Ubisoft has just announced Far Cry 4, which should be arriving this autumn for previous & next gen consoles including Windows PC of course. The exact date is November 18 in the US & November 20 in EMEA territories.
Far Cry 4 is set in an Himalayan region called Kyrat, currently ruled by a self-appointed King. Players will inevitably encounter many dangers and adventures that is in tune with the Far Cry spirit and as they wade through the tribulations and perils rooted in the lush scenery it will be up to them to reach the desired result.
The graphical capability is supposed to reach a new height, seeing as it is going to be released on the next gen era of console systems and Ubisoft are already making sure they are that this is a experience to remember.
“Following the success of Far Cry 3, we wanted to take the franchise to the next level and create a game that will surprise players and exceed fans’ expectations,” said Dan Hay, Executive Producer. “Given the unique setting, we feel Far Cry 4 will stand out as a top first-person shooter and we’re eager to reveal more about the game in the coming months.”
For those who like to get the game early, you can get a free upgrade to the Limited Edition which includes Hurks Redemption missions and an extra gun in the form of the The Impaler, Hurk’s harpoon gun.
Windows 8.1 brings about the return of the start button and new smaller live tiles with other new UI implementations. So the question now is whether consumers will come on board with Microsoft’s changes.
There’s no doubt Windows 8 is superior to Windows 7 in every single way under the hood but many people are still at odds with the UI that Microsoft has chosen for the OS and are hoping that 8.1 rectifies many of the mistakes that Microsoft made with Windows 8 initial arrival. Windows 8.1 allows the user to boot directly to the desktop so that the Metro UI isn’t the first thing the user sees, something that many people complained about.
One of the new features that Windows 8.1 incorporates into the UI is a more powerful Bing function, designed to make it easier and more useful for the consumer to search for relevant information. This includes searching for apps on your computer or listening to music. The app store also gets a makeover as well, mainly because it was such a mess to navigate in the first place. The core apps that come with Windows 8 also get a few minor updates as well such as the Reading app allowing you to save articles across your devices and a Photo app that allows you to edit your pictures. Windows 8 also allows you to edit the OS with different functions such as having more freedom to personalize the OS including the usage of animate backgrounds. The enterprise edition of Windows 8.1 also includes BYOD, mobility and security enhancements such as biometrics enhancements, pervasive device encryption and Remote Business Data Removal. A release date of October 17/18 has been confirmed for Windows 8.1.
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is Ubisoft’s next development in all things related to Far Cry. Unlike, the Far Cry 3 we have all grown to love, this iteration has followed a rather linear fashion which usually isn’t a good thing when it comes to having fun but with the way Ubisoft has developed the story and the game-play it seems to be a non-issue. The game is set in the future and is clearly influenced by the 80’s with numerous different qualities being inspired by it and is set up by a backdrop of thermonuclear war enveloping the globe resulting in the scorching sky’s that we so frequently see in the game.
The choice of weapons is rather interesting especially when it is compared with the gun systems prior development in the original Far Cry 3. The aiming and ADS is quite poor compared to the Far Cry 3 and could be improved significantly, and there is a lot to be said with how the sound system is portrayed in the game. The only audible dialogue in the game is the main characters, enemy dialogue is virtually non-existent, downgrading the game quite significantly when it comes to stealth although common sense should indicate when you have been discovered by enemy forces. The game also introduces different functions such as the Shuriken system, although there is the possibility that the function was already implemented in the core game which is Far Cry 3 which is important to note that this is what Blood Dragon has been based on.
Check out some of the gameplay videos that I have recorded on my YouTube Channel!
Speculation has finally come to an end, the next iteration of the Call of Duty series has been announced and is due to be released on the current gen consoles and next-gen consoles with a release date of 5/11/13. The game is being developed by Infinity Ward and will feature a new engine designed specifically for the next-gen consoles. Look at the video below to see the trailer!
A new game is on the table for the Total War series and The Creative Assembly is currently developing the next game for us lucky gamers which is due to be released in October of this year, the game will focus on the Roman Republic which allow players to transform it into the the Roman Empire if they so desired. The game requirements will most likely be the same for Total War: Shogun 2 but it is not known at this point.
