Monthly Archives: January 2013

Train2Game News: PS4 and Xbox720 likely to be announced before E3

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PS and XboxTrain2Game has discovered that Microsoft and Sony may reveal their next generation of consoles prior to E3 which takes place in June.

Rumours published in the February edition of Game Informer suggests that both companies are working on a press conference that is to be held near the time of the Game Developers Conference in March.

Sources have confirmed that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 systems will be revealed before E3, though specific dates or events have not been finalised.

“We hear that both Sony and Microsoft are targeting special Apple-style press conferences to unveil their platforms near the Game Developers Conference in late March,” reads the Game Informer report.

“E3 in June may be the industry’s biggest event, but both companies want to give their systems their own limelight,” the piece adds.

Analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research also suggested that the PS4 price and Xbox 720 price could be £225 to £275 if the prices are equal to the American predictions.

“Our checks suggest that next-generation console hardware will be largely built from ‘off the shelf’ high-end PC components, along with hybrid physical/digital distribution models, enhanced voice controls and motion sensing (Kinect integration with every Xbox), and broad multi-media capabilities,” Sebastian added.

“The cost of production and retail price points should be lower than prior console launches.”

Sebastian also estimated that the Xbox 720 release date is expected for November, while the PlayStation 4 release date may be later than November due to “early production issues”.

Train2Game News: Dust 514 Open Beta for PS3

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Dust 514CCP Games are doing an open beta on January 22 for their up coming game Dust 514. This is a great opportunity for Train2Game QA Testers to practice what they have learned.

CCP Games have announced that it will merge the servers for its space management simulator EVE Online and Dust 514, the PS3 shooter set in the same universe. By uniting both games, the way has been paved for Dust 514 to head into open beta.

The game is a PS3 exclusive so providing you have one you can download the game and enter the Beta which launches on January 22 for free.

Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP said in a press release “The launch of the Dust 514 open beta is another step towards our long-term vision for CCP and EVE. But this is just the beginning.  As we have done with EVE Online, in the coming weeks, and for years to come, we will continually improve upon and add to the Dust 514 experience, as well as add deeper integration between the two games and their communities”

There are no character resets planned, so anyone currently participating in the closed beta will be able to continue right as rain. In fact, those who’ve played at least one match before January 22nd will receive a 100,000 skill point bonus to take into the open beta.

CCP are very proud of the fact that this is the first integrated gameplay experience between two games that are not only of a different genre, but also exist on different platforms. Order an aerial bombardment on a PS3 game of Dust 514 and an EVE Online player might marshall the power of his PC to deliver the deadly barrage.

This is a very exciting and interesting new step in gaming. How well they do could see further platform crossing in the future.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 14.01.13

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fifa13It has been a quiet week for the UK Top 20. The top 5 are all the same with FIFA 13 still in the number one slot. The only new addition this week is Anarchy Reigns from SEGA.
POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 1
2 – FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 2
3 – CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 3
4 – HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX 4
5 – NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 5
6 JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 7
7 HALO 4 MICROSOFT 6
8 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013 SEGA 13
9 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 10
10 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 9
11 – ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 11
12 WWE ’13 THQ 14
13 SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED SEGA 12
14 FORZA HORIZON MICROSOFT 8
15 – DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 15
16 ANARCHY REIGNS SEGA –
17 – SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 17
18 MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER EA GAMES 16
19 FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 MICROSOFT 18
20 – LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 20

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect 2013 Charity run

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specialeffect-runGaming charity SpecialEffect are gathering members of the UK games industry to enter the British 10K charity run, and inviting Train2Game students to join in.

The charity run will take place in London on 14 July so there is plenty of time to get in shape for the event if you are looking for a worthy goal to help shift those extra Christmas pounds!

SpecialEffect is facing growing demand for participants as this really event gets bigger and bigger, as such we would LOVE to beat the 75 runners it had in 2012 and get 100 participants taking over the streets of London! If you also wanted to make this event even more fun then do feel free to dress up as your favourite Video Game character to sprint through London in. You’ll be running with lots of representatives from the UK’s gaming industry and it’s a great chance to meet new people while taking part in a very positive event.

By committing to the event, all runners are asked for the registration price of £50 and to aim to raise £200 through sponsorship.

SpecialEffect is a very worthy cause to raise money for. Their goal is to help disabled people play video games through the development of specially made technology that make playing games easier for those who are less able or being treated for severe illnesses.

To find out more and to register for the event visit https://www.eventelephant.com/ee/events/pages/summary.htm?siteurl=specialeffect2013

You can enjoy the video of last years 10K run below

Train2Game News: A round up of tech from CES

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The Consumers Electronics Show is coming to a close and Train2Game are bringing you the news of some of the most interesting technology to come out of the show.

