Syfy Picks up Primeval Spinoff

Syfy has just acquired Primeval: New World, the next generation of Primeval, from Entertainment One. The network will air 13 episodes in total.

New World will star Niall Matter (Eureka), Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries) and Danny Rahim (Young James Herriot) as a team of animal experts and scientists investigating paranormal events, while battling both prehistoric and futuristic creatures. Sanctuary's Amanda Tapping is set to direct several of the episodes.

"This fast-paced entertaining and smart series will delight fans of the original program as well as introduce new viewers to this fascinating world," said Chris Regina, Syfy's senior vice president of programming.

Primeval: New World joins the network's slate of other original shows, which include Lost Girl, Merlin and the upcoming Sinbad. The series is scheduled to air in 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Last Days of Wii: Hits and Misses

Now that the Wii’s life cycle is coming to an end - and the next generation of Nintendo home consoles is right around the corner - we’ve been taking some time to recall the long and colorful journey of Nintendo’s little, white system. Join us as we celebrate the Wii’s last few months by continuing to look back at all the things that helped define how gamers, and the world at large, will come to remember the Wii generation.

Today we’re taking a look at a few of the Wii’s greatest success stories, and also at some of its biggest letdowns…

First Party Games

While many people associate the name “Wii” with massive amounts of shovelware, the truth is the system actually has some incredible software to its name - especially from the Big N itself. Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were both exceptional 3D platformers, bringing the Mario 64 magic into space and adding some impressive gravity-based physics to the mix. Other great Wii titles we got out of the Mushroom Kingdom include New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Super Paper Mario, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and Wario Land: Shake It! Not too shabby, considering this is just one of Nintendo’s beloved properties.

On the Hyrule side of things, the system launched with the Wii version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which was originally developed for GameCube. While that game was amazing, more impressive was the Hylian adventure that was built from the ground-up for the system. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword proved a sweeping and epic addition to the franchise, one that ranks among the best of the best in the land of Hyrule. With a touching story, expert execution of motion controls, and gorgeous, painterly graphics, Skyward Sword represented the realization of everything the Wii was capable of - and a beautiful realization it was.

Nintendo’s first party offering didn’t stop at their flagship franchises, either. We also got Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Metroid Prime 3 (as well as Metroid Prime Trilogy, which added motion controls to the first two titles), Donkey Kong Country Returns, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Punch-Out!!, and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land. Altogether it’s a pretty impressive library, especially for a system that often gets too little credit in that regard.

The Wii Revolution

To most gamers, the Wii brutally failed to live up to the rocking code name we were initially teased with. But in hindsight, the system really was nothing short of a “Revolution” - just maybe not in the way we were expecting. Wii helped expand the medium from a niche hobby to a worldwide phenomenon, shattering traditional expectations of gamer demographics and bridging the generations like no gaming system had ever done before.

Grandparents, parents, kids, adults - everyone you can imagine showed up for the Wii party, from hardcore gamers to people who had never touched a D-pad in their lives. They all invested in Nintendo’s tiny box, if only to have a few rounds of golf in Wii Sports or watch their weight with Wii Fit. Wii helped people who had never played video games transition from these casual focused experiences to more gamer-oriented titles like New Super Mario Bros. Wii. While most gamers begrudge the Wii’s more casual reputation, you can’t take away from Nintendo that it’s truly impressive what the Wii accomplished, and how important its success has proven to the industry as a whole.

Virtual Console

Most of us take the Virtual Console for granted - but that doesn’t take away from how incredible it really is. A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, the original Final Fantasy, Mega Man 2, Super Mario 64 - all these titles and many more can now be played without digging through the attic for your old collection or tracking down a used copy online or in a vintage game store.

The Virtual Console - giving some of gaming's best another chance to shine.

Allowing Wii owners access to a couple decades worth of games was not only great for longtime fans of those classics, it also allowed newer generations of gamers to experience some of the best games of all time for the very first time. For those who were born long after the NES, SNES, and N64 days, this was a huge service. Keeping the legacy of these gaming gems alive is easily one of the greatest contributions of the Wii generation.

Interface

Say what you will about motion controls, but you can’t knock the Wii’s slick interface and motion-based menus. Everything was so streamlined and easy-to-navigate, and using the Wii remote to flip through the different pages was great. The addition of Miis also brought a whole new level of personalization to Nintendo’s systems, one that has now become something of a staple.

The best part of Wii’s interface, however, was how straightforward it was. There were no ads trying to sell you something, no notifications popping up in your face around every corner. As with all Nintendo systems, the experience was more about the games than anything else. The moment you turned the system on, all of your content was right there in front of you, you only had to flip through the pages to locate which game from Nintendo’s past or present you wanted to sample. The company seems to be continuing this tradition of a slick, easy-to-navigate menu system with its latest handheld, the 3DS - with customizable rows and columns and the minimally invasive approach of its online features. It’s a format that is important to the success of modern day Nintendo, and it all started with the Wii.