Roman Soldiers
The game is supposed to have a larger campaign map then the first Rome and it will feature new territories which will go further East. A new graphics engine will power the visuals of this game and the camera will have the ability of focusing on individual soldiers in the battlefield which may possible contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has made it clear that they wish to portray a human side to the game in a way which will reflect the true horrors of war, thus reactions of comrades dying and officers giving heroic speeches will also be included.
Creative Assembly will follow what Shogun 2 started by prompting the player with decisions and expanding upon it, with each decision leading the player down a certain path according to the players decisions. These decisions will affect the way the campaign is played and will have real world effects. Another cool feature is that Generals and Family members aren’t the only ones who can gain traits any more but Legions will also be able to gain traits as they increase their combat experience. It is also useful to know that you will be able to build entire legions at a time by selecting a weapon loadout, something that was missing in the older Titles.
Navies will also return in Rome 2 in a much more important fashion then what we are used to, Creative Assembly intends to in implement mixed naval and land combat for land battles and city sieges for the first time. This will reflect the naval strategies of the classical era when coastal cites were easily and destroyed massive invasions of infantry disembarking from warships. Legions can now attack the enemy’s ground forces and cities, while naval units provide supporting fire. Although some of the features are awfully familiar, such as conquering cities with navies that had army units on board which is something that is extensively used in Shogun 2. Naval units are planned to be even bigger then before so that the player can build a strong navy much more quickly.Jack Lusted, the Creative Assembly’s lead unit designer, has stated that instead of a rebel nation of the original Rome, there will instead be a large number of smaller nations and city states such as Macedonia. Each ethnic group will have a unique playstyle. For example a tribe of British barbarians will play differently from a disciplined Roman legion plus different agents and technologies will be implemented for different factions. Each technological achievement will be assigned according to history to maintain the authenticity of the game .
The diplomacy system is said to be revamped with better artificial intelligence so that various anomalies such as smaller states declaring war on a bigger state will not happen, as such a thing can be classified as suicide. The enemy AI will also be influenced with the decisions that you make, such as being a trustworthy ally or a suspicious traitor. Everything about the previous titles that came before this game is expected to be revamped greatly and Rome 2 should mark a new beginning for the company. You can expect me to be there if they’re any more updates regarding Rome 2 and keep in touch to be updated with mind-blowing info.
Although an old game, there is always a good time for regular old gameplay and in this case it’s Call of Duty Black Ops 2. This weekend, Steam were offering this game as a promotion tool and allowed PC gamers to download it for free. Leave comments if you liked the gameplay and subscribe to my YouTube for more videos.
For my game I would like the levels to have two layers of design just like Rayman Origins with the levels constantly moving while the characters moves across the level, I believe it will be a great way to immerse players in the game. I want cinematics to take centrefold in the game and the models will be based on the surrounding’s and 3D models as well. AI will have have a prominent role in the Game as well to coincide with the game’s identity.
The main role of the game will be survival based and will be based in the jungle, the game will also make use of smooth animations and dynamic movements from the environment will interact with the player and present various challenges. There will be items that will allow the player to interact with the environment and allow the player to take different routes through the game.
Colours will take an important place in the game and will be very important in regards in the background. Code will have to be developed so items will be able to picked up and used, such as coins and power-ups. Code will also have to be developed so that the character can perform specific functions. The background will also not be a static background but instead be made up of dynamic images, similar to what the reboot of Devil May Cry utilized with UDK. Toonshading will be prominent, but what type will be down to research. Speech bubbles will be common when text when the enemy and the character are trying to speak, and will be black and white.
This is my inspiration for the kind of art styles that I wish to implement in the game, I wish to create something like Limbo and I want to be able to use liquid-like animations as a background for the game. Checkpoints will be commonplace throughout levels and mark the progress of the player, and rewards will also be awarded depending on how the player plays through the level as well.
Sonic Generations
This part of my research also includes the design language that will have to be present throughout my game; anomalies will throw the identity that will be instinctively presenting itself throughout the game. The example in question here is the above screenshots of Sonic running through a checkpoint that obviously coincides with the games design language, although this particular checkpoint has been in use for some time now, it is still recognizable as a distinct image of a Sonic game.
Another detail to pay close attention too is the water reflection bouncing of the water on to the wall. This is something else that I want to present into my game since it boosts the level of immersive the game will have for the user.