Steam BoxValves media named Steam Box was finally confirmed at the show after much speculation through 2012.  Valve has invested in computer manufacture Xi3 who will be developing a special customised PC designed to bring Steam to the living room.

The box, codenamed Piston, will offer up to 1TB of internal storage and the ability to upgrade components like the RAM and CPU in the future, a spokesperson told Polygon. Valve will also be making its own Steam Box in-house, and they’ll be a few more from other PC manufacturers too.

It is currently rumored to have 4-8 GB of DDR3 RAM and a quad-core 64-bit, x86-based 32nm processor running at up to 3.2GHz with 4MB of Level2 Cache.

Asus Transformer AiOA new tablet from Asus was announced at the show but this is a tablet with a difference.

The Asus Transformer AiO is a standard tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) from an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor but you can take it home and connect it to its stand and it becomes a desktop PC running Windows 8 running on a Core i3 processor and Nvidia GT 730M GPU.

The trick is the stand, which has its own array of USB ports and a built-in 1TB hard disk. The tablet itself has 16GB flash memory.

RAZER GROUP EDGE GAMING TABLETAnother exciting tablet that was announced this year was the Razer Edge which is optimised for gaming.

The Razer Edge is a Windows 8 tablet, but a ferociously powerful one with the sort of tech you would expect to find in a gaming laptop. The standard model has a Core i5 processor, an NVidia GT640M LE GPU, 4GB of RAM and a 64GB solid state drive, while the Edge Pro has a Core i7 processor instead, 8GB of RAM and either a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive.

The tablet can also be plugged into a Gamepad Controller, which comes complete with two Wii Nunchuk-style handles featuring two analogue sticks, a D-Pad and a variety of face buttons.

Xperia ZSony Xperia Z was the smart phone announcement to look at for gamers. It’s only 7mm thin, has a 1080p 5-inch screen and is packing a beast of a quad-core Qualcomm processor with 2GB of RAM.

According to Sony, the Xperia Z is the most powerful phone it’s ever made and the first it’s had a strong say in since it took over manufacturing from Ericsson, and it also claims that while it’s running Android 4.1 instead of 4.2, its own “skin” is very minimal and it should be easy to upgrade the OS in the future.

It is set to be an incredibly powerful phone with a good battery life thanks to Sony’s new technology that apparently draws very little power while in sleep mode.

Train2Game News: Nintendo open to the idea of Free-to-play

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Satoru IwataCompany President, Satoru Iwata has revealed Nintendo is open to the idea of using a free-to-play business model for new franchises.

Nintendo’s leader pledged that he won’t add free-to-play or micro-transaction elements to existing series such as Mario or Pokémon, during an interview with Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

“We, as an industry, can now do distribution by digital means as well as micro-transactions, and the ways to obtain money through supporting entertainment have increased.

“I have no intention of denying charged games or the free-to-play model. If we were to talk about if Nintendo were to do that, however, I do not have much inclination to do that with Nintendo’s established well-known products.

“We will not have a proverbial door to full enjoyment that can only be unlocked via payment. However, this is separate from, say, having something where because there are people who want more stages to play in Mario games, we will create new courses for those people and charge for them.”

This all changes for new game franchises, though. Iwata said that for fresh ideas he is open to the idea of other methods of payment.

“For new titles with no established base, if, in the process of development, we found it to suit the free-to-play model, we might follow that route, or we might do something like ‘cheap-to-play'” he explained.

“Our sales methods have been freed up and I have no desire to extinguish that freedom. If we were to release something like that, it is not a betrayal but the birth of an interesting idea through our new found freedom, that’s all. I am not talking about changing how we sell Mario or Pokémon.”

It seems that Nintendo have seen how powerful Free-to-play can be but most certainly doesn’t want to risk their well established franchises on the new business plan.

Train2Game News: Microsoft unveils new in your face technology

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IllumiroomLast year Train2Game brought you the news that Microsoft were working on a new technology to use your room as a screen for gaming. Today it was revealed they have reached that goal.

The idea of the technology is to project the bits of the game you don’t see on your TV, the periphery, onto the walls and furniture of your living room.

A small Microsoft Research team of four are credited with creating what is known as Illumiroom, and it is still only a proof-of-concept design. IllumiRoom pairs Kinect for Windows with a projector to achieve its results. The proof was shown by video at CES in Las Vegas.

“Our system uses the appearance and the geometry of the room (captured by Kinect) to adapt the projected visuals in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics,” the MS Research team explained.

