E3 2012: Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan

I don't know anything about Lord of the Rings. I watched The Fellowship of the Ring a year or two after it came out but retain none of the events. My knowledge of the films begins at "You shall not pass" and ends at Liv Tyler. Naturally, my E3 appointment to look at Lord of the Rings Online's new expansion, Riders of Rohan, had me a bit nervous. I may not connect to the world and its lore the way the developers at Turbine do — and trust me, they do — but the expansion still impresses, even for someone with limited knowledge of Lord of the Rings.

Riders of Rohan introduces mounted combat, something I have long felt was missing in most MMOs. As you enter the expansion content, you gain access to a special mount that doesn’t shy away from danger the way older steeds would. Mounted combat is exclusive to specific areas in the expansion and can only be done on the specific mount that allows it, but adding variety to MMO combat is always welcome. Turbine assured me that classes would maintain their distinctions even while mounted. A mounted archer won't play the same as a mounted minstrel, for example. Details were up in the air for how mounted group combat would be handled, but it is something Turbine is interested in pursuing. They want to nail down the solo mounted combat first before becoming too adventurous with the mechanic.

Your horse is more than just a mount that won't get fussy under attack, though. The horse is uniquely yours and can be customized in a multitude of ways including different manes, tails, sizes, and armor. My request for zebra skin armor was met with head shakes and groans, so you won't have to worry about the customization of your horse going too far. Thankfully, you can use your Rohan mount outside of the expansion content, and all your customization comes with it. What fun is having a sweet looking steed if you can’t brag about it to everyone around you? Your horse doesn't just have cosmetic changes either, it gains experience, levels up, and even has its own skill tree. A horse skill tree! If that isn't awesome, I don't know what is. As a loot junkie, horse customization may be my favorite aspect of the new expansion.

Because mounted combat is so integral to Riders of Rohan, the landmass has expanded to let the player explore on their trusty steed. The land is at least twice the size of their second largest expansion map, so don't expect to see it all in a couple hours. Turbine has also included mead halls in all the towns that are unique and related to the thane of each town. In addition to atmospheric storytelling, Turbine mentioned a deep quest line that involved meeting up with Gandalf and Treebeard at some point during your adventure. There's a lot of exploring to do in Rohan; just make sure you don't miss anything.

Riders of Rohan is more focused on the single-player MMO experience than typical group combat. This is Turbine's fourth expansion and they decided solo players deserved content tailored to them for once. There are no instances or raids in the initial release of Riders of Rohan, but those will come out some time later. Instead, the top level loot is earned through rebuilding a part of one of that towns that has caught fire and burned to the ground. Through a series of daily quests, the player will rebuild homes for people in the town and be rewarded with great loot for being such a good Samaritan. This is the first time I've heard of an MMO expansion focusing on a solo experience, and it’s refreshing to see such a large shift in focus.

While there isn't any new content for low-level players in the expansion, Turbine always keeps an eye on the lower levels and re-balances them via patches whenever things feel out of whack. New players willing to try out Lord of the Rings Online can expect a strong MMO experience drenched in Tolkien lore, free of charge. Even parts of the Rohan expansion, such as the mounted combat and storyline quests, are still available to free-to-play gamers. If you have even the slightest interest in trying out the Lord of the Rings MMO experience, there's nothing stopping you.

I still feel a little bad knowing so little Lord of the Rings lore. It's a rich, vibrant world that I ought to dive into it at some point. Turbine has submerged themselves in Tolkien imagery for the past five years and their dedication and knowledge shined through during my demo. They know what they're talking about, and they love being able to do it. I may not know a lot about Lord of the Rings, but maybe could change that.

Source : gamezone[dot]com

E3 2012: Of Orcs and Men preview

Oftentimes, in role-playing games, the lead character is a typical male human off on an adventure to save the world/planet/galaxy. You may have some alien sidekicks, but for the most part you play as this human character.