New Super Mario Bros U
Super Mario is also a great inspiration for me since it allows multiple players to take part in the 2D Platformer as well. It also introduces a lot of variables that will induce Mario to die if the player does not adapt to the sudden changing surroundings. I believe the camera angle is perfect for the 3D model and the reflections and shininess on Mario’s body is the type of look I’m looking for when designing my 3D model although my 3D model will be practically simpler to the specific design that Mario exhibits. The only thing that will not be present when I’m developing my 3D game is the HUD while playing to keep up the minimal tone that the game will be trying to exhibit.
Graphical User Interface
The main design interface of the game will be minimalist and rely on sound and interactions of the game.
Far Cry 3 is one of my main inspirations when it comes to selecting a menu because it provides a different tone to the rest of the game and seeming contrasts with the on-going action that is present throughout the game, the only exception will be the menu where they will be less things to choose from and the text will be in the middle of the screen. There will also be a prompt to press start when the title of the game shows up and a transitional animation will take the game to where it’s supposed to start. I want the game to have a minimalist tone to match with the content and idea of the game. The text and the title will be developed in-house with Adobe Photoshop CS6 and then imported into Unity 4.
This is an example of an enemy with a similar likeness that is expected to be designed using different software from Unity.
Art Styles and Reconnaissance Photos
My original idea for the levels included reflections when looking at water but this was unlikely to be implemented because Unity required the Pro version to be used instead. Hopefully I can find a different way to implement something similar, such as projections of the character being portrayed on a flat wall.
Fog will also be present in the game as a way of hiding the character and adding an additional function to the game. Occasionally, enemies will use gas bombs to attack the character and will affect the vision of the user in response but I am not certain that the game will implement such a feature due to the short nature of the game. The image on the right will also be the design of some of the characters in the game as well.
Toon-shading for the game will also be implemented to a certain extent but the idea will not be permanent, the colors of the game will be vibrant for some levels and dark and dull for some to help further identify the bi-polar image of the game. The survival based aspects will have certain moments where it will be a brighter tone and some moments will have a dark tone. The sun will be in obvious view in some parts of the level and completely blocked off in others to reflect the variety of different locations in forests and present a certain level of realism in the games.
Lighting will literally be the most important part of the game because it will be creating so many effects that will have to be performed properly otherwise the intended effect on the gamer will not present itself. Lighting will be extremely difficult and extensive research will have to be made on how to pull it off.
Originally I wanted to make a 2D game since it seemed more immersive to make, but realized that Unity did not have that kind of capacity or engine to make such a game since everything was based on 3D models. So I decided to scale down the ideas of such a game so that the environment didn’t turn into something I couldn’t handle.
The audience of the game will be for those who are interested in survival based games and their surroundings, the game will also be for those who like pay great attention to scenery. To enhance the effect, there will be occasional moments where the player will transition into first-person view to take a closer look at the surroundings and see certain cinematics take place, I intend for the hands be visible but further research will be required to pull it off.
I’m not expecting everything to be perfectly refined since such a thing will be impossible to do at this stage but I intend to make the game easy to understand, fun to play and visually startling. Gore might be an optional feature in the game but to appease my audience for a wider range of people there will probably be no gore for people to see.
I’m thinking a sort of city will be present in the forest with players going past some of the buildings on their way to the finishing point. I took this inspiration from a series called Naruto which has the main centre of the game as a village surrounded by a forest and bordering countries. This will give the game a independent look then from anything available on the market and it will ensure it is not just some unnecessary rehash of some other game.
The game will include (in the current order), a rocky area, a forest area and a cave area; each area will be designed to be 9 minutes long and a timer will be present for 10 minutes but will not appear until the player has three minutes left. The player will be able to pick up key items such as guns and explosives which will help to defeat AI, without them the player is defenceless and will be forced to evade them. A certain degree of difficulty levels are planned but further investigation is needed to make such things work.
A representation of the main village within Naruto.
An example of the kind of City I intend to create albeit making encounters with buildings at a slower rate and on a smaller scale. Doing so will make the game look deserted.
This is an example of how the rocky levels are going to look like but the character will be standing on a platform without any rocks on it. This wills most likely the background scenery that will be present during the game.