The video captured IllumiRoom running live rather than added it via special effects in post-production to give viewers their first taste. The videos show the cityscapes of shooters sprawl beyond the television. It shows bullets, sparks and fires spill out into the room giving a beautiful feeling of total immersion. My favourite part was seeing snowflakes cascading down the walls.

More detailed details are scheduled at the CHI 2013 event held in Paris on April 27.

You can enjoy the video below:

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 09.01.13

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Xerneas and YvetalThe first news in this weeks Train2Game Mid-Week round up is a follow up to the Pokémon news from yesterday. The two legendary creatures that are briefly seen in the trailer have been named. They are Xerneas and Yveltal.

Video games had the highest total amount pledged out of all other categories on Kickstarter last year.  561,574 backers made 1.3 pledges totaling $83 million. Out of 2,796 video game projects launched, 911 were funded. Video games had almost double the amount of pledges than Films, the second most successful category. They make up nearly a quarter of Kickstarter’s total backers and total money pledged.

Valve have given the first glimpses of  what could be, the media named Steam Box. Code-named “Piston”, the system is still in a development stage and Xi3Coporation states the system will be “optimized for computer game play on large HD televisions”. The specifications have not been released yet, but will be built on Xi3′s Modular Computer chassis which is grapefruit sized, and will support both Steam and their recently released Big Picture mode.

Following the demise of City Of Heroes last year, Missing Worlds Media have decided to create a new superhero MMO, currently named Project Phoenix. Their aim is to build a Superhero game from the ground up and take what was successful from past games and build on it with new technology. If you are missing the super being you created, this could be one to keep an eye on.

Microsoft have sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. The figure represents cumulative sales of Windows 8 including upgrades and sales to original equipment manufacturers for licensing. Windows 8 sales are following a similar trajectory to that seen with Windows 7, according to Windows chief marketing and financial officer Tami Reller. Microsoft also said that over 100 million apps were downloaded from the Windows Store in the two months following the digital distribution platform’s launch with Windows 8 and Windows RT. There are now more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Train2Game News: Games Industry jobs – 09.01.13

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It’s a brand new year with brand new jobs for Train2Game students!

DEVELOPER

Job Title Generalist Programmer
Job Category Programming
Skills Required Programming
Location Brighton, South East
Job Description  

Our Client is an independent studio that makes games, apps and interactive media for multiple platforms.

The management team have graduated from some of the industry’s elite development studios, and have a wealth of experience across multiple disciplines and platforms.

From graduate level through to lead positions our client is looking to fill a number of broad reaching roles. We are currently engaged with a number of partners with our work ranging from Mobile to Browser based games / app development.

The successful candidate will join an experienced development team and will gain industry-leading experience on various emerging platforms.

Skills Range

If you have experience in any of the following areas, please get in touch!

Lua
C#
C++
Objective-C
JavaScript and HTML5
Unity 3D
iOS / Android development
ActionScript 3.0 and Flash

Salary: Based on Experience
Attendance: Full-Time

Additional Information: This is a full-time contract role based in our Hove office, contracts range from 6 – 12 months. Permanent positions are also available to the right candidates.

If you are interested in applying, please contact Mark Hope for more details: mark@aswift.com or 01709 834 777

DESIGN

Job Title Mobile Games Designer – Midlands UK – £Neg DOE – Mobile Games
Job Category Game Design
Skills Required Game Design
Location Midlands
Job Description Location: Midlands
Salary: £Negotiable DOE
Job Type: Permanent
Project: AAA games

This Midlands based independent studio has helped create and build some of the biggest game franchises in games over the past 16 years.

Over the last three years they have developed and self-published nine games on the iOS and Android Stores all brand-new IPs achieving worldwide features and fantastic chart success Metacritic and player ratings. Their games have been downloaded by over 9 million people so far with repeated success in reaching #1 ‘All Apps’ in multiple territories.

Having recently moved to their new studio in Warwick they are in need of at least one experienced mobile games designer to work on their unannounced titles

The successful candidate will have shipped multiple game titles across all mobile platforms. You will be passionate have an excellent understanding of what makes a great game and a strong knowledge of game balancing and pacing. You will be working alongside other amazingly talented team members to create great gaming experiences aimed towards a variety of audiences.

Duties/Responsibilities:
• Define the overall creative vision and specific feature requirements to the team.
• Communicate the overall creative vision and specific feature requirements to the team.
• Write clear and concise game design documents.
• Drive the initial prototyping tuning gameplay pacing and first user experience and difficulty ramp of a mobile game.
• Research develop and design new games and features.
• Analyze and improve existing game mechanics and features based on playability user preferences and trends.
• Provide expert knowledge and implementation on social/mobile mechanics.
• Make sure the games are fun!

