Dying Light Delayed to 2015

For those of you that haven't heard of the all new zombie-survival game form Techland, you may want to check up on it.

Wait! I know what you're thinking. "Are you serious? Another zombie game? Isn't the market already flooded with these?"

Well, yes. That is true. However, Dying Light does something that no other zombie game has done. They actually added parkour and free-running into the game to help you avoid the monsters trying to tear away at your flesh.

Unfortunately, Techland, the devs of Dying Light, have delayed the game to February 2015. The game was originally supposed to be released later this year, but Techland decided that there just wasn't enough polish on the game to release it to the public.

This statement was issued by Techland:

"When we started the development of Dying Light, we were committed to innovation. We wanted to give you a freedom of movement unprecedented in open-world games. After many improvements and months of hard work, we have now come so close to realizing our initial vision we feel we cannot stop before it is ready."

"We believe the Natural Movement element of our game will change what you expect from the genre, and we don’t want to sacrifice any of its potential by releasing too early. This quality-focused thinking underlines all our development choices and we hope you share our belief that the gameplay must always come first."

"The new date ensures that we can fully realize our vision of an innovative open-world game. We won’t need to make compromises or trade-offs on any of the five platforms we’re working on. For you, it means an outstanding, original game that makes the wait more than worthwhile."\

You can also check out the trailer below

EA Has High hopes for New Projects at E3 2014

Even after the disastrous release of highly anticipated titles like SimCity and Battlefield 4, EA still continues to push head on in the gaming industry with high confidence. Will they actually keep up with the demands from consumers, or will they fail like they have been time and time again. You never know with EA these days. It's not exactly easy dealing with a corporation that was voted for "Worst Company in America" for the years of 2012 and 2013.

However, this year, EA has something new cooked up for the public. EA CEO Andrew Wilson has confirmed to the public that there will be some major reveals at the next E3; which has been appropriately dubbed the "EA World Premiere: E3 2014 Preview". Wilson specifically points out that Ea has a "major new game" that's powered by the Frostbite 3 engine. Wilson also states that the game is being developed by "some of our most talented teams".

Whoa, hold it. I know what you're thinking. It's probably the new Star Wars: Battlefront game, right? Well, probably not. I perceive that this isn't the case due to the fact that Wilson has already gone public about the reveal of the new Star Wars game that is currently being developed by DICE.

Whatever EA is planning to reveal, it's going to be something new. It's not going to be a Star Wars game of the new Mass Effect.

Remember, E3 2014 starts at 12 PM PDT on June 9th. TrueGamer will keep you updated on the whole event.

Portal Released for Nvidia Shield Next Week

The iconic game produces by Valve will finally becoming to Nvidia's Shield next week. While the plan was originally announced in March, owners will now be able to purchase Portal for their Shield at the price of $9.99 starting May 12th.

If you don't know what the Shield is, you should probably look into it. It's the best thing available in handheld gaming technology, and it far surpasses the Nintendo 3DS and the PS Vita. It comes equipped with 5-inch display with a native resolution of 720p. Inside the casing is Nvidia's new Terga 4 chip, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of hard drive storage. This handheld gaming device also runs on the smooth and user friendly Android Software and syncs with any computer that has the Geforce Experience installed. Did we mention the full controller layout?

Neversoft Absorbed By Infinity Ward

Some of you may remember the iconic eyeball being stabbed by a spear and watching you through your TV screen before your game starts. If you do, then you're probably familiar with the Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero game developer Neversoft.

Unfortunately, this studio has now been absorbed into the corporate clutches of Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward. Now, instead of making quality games, they're going to be helping produce the recycled trash that we have come to call Call of Duty. The newest announced installment in this recycled mess is to be called Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Some employees from Neversoft are excited to be absorbed into Infinity Ward, but some are entirely against the decision. This includes the Neversoft studio head Joel Jewett and studio director Scott Pease. Unfortunately, these two will retire form the gaming industry next year as a result of this corporate deal.

Halo TV Series Coming To Showtime

For all you Halo fans out there, this might be your most exciting moment. After the release of Halo: Forward Unto Dawn, many gamers were left begging for more Halo TV action.