Third Part Support

One of the biggest (and most justified) complaints against the Wii generation was its relative lack of third party support. Not to say there weren’t any, mind you - Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story were two incredible RPGs that just recently made their way from Japan to North America. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Red Steel 2, Okami, Little King’s Story and more round out the third party roster. When the third party games came, they were great…

But they didn’t come - at least not with the frequency impassioned gamers would hope for. Sadly, the Wii saw far too few Xenoblades and TvC’s in its time. Worst of all was that when they did arrive, they rarely sold well - only further sending the message to third party developers that the Wii was not a profitable system to develop for. Perhaps the system’s market penetration rate was better than you could hope for, and perhaps the company’s first party software set record sales, but the truth is third party games just never really found much of a home on the system.

Shovelware

It’s hard walking down the Wii aisle only to drown in the stinking cesspool of shovelware you’ll find there. Even if you stick to the numerous and amazing titles mentioned earlier, the fact remains that the Wii is widely known amongst the jaded masses for its shocking amount of shovelware…  and it's hard to blame them. For every Mario Galaxy it seemed there were a hundred cheap mini-game collections. For every Skyward Sword, there was inevitably a Super Fashion Babies 3: Babies in the City. Throw in the long droughts Wii owners frequently experienced - where we’d go months or even years without a substantial new release - and you have the red-handed culprit behind the Wii’s tarnished legacy.

This is actual box art for an actual Wii game. SIGH.

Considering all the things mentioned earlier - all the great games and cool innovations the system brought and its impact on the industry - it’s a shame so much shovelware brought the experience down. To be fair, no system is without these cheap, throwaway titles. But games like this were just so prevalent and hard to escape when it came to Wii that it seriously distracted from the system’s truly excellent software lineup.

Missed opportunities

The hardest things to swallow now that the Wii’s days are coming to an end are not the things the system flubbed, but rather the things it didn’t do at all - all those missed gaming opportunities we’ll now likely never see realized. The fact that there was never a truly amazing light saber game using the Wii’s motion controls was a huge shame. As was the fact that we never saw the system realize its potential as a perfect home for real time strategy games - using the controller to maneuver units and plan attacks would have been incredible. And again, it’s surprising that so many genre mainstays like the RPG were so scarce, especially considering the rich legacy of Nintendo’s other systems (just think of how many examples you could name for the SNES or DS alone).

The system’s tech was also severely underused. First party games like Skyward Sword showed how the Wii Remote and Motion Plus technology could be used to simulate wielding a sword with amazing precision, but few third party developers ever took the time to figure things like that out. Even first party titles often resorted to the dreaded waggle mechanic, having players simply shake the remote rather than actually using it to interact with the game world. When the Wii tech was used, and used correctly, it could result in an incredible and immersive experience. It’s a real shame much of the Wii’s catalogue didn’t achieve this.

Online

We’re not going to get into the Wii’s lack of online profiles or things of a similar nature - that’s another discussion for another day. And, in truth, Nintendo has always walked its own path, and it’s unlikely the company will ever try to shoehorn itself into the online/multiplayer-focused communities dominated by services like PSN and XBLA. But even that aside, there were a few things Wii’s online presentation simply never got right, and we’re still scratching our heads trying to figure out why.

Friend Codes, for instance. We understand that Nintendo, with its kid-friendly tendencies and focus on privacy, wanted to control how people connected online. It wanted to avoid, as much as possible, having a situation where an 8-year-old kid is crying because some 40-year-old stranger is using inappropriate and disgusting language toward them as they’re trying to have race in Mario Kart Wii. But there had to have been a better way. Friend Codes were just a pain in the butt, and made it really hard to want to coordinate online time with friends and family.

The system’s online store also left much to be desired. As mentioned earlier, the Virtual Console was a dream come true, and even WiiWare offered some great games in its time. But the store was riddled with problems and unintuitive to navigate - and, in truth, amazing WiiWare games were few and far between. While we respect Nintendo’s decision to blaze its own path in terms of online connectivity and e-commerce, it’s still fair to expect quality in terms of online presentation, and this is something the Wii simply never delivered on.

All things said and done, all pros and cons considered, the Wii still earns its place among Nintendo's beloved line of home consoles. It had some amazing highs, but also some embarrassing lows. These are just a few of the ones that come to mind, but did we miss any? Sound off in the comments below and share your favorite Wii features and memories, as well as the ones that still get you angry to this day.

Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her wild adventures on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!

Source : ign[dot]com

L.A. Noire Dev's New Game Whore of the Orient is Next-Gen

L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi, reborn after a timely buyout, has announced that its next game – Whore of the Orient – is being developed for the next-generation of home consoles and PC.

The developer's website has now gone live, revealing some new details about the game. The site contains a single image depicting a scene from a Chinese apartment and a man sweeping up in the background. And it's clear from the mood-setting snippet of prose posted on the site that the city of Shanghai will play a strong role in the game. The text reads:

"Shanghai, 1936. Whore of the Orient. Paris of the East. The most corrupt and decadent city on the planet, where anything can be had or done for the right price. Plaything of Western powers who greedily exploit the Chinese masses. Boiling pot of Chinese nationalism, with the Kuomintang ruthlessly trying to suppress Communism and the labour movement. Home to the International Police Force, a group of Western cops hopelessly trying to keep the lid on and keep the peace."

Brendan McNamara, writer and director of The Getaway and L.A. Noire, previously said that the team's next game will be "one of the great untold stories of the 20th Century."

Team Bondi is actively recruiting for the project which will be published by Warner Bros, with the site advertising several roles in the programming, animation, art, and design departments.