So you can imagine my excitement when Cyanide Studios showed me Of Orcs and Men, an upcoming fantasy RPG that allows you to play as not one, but two fantasy creatures whose stories often remain unexplored in fantasy RPGs. Think of the last fantasy themed RPG you played; you likely encountered some orcs or goblins which you were tasked to kill for no apparent reason.

Of Orcs and Men plays off of this typical gameplay, but turns it upside down and puts you in control of two non-human characters - an Orc named Arkill and a goblin named Styx - who are off on a mission to assassinate the human emperor who waged war against their race. It may not be the most original story concept, man vs orc, but the different viewpoint could offer a different take.

Playing as an orc or goblin isn't the big catch here, at least for me it wasn't. What really helped Of Orcs and Men stand out was it's combat system which has you control both characters in tandem. In combat you can switch between Arkill, the incredibly strong orc who relies on heavy melee attacks, and Styx, the goblin trickster who relies on sneaking, stealth and ranged attacks.

The trick to the combat is to constantly switch between the characters and assign combat actions to them so that you aren't stuck with a useless AI partner that serves as nothing more than a punching bag. In combat you can slow down time to select these actions for your partner to perform and then switch to the opposite one that you want to control.  Although it sounds like a difficult slow process to slow time, controlling two characters actually creates a fast-paced feel. It's a little difficult to master at first, but once you get the hang of it the game provides rewarding gameplay experience.

The key to successful combat in Of Orcs in Men is how you initiate. The game allows you to plan your actions before performing them creating a multitude of ways to play; so for instance, you can control the goblin and sneak up on unsuspecting guards to take them out one by one or you can simply run in there with Arkill and pulverize them. Each tactic is feasible depending on how well you can assign actions.

It's hard to comment on story based on a 15-minute demo, but we were told that it will include a branching path with a variety of choices that ultimately lead to the same conclusion.  Styx will grant you the more conniving, lying route while Arkill is provides a more blunt, straightforward approach to conversations. Like I said, they will ultimately lead to the same ending for the main story.

The PC demo featured impressive graphics that created a dark fantasy world. There were some animation hiccups that you'd expect in an early build of a game, but other than that the game looked and ran surprisingly smooth for a game still in development.

Of Orcs and Men provides a unique twist on what some would consider a stale genre. You wouldn't think Orcs vs Men would be an interesting concept, but providing a unique aspect with exciting gameplay creates a solid game that RPG fans should keep their eye on. is set to release on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this fall.

Source : gamezone[dot]com

Vizio Reveals Their First Ever Laptops, All-in-One, Starting at $898

Vizio shook the tech world at CES earlier this year by announcing that the company planned to begin selling laptops and an all-in-one PC. Today, the TV maker officially put three computers on sale; the Vizio Thin + Light, the Vizio Notebook, and the Vizio All-in-One, all starting at $898.

This is the first time that Vizio has announced the names or pricing on any of their computers, and specifics are still limited. The Vizio Thin + Light will come in two models, 14” with a resolution of 1600x900, and 15.6” at 1080p. Both will run on the latest Ivy Bridge chipset with Intel HD 4000 graphics, and will feature a hybrid HDD-SSD drive for faster boot times and storage cache at higher storage capacities.

The laptops will have one HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, and an Ethernet port. The Vizio Notebook is a 15.6” full-size laptop that is thicker but has the same specifications except that it uses discrete graphics from NVidia and has an Ethernet port. Vizio only revealed that it’s a Kepler-based GPU, meaning a 600 series card, NVidia’s latest. Both the Notebook and Thin + Light are rated for seven hours of continuous battery life.

Vizio’s also revealed the All-in-One which comes in two models, 24” and 27”, both 1080p panels. They will also use Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, but nothing else specific has been announced.

All of Vizio’s computers have received critical praise for their streamlined design and innovative look, especially remarkable because these models are Vizio’s first computers. Vizio has announced that all of their models will be available for purchase immediately.

We will update as more details about Vizio’s computers become available.