Well, Microsoft is currently discussing a deal with the premium cable channel Showtime to have a Halo TV series air.

Last year, Microsoft went public with it's decision to partner with the famous director Steven Spielberg to act as executive producer for the Halo TV show. Spielberd will also be working alongside 343 Industries to produce the show as well.

According to a report released by Variety, Microsoft has a plan to air the Halo TV series on Showtime first, and then release it on Xbox. However, Microsoft said that the Xbox episodes will have "interactive elements". Currently, it is unknown what these "elements" may be.

If this Halo TV series is anything like Forward Unto Dawn, then Halo fans are certainly in for a delicious treat.

Minecraft Denmark Invaded By America

Image from Minecraft forum

Recently, the Danish Geodata Agency (DGA) reproduced the entire country of Denmark inside the blocky matrix of Minecraft. Wait, it gets better. They did this on a 1:1 scale. According to data analysts, it took about 4,000 billion individual blocks and about 1 terabyte of data. However, it wasn't built by hand. It was built using the advanced 3D elevation model that the DGA has in their possession. Since this world was created to be a teaching tool, the DGA disabled the TNT blocks on the server to prevent imminent destruction of the cities from players with malicious intent.

Unfortunately, the good guys don't always win. Players soon found out that the DGA had failed to disable the mine cart block with TNT placed inside of it. With that new found knowledge, players invaded and destroyed the Danish Minecraft cities with their mine carts and explosives. To celebrate their victory, the greifers put up American flags and tanks on the ruins.

In an interview with The Register, the Chief Press Officer of DGA said "We consider that as nature of playing Minecraft - elements are broken down and new ones are being created. Therefore, we will not reboot the demonstration of Denmark in Minecraft. But occasionally we will rebuild minor areas if building are removed and nothing new is being created."

If you want, you can download the Denmark map in segments from the DGA website.

Planetside 1 Now Free To Play

When Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) rolled out the new All Access membership program to cater to their fan base, a lot of decision and changes were made. Well, one of those decision is to make the original Planetside free to play from now on.

The only thing you'll need to play this game is 1.8 GB of hard-drive space. Other than that, you should be fine due to the fact it was developed in 2004. If you're computer can't run this, it may be time to upgrade.

You can find the download for Planetside 1 here.

DayZ Standalone Has Now Sold 2 Million Units

If you're a PC gamer, then you more than likely know about the best zombie-survival game available. That's right, I;m talking about DayZ. About two years ago, Dean "Rocket" Hall developed and released the DayZ survival mod for ARMA II: Combined Operations. The mod from Hall sky-rocketed in popularity and also broke record sales from the ARMA developer Bohemia Interactive.

Now, DayZ is a standalone game on Steam Early Access and has now sold over 2 million copies to the player-base. If you can put up with the enormous amount of bugs, then you should definitely get yourself a copy of this brutal, zombie infested adventure.

Microsoft "Eden Falls" Trademark

With all the major game companies like Sony and Microsoft gearing up for this years E3 event, trademarks are being filed left and right by both figureheads.

The most recent trademark being called "Eden Falls" has been taken by Microsoft. Upon further investigation into what little clues were offered to the public, it seems the trademark is for "entertainment services, namely, providing an online computer game". However, it's not really a surprise that the trademark is registered for that.

The real surprises come when we look beyond the trademark itself. Apparently, there is an online blog dedicated to to the game claiming that it's a science fiction RPG being developed by Brimstone Interactive. Oddly enough, this website is actually registered to an individual in California, not to an actual company.

On the other side of the coin, there is a Twitter account that also claims to be linked to the game. However, this account states that the developer of the game is actually Lift London. This is most likely false due to the fact that Lift London produces games for tablets and mobile devices and not computers.

Brimstone and Lift London have currently not commented to the public on the situation.

Sonic Boom, The Comeback Of Sonic?

According to Sega, "a new branch of the sonic universe" is being released all around the world. Sega and Nintendo have partnered up to release all new Sonic games, TV shows, and toys.

