Archive - 2014

Cliff Martinez to Score Far Cry 4 Soundtrack

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November 3, 2014 Today, Ubisoft® announces that it partnered with film composer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Cliff Martinez to compose the original game soundtrack for its upcoming open-world, first-person shooter Far Cry 4, the much-anticipated sequel to the #1 rated shooter of 2012.* Cliff has a background in music as a former member of the award-winning rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers and has composed scores for films including “Traffic,” “Drive” and “Spring Breakers.”

Working with Ubisoft Montreal’s Far Cry 4’s Music Designer Jerome Angelot, Music Supervisor Simon Landry and Audio Director Tony Gronick, Cliff created original music specifically for Far Cry 4’s gameplay and helped bring to life the gorgeous, yet ruthless environment and the unforgettable characters found in the game.

“Bringing Cliff on board was a no-brainer. Collaborating with him was a dream. He has the remarkable ability to portray compelling emotions and elevate the mundane into extraordinary with his musical talent,” said Tony Gronick, Audio Director for Far Cry 4, Ubisoft. “Cliff delivered everything I hoped for. I’m so proud of the music in Far Cry 4 and am thankful for the opportunity to work with him.”

“It was an honor to be asked to write the music for the Far Cry 4 game as my first full-length video game soundtrack,” said Cliff Martinez. “It was exciting for me to be asked to take my usual minimalistic cinematic approach to the immersive game world.  Any game where you can ride on a rampaging elephant is a project you can’t turn down!”

In Far Cry 4, players find themselves in Kyrat, a breathtaking, perilous and wild region of the Himalayas struggling under the regime of a despotic self-appointed king. Using a vast array of weapons, vehicles and animals, players will write their own story across an exotic open-world landscape.

The Far Cry 4 Original Game Soundtrack digital edition will release worldwide on November 4, the limited 2-CD edition will release on December 2 in North America and on December 9 in Europe, and the limited 3-LP edition will release in January 2015.

Far Cry 4 will be available November 18 worldwide for major platforms and Windows PC.

*Based on Metacritic as of 12/18/2012

Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show Season Pass Info

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San Francisco, USA — November 3, 2014 Today, Ubisoft announced details for the Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show Season Pass. The Season Pass will be available to download at the November 18th launch on Kinect for Xbox One and Xbox 360, and PlayStation 4.

The Rabbids Invasion Season Pass will include access to all 15 add-on episodes complete with crazy new challenges. Players will have the opportunity to engage in friendly competitions with family and friends while watching the funniest moments from “SUPER RABBID”, “VAMPIRE RABBID”, “RABBIDS WITH FLEAS”, “ZOMBIE RABBID”, “RABBID DREAMS” episodes, among others.

The Season Pass will include all 5 DLC Packs which each contain 3 new full interactive episodes. In addition to the 21 original episodes, the game and season pass will amount to 36 episodes. The 5 DLC packs will becoming available monthly though March 2015:

•       Pack 1 – At launch
•       Pack 2 – December 2015
•       Pack 3 – January 2015
•       Pack 4 – February 2015
•       Pack 5 – March 2015

Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show is being developed by Ubisoft Barcelona with support from Ubisoft Paris. With more than 14 million games sold, the Rabbids are some of Ubisoft’s best-loved characters, and their wacky adventures appeal to kids and families across the globe. With Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show, a selection of the 78 seven-minute CGI episodes from the original Rabbids Invasion TV series are adapted to allow the audience to join with the Rabbids in acting out some of their crazy antics.

Thanks to the integrated motion control and voice recognition of next-generation consoles, Ubisoft is able to create an innovative mix of classic television programming and the interactive elements of video games.