Team Bondi went into liquidation late last year, with many of the company's assets and staff being acquired by Academy award winning production team of Kennedy Miller Mitchell, responsible for the Mad Max and Happy Feet films.

Daniel Krupa is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Why Games That Make YOU a Developer Are a Crucial Part of the Future

The level of connectivity we’ve reached this generation has brought with it a lot of undesirable side-effects. Day one patches. On-disc content sold back to us as downloadable content. Multiplayer that empowers and unleashes the biggest jerks mankind has to offer.

But it’s not without its benefits, and the rise and rise of user-generated content is one of them. More and more games are beginning to embrace the power of user-generated content, or UGC.

LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule recently announced that a staggering seven million levels had been created by users for the series. LittleBigPlanet players have made the game exponentially larger than any one studio could ever attempt to make, or any one gamer could ever hope to play. The Forza franchise has built on entire online in-game economy on the buying and selling of car designs players create themselves. Forza owners can choose from thousands upon thousands of custom and replica liveries that have been crafted by other fans with no input from developer Turn 10 whatsoever.

If you can think of a famous race car, somebody has probably already recreated it in Forza 4.

However, while UGC that’s basically indistinguishable from similar studio-created content may look like an attractive way to have users help offset the soaring costs of AAA development, there’s far more to it than that.

“It’s definitely a nice add-on to the main game, but it’s also one that has to be thought out carefully right from the start of the game,” says Antti Ilvessuo, creative director at RedLynx and lead designer of Trials Evolution. “It’s no silver bullet that you can just throw in there and think, ‘Hey this will make our game popular.’”

“

It’s no silver bullet that you can just throw in there and think, ‘Hey this will make our game popular.’

“Games and how we play them are changing really rapidly nowadays, so how you define user generated content changes also. Letting users create stuff for a game is definitely a big part of the future of games. I think a big part of that will be creating content creation in way that users don’t notice that what they are doing is creating a lot of the game’s content.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Bigpoint’s Rune Vendler, game director on the browser-based free-to-play Gameglobe – a game built entirely around the concept of UGC.

“I don't really think of user-generated content as a shortcut to cheap labour, almost the opposite,” says Vendler. “With Gameglobe, the goal was to design a platform where being creative did not feel like hard work, but an entertaining activity in itself.”

“Putting user-generated content into a product massively changes it. Once it went live, it was obvious that we, the developers, were no longer the sole owners of Gameglobe; it's as if the game itself is now owned just as much by the community, and they get to decide a great deal about how the game evolves. For a lot of AAA games, you can't or won't share that kind of control with the users.”

John Drake, Director of Communications & Brand Management at Harmonix Music Systems, looks at UGC success stories as falling into two groups; games that let users share and/or sell created content (like the Rock Band Network) and games that drive users to create as a fundamental part of the experience. Drake cites games like Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet, and Sound Shapes as great examples of the latter.

“Both approaches have big wins and inherent limitations,” says Drake.

“

If you can give players agency to not only engage in a world but actively create within that world, your universe will be infinitely richer.

“I hope we see companies continue to evolve and embrace user-driven content as a strategy. When it's done right, ‘formal UGC’ – as opposed to general modding done outside the structure of a game – embraces the fact that games are inherently an interactive expression. If you can give players agency to not only engage in a world but actively create within that world, your universe will be infinitely richer.

“Though UGC certainly isn't a perfect fit for every title, I think it's a gamble we'll see more games willing to take as the medium evolves. The value UGC adds to a game goes beyond simple monetisation of a mechanic.

“UGC empowers the player, enriches a community, and makes a game come to life with the passion of its fans. I don't think gamers should pin all of our hopes on it, especially since designing these systems can be as time-consuming and expensive as building more assets in studio, but I think it's an exciting area to be optimistic about.”

As John Drake pointed out to us, RBN is most certainly NOT 'Baby's First Rock Band Authoring Toy'.

So why is it that more studios haven’t quite embraced this model of conscripting fans to create canyons full of content as well as others?  Are there risks in letting users make and share their own content?

“Allowing for user-generated content is limited by your game’s style,” says RedLynx’s Antti Ilvessuo. “For example, a game that is story driven would need new content that somehow fits into the rest of the game. Then there are issues about game balance, and you have to have a way to monitor and check content for stuff that is offensive. So the game style also has to be the right fit for user-generated content.”

“But still, content creation can be made possible in numerous ways. It’s just not an easy thing to do.”

Bigpoint’s Rune Vendler agrees that the process is not a simple one.

“I don't want to speculate about other studios' development plans, but I don't believe you can conscript anyone to create content,” he says. “Users have to want to make it, and have fun doing so.”

“

Users have to want to make it, and have fun doing so.

“Creating a game that supports user-generated content well is not trivial. The creative tools in Gameglobe have taken a long time to develop, and are of a completely different quality than what we're used to internally. The infrastructure needed to host and serve the content is substantial, and the technology to drive it all is complex.

"Once we got Gameglobe working, however, it was an amazing experience. We're giving people the freedom to create games and express themselves in a way many didn't think possible. Of course, they can misbehave, but with Gameglobe we've found that almost everyone reacts very positively to being handed this freedom.”

