Sony announced yesterday via the PlayStation Blog that today marks the beginning of the “PlayStation Now” open beta. This beta is exclusively available to PS4 gamers and will feature roughly 100 titles. The video walk through posted in the same article (and featured below), shows the ability to rent games for: 4 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or 90 days. The rentals also back saves up to the cloud so customers can continue the game rental at other dates. (For example you rent for 4 hours, and then decide to expand that rental for 90 days, your save is waiting for you.) In the video, it is also mentioned that a subscription model is being investigated for the service due to the high demand during the closed beta.
In case you didn’t want to watch the entire video it is recommended that you:
Test your connection first, and while WiFi is supported a physical connection is more stable.
Since this is still a beta, Sony is actively seeking feedback while you experience the service. Which game will you “rent” first?
During the 343 panel at San Diego Comic Con, the team showed the first teaser for “Halo: Nightfall”. The plot seems to be the events that occur after a UNSC mining operation uncovers an element that can genetically target the human race. Cannot wait to see this live action epic roll out.
Bandai-Namco had their new 2v2 battle game on the show room floor at Evolution 2014. As they walked me through the game mechanics, I was also treated to an opportunity to battle the games producer Michael Murray and then have a conversation after about the title. “Rise of the Incarnates” is a free-to-play online battle game that will release on Steam when it’s ready.
The game draws inspiration from first and third person shooters as well as the Gundam Extreme Vs. series that is wildly popular in japan. The idea behind the game is to give the player control of a character that can either summon, or transform into an incarnate. These characters have a life value dependent upon their strength. The stronger they are, the more life your team loses when they die. Conversely if they are a weaker character they won’t be as detrimental to lose, but may not be able to destroy enemies as quickly.
The game will launch initially with 6 playable characters each with a specific role and various abilities. The focus of the game is to keep controls identical from character to character and instead change the strategy behind how you utilize them. You can check out the trailer below and stay up to date with more info by checking RiseOfIncarnates.com and of course, checking back here at BSR! The Interview is after the trailer.
BSR!: Where did you get the inspiration for Rise of the Incarnates?
MURRAY: The genre is 2 on 2, and is something that a lot of Western gamers aren’t familiar with. It is huge in Japan, especially with Gundam Extreme Vs. 2 in arcades. The Gundam license isn’t as strong in America and we thought, the game is so fun, how can we bring that over? We have been working on so many titles like Tekken and Soul Calibur, which have such a huge following, and decided to do this with Rise of the Incarnates. So, with the game you have 2 players per team, hence 2 v 2, and the characters have projectile weapons and melee attacks as well. Each of the characters can either summon or transform into deities or incarnates. The game is free-to-play on Steam, and it isn’t stamina based. You can play as much as you want, as long as you want. The monetization is coming from customization of your character; so visual customization is where the monetization comes from. Most of the customization options that are extremely powered up or cool looking may cost, but you will also unlock new skill sets through gameplay.
We’ve taken the emphasis off of the controller and moved it to the gameplay and the character, instead of button inputs.
BSR!: What strength’s does the 2 on 2 genre lend to the competitive scene.
MURRAY: This is where I use a lot of my experience. Since I’m used to Tekken, people are very into it but it’s been around a long time. It is easy to learn at first, but to play at the tournament level you have to learn a lot and pick up frame data. Which is why we put in fight lab. With “Rise of Incarnates” we wanted a low barrier-to-entry, which is why the controls are all universal, you have melee, ranged, you can hold a direction to change melee, and each character is a bit different. So the barrier to entry is low, but it requires time to master it. It is similar to an FPS in that you have to learn the stage and distance. We’ve taken the emphasis off of the controller and moved it to the gameplay and the character, instead of button inputs. Which is what makes this 2v2 genre different, we’re blending fighting games and shooters. It is quite new to Western players but at EVO, we’re seeing people are getting it after three rounds and then they’re hooked.
The game is free-to-play on Steam, and it isn’t stamina based. You can play as much as you want, as long as you want.
BSR!: You can dash-cancel any move correct? Does this lend to unique combinations?