Skills/Experience Required:
• Must have mobile games design experience preferably ios and Android or other handheld (DS/3DS…)
• Awareness of Social Gaming and ideally have been involved in the creation of a social game using multiple purchase mentality
• Proven track record of successful game design from concept through to implementation
• Unity experience would prove an advantage

For the opportunity to be part of this team please send your cv (MS Word Format) and work examples FAO Catherine to officemanager@opmjobs.com or call +44 1206 214416

ART

Job Title Game UI Artist
Job Category Art / Animation
Skills Required 2D / Concept / Texture Artist, UI Artist
Location Warwick, Warwickshire, Midlands
Job Description Position Overview:
• This position involves designing and creating 2D Artwork and Graphics for our Games. In game and UI elements for primarily iOS and Android platforms.

Key Responsibilities:
• Working with the entire Development team to design and implement focussed, practical solutions within a realistic time frame.
• Design Icons and logos within the style constraints of the product.
• Work efficiently and at a speed representative of the platform.
• To be responsible for all 2D art aspects of any given project
• Be able to create all levels of Art from palette controlled pixel sprites up to hi Res Marketing Assets.

Skills and Experience:
• Excellent 2D background, including ideally pixel work.
• Use of Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Willing to work with Engineers to work within the technical limitations of the platform.
• Self Organised and willing to participate in team meetings.
• The ability to draught out a variety of concepts styles at speed to fit within the design constraints before game assets are created.

 

To find out more information and apply you can contact them HERE.

 

QA

Type: Permanent
Location: Edinburgh
Salary: Competitive
Company: Rockstar North
Contact: Michelle McKnight
Posted: 09/10/2012 10:12:00
Reference: GR/GR/GR/Test

 

Rockstar North is looking for enthusiastic and self-motivated individuals to join our Games Test teams in Edinburgh. You will be expected to play through our latest games looking for problems and reporting errors, to ensure game quality before release.

Responsibilities

You will be finding and reproducing bugs, errors or problems in-game as directed. The role will require accurate, detailed and complete reporting to the required standards and subsequent revision of those errors or problems.

Qualifications

Successful applicants will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and enjoy working as part of a team. You will have good general computer skills and be a confident learner working with word processing, databases and spreadsheets. You will be able to show consistent attention to detail and have the ability to remain focussed when approaching repetitive tasks. We will be looking for flexibility regarding unsociable and extended working hours to meet the demands of the role.

Additional Information

Candidates must be 18 years of age and above and provide two references. The position will be a full-time short term contract. Applicants will preferably be educated to further or higher education standards.

This is a two stage application process. You will first be asked to complete an application pack from which you may be asked to attend an interview.

PLEASE APPLY ONLINE VIA www.rockstargames.com/jobs

Train2Game News: Marvel LEGO, Assemble!

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Marvel LegoYour Train2Game blogger was very excited to get the news that there is going to be a Marvel Lego game coming later this year.

Marvel Super Heroes are assembling for an action-packed, brick-smashing good time!  Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games, The LEGO Group and Marvel Entertainment announced that LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will be available from autumn 2013 on all platforms. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is the first instalment in the highly successful LEGO video game franchise to feature famous Marvel characters.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes offers an original storyline in which Nick Fury calls upon Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine and other heroes spanning the Marvel Universe to save Earth from such threats as the vengeance of Loki and the hunger of Galactus, Devourer of the Worlds.  LEGO and Marvel fans will enjoy classic LEGO video game adventure and humour, while playing as their favourite Marvel characters.

Tom Stone, Managing Director, TT Games Publishing said “We’re very excited to bring a myriad of classic Marvel characters to life in LEGO form for some fun, family-friendly game play in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes.

“Players will brave the ultimate mission to save the world as they explore famous landmarks in LEGO New York and take the adventure beyond Earth to iconic locations in the Marvel Universe.”

TQ Jefferson, Vice President, Games Production, Marvel Entertainment added “Fans of both LEGO and Marvel have wanted this game for years, and we’re addressing that demand with more Marvel Universe characters than ever in a console game,

“If you’re a fan of Spider-Man, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy or scores of other Marvel characters, this is the game for you.”

In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, players will unlock more than 100 characters from across the Marvel Universe, including fan favourites like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wolverine, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Deadpool, Loki and Galactus. The game will pack in a plethora of super-cool character abilities, combat-like action sequences, epic battle scenes, puzzle-solving and a unique story told with playful LEGO humor.

I for one, being a big fan of Comics and the Marvel universe, am really looking forward to this game.