Author - Jerry Paxton

CCP Games Announces SPARC Virtual Sports Game

2017/02/27

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

27 February 2017 – Atlanta, GA – Today, CCP Games is thrilled to announce Sparc, a unique virtual sport only possible in virtual reality. In Sparc, players connect online to compete with each other in fast and fun full-body VR gameplay.

Currently in development for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, Sparc will be the first wholly original IP to be shipped by CCP outside of the EVE universe when it releases in 2017.

Sparc‘s skill-based, full-body gameplay makes for a fast-paced and fun physical sport. Players use their motion controllers to throw projectiles at their opponents from a distance, and in turn defend themselves by dodging, blocking, or deflecting the incoming attacks. Players can join one-on-one matches with friends online or find opponents via matchmaking.

Sparc enables players to connect and compete in an online community. Players can watch matches in-person and queue for the next match in VR through Courtside, a freeform social area for spectating in VR or on screen. Sparc includes multiple two-player game modes as well as single-player challenges and training modes, plus a range of customization and personalization options for competitors.

“After our early experiments with standing VR gameplay, we were excited by the idea of building an original sport designed for the current generation of VR hardware. We’ve designed Sparc so that players can express and improve their skill through their physical actions.” said Morgan Godat, Executive Producer at CCP Atlanta. “Ultimately, we want players to think of Sparc as a virtual court in their living room where they can meet and compete with other players from around the world.”

“At CCP games, our goal is to harness our passion for virtual reality as a new medium and create the killer apps for the first generation of VR technology,” said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “We set out to achieve that in mobile VR with Gunjack and in seated VR with EVE: Valkyrie, both released in the first year of VR becoming publicly available. With Sparc, we want to capitalize on the unique strengths of standing VR and deliver a game with all the depth and excitement to keep players returning long into the future.”

Today’s announcement is only the beginning for Sparc and CCP Games plans to reveal further information about Sparc‘s gameplay and feature-set ahead of release later this year.

For more details about the game, please visit www.playSparc.com. You can also find Sparc on Facebook via facebook.com/PlaySparc, or follow the game on Twitter via @PlaySparc.

The 2017 Oscars All Access Live Stream

2017/02/26

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, Movie News, News

Looks like The Oscars are pushing their complimentary all-access live stream this year, promising even more backstage access, etc. You can check out the all-access live stream at their official Facebook page as well as official Oscars website. The streaming experience is meant to be ran alongside the television broadcast of the actual show. The Oscars all-access live stream begins at 7:00 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PT.

Dying: Reborn Gets PlayStation VR Release Date

2017/02/26

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Screenshots / Photos, Windows PC News

BEIJING – (February 24, 2017) – After an impressive end of 2016 that saw the release of three diverse PlayStation®VR games, Oasis Games Ltd, a leading independent Chinese publisher, today announced that its room escape horror game, DYING: Reborn, will launch on February 28 for the PlayStation®VR and PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system. The release date for the PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system will be announced at a later time.

DYING: Reborn is a dark, horror-themed puzzle game that creates a unique first-person room escape experience. Players will play as Mathew, a distraught young man on a mission to find his missing sister. After receiving a mysterious note from his sister, Mathew finds himself trapped in a strange and eerie hostel with no recollection of how he landed there. To escape the hostel and solve the mystery, Mathew must solve a variety of creative puzzles while exploring each spooky room in the building for clues. Scattered throughout the environment are items he will collect and use to piece together what happened while trying to find his sister.

Players who solve all of the mysteries in DYING: Reborn will discover a rich, overarching story—and just possibly, a shocking revelation. Can you help Mathew find his sister and escape safely? We’re DYING to find out!

The PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita games consists of six chapters of riveting gameplay, while PlayStation®VR has three immersive chapters for a shorter but even more intense experience. Developed by NEKCOM Entertainment and published by Oasis Games for PlayStation®VR, PS4™ and “PS Vita” system, DYING: Reborn will be available on February 28 for the PS VR and PS4™ on the PlayStation®Store. The titles are available on PS VR for $9.99 and PS4™ for $19.99. This game has been rated “M for Mature” by the ESRB.

Stay up to date on all of the PS VR titles from Oasis Games by liking us on Facebook at fb.me/OasisGamesConsole and following on Twitter at OAS_Games and Instagram at @OasisGamesOfficial. Get more information on all Oasis Games titles here: http://en.console.oasgames.com.

Screenshots

Coffee Stain to Publish Deep Rock Galactic

2017/02/24

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

Skövde, Sweden (February 24, 2017), Coffee Stain, masters of Goat Simulation, takes a bite of danish developer Ghost Ship Games & becomes publisher of DEEP ROCK GALACTIC!