Harmonix’s John Drake also gives us a similar response.

“There are practical realities that keep UGC from being baked into every game,” he says. “Building tools that are accessible to the average player is a massive design challenge, supporting UGC systems for an evolving audience in perpetuity is expensive, curating the excellent from the average can be a struggle, and it's a big gamble that your audience will show up and be excited to create.

Drake points out that crafting a system that truly compels users to create “can't just be about ‘conscripting fans’ and crowdsourcing content.”

“For UGC to really take off, a developer needs to understand what fans love about the game in question, where they'd want to take it if they could, and how to build a pipeline to connect those desires in an accessible and decipherable way.”

“Oh, and then they need to build all those tools and ensure it doesn't absolutely break the core product that it's meant to extend,” adds Drake. “I'm thrilled, for example, that Rock Band Network tracks will work in Rock Band Blitz when it launches this August , but it meant testing for weird edge cases like, ‘What if the song only has drums and guitar?’; cases created by the breadth of content in RBN.”

The payoff for UGC done right, however, can be hugely satisfying.

“It's incredible to see what people have done in the Rock Band Network,” says Drake. “This was a professional suite of tools and standards and, to make it into Rock Band, we expected folks to rise to that level.”

“We had some reservations about whether people would want to invest that amount of time and energy, but all our concerns were silenced when we launched. The enthusiasm was palpable, and the community really self-enforced a quality bar beyond expectations.”

At this point there are over 1,800 tracks available on the RBN, available to Rock Band fans around the world.

“We've had big bands add extra tracks via this system and burgeoning acts find a really passionate audience of rhythm gamers,” says Drake. “It launched us way beyond where we expected, expanding the volume of content we could have ever created for the Rock Band audience at Harmonix.”

“The team who built the Rock Band Network are fans ourselves, so it's infinitely satisfying to see a community form around these creative tools. Harmonix built the system, but the network is really driven and owned by the community of Rock Band authors, and they're doing amazing things.”

It’s tracks of a different sort being built by fans in Trials Evolution, but the RedLynx team are no less amazed at what their biggest fans can put together.

“We as developers are always really surprised at some of the amazing things that our users have created,” says Ilvessuo. “It’s really humbling to see stuff that you never thought possible when making game made by users. It is definitely very satisfying too, to be sure.”

Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about games, cars and how Rock Band is a great way to give a four-year-old great taste in music here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

Source : ign[dot]com

Report: Thief 4 Will Be On Next Gen Consoles

Thief 4 will allegedly miss out on the current generation of consoles, and will instead launch late next year on Xbox 720 and PS4.

In the latest issue of OXM (via CVG), reports in the gossip section of the mag suggest that the long awaited sequel will be released to coincide with the launch of Microsoft's new console.

We haven't heard much about the title since it was first announced way back in May 2009, when the game's official site also launched. No new info has appeared on the site since then, but in January this year it was revealed that developer Eidos Montreal was recruiting for a next gen action adventure game with a focus on "stealth". While many assumed this referred to the surely-inevitable next entry in the Deus Ex series, it seems possible that it may in fact have referred to Thief 4.

At this stage the report appears to be nothing more than speculation, though CVG has claimed to have heard similar rumblings from unverified sources. We've reached out to Square Enix for comment, and will update the story as we know more.

The last entry in the Thief franchise, Thief:Deadly Shadows released in 2004 to good reviews.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sick of Sequels? Don't Lose Hope

In the crescendo to Christmas there’s a lot of talk about just how rife with sequels 2012 is. Established properties and firmly-entrenched franchises are ruling the remainder of this generation. The landscape for the rest of this year and beyond is dominated from every angle by sequels, sequels of sequels and even prequels.

This is not a phenomenon unique to video games. Most of the year’s most eagerly anticipated movies are sequels (or prequels). Look at The Avengers, Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises, or the upcoming Expendables 2, The Bourne Legacy, Taken 2, Skyfall or whatever Twilight book adaptation they’re up to by now.

"Yes, I love my men pale and corpse-like," said no-one, ever.

The problem that gamers who crave fresh, new experiences face is their peers who fundamentally do not. Unfortunately for those of you who want something new, the public just wants sequels.

Results from a survey conducted in the US by media research group Nielsen paint a pretty grim picture for both developers crafting brand new non-sequels and the gamers who want them. For PS3, all of 2012's most anticipated games were sequels. The top 15, from top to bottom, were Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Madden NFL 13, Assassin’s Creed III, Resident Evil 6, NCAA Football 13, Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13, Darksiders II, NHL 13, FIFA 13, Far Cry 3, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Hitman: Absolution, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and WWE ’13. It was a pretty similar story for Xbox 360, with Halo 4 slipping in at number one and Fable: The Journey also making an appearance alongside Medal of Honor: Warfighter and NHL 13. Not a single new property made the cut. Not a one.

In fact, the only brand new games in the Nielsen data were two Wii games: The Last Story, and Everyone Sing. Every single other title was either a sequel or a licensed property. Nielsen surveyed more than 4,800 players between the ages of 7 and 54 years old.

Speaking with Eurogamer two weeks ago Viktor Antonov, visual design director on Dishonored, lamented dominance of sequels in the industry.