Space Hulk: Ascension Edition Pre-Order Announced and New Video Dev Diary

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Copenhagen, Denmark – November 3rd, 2014 Prepare yourself, Terminator! Today independent studio Full Control revealed that Space Hulk: Ascension Editionwill launch on November 12th for Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam. Players who pre-order Space Hulk: Ascension Edition on Steam will get a 10% discount, and those that own the original Space Hulk will receive an additional 15% discount off the RRP:  a total discount of 25%. Space Hulk: Ascension Edition is now available for pre-order at http://store.steampowered.com/app/317620/

Space Hulk: Ascension Edition is a completely new experience that takes the game to a whole new level. With reworked mechanics and a host of new features, including RPG progression mechanics, new Genestealer variations, new rules, and missions structure, Space Hulk: Ascension Edition has 10 x the content of the original game, with a playtime of 50-100 hours.

Features for Space Hulk: Ascension Edition include:

  • Huge Amounts of Content – 103 unique missions spread out across 3 campaign chapters
  • New Enemies – new Genestealer variations for you to face in the depths of the Space Hulk.
  • New Mechanics – a complete reworking of the board game rules and mechanics. It’s still the Space Hulk game you love, reimagined for a new experience.
  • Customisation – RPG-style skill progression and player squad management allow you to create your own tailor-made team of hardened veterans
  • New weapons, more complex maps, combi-weapons and flash missions.
  • 10 times the amount of content of the original game, with a playtime of 50 – 100 hours.

“We are so excited to announce the release date and pre-order for the next instalment of our Space Hulk game”, said Thomas Hentschel Lund, CEO of Full Control. “InSpace Hulk: Ascension Edition, we have taken player feedback and built a new experience, with deep RPG style progression that takes the claustrophobic, tense experience in the battle against Genestealers to a whole new level”.

Space Hulk: Ascension Edition is a 3D, digital, turn based, strategy game, which builds upon the classic board game experience, and adds new RPG style mechanics, additional weapons, enemy types, an all-new chapter and loads of other new features. Set in the isolated corridors and tomb-like chambers of ancient vessels lost in the graveyard of space, players lead a small force of fearless Space Marine Terminators in a ferocious fight for survival against hordes of predatory, alien Genestealers.

To coincide with the release date announcement, the second video developer diary reveals the design, levels and user interface behind Space Hulk: Ascension Edition.

To view the Video Developer Diary on Youtube visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LGu7b7Hm1k

You can find more information about Space Hulk: Ascension Edition at:www.spacehulk-ascension.com

ABCs Of Death 2 Review

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ABCs of Death 2, the sequel to the 2012 anthology flick, ABCs Of Death, once again puts 26 directors in command of each bringing a short story to life that use a single letter of the alphabet to set its morbid theme. The first ABCs Of Death was a spotty affair of brilliance, shock value, duds, and stupidity that kept me on my toes from A to Z. This time around, the segments were, with some exceptions, a bit less all over the place than before. Because of this lack of extremes, however, I found myself struggling to stick with the film through some of the video segments.

Still, there are some amazing, standout segments to be sure – my most favorite being Steven Kostanski’s “W is for Wish”, which took me right back to being a kid and seeing those He-Man toy commercials on morning TV. Watching them, I would always think, “Wow, I would love to join He-Man and fight Skeletor!” Unfortunately, I never really thought about what that world must be like – well, this segment does exactly that and it turns out not to be the great idea I once thought it was. Another standout segment is Alejandro Brugués’ “E is for Equilibrium” which, while not a horror short, just made me chuckle as, coming from a guy who roomed with my best friend for a while, I have been in these guys’ shoes – metaphorically speaking, of course.

I found the worst of the segments in this anthology to be Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen’s “L is for Legacy”, which features an indiscernible plot and unintentionally-cheesy monster, and Todd Rohal’s “P is for P-P-P-P-Scary”, which I simply didn’t get at all. The rest fall somewhere in between and serve their purposes. I must give a special shout out to Kristina Buozyte’s “K is for Knell” – please turn this into a full motion picture. I was very intrigued by the “antagonist” of this short and trying to figure out what it was.

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Overall, the ABCs Of Death 2 is an entertaining sequel that, while not quite as over-the-top as its predecessor, still has me wanting to see the franchise continue – if for nothing more than to foster the creativity of new generations of genre film directors. There are some really great short segments in this anthology, but not enough of them to raise the bar higher than the one set by the original. The ABCs Of Death 2 is now available on VoD and other video rental services.