After six successful years, swedish indie developer and publisher Coffee Stain looks to grow the business, and one step towards that goal comes as Coffee Stain buys into danish developer Ghost Ship Games acquiring a minority stake of the company! Ghost Ship Games was founded in 2016 by a group of danish industry veterans on a mission to create amazing co-op experiences. The first game of the studio, Deep Rock Galactic will be published by Coffee Stain Publishing, and launches later this year! The companies are forming a strong alliance to fight the future together!

“This is the start of something extremely exciting. Coffee Stain has for some time looked for good ways of expanding, and we see this as a perfect way. The crew sailing Ghost Ship will complement us well with their experience, and in return we will bring our goat-minds to their table!” – Anton Westbergh, CEO of Coffee Stain

“Right after my first meeting with Coffee Stain at Dreamhack in Sweden, I knew they would be the perfect business “co-op player” for us. Coffee Stain are developers by heart, but has again and again proven their sea-worthiness in the international games industry. This is going to be an amazing journey!” – Søren Lundgaard, CEO of Ghost Ship Games

“Coffee Stain is the perfect business partner for us. We strongly believe that their experience with the development and publishing of Goat Simulator, Sanctum 1 and 2, will help us reach a bigger audience than we could ever have dreamed doing ourself as a small indie developer….and they are really nice guys too.” – Mikkel Martin Pedersen, Game Director of Ghost Ship Games

DEEP ROCK GALACTIC

Get ready to dig deep into procedurally generated cave systems in this frantic fps co-op action game. In Deep Rock Galactic, you take the role as a space dwarf, ready to do what dwarves do best, dig for minerals and gold! As part of the recently announced publishing initiative from Coffee Stain, Deep Rock Galactic will be going out in 2017. Read more about Deep Rock Galactic over at http://www.ghostship.dk/

SIGN UP FOR ALPHA

http://www.ghostship.dk/alpha-sign-up.html

Northgard Early Access Trailer

2017/02/24

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

Bordeaux – 22nd of February – The new Viking strategy game Northgard will be available today on Steam Early Access for $19.99, bringing a unique mix of exploration, village building and combat heavily infused with Norse mythology.

Being developed by popular indie studio Shiro Games (Evoland 1 & 2), in Northgard players take control of a Viking clan who arrive on unknown and unforgiving shores, where they have to establish a village, gather resources, grow their society and defeat their opponents. In their quest to conquer this new and mysterious world, clans will face off against undead warriors, giants, dragons and other foes while surviving the harshest environments.

The Early Access version of Northgard allows players to:

Build settlements on the newly discovered hostile continent of Northgard while assigning and commanding vikings to various jobs (Merchant, Farmer, Warrior, Sailor, Loremaster…)
Manage resources carefully to survive the harsh winters and vicious enemies
Expand and discover new territory giving unique strategic opportunities
Achieve different victory conditions such as Conquest, Fame, Lore and Trading

“We have always been fans of strategy and simulation games, and with Northgard we have taken what we think are all the best bits, and added a lot of cool Viking themes and fantasy to the mix,” said Nicolas Cannasse, co-founder of Shiro Games. “Launching on Early Access will allow us to get direct feedback from our players which we’ll use in fine-tuning the development of Northgard. Not only that, we’ll also be bringing lots of cool new features to the game in the coming months, like new clans to play around with and a story driven campaign amongst other things.”

Early Access is just the start for Northgard, with Shiro Games continuing to add new content to the game during development. Extra features planned for Northgard include a full dedicated multiplayer mode, a story driven campaign mode, new playable clans and a host of new features such as an improved trading and diplomacy system, and more victory conditions.

More details can be found on the official website, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Boysenberry Festival Returns to Knott’s this Spring

2017/02/24

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News

Buena Park, CA (Feb 2017) – This spring, join Knott’s as it celebrates the flavorful berry that started it all, the boysenberry, during the much anticipated Knott’s Boysenberry Festival. For the first time ever, the mouthwatering festival is expanding to three weeks, April 1–April 23, with delectable food and drinks, and festive live entertainment. The 23-day food festival features over 70 one-of-a-kind boysenberry inspired dishes, drinks and more, plus foot-stompin’ entertainment, Wine and Craft Brew Tasting Garden, featuring boysenberry and wine, and family fun that everyone will love! For festival goers with a hankerin’ for some live entertainment, the options are endless with live music throughout the park, a nighttime dance party, and brand new shows like, Snoopy’s Boysenberry Jamboree at the Calico Mine Stage. Calico Park in Ghost Town is home to a good ol’ fashion hootenanny featuring pie eating contests, line dancing and country fair festivities with the local Ghost Town townsfolk. The limited-time festival is included with admission to Knott’s Berry Farm.