“There have been too many sequels, and too many established IPs that have been ruling the market. And a lot of them are war games. And they're great projects and great entertainment, but there's a lack of variety today,” he told Eurogamer.

And where’s Dishonored, easily one of the most exciting titles of 2012, on Nielsen’s list of eagerly-anticipated games?

Where indeed?

Speaking with MCV a few days ago Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford expressed a desire to see more new potential franchises released – despite the age of the current consoles – saying the original Borderlands is proof that a new franchise can launch at any time.

“Part of the reason there are lots of sequels is because that’s what people are investing in,” he told MCV. “I’ve never understood that.

“We launched the first Brothers in Arms in March 2005 and we sold 3.2m units. Xbox 360 launched in November 2005 so that’s about as end of the lifecycle as you can get. And you know what else launched in Q1 of 2005? God of War. You can create IP at any time. You just have to make something that people want.

“Some companies look at the market leaders and try to beat them at their own game. That’s a fine strategy if you’re capable of it. But it’s like going to the ice cream store. Everywhere serves vanilla ice cream, but if you eat that a lot, you will beg for a bowl of rocky road.”

If you want games without numerals on the end of them, we all have to start buying and playing more of them. Here are half-a-dozen new 2012/2013 games set to hit before this generation shuffles quietly off into the night that may be just the shot in the arm your sequelitis needs.

Dishonored

It's bordering on criminal that more people aren't looking forward to this incredibly imaginative thinking-man's shooter. With this year's FPS heavy-hitters doing little to distinguish themselves from last year's FPS heavy-hitters, why Dishonored isn't being discussed between more gamers as one of 2012's must-play shooters is a complete mystery.

Sleeping Dogs

Consistently mistaken as little more than a True Crime sequel, which it isn't, Sleeping Dogs is a big and bold open-world action-adventure that works hard to carve out a spot between the likes of the GTA and Saints Row series.

The Last of Us

With Naughty Dog at the helm (and Sony coughing up the cash) The Last of Us won't exactly have an uphill struggle ahead of it to gain traction. That said, it's not Uncharted 4 – and for taking that slightly risky leap somebody deserves a pat on the back.

Beyond: Two Souls

As with The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls is a first-party title and thus is better poised to cut through the onslaught of sequels. However, that doesn't mean desperate gamers will be any less excited to see something new and fresh.

Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs illustrates perfectly exactly the kind of splash you can make with a non-sequel when you time it right. At an E3 where gamers were being force-fed new franchise instalments at every corner, we were all well-and-truly starved for something new. Enter Watch Dogs: proof you don't need a II, or 4, or a colon in your title to steal the show.

And many more...

How about Enemy Front, the over-the-top WWII shooter from one of the minds behind Criterion's Black that supposed to have Clint Eastwood coughing up his cornflakes? Or Insomniac's Overstrike, or perhaps whatever it is Respawn Entertainment is currently beavering away on? What games that aren't either sequels or based on licensed properties are you most looking forward to?

Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about cars, Die Hard and why South Park: The Stick of Truth is a licensed game he can get behind on IGN here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

Source : ign[dot]com

Xbox 720 Development Kit Photos Surface

Photos of a next-generation Xbox development kit have emerged online. The images were first spotted on the AssemblerGames forums when a user named DaE attempted to sell the kit for $10,000. At the time, the pictures were met with heavy skepticism and many assumed they were simply a hoax.

Now, however, Digital Foundry has spoken to “multiple developers working on next-gen projects” as well as DaE himself and confirmed that the images are indeed a legitimate look at the hardware being used to develop games for Microsoft’s next-generation system.

The development kit is described as "an anonymous-looking black box" that has many parts in common with standard gaming PCs. Its placeholder dashboard contains the name Durango, a word that has long been rumored as Microsoft’s codename for the next Xbox. The dashboard’s two options are D3D11Game1 and NuiView, which Digital Foundry describes as “a simple tool for rendering camera views and data from an attached Kinect peripheral.”

Kinect functionality is a logical inclusion for the dev kit, as upgraded Kinect features have been heavily rumored and job listings related to the next-gen Kinect recently surfaced.

DaE reports that the most recent round of development kits were sent out in February, with Intel CPUs and an NVIDA graphics card. He says the kit sports 8GB of RAM (though other sources say 12GB) and has a 64-bit operating system.

We haven’t been able to verify these specs, but when we last heard about the system, sources told IGN it would be six times more powerful than current-gen consoles and would feature an AMD 6000 series GPU similar to the Radeon HD 6670. That specific processor includes support for DirectX11, a feature specified in most next-gen job listings. DaE also provided Digital Foundry with a screenshot of Microsoft’s Visual Studio coding tool being used for Durango.

Durango coding at work in Microsoft's Visual Studio tool.

Whether or not DaE’s specific claims hold true, it’s no surprise that these development kits are already in the hands of developers, as we heard back in November that Xbox 720 development kits would be ready by Christmas 2011. IGN’s own sources told us that development kits for the next Xbox were continuing to be manufactured as of May and that developers expect the next generation of consoles to start in 2013.

On top of that, job listings for work on next-generation games have been plentiful recently. We’ve seen postings from Infinity Ward, Id Software and Crystal Dynamics, as well as Microsoft’s own 343 Industries and Rare. It isn’t a stretch to imagine that we’ll see plenty more in the coming months.