Source : ign[dot]com

Paving the Way for the Next Generation of Final Fantasy

Note: This article is an in-depth look at Square Enix's Agni's Philosophy demo and it's strongly recommended that you watch before reading.

Amidst a slew of new games revealed during E3 last week, Square Enix quietly showed off its next-gen Luminous engine. Titled Agni’s Philosophy, the real-time demo shows off the potential of the company's new tech, which will likely be seen on the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

In a behind closed doors demo at E3, IGN had a chance to sit down and see the demo in motion, watching Square Enix manipulate elements on the fly as they revealed the true power of Luminous. The engine has come a long way since its initial reveal last year. Photo-realistic doors and hallways have been matched by hair and clothing, with the most impressive element coming in the form of a scraggly beard in the demo’s opening moments.

As Square Enix walked us through the demo, we were shown just how much control developers will have over each element. Within seconds, we watched while the beard in question was made thinner, thicker, straighter, curlier, and even transformed into different colors. Skin tones, age spots, shadows and more can be changed instantly, and each result looks nearly photo-realistic. With a few clicks, the old man shown in the demo was given everything from a thick Santa Claus-like beard to thin patches of wispy facial hair.

In that regard, the Luminous engine is a programmer’s paradise. Tool sets including a content navigator, cutscene and shader editors, material creators and more were shown, each part of Square Enix’s plans to create a simple-to-use infrastructure for developers. In a scene halfway through the demo where insects come together to form skin over a monster’s skeleton, Square Enix showed us just how much detail a programmer can add. Within seconds, the number of insects on screen was increased to 100,000. Upon close inspection, every single one had detailed wings and bodies.

Luminous significantly steps up visual quality, but Square Enix advised us that the engine is “not limited to graphics.” The company hopes to raise the bar for AI, animation, physics and even sound in next generation games. The engine is meant to be highly efficient, with the goal of drastically changing game development by making games faster and cheaper to produce.

While the Luminous engine itself has been in development for quite some time, the Agni’s Philosophy demo took only six months to produce in full. The demo was a collaboration between all of Square Enix’s studios, with Visual Works creating the scene from concept art and backgrounds envisioned by Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics. The demo’s creative director, Takeshi Nozue, determined the story of the demo, which the company describes as “a life-changing encounter for our heroine, the magic-wielding protagonist Agni." Nozue previously co-directed Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in addition to designing and supervising animation for Final Fantasy IX, X and X-2.

Agni’s Philosophy was created using a high-end, consumer-grade PC, though Square Enix wouldn’t give us any specifics. There are no plans to license the engine for now - it will instead be limited to use by internal and outsourced studios. Luminous will primarily be used by Square Enix’s Tokyo studio.

As for the question of whether Agni’s Philosophy has to do with the next Final Fantasy game, Square Enix isn’t saying much. For now, an internal survey asks whether or not fans liked Agni as a protagonist and what they think of the world portrayed in the demo. With enough positive answers, anything could happen.



Source : ign[dot]com

Ringbow Gaming Controller Puts Gaming On Your Finger

An ambitious new Kickstarter surfaced today that shows off a new way to play touchscreen games. The Ringbow is a ring you slide on your finger, with a large button that performs various functions in-game.

In a concept video, an example was presented where instead of simply touching a dragon to pop them - which is the kind of complexity we’ve seen in plenty of touchscreen minigames - you hold onto its tail, and then zap it by pressing your finger to the button.

Ringbow also showed off a tank concept, in which you drag tanks around via touchscreen and fire by physically pressing the button. While gaming seems to be the main focus, it could also lead to a variety of different artistic and everyday functions, like brush pressure in drawing apps or touchless scrolling in browsers.

All of Ringbow's conceptual uses are equal parts interesting and rudimentary, but that doesn't mean it'll stay that way. Just as the iPad was just a big iPod Touch before developers got their hands on it, we hope the RingBow will bolster enough developer support for some truly interesting touchscreen experiences.