The year was 1920 when Walter and Cordelia Knott moved to the community of Buena Park Calif. to farm 20 acres of rented land which included harvesting, and selling the first boysenberry, a cross between a loganberry, red raspberry and blackberry, and named the new berry after its originator, Rudolph Boysen. Today, all boysenberries in the world can trace their roots back to Knott’s Berry Farm.

For 2017, the mouthwatering line-up of boysenberry inspired dishes will feature irresistible boysenberry pizza made with arugula and goat cheese, the unforgettable and delicious newravioli dish packed with boysenberry flavors, freshly-baked boysenberry fry bread and lip-smacking corn on the cob with boysenberry butter and mayo, each dish will leave guests wanting for more. Other must try items include crispy deep fried alligator bites paired with farm-made zesty boysenberry aioli, finger-lickin boysenberry BBQ wings, savory boysenberry meatballs, sweet boysenberry cream soda, creamy chocolate covered boysenberry cheesecake on a stick and many more delicious treats. Additional fee for tastings.Guests who want to take home the exquisite Boysenberry BBQ sauce, Boysenberry Butter, Boysenberry Dressing and Boysenberry Chipotle Sauce can do so by stopping by the Berry Market located in the California MarketPlace and General Store located in Ghost Town. Select items are available on the online Berry Market store.

Guests can purchase boysenberry inspired products throughout the winding streets of the Old West at the Crafts Fair. This year’s boysenberry products include boysenberry soap, lip balm and the devilishly good rock candy. Festivalgoers can also watch special demonstrations including a chainsaw wood sculpting, glass blowing and blacksmithing. From day to night, Ghost Town has never looked so lively.

This year, in honor of the famous berry, Ghost Town’s Town Hall will feature a fascinating film which shares the story of how Walter and Cordelia Knott settled here in Buena Park and helped the world discover the amazing boysenberry. Guests can pull up a seat and catch a 10-minute showing of the historic film offered exclusively during the festival.

The Knott’s Boysenberry Festival also features an extensive line up of live entertainment. Join Snoopy, Charlie and the entire Peanuts gang as they present an all new interactive, musical revue called Snoopy’s Boysenberry Jamboree! at the Calico Mine Stage. This new show will have families singing, dancing, and playing along with the beloved Peanuts characters and talented performers during the whimsical, high energy celebration of springtime. Country music and the aroma of deliciously good food will fill the air as the Ghost Town Miners take the stage in a fun, musical performance at the Firemen’s BBQ stage. Just across the Fireman’s stage, the Legendary Bird Cage Theatre pays tribute to Knott’s past; for the first time in over 20 years, the theatre will be the home of musical comedy melodrama, with a special presentation of the Old Time Melodrama. America’s longest running Melodrama returns with an original, interactive, comedy with a surprising boysenberry twist! In the evening, a group of krazy talented performers will have guests kicking up their heels with vine dancing, a down home jug band and dueling fiddlers and banjos! At the Wagon Camp stage, get krazy when Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies mount their toe tappin’, knee-slappin’, gut-bustin’ country comedy show that will have audiences clamoring for more!

The fun continues with new additions exclusively for the Boysenberry Festival. Brand new this season, The Old MacDonald Petting Zoo pays tribute to one of Knott’s original attractions. Young ones and young at heart are invited to cozy up to the cutest critters on the farm including horses, sheep, goats and other furry friends.

Springtime fun has also taken root in Camp Snoopy and Fiesta Village. During the limited-time event, the whole family can meet the Easter Beagle at his Camp Snoopy home, blooming with colorful springtime décor. The meet and greet location is the perfect place for shareable moments with the boisterous beagle and his friends – Charlie Brown, Lucy, Sally, and Linus. Camp Snoopy Theatre will showcase the PEANUTS pals singing, dancing, and sharing stories for all to enjoy. Everyone in the family can join in the Camp Snoopy activities. The theater will be filled with the sweet sound of little ones as they singing-along to the cheerful tunes! Guests don’t have to be experts at dancing to enjoy a nighttime Fiesta with DJ Cruz in Fiesta Village. The night comes alive with music and dance as everyone will be sure to take to the floor and dance to the rhythmic beat of popular music.