Programming Variables and Core Gameplay
Programming will be necessary for tracking the movements of the player across the level and to keep a record of what the player has achieved. Variables will be recorded to store the score the player will achieve and to decide the kind of awards that will be rewarded to them. Programming will also be required to initiate the phases when the environment alternates depending on the actions of the player. Programming for collecting items and different weapons will also be utilized and used across the game as well. Enemy AI will also need to be programmed and will also be tied in with cinematic sequences. The player will also occasionally enter buildings and there will be a transition at that moment, they will likely be no animation to open the door so programming will have to include a function that transitions to the next scene.
The main object of the game is to get the player from point A to B and to deal with any threats that are encountered along the way; this includes obstacles and enemy AI. The weather won’t play a major effect in the game but elemental forces such as wind and fire will be present to add additional realism to the level although at certain intervals. I’m planning for this occurrence to happen at random but it seems such a thing will be difficult to program. A timer will also need to be programmed into the game, and will not reset if the player happens to die forcing the player to go quicker to be able to reach the exit.
Programming for Camera cinematics will be used but only to a certain extent, innovative camera movements will be implemented to add a certain refinement to the game, for example the camera will follow the character until the camera stops; at this point the camera will continue to move forward slightly and bounce back to give the player a preview of what lies ahead.
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Due to all the hype surrounding the Geforce Titan, I think it would do everyone well to talk about the more technical aspects of the technology behind this product and to review and evaluate it. Quoted by Nvidia to be the fastest and most efficient architecture ever built, the Kepler GK110 fills the spot that the GK106 was meant to replace but failed to do so. Everyone knows that the GK110 core was meant to be the flagship for Nvidia’s Geforce and Tesla line, but it apparently didn’t go to plan due to the low yields so Nvidia had to look for something else to cover up this tragedy.
The GK106 just so happened to fit the bill, but came at the price of delivering sub-par compute performance compared to the GCN HD7970. The chip managed to be defeated by the GF110 used by the GTX 580 in some tests which is extremely surprising to say the least, especially after making such a big deal of compute performance in the 500 series, although there were clear examples of sabotage on Nvidia’s part in a effort to protect their professional line, for example Nvidia limits 64-bit double-precision math to 1/24 of single precision effectively reducing GPGPU performance.
The reason why compute performance is so important is because these are the same Graphics cores used inside Nvidia’s professional line which means that if something was to poorly perform in a consumer oriented product then chances are the same thing will happen in professional oriented products. Although it’s not really a major issue since the professional line makes use of the GK110 core. However, everyone knows that Nvidia will not allow itself to be willingly slaughtered by AMD when it comes to compute performance without fighting back, this is where the role and responsibility of the GK110 core comes in.
GK110: Overview
According to Nvidia, the Kepler GK110 comprises of 7.1 billion transistors and is also the most architecturally complex microprocessor ever built and was originally designed to be a compute powerhouse for Tesla and the HPC Market. The GK110 will also provide provide over 1 teraflop of double precision throughput with greater than 80% DGEMM efficiency versus 60-65% on the prior Fermi architecture, and as we all know, the power efficiency for Kepler is outstanding. The Kepler GK110 introduces new features such as increased GPU utilization and simplifying parallel program design something which be considered a healthy asset to many developers. A full Kepler GK110 implementation includes 15 SMX units and six 64-bit memory controllers, although not all products will use all of the SMX units, some products will use 13 to 14 SMX units.
The key features of the architecture includes…
The new SMX processor architecture
An enhanced memory subsystem, offering additional caching capabilities, more bandwidth at each level of the hierarchy and a fully redesigned and substantially faster DRAM I/O implementation (expect to see an ARM processor handling this in Maxwell)
Hardware support throughout the design to enable new programming model capabilities.
The benefits of Dynamic Parallelism
One such feature is the Dynamic Parallelism feature which adds the capability for the GPU to generate new work for itself, synchronize on results and control the scheduling of the work without involving the CPU. Programmers can now take advantage of more varied kinds of parallel work and make the most efficient use of the GPU as the computation “evolves” and advances. This benefits the system by offloading work from the CPU and programs become more easier to create.