The Ringbow isn't just a single button, either. It's actually a D-pad style button with 9 directional inputs. It has an advertised charge of 4-6 hours on a single charge, and weighs under 200g.

Truthfully, what we really want from it is a new way to play FPS’s onscreen (Seriously – think about making a gun out of your hand and firing with your thumb).

Ringbow’s Kickstarter is live now, so go check it out. $35 - $45 will buy you a black RingBow, and at $55 you can pick your color - which is definitely worth it, because one of the colors is called "Blouis C.K."

Each Ringbow comes with a gaming package, with a handful of games, so you'll have something to play if developers haven't hopped fully onboard by the time you receive the unit. The Ringbow will become a reality if they beat their seemingly reasonable goal of $100,000, so go check it out on their Kickstarter.



Source : ign[dot]com

Game of Thrones Cut Off George Bush's Head

Scroll down for an update to this story.

Everyone who knows the show remembers the severed heads from the Season 1 finale of Game of Thrones, "Fire and Blood." We'll avoid spoilers here, but suffice to say it was yet another reason to totally freaking hate little Joffrey.

Game of Thrones: Who We're Excited to See in Season 3!

But now an Easter egg from the show is making the rounds that reveals former President George W. Bush is one of the decapitated heads in the scene. Or, rather, a prop of his noggin is. Check it:

According to the DVD commentary, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explained the head's presence thusly:

"George Bush’s head appears in a couple of beheading scenes. It’s not a choice, it’s not a political statement. We just had to use whatever heads we had lying around."

I guess they just had Bush heads… lying around? O.K. then.

Via Reddit

Update: Showrunners Benioff and Weiss have now apologized for the use of the Bush prop, while maintaining that they intended no disrespect or political commentary with its disembodied inclusion.

"We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc." Benioff and Weiss said, according to The Wrap. "We can't afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush. … In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise."

HBO also issued an apology:

"We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production."

So there you have it, guys. Your Game of Thrones DVDs just became collector's items.

Follow Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN, and subscribe to his Facebook updates.

Source : ign[dot]com

A New Take on Skins for League of Legends

Anyone who's followed the success of Riot Games free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena League of Legends knows that selling skins is one of the studio's biggest windfalls. Sales of champions and their skins amount for the bulk of Riot's vast income, and have resulted in a dramatic expansion of the champion design team over the last few years. Consequently, it's also resulted in a huge number of well-designed alternate takes on their champions, raising the bar for what their competitors have had to offer in order to make their own skin sales much more than a simple palette swap.

Today Riot's put up a lot of new information about the upcoming Legendary Skin for fan-favorite champion, Ezreal. Called Pulsefire Ezreal, this skin is not only a dramatic departure from the typical Ezreal look, changing everything from his animations to the look of his ability effects, but also changes as you level throughout a match. See examples of this in the image below.

Pulsefire Ezreal in his various forms.

Speaking on the game's official forums, Senior Character Artist Josh Singh said the goal was, "to make this something that would blow everyone’s mind." The team experimented a lot with various changes to spell effects, but eventually Senior Concept Artist Michael Maurino, "explored different methods of upgrading him from Level 6 to 11 to 16." The result is a suit that changes its look every time you level up Ezreal's ultimate ability, resulting in what Maurino feels is, "a much more powerful, impactful experience as you go on."

Pulsefire Ezreal will release for 1625 Riot Points to start, but eventually will raise to 3250 Riot Points.



Source : ign[dot]com

Street Fighter X Tekken Headed to Mobile

Capcom announced today that Street Fighter X Tekken will come to iOS devices this summer. Call Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile, the port will feature redesigned UI built around touch controls as well as new modes and “a new take on the tag team mechanic.”

Capcom notes that Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile is “based on the home console release” and will be compatible with iOS 5 or higher, including support for iPhone 4 and 4S, iPod touch 4th Gen or later, iPad 2 and the New iPad.

