DICE today announced that Battlefield Naval Strike will be available March 25th first for Battlefield 4 Premium members. Battlefield 4 Naval Strike takes the water-based combat introduced in Battlefield 4 to the South China Sea. The expansion pack also introduces five new weapons, two additional gadgets, the amphibious hovercraft vehicle, ten assignments and the all-new Carrier Assault mode, which is an homage to the fan-favorite, Titan mode from Battlefield 2142. Battlefield 4 Naval Strike will be available starting April 8th for non-Premium members.
Activision and Infinity Ward will be offering a Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught DLC Pack 1 Free Trial on Xbox Live this weekend. Starting March 21st, and going through March 24th, gamers on Xbox One and Xbox 360 will be able to try out Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught DLC Pack 1 at no cost. Come Friday, owners of Call of Duty: Ghosts will just need to sign-in to Xbox Live, download the Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught DLC Pack 1 from the in-game store, and jump into a match.
BioWare and LucasArts today announced Galactic Strongholds, a new Free-to-Play Digital Expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, coming this summer. Galactic Strongholds will allow players to show off their own style and expand their influence by acquiring and customizing personal Strongholds.
To celebrate the announcement of the Digital Expansion, all Subscribers as of April 2nd will receive 500 Bonus Cartel Coins and all Subscribers as of May 4th, will receive 1,000 Bonus Cartel Coins.
Subscribers as of May 11th, receive special rewards including Early Access on June 24th, along with a Luxurious Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace with three rooms already unlocked (valued at 1,500,000 credits). Preferred Status Players gain Early Access on July 29th and Galactic Strongholds will be offered to the public as a Free-to-Play Digital Expansion in August.
In Galactic Strongholds, players can live on multiple planets and customize their apartments. Players can live in the heart of their faction’s capital world, live in style among the high-rollers of Nar Shaddaa, or even both by owning multiple Strongholds. Hundreds of decorations will be available for players to express their own personal style, as well as to boost their Prestige score to compete for top ranking in the Stronghold Directory. Friends can be invited and transported to a player’s Stronghold from any in-game location to socialize. At official launch, Guilds will also be able to launch Guild Flagships where members can meet, plan, and strategize for their next adventure.
Go behind the scenes at Massive Entertainment and discover the power of the Snowdrop engine; Massive’s in-house answer to video game creation on the new generation of consoles.
Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it would further strengthen its support for the independent development community by introducing more tool and middleware solutions for the PlayStation 4. Sony has entered into a strategic partnership to bring native solutions from middleware vendor GameMaker:Studio from YoYo Games, and the company also announced that MonoGame would become available for the PS4 software title development. The company also announced that fully integrated solutions for Unity from Unity Technologies are now available for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, with the early access version for PS4 coming in April.
The Xbox 360 version of Titanfall is once again being delayed a couple weeks. The game was originally scheduled to come out on March 11th, but was later postponed until March 25th. The new release date is April 8th.
Obsidian Entertainment today announced that they are entering into a partnership with Paradox Interactive to launch their upcoming role-playing game, Pillars of Eternity.
Pillars of Eternity, an RPG inspired by classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, was funded via Kickstarter in late 2012, raising $4.5 million through both backer pledges on Kickstarter and Obsidian’s own website. Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, stated that every dollar raised through the crowdfunding campaign will be spent solely on the game’s development.
Paradox will assume key marketing and distribution responsibilities for the title, which will support Obsidian by allowing them to concentrate entirely on development.
Deep Silver has released the first gameplay footage for Sacred 3. The trailer introduces a selection of character classes that will be available giving fans a glimpse of the co-op action. Sacred 3 will be available on August 26th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Sony Computer Entertainment today announced the development of “Project Morpheus” − a virtual reality system for the PlayStation 4. Sony will continue development of Morpheus looking towards a future commercial launch.
Morpheus enables developers to create experiences that deliver a sense of presence – where players feel as though they are physically inside the virtual world of a game. Morpheus features a visor style head-mounted display and works with PlayStation Camera to deliver a VR experience right before the player’s eyes. Inertial sensors built into the head mount unit and PlayStation Camera track head orientation and movement so as the player’s head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates naturally in real-time. Furthermore, in supporting games, the player can use a PlayStation Move Motion Controller as an object, such as a sword. Morpheus will reproduce the player’s hands and sword within the game so the player feels like they are physically fighting off enemies with their sword in the virtual world.
Morpheus adopts 3D audio technology developed by Sony. In addition to sounds coming from front, behind, left and right, Morpheus re-creates stereoscopic sounds heard from below and above the players, such as footsteps climbing up stairs below them, or engine noises of helicopters flying overhead. Sounds that players hear change in real-time depending on their head orientation, creating a realistic audio environment within a 360-degree virtual world.
Developers will be able to create Morpheus content for PS4. The Morpheus dedicated SDK is currently under development and will become available when ready.
Atlus has released a pair of new character videos for Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars, introducing heroines Chloe and Ellie. Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars will be available on April 15th for the Nintendo 3DS.
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