The benefits of Hyper-Q
Hyper-Q allows the system to use multiple CPU cores to work on a single GPU simultaneously which in turn increases GPU utilization and significantly reducing CPU idle times. What Hyper-Q basically does is increase the total number of active connections between the host and the GK110 by allowing up to 32 simultaneous, hardware managed connections. Applications that encountered false serialization across tasks which would limit the ideal percentage of GPU utilization can see an dramatic increase in performance without any changes to CUDA code.
NVIDIA GPUDirect
This is a capability that enables GPU’s within a single computer, or GPU’s in different servers to directly exchange data without needing to go to the CPU or Memory. It also reduces the demands on system memory bandwidth and frees the GPU DMA engines for use by other CUDA task. The GK110 also supports other GPUDirect features including peer-to-peer and GPUDirect for Video.
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Conclusion
The description and documentation of the GK110 available far surpasses what is been said in this article and it would not do the product justice if I listed everything here, so instead everything else will come in regular intervals. The fact that the GK110 being a compute monster has been already proven with many achievements appearing in recent news such as the sale of a cluster of K20x to China for a supercomputer. If the release of the Geforce Titan does come to pass, then we will be able to see the gaming performance of this card and whether it annihilates the competition or not.
The initial response to Dante’s major aesthetic and design overhaul from regular gaming and die-hard fans was understandably negative, especially in regards to the fact that the Classic Dante was such an icon going as far to have its own niche fanbase. With just one short stage of having the Capcom HQ up in flames, it was also revealed that the slaughter of Dante’s image was ordered from the top echelons of the company. This made sense, seeing if the series was going to be successfully rebooted it had to be visually different in every single way compared to the older iterations of the Devil May Cry series. With this in mind, let us step forth into what made this game different from the others that came before it.
The story and the plot of the game was refreshing to say the least, offering something fundamentally different that was has been traditionally accepted as the proper background of the Devil May Cry universe. An example of this would be how Dante was now not only the Son of Sparda but he was also the son of an Angel mother, Eva. At first I started hyperventilating and started to ponder if the reboot had singlehandedly destroyed the Devil May Cry series. Surprisingly, the story started to get better as you progress throughout the game, with numerous encounters with exotic demons in the visually stricken world of Limbo. It would take a lot of the year to describe the visuals of Limbo but it would do the game Justice to say that this game is probably the most visually appealing action game after Devil May Cry 4. Instead of the static background that dominated the earlier games, the reboot takes advantage of using the Unreal Engine to provide extensive manipulation to the background and make it more fluidly exciting for the gamer. The game itself was quite original albeit predictable, and provided a fresh break from the earlier way of Story Telling. The dialogue contains quite a bit of profanity which aids the game in establishing its own Identity, the humor might not be shared with all gamers but the scripts way of portraying the personality of Dante and his counterparts was well executed.
Gameplay
The gameplay takes a different approach in way the combat is performed, instead of different styles and separate weapons Dante now has Angelic and Demon modes which invoke different weapons. The Demon mode involves hard-hitting slow attacks capable of breaking through the enemies defenses and the Angelic mode involves light but fast and fluid attacks. This allows a Seamless integration of combo’s and allows the gamer to have a much easier time when stringing together combos. Some may argue that this makes the game too easy and forfeits the Pro aspect of the Devil May Cry series. Personally, I believe this to be true, Ninja Theory allowed Dante to have a limited range of combo’s which takes about 50% of the fun out of the game and what was left in the game was far too easy to perform and was quite underwhelming. Another gripe that I continually encountered with the game was the lack of the lockon function, far too often I found myself shooting at brick walls whilst the warm embrace of an enemy axe was far too close to my face for comfort. Although this is not really a game breaker, it certainly affects the way the game is played and could be fixed if there happens to be a future installment. The AI of the enemy was horribly embarrassing and horribly annoying at the same time, it was far to easy to hack the smaller enemies to pieces and to overpower the larger ones, their attacks are not as frequent as you would expect from demons and their choice of moves isn’t something to write home about. Although this issue is largely fixed in Son of Sparda mode.
Final Thoughts
The reboot of the series has surpassed the expectations that was initially supposed to receive and left its own mark on the Devil May Cry series. However, people who like a challenge may be not be so intrigued with the game and may have to look towards something else. If you really like this game, you could always play the game once and then try Son of Sparda mode which provides much more greater challenge.
Orion 