The first wave of this Sonic onslaught is the video game, Sonic Boom. This new Sonic game will feature the four protagonists and will be released on the WiiU and the 3DS. As you could see in the picture, the main characters got a a slight makeover as well. Tails now wears goggles and multiple leather straps, Amy looks about the same, and Sonic now wears a scarf and has lengthier limbs. Then, there's Knuckles. Apparently, while no one was paying attention to the Sonic franchise, Knuckles developed an addiction to steroids and is now a giant monstrosity. This wall of impenetrable meat is now twice his normal height and has the upper body strength of Hulk Hogan.

The second wave of Sonic will include a new CG-animated television series that continues after the events of the game. This series will consists of 52 episodes that are 11 minutes each and will air on Cartoon Network in 2014 and 2015.

Finally, Sega now had a partnership with Tomy to release a new line of Sonic Boom related toys, Such as plushies, Sonic themed remote controlled vehicles, and action figures.

Hawken Now Only On Steam

Some of you may have never heard of Hawken, some of you may play it all the time. Hawken is a free-to-play online game developed by Adhesive Games that revolves around mech-suit combat. Up until now, Hawken used a dedicated launcher, but they have now made a move to Steam. So, any players should probably go get rid of that old Hawken launcher on your computer, because it's now out of date.

Any active players of Hawken will notice that they are unable to login due to the game being down to fully iterate the movement to Steam. Any current players of Hawken will receive a code in their e-mail that will allow them to download the game for Steam. Don't worry, any items or stats that you've earned in the game are still there. If you don't play Hawken and would like to create a new account, you're going to have to wait until the game fully releases on Steam in February.

Xbox 360 Titanfall Delayed

The Facts

Today, Electronic Arts announced that Titanfall for Xbox 360 has been delayed and will now release on March 25th. However, Xbox One and PC versions of the game are still launching on the earlier March 11th date.

Unfortunately for Playstation Owners, Titanfall will not be coming to you. Due to an agreement between Electronic Arts and Microsoft, the game is sold only on Xbox platforms and PC.

The Opinion

As disappointing as it may be when a game is delayed, I can understand. I would much rathe rhave a game be delayed and then released instead of having a day one patch like most games that ow come from Electronic Arts. Sometimes, game delays can't be avoided, but they ultimately make the game better with the needed finishing touches.

Flappy Bird Ad Revenue Report

The Facts

Dong Nguyen, the developer of the hit mobile game Flappy Bird, has revealed the ad revenue that the game currently brings in. This game, with more than 50,000,000 current downloads, brings in a staggering $50,000 a day in ad revenue. Nguyen says that he does not plan to add anything to the game, not even a premium pay option to disable the ads.

The Opinion

This is it, this is where I lose my understanding of humanity when it comes to games. I've played Flappy Bird and I think it is an awful game. I've played flash games from five years ago with more creativity and depth than this piece of trash. Furthermore, the developer of this game admits that the design of the bird is from "Cheep Cheep" in Super Mario Bros, and that the pipes are also "homage" to Nintendo. Are you kidding me? This guy is making $50,000 dollars a day on a game that uses design from another company. He could have at least made the bird look more like Cheep Cheep. As of right now, this bird looks like an Idaho potato with the lips of Nicki Minaj. The fact that this game is so popular absolutely astounds me.

Watch Dogs Trademark Dropped Prank

It seems as if a prankster with malicious intent has gotten under the skin of Ubisoft. On February 1st, a request was filed with the USPTO for "express abandonment" of the Watch Dogs trademark. This person was even able to succesfully forge the signature of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, however, Guillemot has confirmed he did not sign the document. Oddly enough, this request for abandonment came only a few days after Ubisoft acquired an extension for the Watch Dogs trademark.

"We are working directly with the USPTO on reinstating the trademark for Watch Dogs and it will be active again in the coming days. The matter has no impact on Watch Dogs development." Ubisoft said.

So, after all the panic, fans can rejoice that the upcoming game is still scheduled to release in the spring of 2014 after the upsetting delay back in November 2013.

Dark Souls 2 PC Release Date

The Facts

If you miss hopelessly crying in your room at night because you can't get past that one OP boss on Dark Souls, then this is the news for you.

The legendary Dark Souls II (PC) has appeared on Amazon with a release date of May 31, 2014. The game is going to sale for $60, but requires a Steam client to download.

