LINK

Nvidia GeForce 314.14 Beta Drivers Now Available to Download
Posted 03/04/2013 at 11:23am | by Paul Lilly at: www.maximumpc.com

Kotaku claims that the project has undergone "some tumultuous turns" after LucasFilm was acquired by Disney for $4 billion last year.

It is claimed that LucasArts' parent company had suddenly changed the studio's production path (likely to line up games against the next trilogy of films. The JJ Abrams-directed Star Wars Episode 7 is scheduled for a release in 2015.

"Three unrelated sources familiar with game development at LucasArts have all told us that development on the game has been frozen or put on hold," the Kotaku report claimed.

"That freeze has caused a game that was slated for a late 2013 release on next-gen platforms to potentially miss this year's E3 and to slide into next year."

LucasArts declined to comment on the specifics of the matter but insisted that the game has not been cancelled.

A company spokesperson said: "LucasArts has been working diligently to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the new Star Wars movies present."

The stand-alone PC game takes the WW2 setting of Sniper Elite V2 and introduces zombies as Hitler deploys his most terrifying weapon in a last ditch attempt to win the war.

Featuring four-player co-op for the first time in the series, Nazi Zombie Army is available to buy on Steam for £9.99 / €10.99 / $14.99.

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley said, "We've self-published NZA as a stand-alone title, which has been enormously satisfying, and the response from both Sniper Elite fans and other gamers alike is fantastic. The whole new co-op focused campaign means you can enjoy blowing away demonic hordes with friends who might not already own Sniper Elite V2."

The studio says the game's main narrative accounts for around 50 hours of gameplay in one play through, while additional stories help to double that length.

CD projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski says: "The Witcher 3 is full of impactful decisions, and gamers will choose between storylines that exclude one another in a single play through, ensuring extensive replay value.

"The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt crowns the trilogy with the main narrative, revolving around Geralt's search for his loved ones and his conflict with the Wild Hunt. As players travel through the game, they visit lands with their own unique atmosphere, communities and memorable characters.

"CD Projekt RED didn't create an open world with a singular theme, but concentrated on delivering diversified and engaging environments, 30 times larger than those in The Witcher 2."

The Witcher 3 will be available in 2014 "for all high-end platforms", including PlayStation 4.

Battlefield 3 lead designer Niklas Fegraeus talks about the Battlefield 3: Endgame DLC. There's also some footage of the new maps. There are four new maps for Endgame, and each is themed around a different season. There are two new game modes in Endgame. The first is Capture The Flag, which makes a return for the first time since Battlefield 1942. It's a classic mode but here it's given a Battlefield twist with vehicles making it fast and exciting. The other new mode is Air Superiority, where you capture areas of sky represented by 8blimps in dogfights of up to 12 players versus 12. This new DLC will be released on March 2nd for PC premium users and on March 4th for all owners of Battlefield 3.

LINK

Develop reports on comments from Blake Jorgensen, Electronic Arts' Chief Financial Officer, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. As you may have guessed from the name of the conference, the business aspect of EA was the topic. Jorgensen said, 'The next and much bigger piece [of the business] is microtransactions within games. ... We're building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business.' This is particularly distressing given EA's recent implementation of microtransations in Dead Space 3, where you can spend money to improve your weaponry

Sony has officially announced PlayStation 4, which will be available "holiday 2013

Sony Computer Entertainment president and group CEO Andrew House took to the stage at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios in New York to reveal the name of Sony's next-gen console.

The exec said Sony's "most powerful platform ever" will allow "worlds to come alive with greater fidelity and intensity than ever before".

House also noted that "ease of access regardless of location or device has been a priority" in the system's development".

"Our vision for the future is consumer centric and developer inspired," he added, stressing that Sony is keen to enable developers to utilise "new business models that enable more flexibility including episodic and free-to-play".

Lead PS4 system architect Mark Cerny was up on stage next. "We wanted to make sure nothing would come between the player, the platform and play," he said. "Our main goal was to architect the system so as to support a breadth of experiences."

Bohemia Interactive has revealed that ArmA 3 will be exclusive to Steam, and that it will release in 2013.

ArmA 3's project leader Joris-Jan van 't Land has explained in a new blog post why the studio has opted to release the game as a Steam exclusive title.

Land claims that Bohemia Interactive CEO Mark Spanel insisted on a 2013 release for the title. The studio decided that Steam exclusivity would be necessary in order to meet the deadline.

Land explains that the Steam platform benefits developers because there are fewer distributed versions, thus resources aren't wasted creating and testing patches and DLC for each version. Joris-Jan van 't Land also states that the Steam platform has "Delta-patching and more direct administration of our games without a middle-man. Had it not been for that, we would have been much more hesitant to make the decision."

Releasing exclusively for Steam will benefit the player as well, due to a smoother gaming experience, as patches are updated automatically and there is no need to download gigabytes of data thanks to Delta-patching. The online services offered by Steamworks will also be of importance to the player.