Right, this is where differences in characters come in. In general your neutral melee is a stand-alone combo that can chain into dash cancelling. Another important thing is if your opponent is near by and your partner is paying attention you can forward attack and launch them into a tag-combo. You can also cancel into forward melee or attack melee. You can also string shot-attacks; there is a lot of freedom there.
BSR!: It feels like the game is better played from a controller?
Yeah, you can play anyway you want, but with the build we wanted a consistent control scheme, and the controller seems to be the easiest. With Gundam people are playing with controllers or even arcade sticks, but you can play this with anything you’d like. Most of the players on the team are using controllers.
BSR!: You just finished your Alpha weekend, correct?
Yeah, we had our alpha weekend at the end of May, and are planning a closed beta sometime next month. We haven’t set a date, but will be announcing the date around SDCC. Hopefully we’ll be able to get out a lot more codes to test more heavily.
BSR!: You’re showing off four characters right now, how many characters are you planning?
Well, this is the alpha build, which has 4 right now, but at E3 we announced 2 new characters. Brumhilda is on a bike, which gives her a lot of movement and Odin who is mainly firepower. He’s an old guy in a tank, which is pretty cool. He has a huge laser attack that destroys the arc-de-triumph, which is an actual in game attack. So 6 so far, all of which will be playable in the upcoming beta. This gives us time to work on balancing, but gives everyone a chance to practice with the core characters.
BSR!: How did you get your start in gaming?
I started with Namco in 2001 in localization, working on Ace Combat, Soul Calibur, some of our biggest franchise. I then made the jump to game design in the Tekken series and have been doing that since. I did the fight lab mode on Tekken Tag 2, but now I’m with Harada where I focus on the direction of the series. Now I’m producing “rise o the Incarnates” with Daisuke, he’s more of a development manager and I’m covering direction and visual appeal as well as where we’ll be showing the game. I still have side duties on Tekken, not day-to-day, but more overall direction work. Kind of doing double duty there.
With every demo people are impressed with the quality of the game we’re making as a free-to-play.
BSR!: How do you feel free-to-play has changed gaming?
You know, a lot of gamers are used to the console method, and free-to-play often is associated with inferior. With every demo people are impressed with the quality of the game we’re making as a free-to-play. Looking at Riot and DOTA they have a really solid game with the same model, they’re in the lead with that market and we’re obviously taking some queues from them. I see the free-to-play heading this direction vs being a browser or mobile game with stamina. It’s quickly changing and nobody can tell exactly where it will end, but we’re definitely new and different in the free-to-play arena.
After the “Injustice: Gods Among Us” top 8 Ed Boon announced that Raiden will indeed join the cast for the new Mortal Kombat. The thunder god is featured in the reveal video battling Kotal Kahn. His flying press is returning as well as multiple electrocuting moves. The trailer shows all three of Raidens variants as well as his fatality, you can check it out below.
Evolution 2014 has come to a close, and what a day it was. Finals day at Evo consists of thousands of bodies packed into the grand ballroom watching the newly established worlds greatest go head to head at their favorite games.
The day opened with Blaze Blue: Chrono Phantasma, which built to an intense, and emotional grand finals. Underdog Garirero vs. Dogura was a intense as Garireo repeatedly held on with quick reads and fast reactions to reset the bracket and take home the title. The standings from BBCP are as follows
“Killer Instinct” hosted its grand finals featuring the likes of Rico Suave, CDJR, EG Justin Wong and more. With a strategic switch to Glacius, Rico was able to defeat Justin in the losers finals, but didn’t quite have what it took to take out RM|CDJR (Sadira). In another emotional victory CDJR choked back tears as he was awarded his trophy, take note guys this was early in the day.
Top 8 rankings:
1. RM|CD Jr. (Sadira) 2. RG|Rico Suave (Thunder, Glacius, Jago, Sabrewulf, Fulgore) 3. EG|Justin Wong (Sabrewulf) 4. Gutter Magic (Thunder) 5. TSwagg (Sadira) 5. IC|MyGod88 (Sabrewulf) 7. Pretty E (Orchid) 7. Mr. Grimmmz (Jago)
Photo: Reggie hypes up the Smash Bros top 8.