Microsoft has yet to officially provide details about its next console, but we’ve reached out for comment about the development kit photos. It's worth noting that the development kit seen here is simply an early test model for developers to use and does not reflect what the actual final hardware will look like. For the details we do know about the system so far, read about what Microsoft’s recent patent filings tell us about the next Xbox.

All images in this article courtesy of Digital Foundry.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Five Of The Best Console Redesigns

Every console in this generation has undergone some sort of redesign.

The Xbox 360 underwent drastic changes to fit into a shiny black number, the PS3 managed a miraculous weight loss that would have been worthy of reality TV if it were human, and a stripped-down, horizontally-inclined Wii launched to rather less fanfare at the end of last year.

The handhelds are at it too, and they're arguably the worst offenders. Nintendo's DS went under the knife four times over its lifecycle, topped only by the PlayStation Portable, which has been available in five different versions.

Often a redesign is best for both the gamers and the manufacturers. Not everyone is going to love the initial design that ships day one and with parts and manufacturing costs getting smaller and smaller, it just makes sense to start cramming more into the same space or trimming the fat altogether.

With the larger than life Nintendo 3DS XL out in the open and rumours of a significantly slimmer PlayStation 3 on the production line, we've picked out five of the console redesigns that did everything right.

Nintendo DS Lite (launched June 2006)

Back in 2005, things looked uncertain in Nintendo and Sony's war for handheld dominance. The original Nintendo DS, despite a wealth of software, was an ugly silver sandwich that was still battling for supremacy over Sony's new PSP.

Drastic measures were taken. The dual-screened portable was taken back to the drawing board in June 2006, and the DS Lite was rolled out.

A sleeker revision, the DS Lite had it all: bigger screens, longer battery life, comfy thicker stylus, and a design that was nice to look at.

The sacrifice? The GameBoy Advance cartridges stuck out a few centimetres (Nintendo would later tear backwards compatibility out of the system with the DSi). But despite that, the DS Lite didn't just win the fight - it won the war.

PSone (launched July 2000)

Released alongside Sony's PlayStation 2 in the year 2000, many were surprised to find this dinky little fella topping console charts well into its successor's launch.

Though that may have been down to the PS2's short supplies, plenty of people were snapping up its slimmer older brother.

Sony tucked all of the original Playstation’s now-outdated tech all into a considerably smaller, lighter, paler slab of plastic that featured an attachable LCD display for on-the-go PlayStation gaming.

Sony also used it as an opportunity to up the system's protection from mod chips and other piracy issues that had plagued the console since its launch.

Game Boy Color (launched 1998)

These days the original Game Boy is idolised as an iconic piece of gaming history, but to those who actually owned one it was a bulky hunk of plastic that dragged its power from a whopping four AA batteries.

Some would argue that Game Boy Color was a fully-fledged successor to the original rather than a redesign, but it was also the Game Boy we'd always wanted.  It was a trimmed down handheld that borrowed much of its visual profile from the earlier Game Boy Pocket, had a colourful screen, and boasted twice the battery life of the Game Boy from just two AA batteries.

Xbox 360 Slim (launched June 2010)

Thinner, sleeker, and lacking the iconic circle of LEDs where its infamous 'red ring of death' used to glow, the Xbox 360 Slim isn’t adored for its sleek design and neat touch controls but because it addresses almost everything people hated about the Xbox before it.

Powering up the system doesn’t sound like a Hoover being turned on in the next room. You can get online wirelessly without having to fork out on a pricey dongle or fiddle with wires. It's got an even bigger hard drive and is less prone to system failures. It even has a Kinect port to save on plug space next to its slightly smaller power brick.

It took a good five years for Microsoft to patch up the failings of the original Xbox 360, but the result was worth the wait.

Game Boy Advance SP (launched March 2003)

Despite an impressive number of handheld classics, aesthetically the Game Boy Advance was everything you didn’t want in a portable.  Even overlooking its battery life and landscape design, that lovely big screen lacked a backlight to illuminate its impressive colours and visuals. Playing it without a light source became a nightmarish experience (remember squinting at that tiny dark screen on all those sunny holidays?).

The Game Boy Advance SP solved all its predecessor's failings in one fell swoop. A new clamshell design made the system perfect for almost any pocket big or small, an optional backlight made the screen explode in all its 32-bit glory and finally, Nintendo admitted defeat and slapped a built-in rechargeable battery into the handheld.

If it wasn't for the absence of a headphone jack, The Game Boy Advance SP would be portable bliss.

What’s your favourite console redesign? Let us know in the comments below.

Source : ign[dot]com

Rage Developer Hiring for Next-Gen Game

Doom and Quake creator Id Software is hiring for a new game on next generation consoles. According to a listing for a UI programmer, Id is seeking a candidate “to work on cutting-edge technology for an unannounced game on future-generation consoles.”

The listing adds that “experience with DirectX 11 [is] a plus.” DirectX11 support is notably absent from current-generation consoles, but rumored to be included in next-gen systems.

Finally, the listing notes that "familiarity with id Software games, characters, brands and universes" is a requirement, potentially hinting that this project could be Id's long-rumored Doom 4

In addition to creating classic shooters Doom and Quake, Id last released Rage in October of 2011. A listing for Rage downloadable content recently appeared on Europe’s PEGI ratings board, though no official announcement has been made. Id is expected to talk about its upcoming projects at Quakecon next month.

