GTA V in 2012?

Rockstar have officially announced that GTA V is on its way and we can expect a trailer in November (despite what the American date on the website says).

Rumours surrounding Rockstar’s potential mega-hit GTA V have been rife for months now and 2012 is referred to by analysts and experts as the likeliest release date.

With casting calls hinting at characters, actors and locations, rumours regarding GTA V have been rife, but no solid info has emerged and with Rockstar remaining tight-lipped, it seems unlikely we’ll hear anything until the project is good and ready.

A 2012 release date seems premature given no info has yet emerged. When you take a step back and review all the facts, the only salient point is that a new GTA, on current tech, wouldn’t push the series enough to warrant the name. With Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire innovating, we could find ourselves waiting for the next-gen until GTA V is truly deliverable. And that makes us happy.

Rockstar are notorious for developing and releasing games on their own schedule. Its absence from E3 is, amazingly, not that unusual and though we’ve beecome used to the publisher developing and focusing on one title at a time, a new GTA in 2012 isn’t as far fetched as you might think.

Here’s what’s been rumoured already:

GTA V could potentially be set in Hollywood, or Vinewood as it is in the game. This would most likely extend to L.A. itself and potentially northen California.

Potential character lists reveal a penchant for FBI agents, cult leaders, swingers and even soccer moms.

Some sources are claiming that GTA V is well underway and could be as far along as the testing stages.

Is GTA V codenamed RUSH? It’s a name that’s been rumoured to in development at Rockstar. Few know that GTA IV for most of its development was called FROZEN, so RUSH could well be what Rockstar refer to GTA V as internally.

Though a next-gen GTA would clearly have the edge visually over the current crop of titles, the below video that was recently released gives a tantalising glimpse at what a new GTA could look like.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gamers of a particular age will recall the curious-yet-unique pleasure of the Burnout series’ Crash Mode, particularly Point Of Impact. The sheer obsessive joy that could be forced into seconds of driving action remained a feat unmatched until Trials HD came along.

It was the near-endless scope for improvement, the chance to look death in the eye, or perhaps it was the inherent destructive tendencies in any late teenager. Whatever the case, those slow motion disasters kept on a’ rolling. Such is EA’s tendency to segment specific elements of its most popular gameplay experiences (thus far, primarily in the sports genre), why not a Live Arcade title based purely on this wanton mechanic?

Lacking in extensive cost, so far as art asset creation is concerned, this top-down score-attack title will bear more substantial relation to its bigger brothers than you might at first expect. For starters, Autolog will feature, ready to elongate the experience through player-to-player challenges. That is, should its suite of 18 crash junctions and maximum destruction prove inadequate.

As is similarly en vogue, Kinect will be employed to provide teams of players with the means to compete directly against one another. The consequences of this, though, could extend to little more than hassle-free multiplayer action, with imaginary steering wheels filling the air. As ever, players’ scores will be calculated depending upon the number and value of cars that get involved with each accident, with an apparent added bonus of being able to pack their vehicle with TNT beforehand for one additional post-collision blast. Basically, our advice is to aim for the fuel tankers.

Once more then, the search for an ideal entry angle will begin in earnest, through gameplay enhanced with ‘music and style’. These press releases really do seem to be draw their words out of some kind of chaotic tombola sometimes. Not that we read press releases. Nosiree.

Criterion: A Potted History

Sub Culture (1997)
Sounding more like something you’d expect from a Nintendo first- party release, Sub Culture charged players with the survival of an underwater race of miniature humanoids. Tasks included item salvage, stock market trading, and the defeat of predatory fish.

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Scorched Planet (1996)
The studio’s first title, this was a generic-as-you- like PC vehicular combat-sim, featuring tanks, planes and a barren desert landscape. It was also quite technologically advanced for the time, not to mention very enjoyable, kick-starting an illustrious career for the UK-based developer.

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Deep Fighter (2000)

Becoming quite the theme, Deep Fighter saw a return to underwater combat, though more realistic. Partly due to the player’s defence of a crumbling underwater city, partly because its cut- scenes featured real actors, including a younger David Walliams. Fancy. down?

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Airblade (2001)
A sequel to abominable Dreamcast outing TrickStyle, in all but name, Airblade again indulged Back To The Future fantasies, involving skateboard tricks, minus the wheels. Except our hero was ‘skating’ in order to save his friend, so the story seemed halfway relevant. Though, definitely only halfway.

Aren’t young people annoying. They’re small (ish), they think Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is a good movie, with a name that makes sense and they know nothing about the consoles that came before 2005. If that’s not depressing we don’t know what is. It’s the reason Retro Gamer exists and is loved up and down the country by gamers over the age of 20, who want to know a little more about the industry they love. That’s why these sexy Hardware Handbooks make such great accompaniments for you book shelf or coffee table.