Smash Bros Melee was up next featuring the worlds greats including EMP| Armada, Curse| Hungry Box, EG| PPMD, GC| Silent Wolf, EMP| Mew2King, MOR|Axe, Fly Amanita and, C9| Mango. While the matches were hard fought, often with the crowd rooting heavily for Axe (the cheers for Pikachu were deafening). Eventually Mango was able to scrape out a win against Hungry Box to grab the title. The match had gone the way like many of Hungry Boxes earlier matches, in which Box ran it back from a pretty deep deficit, only a clutch smash was able to hand Mango the victory.
Immediately following Smash was “Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3” featuring: EG| Justin Wong, RG| Filipino Champ, GG| Chris G, Jan, CTRL| RayRay, RG| Flocker, BIFU| Insaynne (Coach Steve) and, MRN| Marn. Through hard fought battles and incredible reversals, Justin Wong was able to overcome Chris G in an incredible fashion in the grand finals. The crowd favorite exploded from his chair after his final Wolverine combo that sent Chris G packing. This victory came of course after beating the returning world champion RG| Flocker and RG|Filipino champ during the earlier top 8 matches.
Top 8 rankings:
1. EG|Justin Wong (Wolverine, Storm, Akuma) 2. GG|NYChrisG (Morrigan, Dr. Doom, Vergil | Others) 3. RG|Filipino Champ (Magneto, Dormammu, Dr. Doom | Others) 4. CTRL|RayRay (Magneto, Dr. Doom, Sentinel) 5. RG|Flocker (Zero, Vergil, Hawkeye | Others) 5. Jan (Hulk, Shuma-Gorath, Haggar | Others) 7. MRN|Marn (Zero, Vergil, Strider) 7. BIFU|Insaynne (Nova, Spencer, Dr. Doom)
The final game of the evening was “Ultra Street Fighter 4”. This featured RG| Snake Eyez who was competing in the Evo top 32 for the first time, RZR| Fuudo, RZR| Gackt, EG|Momochi, EG|Ricky Ortiz, Bonchan, MD|Louffy and, HORI|Sako. The competition for Street Fighter was fierce, but nobody could hold up to Louffy and his incredible Rose play. Louffy beat Gackt, Snake Eyez, and Fuudo in losers bracket before resetting the bracket against Bonchan, and taking the series 6-1.
Evo 2014 has come to an end, but next year aims to be bigger and better. With thousands in attendance and even more watching via live stream, the worlds premiere fighting game tournament continues to grow in size. Next year will see even stiffer competition; with as many or more upsets than were seen this weekend. This is a great time to be a gamer, especially a competitive one.
Sigourney Weaver Returns as Ripley for ‘Alien: Isolation’ DLC
I’m usually an advocate against Day One Downloadable Content. Releasing extra content for a video game on release and charging for it is a little unfair to a customer who just spent $60 bucks on your product. But I understand that as the game spends months in a near-finished state, having all the bugs squashed out of it, that the art department and other developers might not have a lot to do, so putting together couple bonuses makes some sense as long as it doesn’t put a pay wall between gamers and their core experience.
In the case of “Alien: Isolation”, I honestly can’t think of a better piece of DLC they could have come up with. Two bonus missions that take you back aboard the Nostromo to play through a couple famous scenes from the first “Alien” film. In the first, “Crew Expendable,” (available to anyone who pre-orders the game) you can choose to play as Ellen Ripley, Dallas, or Parker as they try to lure the Alien into the ship’s airlock. And the second, “Last Survivor” (available to anyone who pre-orders the game from specific retail outlets – sucks, but I bet the missions will be available later for a small price, so it’s not a huge deal), has Ripley trying to activate the Nostromo’s self-destruct and escape in a shuttle.
The best part – if you didn’t already guess from this post’s title – is that most of the original “Alien” voice cast – Tom Skerrit, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, and even Sigourney Weaver – will be back to reprise their roles. Check out this short trailer:
It’s enticing, shows the developer’s love of the franchise, and is completely separate from the plot/content of the core video game. This is one piece of DLC I can actually get behind.
Alien: Isolation releases for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 7 later this year.