New Mordheim: City of the Damned Screenshots

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Here are some new screenshots from Mordheim: City of the Damned, the turn-based tactical-RPG where you lead warbands into bloody and lethal skirmishes in the cursed city Mordheim from the Warhammer world. Enjoy!

Screenshots

Techland Introduces Steve the Zombie Consultant

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October 30th, 2014 – Warsaw, Poland/Despite globalization and unified markets, it seems a mindset difference between Western and Eastern Europe still exists. Today we were once again reminded of this vast contrast as a recruitment video from the region was found on the web. The material quickly circulated around news outlets and discussion boards, provoking raised eyebrows and feverish discussions.

The video in question can be found here:

It is hard to remain indifferent to the events caught on film. Many people in the West would think them impossible, yet there they are, right in the video. The question remains what we should do about it: disregard the video as some employment loophole from a far-away country, or perhaps something that can be adapted to Western markets?

MORE INFO: Click here

Razer Introduces Wireless Naga Epic Chroma Mouse

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CARLSBAD, Calif. – Razer™, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, today announced the launch of the Razer Naga Epic Chroma gaming mouse.

The Razer Naga Epic Chroma showcases the new Chroma lighting on its tilt-click scroll wheel and mechanical thumb grid, a feature that allows personal color customization through Razer Synapse. This one-size-fits-all ergonomic MMO gaming mouse offers a total of 19 buttons with 12 mechanical buttons situated on the iconic Razer Naga’s thumb grid. It is outfitted with an 8200 DPI 4G laser sensor that captures up to 200 inches per second and offers a maximum acceleration of 50 G, and also features both a wireless and wired mode with 1,000 Hz Ultrapolling and a 7-foot, lightweight, braided fiber cable.

Razer’s latest gaming mouse also supports Razer Synapse: Stats & Heatmaps, the newly updated beta software for Razer’s cloud-based driver that provides technical tracking data such as game time, button presses, distance moved, how much overall pressure was exerted while gaming, and more. This data can be especially useful to users of the Razer Naga Epic Chroma in helping them tweak their gameplay, increasing personal accuracy and reaction times and improving their play settings and interfaces.

“The new Naga Epic Chroma gives MMO gamers more freedom than ever before,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “We’ve combined the comfortable features of the Naga with even more state-of-the-art gaming features, along with the new, fully-customizable Chroma color features. The 12 mechanical thumb grid buttons enable players to maximize their gameplay capabilities and to get the unfair advantage. All in all the Razer Naga Epic Chroma is now even more personal than it already was.”

The Razer Naga Epic Chroma will make its very first public appearance at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California on Nov. 7, 2014.

Razer announced the Razer Chroma series during this year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The Naga Epic Chroma joins the BlackWidow Chroma, Kraken 7.1 Chroma and DeathAdder Chroma, all with the option of 16.8 million customizable colors and a range of effects enabled through Razer Synapse. Synapse allows the devices to sync lighting colors and patterns between Chroma devices with the click of a button.

Razer Chroma will also offer an open SDK that enables game developers to integrate advanced lighting effects based on in-game events such as a base being under attack, flash bang effects and much more.

Product Features:

  • 19 MMO-optimized programmable buttons
  • 12-button mechanical thumb grid
  • Tilt-click scroll wheel
  • 8200 DPI 4G laser sensor
  • Wireless gaming-grade technology
  • Chroma lighting with 16.8 million customizable color options
  • Razer Synapse enabled
  • 1000 Hz Ultrapolling
  • 200 inches per second / 50 G acceleration
  • Zero-acoustic Ultraslick mouse feet
  • 1.13 m / 7 ft. lightweight, braided fiber cable
  • Approximate size: 119 mm / 4.69 in. (Length) x 75 mm / 2.95 in. (Width) x  43 mm / 1.69 in. (Height)
  • Approximate weight: 150 g / 0.33 lbs.

Price:  USA: $129.99 /EUR: 129.99€

Availability: November 2014