Today's News:
1) Along with the Unreal 4 Engine, Crytek announces their newest CryEngine will also be using a subscription-based model which costs $10 per month and doesn't have a royalty fee requirement.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/unre...based-services

2) Some Sucker Punch related news as the company revealed the Day 1 patch for Infamous: Second Son contains an extra 19 in-game missions and an Easter egg found in Infamous: Second Son could be teasing a new Sly Cooper game arriving in the near future.
http://www.destructoid.com/day-one-p...s-272254.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/is-sucker...--272181.phtml

3) Karl Stewart, vice president of marketing at Square Enix's North American and European branches, announces he has recently left the company to join marketing company Petrol Advertising
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...after-8-years/

4) Microsoft officially debuted DirectX 12 today at GDC with a few details including DX12 being predicted to offer around a 50% boost overall to game performance compared to DX11, dev kits are expected to arrive later this year, and the first games running on DX 12 are currently predicted to arrive by late 2015.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...its-potential/

That was discussed.

Capcom will do nothing for two main reasons:

1) Inafune spoke about how the similarities between Beck and Rock are based purely on his creative style rather. He's not ripping off "himself", any character he would make for an action sidescroller would always look like that. Any gameplay he would design would look like that. Anything else would be him not being honest with himself.

2) Capcom knows by now any attempt to C&D this will result in nothing short than its death as a company. The backlash would be historic. I'm sure they discussed it internally. They won't do anything.

... especially considering Capcom already saw fit to drop the ball on their last major anneversary of Megaman. Sanctioning a fan homebrew remix of MM2 and including Rock in a Smash Bros game isn't exactly the rockstar treatment for 25 years of being your go-to.

Video for the engine running The Division. Looks insane.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_F-hwyu9bcU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

yeah I've been drooling over the snowdrop engine demo since I first saw it. Reminds me of the shock factor from seeing the first demos for Crysis a few years ago.

Meanwhile, the recent Cryengine trailer looks like shit compared to Snowdrop, Frost, and Unreal(3). Just crude and stale, much like the Crysis games, really.

Me and my were shockingly impressed by the Unreal 4 showcase, which is a stark turn from how we used to feel about it. After messing with Unity we've come to appreciate the little details. And what ArcSys has down with the previous version is impressive.

Today's News:
1) Ubisoft confirmed Assassin's Creed: Unity is currently in development with the game to arrive later this year, takes place in Paris during the French Revolution, and will arrive for the PC, Xbox One, and PS4. They did not confirm nor deny the rumors of a separate Assassin's Creed game arriving for the PS3, Xbox 360, and/or PC/Wii U later this year.
http://www.destructoid.com/assassin-...e-272293.phtml
http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/ubis...ity/2300-8657/

2) Freebies/Sales - For those interested Nintendo is offering a free trial for Wii Sports Club this weekend for the US and UK. Also for those interested, Walmart is currently offering the Titanfall Xbox One bundle for the price of $450 ($50 discount).
http://www.destructoid.com/play-wii-...d-272301.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/walmart-h...0-272296.phtml

3) According to Eurogamer, Far Cry 4 is expected to be announced during this year's E3 with a release date of early 2015, would take place in the Himalayas, and would feature ridable elephants.
http://www.destructoid.com/ridable-e...4-272297.phtml

4) Microsoft states they are considering adding in a reward system for "good behavior" players on Xbox Live with and could include special gamerscore and extra discounts on games as some of the possible rewards.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/play...says-microsoft

Nice. Psyched for new Far Cry.

Why do elephants need to be associated with any region near India?

Because Dhalsim.

Because otherwise they would be irrelephant

That was rep worthy.

Far Cry 4 needs another villain the likes of Vaas.

That. Guy. Was. Cra-zay.

Vaas was the shiznite.

Yeah, he should of been the main villain. No idea why he wasn't. He was toted as the main baddy in all the marketing and previews.

Seems to be a trend lately of really cool badass villains rivaling the protagonist for most of the game, then at the end some lame, cliched suit and tie person swoops in as the last boss.

Looking at you Metal Gear Rising.

That senator dude was hilarious.

It was too over the top, imo. Felt like they were trying too hard.

Game couldn't decide whether it wanted to be serious or over the top funny. Went from sombrero jokes to harvesting children's organs in minutes.

Regardless, Sam was awesome, and should have been the last boss.

It's a Japanese character action game. If it wasn't over the top and melodramatic I would deem it a presentational failure.

Woo early access for Elder Scrolls in 6 days. Can't wait.

He still sucked.

The problem is, these game spends most of your playthrough developing a relationship between protagonist and antagonist, little by little, delving into each other's motivations, so that by the time they fight, it has an epic feel. Then you keep going and take down the last boss in a battle devoid of everything that made the previous fight so cool.

These "Necron" bosses just pop in at the end, after maybe one or two brief appearances, and go about explaining their whole plan and why they did it during the fight. I have had no reason to give a fuck about this character, so I don't really give a fuck what he's saying. The characters have had zero interaction during the game, so it feels more like business, than a personal conflict.

That conflict needs to develop organically throughout the course of the game.

You're looking at these types of games the wrong way, which is why you'll feel like this more often than not. Conflict doesn't need to develop - the final stages are meant to put your juiced up character to use against the hardest challenges. It's then the final gimmicks are tossed in as per the director's whim (MGS4 homage).

You don't have a reason to give a fuck, unless you like 'action'.