The Boysenberry Festival is included with admission to Knott’s Berry Farm, additional cost for food tasting experiences within the event, which also offers a full day of thrilling coasters and family fun rides. Knott’s will have extended hours, 10am to 10pm, from April 1 – April 23, allowing guests extra time to take advantage of all of the limited-time offerings.

Join the conversation and share your day of boysenberry fun by using #BoysenberryFestival on Twitter and Instagram. For information about the day you plan to visit and available discounts, visit www.knotts.com, or download the newly updated Knott’s Berry Farm mobile app for your smartphone.

PREY Mimic Madness Trailer

2017/02/23

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, PlayStation 4 News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News, Xbox One News

February 23, 2017 – We’ve just released a new gameplay video for Prey titled, ‘Mimic Madness’. In this video, see just a few ways you can use to use the Mimic’s power against the alien force that has taken over Talos I. Check out Bethesda.net to learn more!

When you awaken aboard the Talos I space station, you that find you are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. Talos I has been overrun by an alien force, and you must stop the Typhon threat from destroying humanity. As Morgan Yu, and mankind’s last hope, fend off the alien infestation armed with the tools found on the station, your wits, weapons, and mind-bending abilities.

One of the first alien powers you’ll learn is Mimic Matter. Acquired from the diminutive (and aptly named) Mimic Typhon, this power allows you to take the form of just about any appropriately sized object aboard Talos I. You’ll start small – a coffee mug, a teapot, a lamp, a banana – but as you level up this ability, you’ll soon be able to mimic more complex objects, including an impressive array of security turrets and Operator robots.

Set to launch worldwide on Friday, May 5, 2017 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, Prey is the highly-anticipated first-person sci-fi action game from Arkane Studios – creators of the award-winning Dishonored series which includes the 2012 ‘Game of the Year’ and the critically-acclaimed follow-up, Dishonored 2.

Prey has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information about the game please visit prey.bethesda.net.

Wartile Early Access Date Revealed

2017/02/22

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Windows PC News

Copenhagen, Denmark – February 22nd, 2017 – Lead your figurines, into battle on miniature battle boards, with Wartile, Playwood Projects’ visually stunning medieval real time tabletop inspired game played out on digital diorama themed Battle boards. Launching on Steam Early Access on March 17th, Wartile features single and multiplayer modes in which you engage in hand-to-hand or ranged combat with rendered Viking figures, each with special attributes and abilities that counter each other, emphasizing the need to have a solid strategy to win.

We created Wartile to be a living, breathing tabletop video game that invites the player into a beautifully rendered miniature universe full of small adventures and challenges that require real time strategical decisions”, said Michael Rud Jakobsen, Founder and Creative Director of Playwood Project. “The digital diorama aspect gives the game a totally unique graphical look and feel that strategy and tabletop fans will love”.

Wartile is a single player and multiplayer real time tabletop inspired game for PC with a strong turn based flavor to it. The game replicates the feeling of playing a tabletop game but with faster, more immediate combat. Each Battle Board is an intricately realised digital diorama complete with tiles that allow players to strategize their tactical moves and attack in real time. Units are fully customizable with armor, weapons and new stat tokens that players can pick up throughout the game by completing special challenges. Stat tokens provide points that players can add to their characters stats which unlock when players level up, stat tokens can be discovered in each of the various Battle Boards in the game. Players can add a tactical edge to their combat by utilizing Ability cards and Godly cards as their figurine gains more experience, and by completing special battle board objectives. Godly cards and abilities can be assembled by the player before engaging in battle and used during combat, these cards can easily change the course of the fight should the odds be stacked against their favor.

A wide range of detailed environments is planned for the game, including Norwegian mountains, murky swamps, rocky English coastlines, dark dungeons and sweeping grasslands. Wartile also allows players to unlock and collect an array of different characters, all with different combat abilities to provide a choice of tactical options before they embark on each quest.

Wartile’s impressive digital dioramas and innovative game mechanics aim to bring a wholly unique and refreshing perspective to the RTS genre. Players will be challenged to lead a group of Viking warriors through a series of battle boards, each board has its own story and lore. Wartile will be making an eagerly awaited appearance at EGX Rezzed in London’s Tobacco Dock in the Unreal Showcase Zone from the 30th March through to 1st April.

Anarchy Online Now on Steam

2017/02/22

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Windows PC News

Oslo, Norway – February 22nd, 2017 – The world’s first ever science fiction massively multiplayer online game is now on Steam! Almost sixteen years after the first human gamers planted their feet on the alien planet of Rubi-ka, a wormhole opens up for a whole new audience. Set 30,000 years into the future, Anarchy Online sends you off into space and puts them on a faraway planet filled with monsters, warring factions, and other players.