The Opinion

While the crowd and fans of Dark Souls are going wild, you probably should't get your hopes up. Unfortunately, Amazon has a nasty habit of publishing release dates on items that are entirely inaccurate (Just look at 2013 with the Next-Gen Consoles). Not only that, but From Software stated that the PC version will release after the console versions. So, this may be false news, sorry to disappoint you. However, fans are definitely expecting a major improvement form the first installment in the series, since From Software agreed that the PC version of the original Dark Souls was "half assed".

Are you going to buy the next Dark Souls?

SOE drops games, announces All Access Pass

The Facts

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that they are dropping support for four of their minor MMORPGs. The games included are Free Reals, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Wizardy Online, and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.

SOE has released the following statement: "At Sony Online Entertainment, we are always evaluating our portfolio to ensure we're providing players with the best gameplay experiences. At times, as part of the commitment, we have to make the difficult decision to sunset a game so we can refocus our resources on other areas in the best interest of our company and the player community."

The final decision has been made that Free Realms and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures will shut down on March 31, 2014. Wizardy Online and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will shut down on July 31.

To brighten up the news, SOE has also announced its new All Access Pass membership plan for all players. For only $14.99 a month, you can get premium acces to the entire Everquest series, DC Universe Online and Planetside 2. This new emebership plan will start on April 2. Oh, and did we mention that on this date the original Planetside will also be free to play?

The Opinion

None of us like seeing games shut down and cease to have support from the parents companies, but can you really blame SOE? They're making a good decision. They're trying to cater to an actual gaming community, not a bunch of children that play Free Realms. The decision to dissolve these games is in the best interest of the company and the gaming community as a whole.

The All Access Pass is also a bargain in my opinion, Its only $14.99 a month and you get premium access to all SOE games. The price of $14.99 is usually the fee of only one game. Not only that, but Planetside 2 players will receive 500 station cash a month, that $5 of in-game currency.

Companies Paying YouTube Personalities for Coverage

It's been reported that companies Microsoft and EA are paying YouTube personalities for positive coverage of their products. So, this article will probably be one of my more opinionated pieces, so prepare yourself.

In my opinion, EA is a greedy company. I have no problem with some nice DLC, but EA overcharges its customers for under saturated day one DLC. They also went as far as to release SimCity in an online only mode despite the outcry from its fans to do the opposite. EA did manage to redeem themselves in my eyes however by releasing almost all of the Content ID arguments form YouTube that used their gameplay.

So, I'll admit it, I've been an Xbox fan boy for as long as I can remember, but I will never forgive Microsoft for the way that they tried to release the Xbox One with an  online only mode and charging a fee for using used games. The only reason that they changed it is because it impacted their sales so much.

In conclusion, do I think it's wrong for companies to pay YouTube personalities for positive coverage? As much as I dont like the companies, I cant disagree with the decisions. It's merely an advertising technique.

GTA V For PC Soon?

With its much anticipated release on September 17th, 2013, GTA V broke record sales numbers and managed to impress its loyal fan base. The game contains a compelling story, great characters, beautiful graphics and endless activities.

Despite the server issues with the GTA V multiplayer launch, its fanase still remains strong and true to the game. Sadly, Rockstar is still neglecting a major part of its fans, the PC gamers. Rockstar released GTA V for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and refused to comment on a PC iteration of the game. Although information was leaked by Intel representative Chris Silva about a PC version of the game, fans have been rather foggy about the release for PC. Although unsure about the release of this game for PC, it hasn't stopped them from trying to convince Rockstar to release the PC iteration of the title by making a Change.org petition that has reached over 650,000 signatures.

Recently, information has been released that has given fans new hope for the release of the game. This includes the fact that Amazon France has released a sale offer for a PC version of GTA V and that a buglog was leaked containing information about GTA V for PC. The buglog contains pages of bugs that would only affect a PC version of the game.

Some people are unhappy with Rockstar for not releasing GTA V for PC, but I believe it's purely for business reasons. Just like EA released a online only version of SimCity for anti piracy reasons, I think
Roackstar decided not to release GTA V PC for the same reasons. If they were to release a PC iteration the same time as the console iterations, then gamers would flock to torrent sites (I can't blame them) to download the game for free.