Today's News:
1) For those who use RedBox, the company's online rental service is currently rumored to be expanding to include Wii U, Xbox One, and PS4 games next month.
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/24/554...4-and-xbox-one

2) Some Microsoft related news as the company announced their E3 plans include a 90 minute conference and likely to be more game-focused than previous years, the ID@Xbox program for the Xbox One is currently their top priority, and they are planning another attempt at a renewed focus towards PC gaming.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...nd-less-execs/
http://www.destructoid.com/xbox-inve...t-272304.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/microsoft...g-272309.phtml

3) Blizzard stated Diablo III is currently in development for the Xbox One called "Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition" although unlike the PS4 version also in development, they did not offer any other details nor any guarantees it would actually be released for the console.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-for-xbox-one/

4) According to a report by Forbes, the unofficial reason behind Dark Souls II visual downgrade was due to the game having serious stability and technical problems during development. According to the source, the PC version was the main priority during development and had serious problems getting the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions to work during the porting phase.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...des-were-made/

IGN Reader poll just put Cloud as the #1 Final Fantasy character of all time, which isnt surprising...but I will never understand why people find him interesting. Cloud was always cold and stoic to me, I never got attached to him by any means compared to a character like Vivi from FF9.

He does open up throughout the course of the game.

And his reasons for being that way are actually interesting, and make sense, rather than being a stoic badass just for the sake of it.

best FF character is GAU

I think Cloud gets the nod because he was one of the last 'great' silent protagonists. And he was in FF7 which is like automatic win.

Kefka is like the only person outside FF7 that ever wins these things.

Cloud wasn't a silent protagonist.

Today's News:
1) Steam's Greenlight is currently rumored to be getting dropped within the next 12 months according to a developer at Curve Studios and from recent hints by Valve's founder Gabe Newell.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...12-months.aspx

2) Sony announces a wave of layoffs have occurred today at three of their UK-based studios with Evolution Studios, Guerrilla Cambridge, and SCE London Studio being affected.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-with-layoffs/

3) Sales - Microsoft reveals the list of games available for this week's Xbox Live sales for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Among the games include Thief at 50% off (both versions), Tomb Raider at 50% off (both versions), CoD: Ghosts Digital Hardened Edition at 20% off (Xbox One only), and an assortment of Bioshock series related games and DLC between 50-75% off (Xbox 360 only).
http://www.destructoid.com/thief-tom...e-272429.phtml

Ol' Zuckerberg just shelled out $2 billion for Oculus VR.

Not sure WTF for. I really think we should all put our heads together and make the next big social network site so Facebook can collapse.

Oculus always seemed kinda fail to me so nothing is lost.

But it seemed like a practical evolution in gaming...not social networking.

I've yet to see one example, read one argument, on why this evolves gaming.

Finally becoming a profitable niche? Yeah, I can see that. Evolution in a linear sense? Nope. Sounds as silly as smart phone gaming being a challenge to core gaming, and now it's 'social gaming', because that little nugget failed. No more investor shit talk there anymore (Patcher, et al). Now Social Gaming is it's own thing rather than the 'core killer'.

Similarly, all this talk of how VR will lead gaming will shift in narrative to being it's own thing, no longer being the spearhead for the gaming industry.

I said this about Ouya, and Kinect, and Steambox's controller; my little litmus test for platforms claiming to be a big deal:

"If it can't play Street Fighter as is, it's not worth a damn."

Today's News:
1) Update to the recent news of Facebook buying Oculus VR as Facebook denies rumors of the Oculus Rift being rebranded with Facebook logos and interface while also stating they won't get actively involved with Oculus VR's Rift tech and VR plans. Oculus VR themselves also confirmed they will retain majority control over their work and the new deal being valuable because of the steady supply of cash now available for the Rift project.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/26/facebook-oculus/
http://www.destructoid.com/oculus-po...--272485.phtml

2) According to marketing firm SuperData, microtransactions on consoles managed to generate around $325 million last year with the Xbox 360 as the top platform and first person shooters as the top genre for revenues.
http://www.destructoid.com/microtran...r-272489.phtml

3) For those interested in the special "Panzerhund" collector's edition for Wolfenstein: The New Order, Bethesda revealed the game itself is not included in the actual set which retails for around $100.
http://www.destructoid.com/wolfenste...e-272479.phtml
http://store.bethsoft.com/brands/wol...d-edition.html

Needless to say, as a PC gamer, I am extremely pissed about the Oculus VR buyout. Now I can only hope Valve goes through with their own headset.

Can anybody articulate exactly what the fears are about the buyout?

Everything every big corporation does ever=teh suck

Listen to Zuckerberg himself about his plans for Oculus: https://www.dropbox.com/s/42w8r5n37y...lus%20call.mp3

Fucking dropbox, dude?

Today's News:
1) Assassin's Creed: Comet is currently rumored to be the second AC game to be released later this year for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game is rumored to be a direct sequel to Black Flags, takes place in New York in the year 1758, and involves a new assassin called Shay.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...x-360-ps3.aspx
http://www.destructoid.com/assassin-...r-272536.phtml

2) EA announces a new program for Origin called "On The House" which will periodically offer a free game as a gift to all Origin users and Dead Space as the first game offered starting today.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...right-now.aspx

3) The Last of Us currently rumored to be getting ported to the PS4 along with a rumored summer 2014 release date and the Left Behind DLC pack to be included with the game.
http://www.destructoid.com/the-last-...4-272535.phtml

4) The game director of Uncharted 4, Justin Richmond, announces he has recently left Naughty Dog to join League of Legends developer Riot Games.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...s-naughty-dog/