In between UMVC3 and USF4 Katsuhiro Harada and Michael Murray took the stage to confirm the earlier leaked “Tekken 7”. The game was revealed to the crowd as long as they “promised to act surprised.” After blaming the leak on Yosohiro Ono, the two then showed the teaser for the new title. The characters in the trailer look to be Kazuya’s mother and Devil Jin. The duo then said more information about the title will be released at SDCC on July 25.
UPDATE: Teaser Trailer Here
Watch ‘King Of Fighters XIII’ Grand Finals Archive
The grand finals for “King of Fighters XIII” pitted MCZ| Tokido against Quanba| Xiaohai. Tokido started the match in losers, while Xiaohai was still undefeated. We’ll keep the article spoiler free, check the video below.
There are parts of the gaming community that unless you are part of the culture itself will leave people baffled and confused. Conventions, tournaments, watching other people playing games on things like twitch are just a few examples of things that non gamers don’t understand. Gamers even have their own language with phrases and words like: gratz, leveling and grinding for xp. Of course the same can be said about any subculture. However there is a part of gaming culture that everyone, even those who have never picked up a gaming controller in their life can get behind, charity.
Most people who aren’t gamers tend to think of the stereotypical gamer as an unemployed, overweight single man who has no social skills because he never steps foot out of his basement. However, the majority of gamers don’t fit that mold at all. Instead we (because yes I am a gamer) are people just like everyone else. We have jobs, families and a passion for something we love. We are also a group of people that love to give back.
This is done in a variety of ways and on many different levels. Two examples of this is a nationl organization called “Extra Life” and another is a Utah StarCraft 2 group.
“Extra Life” started in 2008 in honor a young lady named Victoria Enmon. Her battle with cancer inspired the Sarcastic Gamer Community to send in video games and gifts to keep her spirits up during her hospital stays. Sadly Tori lost her battle with the disease but through that something amazing happened. The idea of “Extra Life”, a 24-hour video game marathon to raise money for a hospital was born. In 2008 and 2009 over $300,000 was raised and 100% of it went to the hospital where Enmon was treated. This year “Extra Life” has raised over $233,600. The 24-hour event will take place on on Octber 25, 2014. If you want to join your local team or give to the cause click here.
Along the same line a group of over 600 StarCraft 2 players have band together to help one of their own, Kyle Miller Treu, who was in a serious car accident on July 1, 2014 on the I-15 freeway in Utah. His car was hit by a dump truck and he had to be cut free from the wreck and resuscitated on the scene.
Treu’s fellow teammates have organized a tournament in his name to try and raise money to help his family during this difficult time. According to the donation page they have raised almost $5,000 dollars in just 7 days bringing them to the halfway mark on a goal of $10,000. The tournament will be today July 10, 2014 at 2pm EST.
It is amazing to see the support and love that gamers have not just for the people of their own community but others as well. I am always proud to be a gamer but it’s groups like this that make me extra proud to be part of this amazing culture.
Machinima announced yesterday that they hit 5 billion views on YouTube. This milestone has only been reached by Rhianna’s Vevo channel, making them the second channel to reach this milestone. Machinima, which began in 2007 now has 22,000 partner channels which garner about 2.4 billion views a month. You can read the full press release below.
MACHINIMA CHANNEL REACHES 5 BILLION VIEWS ON YOUTUBE
Machinima, the leading global video entertainment network for fanboys and videogamers, announced today that its main YouTube channel (YouTube.com/Machinima) has reached 5 billion lifetime views.
Machinima shares this milestone with Rihanna’s VEVO channel as theonly two YouTube channel partners to ever reach the 5 billion views landmark.
Machinima’s main channel, which launched in 2007, was the first channel Machinima debuted on YouTube, and paved the way for Machinima’s network. As the first network to develop a Talent Network Program, Machinima now has over 22,000 amazing talent network channels that garner over 2.4 billion views per month and cater to gamer and fanboy audiences.
Machinima wants to thank its outstanding talent from around the world who have contributed to its success, as well as the most amazing fans and subscribers on YouTube, for helping Machinima reach this incredible milestone.