Meanwhile, a new re-mastered version of Doom 3 called the Doom 3: BFG Edition will be released later this year.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season One Episode Reviews

We've already taken a look at Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season One on Blu-ray (review here). In further anticipation of this awesome release, we decided to break the season down, episode-by-episode, with mini-reviews of all 25 Season One episodes.

Trek fans usually regard Season One to be the show's weakest. But, truth be told, there are some real gems here. And a great many episodes help not only establish the characters and further the mythology of the franchise, but the tone of the entire series.

There are some duds, to be sure, but Season One is better than you remember. If your memory is foggy, we've got reviews of every episode here to refresh you.

Note: The following episodes are available on Blu-ray (restored and remastered) in HD. Original standard definition broadcast versions are available on DVD, Netflix (in the U.S.) and Amazon Instant Video (in the U.S.).

1) Encounter at Farpoint

The new crew of the Enterprise meet up for the first time and immediately encounter a strange alien force on an otherwise routine mission. The crew also finds themselves face-to-face with Q, one of TNG's most popular pseudo-foes. Great start to a terrific series, Farpoint is visually alluring and moody, setting the mature, non-campy tone of the rest of the series.

Rating: 8.5/10

2) The Naked Now

The crew of the Enterprise gets drunk. Not nearly as bad as you remember, especially if you don't watch it as the second episode it was (might I suggest watching it toward the end of the season, ahead of Skin of Evil). The cast is amusing and it plays as a nice sequel to the classic TOS episode, The Naked Time.

Rating: 7/10

3) Code of Honor

Tasha Yar is kidnapped and forced to marry a member of a tribal alien culture, but must fight to the death beforehand. A solid episode that focuses on the female heroes of the show. Makes you wish Yar (Denise Crosby) was around for all seven seasons.

Rating: 7/10

4) The Last Outpost

The Enterprise officially meets the Ferengi, an odd, kinda racist alien race of traders, but the two discover they're not alone on their first encounter. A muddled, but mostly decent intro to these bizarre aliens, with more intrigue than just the introduction.

Rating: 6.5/10

5) Where No One Has Gone Before

The Enterprise accidentally travels to the edge of space and Wesley Crusher has his first meeting with The Traveler. Great effects and a knockout story really make this episode work, especially in HD.

Rating: 9/10

6) Lonely Among Us

Yet another mysterious unseen entity tries to take control of the Enterprise and her crew. It's basically the same episode as Farpoint, with a few minor, mostly dull, twists.

Rating: 5.5/10

7) Justice 

The Enterprise beams down to a planet of nymphs. Starts out quite erotic and fun, but unravels a bit when the Prime Directive side of the narrative kicks in. Regardless, this episode is an interesting contrast to how TOS episodes like this would typically function.

Rating: 7/10

8) Battle

Picard is forced to relive an old mysterious battle that may be connected to the Ferengi. A second, and slightly better, introduction to the Ferengi. The episode also gives us an interesting backstory for Picard, including the history of The Picard Maneuver.

Rating: 8.5/10

9) Hide and Q

Q returns and once again throws the crew of the Enterprise into a fiendish game, giving Riker the power of Q. This episode delightfully displays Q's sense of playful menace, even if his second appearance comes a bit too soon after Farpoint.

Rating: 8/10

10) Haven

Troi's mother (played by Gene Roddenberry's wife, the late Majel Barret) drops by, unfortunately, and arranges her daughter to be married. Meanwhile, a nearby ship, a sort of floating leper colony, threatens to ruin the arrangement. Slow, illogical, silly and contrived beyond reason.

Rating: 4/10

11) The Big Goodbye

The first of many holodeck-centric episodes. This one takes you to the 1940s, a regular stomping ground for TOS as well as holodeck episodes, and has the holodeck malfunctioning (like always). While the vintage style can be fun, this episode largely serves fans of TOS.

Rating: 6.5/10

12) Datalore 

Data discovers he has a twin brother named Lore. Sadly, it turns out his better-half is more than a little devious. A great character mythology episode that feels like classic TNG. Plus Picard screams "Shut up, Wesley." A great line that personifies Season One's "Grumpy Picard" meme!

Rating: 9/10

13) Angel One

The Enterprise travels to a planet ruled by women, a plot borrowed from a He-Man episode. Meanwhile, the crew who remains aboard falls ill due to a mysterious sickness. Clumsy and just goofy and overly melodramatic. Most hilarious scene: the plot twist reveal. The soap opera music, soft focus and dramatic zoom-in are the stuff of classic cheese.

Rating: 5/10

14) 11001001

A team of aliens try to speed up the ship's computer. Half of the episode is pretty awesome, with Data evacuating the Enterprise, but the other half is bogged down by the dry holodeck scenes. It is pretty funny watching Riker macking on a girl, for a second week in a row. He's a regular stud.

Rating: 7/10

15) Too Short a Season 

An old, dying Admiral beams to the Enterprise and starts getting inexplicably younger. The story is terrible, but makeup effects on Admiral Mark Jameson are pretty damn good for the time. Sadly, Clayton Rohner's performance is just embarrassingly awful, dragging absolutely everything down. It's like he's poorly imitating an over-the-top performance. Not good.