“Anarchy Online is one of the longest living online games in the world and millions of players have made the planet of Rubi-ka their home,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “Bringing the game to Steam is something we have wanted to do for a while and we hope this will bring in new players as well as inspire veterans to come back now that it is easier than ever to travel to Rubi-ka again.”

Today, the game is free to play with optional membership and in-game purchases.

Anarchy Online launched in 2001 and has since seen many updates and expansions, including Notum Wars, Shadowlands, and Alien Invasion. With Anarchy Online, Funcom pioneered both features and business models that have since become commonplace in the genre including randomly generated dungeons and going from subscription to free-to-play. Anarchy Online even was the first MMO to feature a band concert delivered live on a video feed inside the game. Today, Anarchy Online is one of the most content-rich and challenging MMO experiences available, and still hosts a dedicated community that carry on the torch for either Omni-tek or the Rebels.

For more information on Anarchy Online please visit www.anarchy-online.com or visit the Steam page.

Belko VR – The Escape Room Experience Gets A Trailer

2017/02/21

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

Los Angeles – “Belko VR – The Escape Room Experience” is being released for free, for one day only, March 3, 2017 in celebration of “National Employee Appreciation Day”. The game was inspired by the upcoming horror thriller, Orion Pictures’ THE BELKO EXPERIMENT, to be released in theaters by BH Tilt, on March 17, 2017.

Belko VR – The Escape Room Experience, created by filmmakers David Yarovesky and Dan Clifton, will be available to play on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets through the Steam Platform.
Exploring the themes in THE BELKO EXPERIMENT, the Belko VR – Escape Room Experience provokes the question: “What does it take to survive at work?” Players are prompted to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to escape from their office before a microchip in their head explodes.

“We felt that we had a unique opportunity to do something a little crazy by taking the core idea of being trapped in the Belko Industries building and distilling that down to a Roomscale experience,” states Dan Clifton, who co-produced the film and also developed the game. “Players will become a Belko employee and be immersed into a fight for survival. It’s fun, at times threatening and scary and fully interactive.”

“Because I was there for the shoot in Bogota, Colombia and worked extensively with director Greg McLean and the cast and crew, it felt very natural for us to extend the experience and story into a VR game. The film leaves you with the question, “What would I do?” and we knew we could have some fun building that into a VR experience.”

David Yarovesky, who also served as a post-production consultant on the film, is the co-creator of the game. “Having been an extremely early adopter of Vive, I was thrilled that Orion Pictures and BH Tilt were bold enough to allow Dan and I to run with this idea. Other films have done 360 Video experiences, but this is a truly interactive standalone playable game set in the extreme Belko universe.”

Yarovesky added, “We were tired of VR experiences that felt like tech demos. We wanted to make something that was fun and engaging and set a new bar for how VR and film can work together.”

James Gunn said, “The Belko VR – Escape Room Experience is scary as hell with lots of insane puzzles and moral choices. As an active gamer, I’m so excited about where VR is going, and this is a step in the right direction. David Yarovesky and Dan Clifton did an amazing job capturing the film’s unique tone and the game is just as twisted and fun as the movie.”

John Hegeman, President of Marketing of BH Tilt noted, “The Belko VR – The Escape Room Experience is complete insanity and to have the game available for free on Employee Appreciation Day is an incredible treat.”

To bring their vision to life, Clifton and Yarovesky partnered with developers Paper Crane Games out of Los Angeles, CA, who recently developed the Call of Duty Jackal Assault VR Experience for Playstation VR.

Clifton and Yarovesky previously collaborated on The Exorcist 360 Experience for 20th Century Fox Television in the fall of 2016.

Presented by Orion Pictures, an arm of MGM, THE BELKO EXPERIMENT is directed by Greg McLean (The Darkness, Wolf Creek), written by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) and produced by Peter Safran (The Conjuring, Annabelle) and Gunn. The film stars John Gallagher, Jr. (“The Newsroom,” 10 Cloverfield Lane), Tony Goldwyn (“Scandal”) and Adria Arjona (“True Detective”), John C. McGinley (“Stan Against Evil,””Scrubs”), Melonie Diaz (Fruitvale Station), Josh Brener (“Silicon Valley”) and Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy). Director of Photography is Luis Sansans, A.M.C. (“Narcos”). Production designer is Carlos Osorio (“Homeland,” “24”). Costume designer is Camila Olarte Suárez (The Wind Journeys).

ABOUT ORION
Orion, an arm of MGM, is focused on distributing films across multiple platforms.