A run down of all the best hardware from the many years of gaming bliss. All wrapped up in a classic ‘paper’ magazine format! If you’re interested (of course you are, look at it!), then click on this HERE and head straight to the Imagine Publishing shop.

If you’re interested in purchasing this fantastic slice of gaming history, head on over to the Imagine Publishing shop, just click right HERE!

Life was great back in the day and games were better then too. Everyone knows that, right? When games came on ten floppy discs and were controlled with massive joysticks, life was just better. Those were the days, yeah? What about when they came on tapes! Blimey, cars don’t even use those anymore and the only use you can find for a cassette case, these days,  is as a retro holder for your iPhone.

But, if you’re hankering for the old days or just want to find out what games were like back in the day, Retro Gamer has got you covered. With it’s in-depth and comprehensive style, Volume 5 of its amazing coverage goes beyond the popular games you may have played, and seeks out the old-school classics ever discerning gamer needs to know about.

Even if the Xbox 360 and PS3 are the only consoles you ever played, knowing how games have evolved over the years makes you a better, more rounded gamer. Plus, you can then show off your massive knowledge and make everyone super jealous.

If you’re interested in purchasing this fantastic slice of gaming history, head on over to the Imagine Publishing shop, just click right HERE!

Internet to appear on Xbox?

If you’re anything like us, you’ll have grown tired of unplugging one console from the back of your television and amp just to watch programmes on the BBC’s iPlayer. Though slow in arriving, Microsoft’s forward strategy might just lend a hand with that, besides changing the mobile and PC landscapes beyond all recognition.

Thanks to some ballpark maths and comments recently made by the head of Microsoft’s mobile wing, Andy Lees, many are concluding that we’ll soon see identical operating systems across all Microsoft devices. That is to say, one that resembles the Xbox 360 dashboard almost entirely. Considering that the 360’s ten-year life cycle, enhanced by Kinect, and the three year one of Windows 8 conclude during 2014, it has been suggested that Microsoft’s following OS will cover all of its devices in some Apple imitating cross-promotional move. It also, potentially, brings the 360 in line with the internet browsing features of Sony’s PS3 (along with a few others) and will also, hopefully, provide an experience that’s more stable and worth using over other devices such as an iPad laptop. Currently, the PS3′s features are expansive, but lack quality in some areas. By bringing the 360 up to speed with the industry and its rivals, it removes any need to argue over the feature sets between systems.

Said features will apparently include not only the 360’s successor’s operating system, but the sharing of ‘core technologies’, including Internet Explorer. Ultimately, the actual raw processing power at user’s disposal will become lost in an ether of noughts and ones, the focus instead a common interface through which users can pick up activities and drop them across various devices. While we doubt this’ll mean full mouse and keyboard support to settle gaming’s second-longest running flame war, it seems Microsoft are starting to welcome features that don’t require a pay gate. This can only be welcome.

Click HERE to check it out right now!!

The all-new NowGamer is live right now, bringing brand new features to the multi-format gaming supersite.

The NowGamer team has been working night and day to bring gamers a new and improved website with updated looks, better navigation and interaction, and loads more content.

Visitors will find HD images and video spread throughout the site as well as enhanced search functions and more related links to help you find the content you want.

A new Social Hub box links you directly to our Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages, and user interaction has been greatly improved, with comments and user reviews now making it easier then ever to share your opinions with us – and other readers.

Don’t worry: all the great reviews, previews, news, interviews, videos and cheats that you know and love from our award-winning team are still present and correct – they’re just better than ever, thanks to more images and video to illustrate the games you love.

There’s also much more mobile gaming content on the site – and readers also have the chance to win games, hardware and merchandising worth over £1000 with our readers survey.

What are you waiting for? Hit the link to check out the new NowGamer for yourself right now!

Check out the Retro Gamer bookazine at the Imagine Publishing shop by clicking right HERE

You know what they say, ‘if you don’t know history you don’t know anything’. Never has this been truer of videogames… and history. Are you a young nipper that thinks Call Of Duty is the best game ‘everz!’; despite having only played Modern Warfare 2 and one game of Halo 3 (because your mate tried to convince you that it was better)?

Well, you need this book in your life. You need to know just how many classic games you’ve been missing out on. And, for everyone else that already loves retro games, we present to you your new bible.

Award winning Retro Gamer compiles a comprehsnive history of the greatest games ever-made into one blisteringly awesome package. Complete with features the internet just can’t compete with, such as paper! and incredibly feats like articles that last longer than a paragraph.

Retro Gamer lovingly looks back at the best games that no discerning gamer can do without.

Enjoy.

Check out the Retro Gamer bookazine at the Imagine Publishing shop by clicking right HERE

Each console life cycle has brought with it great sweeping changes to both the technology and functionality of our gaming machines. With the current crop able to evolve with updates and additions it has seemed for a long time that a ‘next-gen’ was years away.