This is the second high profile fighting game Capcom has ported to iOS this year, following the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 back in April.

A list of modes and a specific release date haven’t been announced, but look for more information on Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile in the coming weeks.

Are you excited to try out Street Fighter X Tekken on the go? Let us know in the comments below.



Source : ign[dot]com

Wii U Batman: Arkham City – The Dark Knight's Weakened Armour

I find it hard not to be excited about Wii U. I'm a redoubtable optimist when it comes to new consoles. After all, they don't come around very often, and the GamePad – with its touchscreen and other gizmos – genuinely offers new possibilities to game developers. Currently, it's just potential, untapped and unexplored, but it's definitely there. And at this year's E3 when Miyamoto took to the stage and showed the world Pikmin 3 for the first time, it all made sense. For a moment.

This was a Nintendo franchise that had skipped a generation to be reborn on a new console with an even stranger controller. He talked about deep game mechanics and how they would take advantage of GamePad, as the colourful troupe of Pikmin dutifully constructed bridges in the background. We were sold. Here was a game that sensitively utilised the new hardware. And then, as everyone has been so eager to point out, the wheels fell off.

Lots of people have pointed their smug fingers at the decision to finish the conference with Nintendo Land as the major slip-up. Yes, it might not have been the rousing final note we were all hoping for, but flimsy cardboard Wendy houses aside, I actually think Nintendo Land has promise. Providing Nintendo is smart enough to update it regularly with new attractions, it could be somewhere players will visit regularly. But neglected, it will surely disassemble into a rabble of easily-forgotten mini-games ("that was a nice break, but we'll go somewhere different next year").

The most awkward moment, for my money, was when the line-up of third-party titles was unveiled – in particular, Batman: Arkham City – Armored Edition. Some grand claims were thrown about. We were told that this was a "unique must-have edition" of one of 2011's best games. So what has Rocksteady been up to with wonderful toy that is Nintendo's Wii U. Well, not much. Cut to a pre-recorded video of the game's director Sefton Hill, who "shares in our excitement for the franchise to come to the Wii U". Ever the pro, Hill did his best to stifle his enthusiasm, and spoke about how the "gameplay has been expanded with some awesome new features designed specifically for this new console". Cue the the introduction of Reid Schneider, VP of Production at WB Montreal – the studio responsible for the Wii-U-ificiation of Arkham City, not Rocksteady.

Perhaps I'm being a tad harsh and unrealistic about the investment of time it would take to properly adapt the game. But Rocksteady has lovingly supported Arkham City with a wealth of carefully-crafted DLC since it came out last October, so it seems strange it wouldn't want to take advantage of this new technology first-hand. Schneider went on to claim that the GamePad will "revolutionise the way you play the game", and he's right, in part. Having played Armored Edition, there are moments when the new control mechanics work wonderfully. It always works best when using the touchscreen compliments what's happening onscreen. So in Arkham City, whenever Batman enters Detective Mode to search for clues, you're asked to hold up the GamePad and align it with your television. The screen on the GamePad is used to scan the area for streams of incriminating molecules or patches of blood. When you find a clue, you touch the screen to examine the evidence more closely. It works really well, but it hardly transforms the game.

Similarly, when Batman is forced to use his cryptographic sequencer to hack locked doors, you're presented with a simple mini-game on the GamePad. Again, it makes sense because switching to the GamePad mimics what the character is doing on screen. There's a touch of performance to the whole thing. But the experience is ruined when the game asks you to do something unnecessarily fussy simply for the sake of using the touchscreen or the gyroscope. My concern is that games that have already been released on other consoles will feel obligated to use the Wii U's features at every opportunity – a way of justifying not only their very existence but perhaps a second purchase – even if it's detrimental to the game. This happened a couple of times while I was playing Armored Edition. Selecting items from the GamePad's inventory, instead of the onscreen UI, feels overly fussy; you can map items to the D-pad, but it's still a bit fiddly and looking down from the screen every time you need a new item breaks the flow of the game. Another equally jarring moment comes when you try to use the remote batarang: as soon as you throw it, you need look down quickly at the GamePad's screen and guide it using the gyroscope. It's said that this new control system affords an "unprecedented amount of accuracy", but it took me several attempts to guide the batarang effectively (and I'm not terrible at games). It was during these frustrating, distracting moments that I really questioned the claim that this is the most "immersive" version of the game yet.