Rating: 4/10

16) When the Bough Breaks

The children of the Enterprise are abducted by a mysterious alien culture incapable of having children. Think: Children of Men meets soap opera. Sloppy and boring. Wil Wheaton is pretty good, though.

Rating: 5.5/10

17) Home Soil

"You ugly bag of mostly water!" The crew of the Enterprise land on a terraforming planet and discover another mysterious non-traditional alien. A bit of a retread at times, but a decent return to form after a string of inconsistent episodes.

Rating: 7/10

18) Coming of Age

Picard is investigated and Wesley Crusher is tested for Starfleet Academy. Well balanced episode that adds context to Starfleet as a whole. Some great character moments, too. John Putch as Wesley's test buddy, Mordock, is a particular highlight.

Rating: 8.5/10

19) Heart of Glory

The Enterprise rescues a crew within the Neutral Zone and discovers the survivors are Klingon. A great Worf-centric episode that focuses on Klingons in the 24th Century. Pays homage to the Trek of old, but with a TNG twist. Plus, you get to see Geordi-vision at the beginning of the episode, which is totally trippy.

Rating: 8.5/10

20) Arsenal of Freedom 

An away team, including Picard and Riker, are trapped on a planet ruled by a volatile weapon. Geordi as Captain is just badass. Only problem - the planet stuff isn't nearly as exciting, even though it should be. The scenes between Picard and Crusher are quite good, though.

Rating: 7/10

21) Symbiosis

It's space drug dealers vs. space drug addicts! It's also the first time TNG blatantly reuses an actor from TOS, in this case it's Kirk's son, played by the late Merrit Butrick, who plays a drug-addicted alien here. Enjoyable, if overly obvious with the episode's metaphor.

Rating: 8/10

22) Skin of Evil 

The crew beams down to a planet and encounters a juvenile, bullying pile of black goo. A silly episode, riddled with terrible dialogue, that's only notable because of Tasha Yar's untimely death. The funeral scene is tragically hilarious. How did Yar, seen in a hologram at the end, know how she would die, and who exactly would be at her funeral? Worse, why didn't the show runners opt for a stronger nemesis, like the Romulans, to kill her off -- something that would have carried the sting of her death, as well as her memory, throughout the series? Bad call. Weak episode.

Rating: 5/10

23) We'll Always Have Paris

Picard reunites with an old flame and the crew of the Enterprise gets trapped in a wild distorted time paradox. Great episode that balances character, back story and a hearty dose of heady sci-fi.

Rating: 8.5/10

24) Conspiracy

A follow-up to Coming of Age, this episode dives into the previously mentioned conspiracy to completely infect and potentially dismantle Starfleet. Visually disturbing (see gif above) and creepy as hell, even if the plot is a little derivative of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A kind of proto-Borg villain, too. The episode is also curiously still relevant, especially in the political arena.

Rating: 9/10

25) The Neutral Zone

The Romulans return! TNG has teased the Romulans all season, and finally we are reintroduced here in this fascinating story that also, frustratingly at times, focuses on a trio of 20th century citizens unfrozen from cryosleep. Picard is extra grumpy in this episode -- more so than he usually is this season. There's quite a bit of story here as well...perhaps too much. Two episodes instead of one might have better served the plot.

Rating: 8/10

That's it for Season One! Check back this fall for Star Trek: TNG - Season Two mini-reviews as well as a look at the Blu-ray.

In the meantime, feel free to sound off in the comments below with your favorite and least favorite episodes from this first season.

Source : ign[dot]com

Microsoft Job Listings Hint at Next-Gen Kinect

New job listings on Microsoft’s site indicate that the publisher may be gearing up development on the next generation of Kinect. According to a listing for a software development engineer, “the team that shipped Kinect for Xbox 360” is seeking a candidate to work on “the future of Natural User Input.” More specifically, the listing later refers to the fact that “The Xbox Platform Team is gearing up towards the next generation of Natural User Interface (NUI) technologies.” The listing also refers to “rapid prototyping” and that a “successful candidate must be able to come up to speed with new technologies.”

A separate listing for a senior electronic engineer specifies that it’s looking for a candidate who would be responsible “for designing, building and delivering the devices and the innovative solution for Xbox and various future NUI applications.” It also includes its mission statement to “re-invent entertainment, led from the living room, powered by the cloud, across multiple screens and best experienced on our devices.”

The listings were posted in late June and early July, and fit in with rumors we previously heard about Microsoft working on an improved Kinect sensor. A Microsoft patent that emerged last month also hinted at a new Kinect sensor that could capture depth by using infrared light “to determine a physical distance from the capture device to a particular location on the targets or objects in the scene.” Previous rumors also suggested that the next Kinect will be accurate enough to read lips.

We know that Microsoft is likely working on the next-generation Xbox, as developers told us in an anonymous survey that the next generation of consoles will begin in 2013. We’ve also seen other Microsoft job listings refer to a new system, including a listing from Rare about next-gen games and a listing that implied a next-gen Halo is already in the works.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft about the job listings and will update this story with any comment we receive.

Thanks to OXM for the heads up.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com