Are you looking forward to the PC version of GTA V? Do you think Rockstar should have released it alongside the console versions?

Rust Sales Skyrocket

I'm sure any of you reading these articles have heard of the infamous Garry's Mod. The biggest sandcastle in the PC gaming world that been available for nearly 9 years and was produced by the famous Garry Newman. However, GMod seems that its going to eventually be beaten out by a new open world survival game. And I'm not talking about DayZ.

The new survival game Rust has had sales skyrocket over the past month, it's actually earned 55% of the profit that GMod has earned in the past 9 years. Garry Newman himself told the public using his Twitter feed that "We never, ever expected anything to dwarf GMod's success". It really is hard to believe that this relatively new Early Access game is making all this money and outshining its new rival, DayZ.

So, do you guys think Rust is good enough to hold its crowning position at the top of the Steam sales charts?

Non-customization Steam Machines?

The digital distribution gaming empire, Valve,t announced the Steam Machine at the CES earlier this month in Las Vegas. The Steam Machine has been rumored to be manufactured by 13 different companies, each with their own models and prices.

The most famous one to come out of this haystack of companies is Alienware. The infamously overpriced PC gaming hardware company is making its own model of Steam Machine that they say will match the performance and power of the new next generation consoles.

Alienware also states that the machines will be non-customization types. Instead of being able to freely switch out the main hardware components (like in a PC), Alienware will instead release a new Steam Machine every year.

Do you think Alienware will be able to come out on top for the competition of Steam Machine sales? Are you going to buy a Steam Machine?

Nintendo Sales Numbers Cut, Stocks Fall

Earlier this week in a financial earning release, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the company's new expected sale numbers for the WiiU are 2.8 million by the end of March. These are after the original sales projections of 9 million. Nintendo has also said that they expect sale numbers t not reach original projections for their more popular platform, the 3DS. So, sales numbers for the 3DS have been dropped from 18 million to 13.5 million. However, the original sales predictions for the WiiU seemed too optimistic. How could Nintendo expect to sale 9 million consoles when the more popular PlayStation 4 has sold 4.2 million? Did Nintendo really expect to sell twice as many consoles as Nintendo?

If these newly released sales numbers turn out to be correct, then Nintendo will make a net loss of around 25 billion yen this fiscal year. These gloomy predictions for the teetering future of the WiiU has also caused Stock prices to spiral downward nearly 17%. With the falling sales predictions and falling stocks, the future for the WiiU and Nintendo as a whole seems rather rough on the road ahead.

So, whats your favorite Next Generation console? Tell us in the comments!

Thief system requirements

Eidos Montreal had finally released the PC system requirements for the reboot of the Thief series which will be released on February 25, 2014.

Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows Vista with platform update
CPU: High performance dual core CPU or quad cpre CPU
RAM: 4GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon 4800 series/Nvidia GTS 250
DirectX: DirectX 10
HDD/SSD: 20 GB

Recommended System Requirements

OS: Windows 7/ Windows 8
CPU: AMD FX 8000 series or better/Intel i7 Quad Core CPU
RAM: Above 4GB
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD/R9 series or better / Nvidia GTX 660 series or better
DirectX: DirectX 11
HDD/SSD: 20GB

Valve Changes Steam Controller Design

Recently, Valve announced that they would be changing the design of their iconic steam controller and swapping out the touchscreen in the middle for something more practical. Yeah, you guessed it. Buttons.

Original Steam Controller Design

New design lacking a touchscreen

Although it seems Valve was extremely set on the fact that they would be developing a button-less controller, they decided that buttons are still the way to play games, not touch screens. The controller now has a new set of eight buttons with four placed on each side in a standard layout. The controller still has the famous touchpads instead of joysticks.

I do think that Valves decision regarding the touchscreen was a good one. Gamers are usually playing high paced games that require instant feedback, and some touchscreens are notorious for not providing any at crucial moments. Gaming to this day is dominated by buttons, no matter what platform you're on. However, the middle of the controller looks rather bare as if its lacking a set of buttons or a Steam Logo (Which will probably be added in later).

Do you support the decision that Valve made regarding the touchscreen? Are you looking forward to the Steam controller? Are you looking forward to the Steam Machines?