Batman: Arkham City – Armored Edition, then. It's an unwieldy title – some flashy words have been crudely-bolted onto a good one – and in many ways, that's symptomatic of the game itself. Arkham City is still present and of course it's still great (though it doesn't look quite as good on Wii U – textures are muddy, as if modeled out of clay, and environments are less detailed). But onto this great game, WB Montreal has grafted some new mechanics: some work brilliantly, effectively taking advantage of the console's unique set-up, while others tarnish the experience. Armored Edition is an okay retread, but if you've already played the game it's unlikely that you'll want to revisit the streets of Arkham.



Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: SimCity preview

Heading into E3, the big news surrounding SimCity was the new multiplayer feature.  Up until now, SimCity had only been a single-player experience. Cities, however, are always part of something bigger, and that was EA’s goal with the latest installment to the long-running, popular franchise.  They wanted to make it bigger, and they wanted players to interact with other town’s mayors — trade resources, work together for common goals, and thrive off of each other’s cities — like real cities should do.

In our E3 preview, we were shown a few separate, but very distinct towns working together to create an airport, one of several major buildings that can benefit everyone.  The distinct cities, which included a friendly neighborhood, thriving metropolis, and a booming but rundown coal town, each provided the necessary resources to build this airport.  The goal was for each of them to benefit in some way from it being built.

Outside of them benefiting from the airport, each town relied on the neighbors in some form.  Some of the examples showed to us include one city providing electricity to the other. The multiplayer spreads beyond just providing resources.  The cities relied on neighbors in other ways.  For instance, the metropolis was looking to expand its commerce and retail, but it needed people to run the businesses.  Therefore, it relied on the neighborhood which needed to increase its population to provide the necessary workforce.

Here is where the airport enters.  In addition to the extra people it would bring in to the newly built stadium, it could help people arrive in the neighborhood suburb.  The airport also allowed goods and resources to be flown in for the coal town.  It may sound complex, but SimCity simplifies everything.

From electricity to water pipes to public transit, SimCity says goodbye to spreadsheet numbers and introduces color-coded or other useful symbols to convey the message.  They showed us building an above-ground electrical railcar, and instead of just building tracks, a colorful line showed where traffic would be heavy for the railcar.  Green was good, yellow was medium, and red is heavy.

Multiplayer isn’t the only addition, however.  EA showed off SimCity’s new Glassbox Engine which literally simulates everything going on in the city.  From the street lamps turning on to the street lights switching from red to green, Glassbox simulates everything going on in the city and presents it as if it were real life.  Individual lighting for buildings, cars’ headlights, street lamps, and more are all present in the game.  It doesn’t only simulate lights either.  It simulates sims’ actions.  In our preview, the devs showed us a bank robbery play out as a result to crime from the neighboring city pouring in.

Neighboring cities don’t only help your town, but can also harm it. The coal city focused heavily on production and business, but lacked the necessary police stations. Because of that, the city was littered with graffiti and crime began spreading into adjoining towns. Unfortunately, that friendly neighborhood we saw was right next to the coal town.  As a result, crime began spilling into the streets and the aforementioned bank robbery occurred.

SimCity was already a fun game, but this added multiplayer component just adds a whole new level of interesting gameplay.  You can choose to help or harm friends’ cities.  And it’s not like everyone’s city is the same.  You can choose to make the city you desire.  If you want a bustling city, create it.  Just remember, you need people to work there and that is where the fun begins. There’s an all-new aspect to , and EA has done a remarkable job incorporating multiplayer.

Source : gamezone[dot]com