Mar 2015 11:00 AM PST Now that the Camelot Unchained alpha is underway, we had the chance to ask Mark Jacobs a few questions about the process leading up to alpha and about the game's progress.

Sword Coast Legends: GDC 2015 Preview - We Are Excited Posted: 04 Mar 2015 11:25 AM PST Call it Baldur's Gate nostalgia, call it Planescape: Torment elitism, but I'm a sucker for 3D isometric, party-based RPGs, and doubly so for games based in Dungeons and Dragons-inspired campaign settings. Enter Sword Coast Legends, a new Forgotten Realms-based RPG from n-Space and Digital Extremes that is being touted as an evolution of games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and draws its inspiration from 5th Edition D&D.

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