With Microsoft championing its Kinect motion controller as a way of further lengthening the 360’s already established life a new console hard arguably evolved before our very eyes, but evolution is still happening and the technology used in gaming’s visual arsenal is marching ever onwards.  Given the cyclical nature of the industry and the technological leaps occurring all around the consoles, it’s becoming more evident that a new generation might be coming sooner than anyone was willing to predict.

Rumours begun circulating about a possible new machine when a Microsoft jobs listing on professional networking site Linkedin, asked for a Graphics Architect “responsible for defining and delivering next generation console architectures from conception through implementation”; a big hint something is coming, but it is the recently released engine tech that shows the potential a next-gen console could offer. Both Epic and Crytek have wheeled out some impressively rendered demos showcasing exactly how far their new tech can push things. What’s immediately impressive is that the demo shown by Epic, called The Samaritan could, according to Mark Rein, be achieved on a current high-end PC graphics card had it been optimised. As impressive as the footage is, that could easily indicate that a new Xbox would be able to push out visuals that are even more detailed.

With its dark future noir Bladerunner inspired world and gruff hero, it’s hard to look at The Samaritan and not be impressed. It might not be as great a graphical leap as the one we experienced with the last generation, but the visual fidelity is immersive to say the least. Equally, Crytek’s CryEngine 3 takes visual detail to a new level and, though it’s a cliché to say it, potentially puts graphics in line with CGI movies. It’s arguable that gameplay should really be the development focus for studios instead of a games grahpics, taking games to a new level of engagement beyond their beauty. It quickly becomes a wasted point, though, when characters and environments appear that are this impressive.

For a few years now we’ve heard developers talk about the virtues of having an extended console life cycle levelling the playing field of development and keeping costs down. As much as can be achieved on the current hardware, though, it’ll never match the graphical grunt that has started to emerge.

The Xbox 360 is over six years old now and gaming has moved beyond what it’s visually capable of producing. With Kinect able to shift generations easily, it is after all simply attached via USB, there’s every reason for Microsoft to lead the way with a new console.

In the spirit of goodwill, festive cheer and marketing savvy, Microsoft has generously decided to make XBox Live Gold status free to everyone for an entire weekend, this weekend from 26-28 November. Obviously that’s not going to make an iota of difference if you’re an XBL Gold subscriber already, but for the online-starved Halo Reach or Black Ops player (did you really expect to get £50′s worth of game out of single-player alone?), it’s a chance for you and millions of others to experience what real competitive online play is like: it’s full of trolls, l33t’s, campers and xenophobic racist homophobes… and it can also the most rewarding way to play.

If you’re considering an XBox Live subscription for any other priority than online gaming, then you really have missed the point of owning a 360. But let’s not dismiss  the other benefits that come with a Gold account. Apart from Facebook, Twitter, Zune and Last.fm access (hardly the definitive Gold experience), you’ll be able to use Video Kinect to do what PC’s have been doing since webcams became popular, and video chat with your Live mates. Though it does seem a shame that Faceparty is unlikely ever to come to XBox Live, what with XBL’s family image to maintain, because this would make Kinect Video seem that much more worth using. Currently it has problems with echo cancellation which makes any verbal communication difficult, but for the novelty of having tried video chat on 360, you can’t complain for the money.

I suppose we’re saying that without the likes narcotically addicitive 1 versus 100, which was free for all Gold accounts, anything outside your online multiplayer modes is gravy. But in the unlikely event you finish up Sunday feeling nothing but utterly violated by an online ravaging, at least you won’t have paid anything for the experience*.

*If previous free XBL Gold weekends are anything to go by, you won’t even need a credit card for the trial, which is good news for us with a tight grip on their wallets and a mind to rinse every penny’s worth from a freebie

You don’t need manuals anymore anyway…

Ubisoft is spear heading the industry in a more eco-friendly direction,  by removing all of its manuals. That’s right, no longer will your Ubisoft games come complete with a little booklet that explains how your console and game works. We still feel slightly nostalgic when it comes to manuals. Over the years they have become redundant, granted, but there was a time when they were a genuine part of the gaming experience. There have been some absolutely classic manuals over the years, even now the Rockstar ones are a real hoot, but the majority of them are just filled with information that most people will already know.

Ubisoft should be commended for taking this first step to a more renewable and sustainable model, though we will miss the more innovative manuals.

“Ubisoft is often recognised for making great games, but it’s a special privilege to be the industry leader at saving trees,” said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America (source found over at GamesIndustry.biz).

“Eco-friendly initiatives are important to the global community and introducing in-game digital manuals on Xbox 360 and PS3 is just the latest example of Ubisoft’s ongoing commitment to being a more environmentally conscious company.”